Iran: Listen to un-Islamic Music and Get Shot!

Source: Tabriz News

Read the Story in Persain and see more Pictures here.

يک خودرو یه دليل گوش دادن به موسیقی غیر مجازستوان جواد نادری افسر يگان مبارزه با بد حجابی و... در پی درگیری لفظی با دو سرنشین پژو 405 به نامهای آرمین ابراهیم نژاد ۱۹ساله و بهمن عباسزاده۲۰ ساله درخیابان پاستور شهر تبریز به دلیل گوش دادن به موسیقی غیر مجاز اقدام به تیراندازی به طرف آنها نمود که مجروحین حادثه توسط اهالی حاظر در محل به اورژانس منتقل شدند که حال یکی از مجروحین وخیم اعلام شده است.

Partial Translation from Tabriz news:

Iran: Psycho-Islamic police opens fire on innocent Male youths in Tabriz / Iran for listening

to music in their car

In a related story Kamangir reports that the chief commander of Traffic Police in Tehran told to Fars reporter, “since the beginning of the social security program [the new anti-immodesty program by Police]....55 cars who have been carrying animals [pets] have been confiscated and impounded. Apparently, those pets are agents of the Mossad and the filthy Zionists.

Even the Mannequins in the Arab city of Quom did not escape the wrath of the Martyrdom-worshipping Jihadists of Allahcracy.

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Plea For Perspective and Sanity

I hereby, beg, grovel, plea, implore, beseech, supplicate to the Supreme Eminences and Grandest of Grandest Ayatollahs of the Islamic monarchy to please tell us what is the logic behind kicking and beating up women and banning imported tea and sugar(including sugar cubes) in the holy and martyr-raising goverment offices of nation of Iran? Is there a correlation or a causal relationship that us earthly peons cannot begin to grasp?

Kamangir has this surreal report from Iran: [...]

1- The executive deputy of the president published a statement banning the usage of sugar and sugar cubes in government offices. The statement emphasizes the use of alternatives, including dates and raisins, instead (Mehr).

2- The executive deputy of the president mandated government offices to only use Iran-grown tea (Baztab).

However, in the same country, the Police literally kicks a girl into a car. Her “crime” is to take her veil off in public, according to my understanding of the video.

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Iran: Iranian Teachers Beaten up Again and the usual suspects' Justification

Potkin:
More Iranian teachers were beaten up outside the Islamic Assembly in Tehran yesterday. Many were prevented from joining the rally by road blocks and fear of previous brutal crackdowns, but despite the smaller numbers yesterday, there was no reduction in the brutality of the Islamic Republic security forces.Some of the teachers were huddled into unmarked cars and taken away to undisclosed locations.

One teacher suffered a stroke and another was unable to talk after having been so savagely beaten up.Amongst the arrested was Sorraya Darabi, whose husband Mohammad Khaksari, editor of a Teacher publication, is still in prison. There are reports that their eldest son, Sajjad has also now been arrested.Of course the Islamic Republic apologists and lobbyists, the current champions of the British academic institutions and the Champagne Socialists, admonish all Iranian dissidents and those who report on such crackdowns.
[...]
In their view while their beloved Islamic Republic is under "external threat", there should be no dissent or reporting of dissent.See CASMII's protest at Znet's mild criticism of the Islamic Republic on 18th May, 2006:, June 11, 2006or an email I recently received from an Islamic Republic apologist, Shirin Saedi (ss725@cam.ac.uk ), from Cambridge Universty and a member of the CASMII editorial, who desperately tried to justify the crimes of Islamic Republic :"....any country under threat passes extraordinairy laws to bypass democratic institutions."--

Shirin Saeidi, a member of the editorial board at CASMII.

The fearmongering by the CASMII et al is nothing but an intimidation tactic to silence dissent and score political points for the establishment who support this ilk. Al-quda and the IRI have declared war against the U.S. (see here, here, and here) Israel, and the West(e.g. recent hostage taking of British Sailors) many years ago and their track record doesn't bode too well for them in that regard.

...The idea that there is a preventive war strategy to change the regime is at best a straw-man argument and at worst a conspiracy theory.Criticism regarding carrier group dispatch is misplaced. First, it is important that Arab states in the Persian Gulf recognize that the United States is going to defend its interests and protect our allies. Second, while Washington assumes events revolve around our decisions, the danger is Iranian overconfidence. Decision-makers in Iran, those in the office of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard, may confuse democratic debate with weakness and inadvertently cross a red line. We know from their statements that they do not take U.S. diplomatic demarches seriously. That the United States is willing to demonstrate red lines aids transparency and reduces the risk of accidental conflict.

Then, let me get this, according to Shirin Saeidi's logic, it follows that Iran should not be criticized because any of the criticism can and will be used as a pretext for attacking Iran. Further, all morbid actions by Iran are defensive. Even the "wipe off" other countries comments and weekly death wishes (for 28 years) and "Making the World Without America possible" as the long-term objectives of the IR.

