I am away until June 4

I will be away from today and return on June 4 Friday.

Southampton Event

Date: May 30, 2010
Time: 7pm
Venue: Sembal House, SO15 2FH, Southampton
Maryam Namazie will speak about the One Law for All campaign at a meeting organised by the South Hampshire Humanist Group. For more information, contact them.

Join rally for the expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from the ILO

Join the Rally in Geneva

In solidarity with workers and people of Iran and for the expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from the ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will hold its annual International Labour Conference in Geneva from 2 to 18 June. Like previous years, a delegation representing the Islamic Republic of Iran and representatives of regime-made organisations (Islamic councils) will participate in this assembly. Those who are responsible for the persecution, torture and execution of worker leaders, teachers, students, women and children should not be allowed to join the ILO. The Islamic regime in Iran should be expelled from the ILO for its flagrant violation of human rights and its denial of a human life to workers and the people in Iran.

Join this really to support the struggle of workers and people in Iran, to demand the expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from the ILO, and to call for the release of all jailed workers and political prisoners in Iran

Wednesday, 2 June 2010, 1pm
Geneva, in front of the ILO Conference Centre, Palais des Nations

Free all jailed workers and political prisoners!
Islamic regime of Iran out of ILO!

Worker-communist Party of Iran-Organisation Abroad
25 May 2010

Save Majid Tavakoli

Majid Tavakoli, a 24 year old student activist at Amir Kabir University, must not become another victim of the Islamic regime of Iran. He has been arrested and tortured a number of times for his student activities. The last time he was arrested was in December 2009 for a speech about the ruling dictatorship and for criticising Khamenei. He has started a hunger strike on 23 May and is in very poor health.

On 26 May, Mina Ahadi of the International Committee against Executions briefly spoke to his mother. His mother is also on hunger strike in support of her son. She is very worried and concerned about his health. She said that no matter where she goes, she is given no information on him nor allowed to speak to or see him.

He is currently in solitary confinement for writing a public letter in protest to the execution of ‘my big brother Farzad.’

Iran Solidarity urges everyone to act in defence of Majid and all political prisoners in Iran.

News Update on Farzad Kamangar; 9 others executed this week

Farzad Kamangar’s mother gave the following message to a memorial gathering in Germany: ‘Greetings to freedom loving people across the world that have supported us and raised our voices across the world. Today, as always, I ask you, I beg you to think of the political prisoners. Don’t let other mothers suffer. It is enough. Don’t let them lose their beloved. I lost my Farzad but I don’t want any other family to lose their beloved. I ask all mothers, students, people to think of the liberation of our loved ones enchained. The regime has still not handed over Farzad’s body. But Farzad is not dead. He is alive and can be seen in the millions worldwide who have not left us alone and will not leave us alone.

To listen to the message click here or see the below:



A cousin of Farzad Kamangar living in Germany says the mothers of the five executed have still not seen their bodies to say goodbye to them. She says 19 members of the Kamangar family have been executed by the regime.

Farzad Kamangar’s brave lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, has been arrested for speaking to the press about the fact that he and others should not have been executed.

At least nine people were executed in one week in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 5 in Rasht (four men and one woman) on Monday, two in Zahedan and two in Ahvaz. There is also the imminent executions of several others in the coming weeks according to the International Committee against Executions.

On Sunday 20 June 2010 Stand up and be Counted!

Join us for a Rally organised by One Law for All against Sharia and religious laws and for secularism and universal rights
Where: At Trafalgar Square’s Northern Terrace, London (closest underground Charing Cross and Leicester Square)
When: 14:00-16:00 hours

Then join us for a March organised by Iran Solidarity to show solidarity with people in Iran who are at the forefront of battling Sharia law and political Islam
Where: From Trafalgar Square to the embassy of the Islamic regime of Iran in Knightsbridge, London
When: 16:00-17:00 hours
The march will end with a group act of solidarity with the people of Iran.