Luckily for dictators around the world, utilizing Shirin Saedi's sophism, we can obsolve democratically elected Hitler, the late Shah, Saadam (100% of the votes were for him), democratically elected Pol pot and all the rest from any crimes they have ever done against their own citizens and against others. Splendid!

Then, lets not criticize Israel and the U.S. at all either as the criticism may lead to terrorist attacks against Americans, other westerners, and Israelis. What a wonderful logic, 'danger of attack absolves from criticism'. Why didn't I think of that? So, Mrs. Saedi, please stop writing your highly anti-American articles because your criticism of USA can subject USA to terrorist attacks. Thanks.

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Cartoon!

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Iran's Subsidized Basijee: Execute Iran's Father of Animation!

There are calls for the execution of a 70 year old Iranian cartoonist (Iran's father of animation), Nooredin Zarrin-kelk, who is said to have ridiculed the chador (a sort of unpegged tent some women wear in Iran):

The incident led to organised protests by state backed fundamentalist Baseej students/thugs, who once again exploited the situation in favour of their recent demand for a second "cultural revolution".

If you follow the link, you'll see there is such a thing as a free lunch, at least for state subsidized Islamic fundamentalist students (rent-a-mob) who organise spontaneous demonstrations.

One Basiji website even implicitly threatened (The owner of the website claims that he is ready to give up his life for Imam Mahdi and Khamanei) Zarrin-kelk's family members by boasting to have obtained their personal telephone numbers and addresses.

Potkin also laments the British universities (Cambridge this time) despicable act of inviting the supporters of the regime to lecture on behalf of the Islamic republic in their institutions and "ignoring the plight of their colleague in Iran and continuing to host Islamic Republic's hand-picked "fake dissidents" and apologists."

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Marina Nemat: Survival at a Price in an Iranian Prison

Marina Nemat was minutes from being executed

when her life was spared by the jailor who

forced her to marry him

Listen to the Interview here.

NPR.org

Survival at a Price in an Iranian Prison

Marina Nemat's name had been scrawled on her forehead, and she was about to be shot.

She had been locked up in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since early 1982, when, at age 16, she complained that math and history lessons in her school had been replaced by Koran instruction and political propaganda.

Nemat was rounded up for speaking out against the Ayatollah Khomeini's brutal regime, and she was sent to Evin to be interrogated, tortured and executed.

Just minutes from death, her life was spared. But the blessing came with a heavy price.

A prison guard named Ali had fallen in love with Nemat and used his father's connection to the Ayatollah to commute her sentence to life in prison. Threatening to harm her family and friends, he forced Nemat — a Christian — to marry him and convert to Islam.

In her new memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, Nemat tells the story of her life as a political and domestic prisoner, married to a man she feared. Though she grew to care for Ali's family, Nemat lived in a constant state of anxiety and guilt about what her family would think when they learned of her marriage to Ali and her conversion to Islam.

Twenty months after Nemat was imprisoned, Ali was gunned down on the doorstep of his parents' home. Six months later, Nemat returned home. It was only after her mother's death, when Nemat started filling notebooks with memories, that Nemat's family and friends learned of her past.



Excerpt: 'Prisoner of Tehran'

Chapter Two

I was arrested on January 15, 1982, at about nine o'clock at night. I was sixteen.

Earlier that day, I woke before dawn and couldn't go back to sleep. My bedroom felt darker and colder than usual, so I stayed under my camel-wool duvet and waited for the sun, but it seemed like darkness was there to stay. On cold days like this, I wished our apartment had better heating; two kerosene heaters weren't enough, but my parents always told me I was the only one who found the house too chilly in winter.

My parents' bedroom was next to mine, and the kitchen was across the narrow hallway that connected the two ends of our three-bedroom apartment. I listened as my father got ready for work. Although he moved lightly and quietly, the faint sounds he made helped me trace his movements to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. The kettle whistled. The fridge opened and closed. He was probably having bread with butter and jam.

Finally, a dim light crawled in through my window. My father had already left for work, and my mother was still sleeping. She didn't usually get out of bed until nine o'clock. I tossed, turned, and waited. Where was the sun? I tried to make plans for the day, but it was useless. I felt like I had tripped out of the normal flow of time. I stepped out of bed. The linoleum floor was even colder than the air and the kitchen was darker than my bedroom. It was as if I would never feel warm again. Maybe the sun was never going to rise. After having a cup of tea, all I could think of doing was to go to church. I put on the long brown wool coat my mother had made for me, covered my hair with a large beige shawl, and climbed down the twenty-four gray stone steps leading to the front door, which connected our apartment to the busy downtown street. The stores were still closed, and traffic was light. I walked to the church without looking up. There was nothing to see. Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and hateful slogans like "Death to America," "Death to Israel," "Death to Communists and All the Enemies of Islam," and "Death to Anti-Revolutionaries" covered most walls.

It took me five minutes to get to the church. When I put my hand on the heavy wooden main door, a snowflake landed on my nose. Tehran always looked innocently beautiful under the deceiving curves of snow, and although the Islamic regime had banned most beautiful things, it couldn't stop the snow from falling. The government had ordered women to cover their hair and had issued edicts against music, makeup, paintings of unveiled women, and Western books, which had all been declared satanic and therefore illegal. I stepped inside the church, closed the door behind me, and sat in a corner, staring at the image of Jesus on the cross. The church was empty. I tried to pray, but words floated meaninglessly in my head. After about half an hour, I went to the church office to say hello to the priests and found myself standing face to face with Andre, the handsome organist. We had met a few months back, and I frequently saw him at the church. Everyone knew we liked each other, but we were both too shy to admit it, maybe because Andre was seven years older than I. Blushing, I asked him why he was there so early in the morning, and he explained that he had come to fix a broken vacuum cleaner.

"I haven't seen you in days," he said. "Where have you been? I called your house a few times, and your mother said you weren't feeling well. I was thinking about coming to your house today."

"I wasn't well. Just a cold or something."

He decided I looked too pale and should have stayed in bed for another couple of days, and I agreed. He offered to drive me, but I needed fresh air and walked home. If I wasn't so worried and depressed, I would have loved to spend time with him, but ever since my school friends, Sarah and Gita and Sarah's brother, Sirus, had been arrested and taken to Evin Prison, I had not been able to function. Sarah and I had been best friends since the first grade, and Gita had been a good friend of mine for more than three years. Gita had been arrested in mid-November and Sarah and Sirus on January 2. I could see Gita with her silky long brown hair and Mona Lisa smile, sitting on a bench by the basketball court. I wondered what had happened to Ramin, the boy she liked. She never heard from him after the summer of 1978, the last summer before the revolution, before the new order of the world. Now, she had been in Evin for more than two months, and her parents had not been allowed to see her. I called them once a week, and her mother always cried on the phone. Gita's mother stood at the door of their house for hours every day and stared at passersby, expecting Gita to come home. Sarah's parents had gone to the prison many times and had asked to see their children but had been denied.

Evin had been a political prison since the time of the shah. The name brought fear to every heart: it equaled torture and death. Its many buildings were scattered across a large area north of Tehran at the foot of the Alborz Mountains. People never talked about Evin; it was shrouded with fearful silence.

This book is a memoir written by a woman who was subjected to torture and treatment that nearly all reading this will never have to endure. It took her twenty years to write this book because of how difficult the whole ordeal was. In writing this book she became physically ill with all the same ailments that she suffered while imprisoned. If you have time , listen to her interview. She sounded so poised and elegant and strong! Without a doubt, an inspirational woman of courage and grace.

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The arrest of Mr. Moussavian is a direct attack on Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani

Friendship between Rafsanjani
and Khameneh'i might turn to cut throat fight.

Safa Haeri of Iran Press Service, based in Paris (IPS), asserts that the recent arrest of Mohammad Hoseyn Moussavian, a senior Iranian diplomat and former nuclear negotiator on alleged charges of espionage and passing sensitive nuclear information to foreigner is likely a direct threat against him and his family by the hard liners, led by Mr. Khameneh’i and this time, he is bound to retaliate this time around after bowing down to many other humiliations he has suffered. Here are some tidbits:

“To destroy the political-financial of the Hashemi Rafsanjani empire, Khameneh’i, known to be utterly revengeful, narcissistic, egocentric and stubborn, needed a robo-cop, a fanatic-ambitious adventurer. All the people he had tried for this operation had evaded the responsibility, knowing the power of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. Finally, his head hunters found Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad, an obscure former revolutionary guard officer teaching civilian engineering at the Tehran University”, he added.
Ushered into the presidential race of 2005, he did not minced his words promising to fight big “corrupt fishes” until “uprooting them”, letting it be known that he is aiming the former president and his family, believed by many Iranians to be among the 100 richest families of the world.
Once elected as president with the help of ayatollah Khameneh’i, Mr. Ahmadi Nezhad renewed his attacks against Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani to the point that the Chairman of the Expediency Council openly complained to the leader, warning him to shut the new President or he would “open the Pandora's Box”.

[...]For some insiders, the fact that the seasoned diplomat and nuclear negotiator was detained on charges of espionage and passing nuclear information to foreign agents is not a coincidence, taking into account that there are more and more talks about a possible compromise in the nuclear standoff between Iran and the 5+1, namely the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany in the one hand and rumours about possible direct meetings between Tehran and Washington concerning normalization of relations.

I say, Let's Open the Pandora's Box, Please.

Whatever the reasons, political observers have no doubt that the detention of Mr. Moussavian, a personality much respected outside the country, would backfire on both the leader and the president as well as on the Iranian regime.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani has suffered many humiliations at the hands of Mr. Khameneh’i and every time, he has bowed, probably aware of the fact that in case he rebels, it could cost the whole of the theocratic system. But it seems that this time, the threats against him and his family by the hard liners, led by Mr. Khameneh’i, is getting too close for not reacting.