One Law for All and Iran Solidarity call on people everywhere to join the 20 June protest in London or to organise rallies or acts of solidarity in various cities across the globe to mark the day when 27-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan was shot dead by the Islamic regime of Iran’s security forces at a protest in Tehran. Her demand for freedom in the face of all-out repression has made her a symbol of people everywhere.

According to Spokesperson Maryam Namazie, ‘It is very apt for us to remember Neda in our battle for equal rights in Britain or wherever we happen to live. Neda’s murder by the Islamic regime in Iran and Sharia law in Britain are intrinsically linked; both are the result of the rise of the political Islamic movement of which the Islamic regime of Iran is a cornerstone. In fact Sharia law in Britain came into being in the late 80s after the establishment of the Islamic regime of Iran. Clearly, the fight for a different and secular society in Britain is intrinsically linked to the fight for a different and secular one in Iran.’

On 20 June, One Law for All will also be releasing a new report on Sharia law in Britain to coincide with the event.

Join us!

A vast majority of people across the globe have had enough with medievalism and brutality and demand universal freedoms and equal rights irrespective of where they were born or live.

In the battle that lies ahead each and every one of us must stand up and be counted.

This 20 June is the day for you and I to do so.

Notes:

1. Confirmed speakers and performers at the London rally include: AK47 (Street Poet); Asad Abbas (Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain); R Y Alam (Poet); Adam Barnett (Musician); David Fisher (Singer/ Songwriter); Lilith (Street Poet); Lyrical Agent (Emcee); Rony Miah (Lawyers’ Secular Society); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All and Iran Solidarity); Gerard Phillips (National Secular Society); Naomi Phillips (British Humanist Association); Fariborz Pooya (Iranian Secular Society); Brent Lee Regan (Emcee); Gita Sahgal (Activist); Muriel Seltman (Activist); Peter Tatchell (Human Rights Campaigner); and others. We will also screen a segment of a major new film for HBO called For Neda by director Anthony Thomas.

2. In Iran over 130 offences are punishable with death under Sharia law including: Sex crimes like adultery and homosexuality; crimes against the state and religion like enmity against God, corruption on earth, apostasy, heresy and blasphemy and acts prohibited under Sharia law such as a third conviction of drinking alcohol, morality crimes like distribution of obscene/pornographic audio-visual materials, public order crimes, and drug-related offences, including for possession. Support the ‘I would be Executed in Iran if I did this…’ Facebook page by clicking that you like it here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=12&uid=107261949318147#!/pages/I-would-be-executed-in-Iran-if-I-did-this/107261949318147?ref=ts

3. You can also sign up to One Law for All and Iran Solidarity petitions available on our websites http://iransolidarity.org.uk/ and http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/.

4. For more information, or to inform us of your event or act on 20 June, contact:
Maryam Namazie
One Law for All and Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com

An open letter from Sami Ahmed about her mum's rights violation

Dear reader,

My name is Sami Ahmed [on the right in the photo by Jo D. Jonz with mum Saira, left]and I am 19 years old; I am the daughter of author Saira Ali Ahmed. 20 years ago a serious violation of my mother’s human rights had occurred in Bangladesh, and I am seeking support from you to bring the Bangladesh government to justice.



When my mother was 13 or 14 years old her child marriage was arranged in Bangladesh to Muzibur “nunu” Rehman, a British-Bangladeshi man in his mid-20s. Once she came to this country she fell pregnant, and on the day I was born, she found out through Social Services that he was a paedophile and manic depressive. Since then, she had lived in various refuges and government given housing, and now we are in a much better place in our lives. She has not however, been able to return to her home country Bangladesh, since her ex-husband’s family, who have strong political connections, have threatened to take me away from my mother. My maternal grandfather had died over ten years ago, and we still have not been to his grave, nor have I ever met my grandmother. My mum has never exercised her right at all to receiving family support or property from her ex-husband, in accordance with UK Law and under the Muslim marriage law of ‘Den Mohor’.