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“No Substitute for Victory”:The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism

This talk was delivered at George Mason University, April 24, 2007.

Listen to John Lewis's talk, "No Substitute for Victory": The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism, at George Mason University on 04/24/07.

Link via PJM.

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Introuding "Seven Valleys of Love" By Sheema Kalbasi

What happens when an Iranian-Danish woman who has traversed many cultures and passed many borders (Iran, Pakistan, India, Denmark, Berlin, etc.) comes to America and finds her 'American spirit'? You get spirited poetry that is antithesis of power behind oppression of all stripes committed by governments and cultural trappings of your own mind.

Sheema Kalbasi's latest book,"The Seven Valleys of Love" is due out in Fall. The title of this anthology of Iranian women's poetry, translated into English by Sheema Kalbasi, refers to the narrative of the medieval Persian allegory Mantegh ot-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) written by Farid od-Din Attar . His works were the inspiration of Rumi and many other mystic poets. Attar, along with Sanaie were two of the greatest influences on Rumi in his Sufi views. Rumi has mentioned both of them with the highest esteem several times in his poetry. Rumi praises Attar as such:

"Attar roamed the seven cities of love -- We are still just in one alley".

The Conference of Birds is a Persian mythological allegory, in which a group of thirty birds embark on a journey to meet the majestic and mysterious Si-morgh – a mythological giant bird symbolizing wisdom. Instead of finding the Si-morgh as such, however, the birds experience something ostensibly more poignant: they undergo the Sufi concept of Fana (Annihilation). At the end of the tale, as a consequence of enduring the arduous journey and traversing the Seven Valleys of Love, the birds have somewhat unwittingly effaced their selves (or egos); and have, as a result, unified to constitute an assembly of thirty birds, that is – in Persian – si (thirty) morgh (bird/s). The ordinary birds have, in other words, become the legendary Si-morgh in and of themselves.

Many of the poets presented in this volume have experienced journeys similar to those of the parabolic birds; and it can be said that these authors, by the virtue of being women in an intransigently and institutionally harsh patriarchal society such as Iran, have too had their egos threatened (although by no means 'annihilated'), and that they too have succeeded in not only surviving (though not all did survive) the travails and brutalities of sexism but have also found a kind of love, solidarity and inspiration that has resulted in passionate and provocative poetry.



One of the other great strengths of Ms Kalbasi's work is her decision to present lesser-known poets in place of such well-known figures as Forugh Farrokhzad, Simin Behbahani and Parvin Etesami. This editorial decision is visionary and courageous. By bringing new and/or marginalized poets to an international readership, Kalbasi has broken one of the most stifling taboos of poetry anthologies – that of presenting only the famous/classic 'public' poets – and has, as a result, opened a new front in giving voice to female artists usually denied exposure by unapologetically sexist and/or elitist culture industries in Iran as well as the Anglophone and Anglophobe world.

The Seven Valleys of Love comprises poems from medieval Arabic/Turkish ruled Persia; as well as poems from the independent unitary Iranian kingdoms of the Safavid and Ghajar monarchs; as well as works by modernists and post-modernists of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the Islamic Republic. Included are also poems written in Persian by members of the considerable Iranian diaspora communities.

Kalbasi's selection cuts across not only chronological divides but also aesthetical and ideological chasms. Some of the poems here are versified, others are free-formed/prosaic; some are romantic/erotic in a broad sense, others speak to the specific socio-political contexts in which they were articulated.

Though written in diverse contexts and on varied experiences, the poems vindicate this fundamental aspect of poetry that it is a medium that helps individual regain his/her faith in one's own humanity and the Godliness within. These poems have become the collective unconscious of Iranian women throughout the ages and are manifested in their everyday lives as warriors who have not and will not accept deeply-rooted misogyny at a baton point ( as witnessed in the news lately) as their ultimate fate.


If you're interested you can preorder by e-mailing her at iranianwoman@gmail.com.

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Iran: Crackdown Continues over Dress Code for Men & Women

Hejab for Men

"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it" Tofigh, 15

BBC: Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade.
It is the talk of the town. The latest police crackdown on Islamic dress has angered many Iranians - male, female, young and old.


But Iranian TV has reported that an opinion poll conducted in Tehran found 86% of people were in favour of the crackdown - a statistic that is surprising given the strength of feeling against this move.
Police cars are stationed outside major shopping centres in Tehran.

They are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.

Middle-aged women, foreign tourists and journalists have all been harassed, not just the young and fashionably dressed.

Individual choice

Overnight the standard of what is acceptable dress has slipped back.

Hard-won freedoms - like the right to wear a colourful headscarf - have been snatched away.
It may sound trivial but Iranian women have found ways of expressing their individuality and returning to drab colours like black, grey and dark blue is not something they will accept easily.

"If we want to do something we will do it anyway, all this is total nonsense," says a young girl, heavily made up and dressed up. She believes Islamic dress should be something personal - whether you're swathed in a black chador or dressed in what she calls "more normal clothes".

Interestingly many women who choose to wear the all enveloping chador agree - saying it's a personal choice and shouldn't be forced on people. "This year is much worse than before because the newspapers and the TV have given the issue a lot of coverage compared to last year; it wasn't this bad before," says Shabnam who's out shopping with her friend.

Permission denied

At the start of every summer the police say they will enforce the Islamic dress code, but this year has been unusually harsh.
Thousands of women have been cautioned by police over their dress, some have been obliged to sign statements that they will do better in the future, and some face court cases against them.


Even shop mannequins considered "too revealing" are dealt with

Though the authorities want coverage internally to scare women - they don't want the story broadcast abroad.

The BBC's cameraman was detained when he tried to film the police at work and the government denied us permission to go on patrol with the police.
"Really we don't have any security," complains Shabam's friend Leyla.

"Since we came out this morning many people we met have continuously warned us to be careful about our headscarves and to wear them further forward because they are arresting women who are dressed like this," she says.

Boutique owners are furious. Some shops have been sealed - others warned not to sell tight revealing clothing.

One shopkeeper selling evening dresses told us the moral police had ordered him to saw off the breasts of his mannequins because they were too revealing.

He said he wasn't the only shop to receive this strange instruction.

Respect

There's even been less traffic on the streets because some women are not venturing out - fearful they will be harassed.
And it's not even safe in a car. Taxi agencies have received a circular warning them not to carry a "bad hijabi".

"They have said we shouldn't carry passengers who wear bad Islamic dress and if we do we have to warn them to respect the Islamic dress code even inside the car," said one taxi driver.

And it's not just women who are being targeted this year.

Young men are being cautioned for wearing short sleeved shirts or for their hairstyles. Morad - a hairdresser whose gelled hair is made to stand straight up - says it's necessary for him to look like this to attract customers.

"These last few days I don't dare walk down the main roads looking like this case I get arrested," he says. "I use the side streets and alleys."

Morad is scared because his friends have told him they've seen the police seize young men and forcibly cut their hair if it's too long.

Fifteen-year-old Tofiq who'd also gelled his hair to stand on end said he too was afraid but he wasn't going to change.

"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it," he said.

Some parents have complained that harassing the young over their clothing will only push them to leave the country.

But one MP has said those Iranians who cannot cope with Islamic laws should leave.

Some commentators have suggested that the government is conducting this crackdown to distract attention from the rising cost of living in Iran and increasing tension with the international community over the nuclear issue.

If so, it's a strategy that risks alienating people who've got used to years of relative social freedom and do not want to return to the early days of the revolution when dress rules were much more tightly enforced.

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In defence of the child before the veil

Ban on niqab veils in UK schools not enough. By Maryam Namazie

Even after a national ruling allowing schools to ban full-face Islamic veils from schools, Britain’s government and courts still don’t do enough to protect children from their parents’ beliefs. Maryam Namazie comments.
British Education Secretary Alan Johnson’s announcement this week that head teachers are free to ban schoolchildren from wearing the niqab (full Muslim veil) misses the most significant point. As in the British High Court ruling last month, upholding a court victory by a Buckinghamshire school (which cannot be named for legal reasons) which banned the niqab, the argument goes that wearing the full veil affects classroom interaction, communication, safety and learning. Of course they do, but these are mere side effects. The most important point is that the veiling of children, in whatever form, constitutes the emotional abuse of girls. It relegates them to second-class status, keeps them trapped in mobile prisons and teaches them that they must forever be separate and unequal merely because of their sex. Alan Johnson and the High Court should have safeguarded the girls in question, and all girls who are veiled, by instituting a ban on the imposition of their parents’ beliefs and religion until they are of an age to decide for themselves. Just because parents believe in something does not mean they can harm, indoctrinate or impose their beliefs on their children. We have come a long way from the days when children were seen to be the property of their parents to do with them as they liked. Today, in Britain at least, a child cannot be denied medical attention because her parents don’t believe in blood transfusions, can’t be beaten and starved to ‘exorcise demons’ or be genitally mutilated and married at nine because it is her parents’ belief or religion. More subtle, but just as harmful, forms of emotional abuse like veiling, however, continue to be permissible or at best ignored or denied for the sake of religion or culture. Yet the recent rulings that the niqab or jilbab have adverse effects (as in the case of schoolgirl Shabina Begum, who lost her fight to wear the jilbab, a flowing gown) are only deemed applicable to the schools in question and not all schools - or for that matter society at large. Shabina, for example, attended another local school which allowed her to wear the jilbab.

The 12-year-old whose father took her case to the High Court last month has been encouraged to go to an alternative school where she can continue wearing the niqab. Moreover, according to a spokesperson at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), an important matter such as this is up to ‘individual schools in consultation with local parents and religious bodies’.