I feel it is important for an individual to know their rights, and that it is my mother’s human right to be given an apology from the Bangladesh government, on two accounts. Firstly, they had failed to protect her as a child and secondly, her ex-husband’s brother was the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s Secretary in the town she lived in, and lied about his brother’s true condition without legal charges being pressed against him.

I have researched below the articles from the Universal Bill of Human Rights that we believe the Bangladesh government have violated, since they are a member of the United Nations:

• Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” My mother suffered a great deal of humiliation in the undignified selling of herself in marriage.
• Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” The nature of my mother’s child marriage to a paedophile was cruel, inhuman and degrading.
• Article 13, part II: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” My mother has not been able to return to Bangladesh, from crippling fear of me being taken away from her.
• Article 16, part II: “Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.” My mother’s marriage was arranged, and forced upon her. Her ‘consent’ was a result of pressure and oppression; a definition that does not coincide with Bangladesh’s commitment to the Bill of Rights.
• And finally, Article 8 states “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.” For the Bangladesh government to realize their failures to my mother and other girls, would be an ‘effective remedy.’

Despite the government having failed to provide an effective remedy, my mum has taken steps herself; she has published her autobiography “Breaking Free” and rights have been secured for this to be developed as a feature film.

We only have one world; reconciliation and responsibility ought to play a part of that world. My mum has reconciled relations with her family as much as can be. However, the Bangladesh government have failed the UN and my mum in their keeping of the Bill of Rights. My mum was kept prisoner in Bangladesh and was only really set free with my birth, and with the support of the Social Services in England. It is time for the Bangladesh government to do the same.

Thank you,
Sami Ahmed

You can support Sami by signing her petition here.

Amnesty: working against oblivion?

By Gita Sahgal

Human rights groups cannot tell the story of the times in which we live. There is a void, where there should be analysis of the organizational forms and ideological links of western Islamists

Salman Rushdie has said, ‘When people are told that they cannot freely re-examine the stories of themselves, and the stories within which they live, then tyranny is not very far away’. Forty nine years ago, this week, Peter Benenson struck a blow against tyranny by announcing the formation of a new organization to support forgotten prisoners who were jailed solely for their beliefs.

This week, Amnesty International launches its Annual Report and starts year long preparations for a jamboree titled Amnesty cUF 50. From a small group of activists it has grown into a gigantic, global organization. And in many ways, has come to resemble the forces that it has done so much to oppose. Its record of handling one of the greatest challenges to its reputation suggests that it is entirely unable to examine the story of itself or the story of its times. So difficult is it for Amnesty International to provide a coherent account of what has happened over the last few months, that it has chosen to provide no account at all.

In his reports to the International Executive Committee circulated for ‘transparency’, the Interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone, has airbrushed out any mention of the concerns that I forced Amnesty International to face when I went public with my complaint that the organisation has sanitized the reputation of Moazzam Begg, a former Guanatamo detainee. They have treated him as a human rights advocate, although he champions Anwar al Awlaki and al Timmimi.

Like all tryrants - whether of the right and left, Amnesty International raised the spectre of an assault on human rights to avoid answering questions and to imply that Amnesty International was under attack. This helped shut down internal debate or demands for accountability from its own staff. At first the managers suggested that Begg only expressed his experiences of detention; and that they did not promote his views (suggesting that his views fell somewhat short of a belief in the universality of rights). Soon, they claimed that his views were indeed universalist but that he supported ‘defensive jihad.’ – which is, after all waged to establish systematic discrimination. Amnesty International felt that this view was not ‘antithetical to human rights. Although he published in a Muslim Brotherhood journal and has associated with the Jamaat I Islami the senior leadership decided to endorse him as a human rights advocate, which they had refrained from doing before the crisis.

But at the AIUK AGM, Begg was not mentioned in reports of a European tour to advocate for the release of the remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees. Where they had previously had a picture of Begg at the door of Downing St with Kate Allen, this picture was dropped from the power point. No wonder, Amnesty is in a fix. They do not know whether they are valorizing Begg or dropping him.