The fact that it can be permissible in one school, while not in another, and that the child is left to the mercy of religious bodies, shows how far the state is willing to appease religion at the expense of the child. Nonetheless, whilst parents or self-appointed imams or ‘community leaders’ may believe that girls must be sexualised at a young age, kept segregated from boys, be taught that they are different and unequal, it is the responsibility of the state and educational system to intervene, level the playing field, and safeguard the rights of all children irrespective of, and even despite, the family they were born into. Veiling is a clear case in point. The state is duty bound to ensure that nothing segregates children or restricts them from accessing information, advances in society, their rights, playing games, swimming and in general doing the things that children do.

Whilst the issue has deceptively been portrayed as a matter of ‘choice’ for the girls in question, it is anything but. Because of their very nature, children most often do what their parents want or expect of them, even if it is against their best interests. Children do not make or have choices like adults. Even if there are children who say they choose to be veiled, the veiling of children must still be banned - just as a child must be protected even if she 'chooses' to stay with her abusive parents rather than in state care, even if she 'chooses' to work to support her family in violation of child labour laws or even if she 'chooses' to stop attending school. Until the child is given precedence over her parent’s religion or beliefs, society will continue to fail innumerable girls relegated to a life of sexual apartheid.
• Maryam Namazie is a human rights activist and television producer.

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Killer Khatami, the Darling of the left, to Israeli Reporter: "Go To Hell"

LGF: Former Iranian president Killer Mohammad Khatami, who visited Harvard University and the National Cathedral recently, was celebrated by the Council on American Islamic Relations, gave an autograph to John F. Kerry in Davos, and has been roundly praised by the willfully blind media as a “moderate,” told Israeli journalists who approached him at a media forum in Kazakhstan to .

On Benedict XVI’s calandar for May 4 is an audience with Mohammad Khatami. Khatami is generally classified among the “moderate". Moderate for whom? The Left in the U.S.?

How about some moderation on destroying Iranian civilization and people, first.

He will take part in in a conference in Rome, which will be held at the Pontifical Gregorian University on the theme: “Intercultural dialogue, a challenge for peace.” The political model to which he adheres is, however, the one established by the religious revolution of Khomeini, who is certainly not a “moderate.” How about intercultural dialogue first within Iran's own religious minorities first, the Bahais and the Sunni iranian-arabs who've been killed by the hundreds because of their relgion?

In Shiite Islam, the revolutionary currents of the Khomeini stamp – in Iran, in Iraq, and in Lebanon with Hezbollah – are mainly opposed by the “quietist” tendency that takes its inspiration from the highest authority over the Iraqi holy places in Najaf and Kerbala, the grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

See My previous post on reformists and Khatami . Also see here, here, here and here.

On the horrifice crimes Khatami presided over during his Presidency click here.

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Ahmadinejad: "Today , When You Mention DEMOCRACY, People Want to Puke".

Ahmadinjead, "the scariest man on earth" is at it again...Ardeshird keenly observes the following:

This is according to the regime's newspaper Etemaad reported by IranPressNews: Ahmadinejad on his 27th provincial trip to the Central Province of Fars attending a gathering of that Province's Mullahs stated a lot of his usual crap, but the most significant parts were when he stated: "Today when you mention democracy people want to throw up" and when he gave the news about governmental budget for religious centres. He said: "In the early days after the [1979] revolution there were many prevalent wrong ideas and one of them was the idea that government should not support [financially] religious centres because they become governmental institutions.

This is in my opinion wrong. How could an Islamic government separate itself from religious centres? of course, it is not a good idea for the shiite religious centres to be controlled by the government" [funny he actually said that! I don't think he meant to say it! because he actually refutes his own statement that How could an Islamic government separate itself from religious centres?!] he then continued: "Previously, this [financial support] had not been mentioned in the governmental budgets but since last year this has been included in the budget and all the provinces have been notified." --

To give a little background, in the early days of the revolution, democracy was the top agenda for the Iranian people. They believed that their revolution was a democratic one even though it was Islamic. For that reason many democratic principles had to be incorporated into the Islamic Republic regime. Khomeini had no choice on that front. The original constitution was compiled with many democratic principles as its main articles.

Khomeini gradually violated these principles and eventually the rule of people was too democratic for the Mullahs and he and Khamenei introduced the Valieh Faghih Article in the Constitution in 1989 so that the spiritual leader Khamenei had the absolute power. they also introduced other institutions such as the Guardian Council, members of which are appointed by the spiritual leader (Khamenei) to ensure that only those faithful to the spiritual leader would be nominated for the elections be it for the parliament or the presidency or any other posts.

As you can see, the regime has been in the process of un-democratisation and the early days' ideas that "religious centres should not be controlled by the government" which is a democratic principle is now being reversed and it is another step to gradually bringing all the remaining institutions under the control of the government and the leader. Now when you put the two together, i.e. the "when you mention democracy people want to throw up" and the "allocation of governmental budget to the religious centres" you see what Ahmadinejad is surreptitiously doing!

This is perhaps insignificant to the opposition that wants to see the whole regime fall. It is just another brick in the wall but as far as the other factions of the regime are concerned and in particular the reformists, this is significant because Ahmadinejad who has the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Basijis, and the Omat-e (Nation of) Hezbullah's support is now trying to buy the support of the religious centres around the country, amongst whom there are many reformists. He is ensuring his second term in the office. And the way he is going, I would not be surprised (if the regime is not toppled by then) to see elections (the only remaining democratic act, even though it is only a show and the candidates are all pre-selected and appointed by the Guardian Council) not bothered with as such behavior is unislamic! (per Ahmadinejad's spiritual Leader, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi ;[a Heideggerian disciple]

The above sober assessment is in fact, Ahamdinejad's preparation for a second coup against the capitalist mullahs, the first coup ascending him to power via mainly rigged Presidential election by IRGC and the paramilitary subsidized Basij volunteers. Ahmadinejad is cunningly steering Iran toward a puritanical Islamic military dictatorship --as opposed to the capitalist mullahs whom he hates--with the World's only legitimate leader of the only monotheist religion, Imam Mahdi, conveniently located in his command post, headquartered in the bottom of a well in Jamkaran, Quom.

Ahmadinejad's agenda doesn't end with turning Iran into military/jihadist dictatorship, he is determined to unify the Islamic world and the left-leaning world against the "arrogant powers" for he longs for "A world without America and Israel".

He is perilously honest when it comes to his conviction and lofty ambitions for the "alternative world order". He sees himself as a savior of humanity and the oppressed. Ahmadinejad is trying to revive the purest definition of the faith. He asserts that "Islam is an alternative to the current global system, not a candidate for becoming a small part of it. "

He is convinced that Islam's domination of the world is not only possible but it's already here. He invites leaders of the world even pope to the monotheist path of salvation because he doesn't not view Christianity and Judaism as monotheist religions (Muslims consider the concept of trinity as polytheism). I'm a bit digressing here. Getting back to what I was saying, I predict that getting rid of pseudo-elections (since, they are not Islamic anyways and there are no elections in Islam) and the capitalist mullahs are on top of Ahmadinejad's agenda.

The rule of several bad men does not last long and easily decays to the rule of a single tyrant. The coming years will give us a single tyrant in form of Islamic military/Jihadists in Iran. Iran is moving toward a military/jihadist dictatorship. Once they get there, then, maybe people will rise up as the oppressed people did in Indonesia or any place else where tyranny, evil, coercion, and oppression is the law of the land. Such protracted reign of terror and unchecked power cannot last long anywhere. Then perhaps from a ruins of military/jihadist dictatorship and much suffering, Iran will rise from the ashes like a phoenix and emerges as a nation it deserves to be.

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Iranian Plateau: Amir Hussain Threatens To Murder Delara's Family - Delara Is Physically Abused in Prison

Iranian Plateau: Amir Hussain Threatens To Murder Delara's Family - Delara Is Physically Abused in Prison

In a related story: Iran: Arrests of peaceful demonstrators and activists continue

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PBS: America at a Crossroads

PBS has brought together America at a Crossroads, a six-night television package that aims to explore challenges confronting the United States in a post-9/11 world.

Topics to be tackled include the war on terrorism; conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America's role overseas.

The series, airing Sunday through Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. on KUHT/Channel 8, consists of 11 documentaries from a variety of producers, probing urgent issues in a variety of voices. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting developed the initial concept, issuing an open call for film projects. Veteran journalist (and former co-anchor of PBS' NewsHour) Robert MacNeil serves as host.

Aimed at creating a national dialogue surrounding the crucial issues explored in the series, an extensive media and outreach campaign in more than 25 communities accompanies the series. The campaign features screening events with the filmmakers and their subjects in discussions with United States military personnel, leading policy experts, leaders of the Islamic community, scholars from across the country as well as members of the public. Integrated Web and educational initiatives further extend the campaign.

This series of 11 independently produced documentaries will premiere on Sunday, April 15 and will run nightly through Friday, April 20, 9:00–11:00pm (ET).

Each night, series host Robert MacNeil will provide context to the compelling stories and provocative points of view to be shown throughout the week.

Additional films will air as specials following the premiere

America at a CrossroadsBroadcast Line-up
(All times are Eastern Standard Time, Schedule Subject to Change)

Sunday, April 15:
JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Monday, April 16:
WARRIORS, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 17:
GANGS OF IRAQ, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE CASE FOR WAR: IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 18:
EUROPE’S 9/11, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE MUSLIM AMERICANS, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 19:
FAITH WITHOUT FEAR, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM: INSIDE INDONESIA, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Friday, April 20:
SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY: THE OTHER WAR , 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE BROTHERHOOD, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Note: McNeil in this series doesn't address or examine the Islamic Republic of Iran's (the most virulent type of theofascism) role and its long-term and highly organized plans in exporting Islamic Fundamentlism and destroying the West.