I met Begg recently and told him that I thought that he had been true to his beliefs but that Amnesty had not been true to theirs. Nor has Amnesty International acknowledged their debt to Cageprisoners or the extent of their relationship with the organization. I intend to do the work that for them. Whatever my views on Begg or Cageprisoners, I do not think that a collective corporate amnesia is the right approach to take when finding a way forward.

Now they have announced an internal independent Review to discuss criteria for partnership. The reviewers have said that they are not investigating allegations against Begg, but only looking at procedures that were followed and to suggest criteria, in order that the organization can manage its reputational risk. Nor will they examine all available evidence, only any new evidence that might come to light. The problem is that no-one knows what evidence was examined, but there was plenty that was ignored. Senior experts well known to Amnesty International were not consulted, even though at least one wrote to the Secretary General offering to give evidence at the time I was suspended. Could it be that the leadership would rather that their research and analysis looked shoddy and incompetent than admit I was right?

Most western human rights and civil liberties organizations have watched the unfolding crisis in a frozen and complicit silence. They say nothing because they too have committed similar errors of judgement, supporting proponents of radical Islam rather than simply defending their rights. Too often in Britain, entirely legitimate concerns about racism and the marginalization of Muslims are allied to the promotion of groups associated with the Jamaat I Islami and Muslim Brotherhood.

Their programmes of social control such as promotion of the hijab are supported quite uncritically. The actions of human rights advocates mirror those of governments from Chechnya to the UK. Recruit former insurgents or fundamentalists and subcontract them to provide surveillance and control over the mass of the population. Defeat one form of fundamentalism by supporting another.

Human rights groups have entirely ignored this story and as a result simply cannot tell the story of the times within which we live. There is a void, where there should be analysis of the organizational forms and ideological links of western Islamists. There is silence on ‘faith based initiatives as part of soft ‘counter-terrorism’ strategies. They cannot accuse governments without accusing themselves.

Even internal dissent is met with expulsion as Marieme Helie Lucas, the Algerian founder of Women Living Under Muslim Laws, has recently explained. And that raises the question as to whether there is a long term determined programme of support within human rights organizations for the political programme of Islamists.

Those who make this allegation are immediately accused of supporting torture or arbitrary detention. Shadi Sadr, the courageous Iranian lawyer who has been sentenced in absentia to lashings and imprisonment, has pointed out that while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have rushed to condemn the niqab ban in Europe, not a word has been heard against increasing dress code restrictions imposed by the State in Iran and accompanied by draconian punishments.

But it is the bland justification that Amnesty works with everybody including the Catholic Church which has seemed distinctly unwise. I expect that the Church might object to being put in the same category as supporters of Salafi Jihadi politics. In any case, Amnesty should have spoken out against the complicity, cover up and abuse of children by those exercising religious authority. In the event, they stayed shamefully silent. As one voice, the leaders stood with the Catholic establishment and ignored Catholic victims.

As Amnesty trundles towards its 50th anniversary, I will be working with others to ensure that whether Amnesty is covering up or cleaning up, whether the review provides any answers, the hidden history of human rights will be put on record. Peter Benenson said that we work in Amnesty against oblivion. If human rights organizations can no longer tell their own stories, others will do it for them.

Source, Open Democracy, 26 May 2010

May 1 in Iran: A Great Step Forward

By Hamid Taghvaee

On May 1st of this year in Iran, all heads turned to the workers’ movement. From a few weeks prior to May Day, workers’ problems, plights, demands and protests had already turned into a discourse within the nation, media, political opposition groups, and so on. Leftist groups and workers’ organizations, institutions and labour activists welcomed the International Workers’ Day by, like every other year, issuing messages, calls for actions, resolutions, and prepared themselves for holding protests and assemblies. But May 1 assumed wider social dimensions. It drew the attention not only of the various sections of society as such but also that of the right wing opposition. The reason for this society-wide attention is obvious: for more than 10 months the society had been going through a seething revolutionary period. Under such conditions, International Workers’ Day, which symbolizes the deep rooted causes of freedom and equality, would not only not remain a cause for communists, labour activists and workers’ organizations but also become a cause for the masses who, sick and tired of the regime, have entered the arena to rid themselves of it.