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Religion of Peace!

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New Translation Prompts Debate on Islamic Verse

This article from NY Times is incredibly important. What *Laleh Bakhtiar is trying to do with Quran. I hope Women scholars who know Arabic come forth to be part of this great contribution. If I recall correctly Ms. Bakhtiar practices Islamic sufism. I studied sufism for over five years but I couldn’t accept what they taught about the Bahaies (they may very well refuse to comment on it but the Islamic sufism doesn't respect the Bahai faith and this doesn’t go with my belief system.) My only concern with Ms. Bakhtiar's work is that because she doesn’t know Arabic her important work will not be taken seriously by the Islamic world. It is a known fact in the Islamic world that a Shia (Sufi) Muslim doesn't have the same weight as a Sunni Arab Muslim. That is why I hope Islmaic scholars (of Arabic background or with the full knowledge in Arabic) will either be part of this project or work on providing the world with new interpretations, translations of Quran.

*Laleh Bakhtiar of Chicago set out to translate the Koran into English because she found the existing version inaccessible for Westerners.

Link Via Sheema

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International Gangsterism yet the Mullahs still Secure and more Emboldened than Ever!!

Yahoo News: Britain demands Iran free seized sailors

Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards captured 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint Friday in the Persian Gulf — a provocative move coming during heightened tensions between the West and Iran.
Iran's Foreign Ministry insisted the Britons were operating in Iranian waters and would be held "for further investigation," Iranian state television said.
A U.S. Navy official in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible and had broadcast a brief radio message saying the British party was not harmed...
The incident occurred as the U.N. Security Council debates expanding sanctions against Iran seeking to force Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. The U.S. and other nations suspect Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and insists it won't halt the program.
Iran's leaders also have denied allegations by the U.S., Britain and others that Iranians are arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.
Hours before the seizure of the Royal Navy team, British Lt. Col. Justin Maciejewski told BBC Radio 4's "Today" program from the Iraqi city of Basra that Iranians provided weapons and money to militants who are attacking British troops in southern Iraq.
The U.S. military has leveled similar charges, saying Iranians send arms to Iraqi extremists, including sophisticated roadside bombs.

This week, two commanders of an Iraqi Shiite militia told The Associated Press in Baghdad that hundreds of Iraqi Shiites had crossed into Iran for training by the elite Quds force, a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard thought to have trained Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Why is Iran apparently less troubled vis-à-vis giving the US/UK Casus belli than the leftists/islamists/communists who accuse those who condemn Iran on egregious violation of human rights basis?

Whenever anyone displays the slightest of objection in regards to, a woman being stoned to death in Iran, a scholar jailed , a teacher or a worker tortured and has his tongue cut out (Ossanlou, the head of the Bus Workers Union) and summarily hanged or executed, people on the left censure those raising objections with the stale response that this is helping Neocons and “the Zionists” by providing them more red herring to go to war with Iran. The dispute is that this type of condemnation helps to "vilify" Iran in laying the groundwork for war.

Doesn't it seem that the "leader" and his errand boy,Ahmadinejad,want a war in order to maintain their increasing volatile and eroding hold on power. Either war or a long stand off with a humiliated US and Britain will strengthen their position and shore up more support at home. After all, the errand boy, Ahmadinejad, was one of the Revolutionary Guards who might have been involved (directly or indirectly) in holding the US Embassy staff hostage. He remembers how that incident was responsible for the jihadist (khomeinists junata) ascendany to grab the power and hijack the revolution.

If objecting the stoning to death of women and other horrendous human rights violations in Iran are "providing an excuse", what the hell is taking British sailors prisoner and training Iraqi militias then?

BREAKING: The Mighty Mouse Is not Coming to the UN after all.

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It's about Islam!

Today ,I stumbled upon a website which has audio clips of Ayatollah Khomeini talking about Islam in 1980. Here is the translation:

"We're all Soldiers of Islam. You're not my soldier and I'm not your soldier we're soldiers of Islam. We will revive Islam here and God willing, we will take it throuought the world."

What most liberals/progressives don't understand is that the hegemonic aspiration and expansionism of Islamic mullahs are manifestion of their ideological mindset. The Constitution clearly states the Islam should be exported around the Globe. And to this end, the mullahs have spent billions of dollars to do just that. They're not doing this to irritate and aggravate the US and our allies. They're obliged as true devotee to spread and proliferate Islam in any way they can. It's about the very existence and survival of the religion of Islam. You can read my previous entry about Khomeini's Manifest Destiny by clicking here for more explanation.

Did You Know:
There are an estimated 5,000 Internet sites devoted to the spread of Islamic extremism.

* Abu Musab al-Suri, a Syrian, wrote a 1,600-page encyclopedia entitled "The Call for Global Islamic Resistance" and videotaped 15 hours of lectures. He remains a powerful influence on the web, even though he has been in U.S. custody since 2005.

* At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, cadets are being taught to recognize the Internet's power as a new weapon.

via Layla

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