The ruling murderers too, aware of the significance of this year’s May Day, had prepared all their hellish medley of forces to prevent the spread of demonstrations and protests on that day. Security forces, Basij and “plainclothes” murderers as well as herds of other kinds of thugs were dispatched to the streets. They created an unprecedented military atmosphere in Tehran and other cities. These measures were effective in containing the size of demonstrations and preventing the formation of assemblies of masses who had come out to celebrate the day. But they failed to prevent the extensive communication of workers’ demands to the masses. Nor did they succeed in preventing the society from shifting its attention towards the workers’ deep critique of, and protest against, the present conditions. May 1st of this year was indeed an opportunity for the mass movement that had been challenging the Islamic Republic for 10 months prior to the day to hear its own critique and protest this time from the workers’.

Our party has, since the very start of the current movement, constantly and with full power strived for, and emphasized on, the necessity to deepen and radicalize the content of its protests and demands, the need to create open organizations and institutions in order to declare the demands of various sections of the society through them as well as through individual activists. In general, our party’s constant endeavour, since the very beginning of the movement, has been aimed at the need for increasing clarity, articulation and organization of various dimensions of the revolution. A significant condition for the revolution to advance in that direction is entering into the arena of the workers’ movement at the forefront of the protesting masses, bearing the standard of the workers’ protests and demands on a broad social scale. May1st of this year was an important and decisive step in this direction. The 15-point resolution issued by 10 workers’ organizations on the occasion of May Day, both for the content of its comprehensive, radical demands, and as an action per se, is a significant indicator of that progress.

In that resolution workers have issued their indictment against “the capitalist system of Iran.” They have advocated the “unquestionable right of workers and all Iranian people to a life in accordance with the highest standards of life of today’s humanity.” They have demanded the rights to organization, strike, assembly, and freedom of speech for themselves as well as “all Iranian people.” They have demanded that the government scrap its plan to cut subsidies on essential items, and increase the minimum wage to 1 million Tuman [approximately $1000] per month. They have demanded the abolition of death penalty. They have demanded the abolition of all discriminatory laws against women. They have demanded the abolition of child labour, and that children be provided with free, equal education and welfare facilities irrespective of their parents’ social and economic status. They have condemned all kinds of discrimination against immigrant workers from Afghanistan and other countries, and declared their support for teachers, nurses and other working sections of the country.

These are all, indeed, the demands, objectives and ideals of the masses of people who have risen against the entirety of the existing anti-human conditions. They form the workers’ full-fledged banner of the quest for freedom and equality, hoisted from the heart of the current revolutionary movement to clearly show the society how to seize at the very root and throw the gauntlet to the Islamic state in its entirety; so that the society would hear and recognize its revolutionary and deeply humane alternative from the workers, as opposed to the right opposition and the efforts of the regime’s “green” faction to distort the people’s demands for freedom and equality to fit within “the framework of the constitution” or “Islamic human rights” or democracy of the New-World-Order or the “human rights harbingered by Cyrus- the-great”. The masses of people have been challenging the regime for more than 10 months by chanting “down with the dictator” and “down with the principle of theocratic supremacy,” while the workers’ resolution translates, defines and articulates these “structure-breaking” slogans [, as both factions of the regime call them,] in the language of crystal clear humane, freedom-loving and equality-seeking demands.

Furthermore, all the said facts indicate that on May 1st of this year the workers’ movement not only entered the arena in defiance of the regime but also in practical distinction from, and critique of, all the right forces. May 1 showed that, unlike all the forces that try to limit the protests and demonstrations within the framework of the constitutional of the regime, it is only the workers who demand and defend unconditional rights to strike, protest, organization and association - for all the people. May 1 announced that, unlike Iranian/Arian-monger nationalist tendencies, workers oppose any kind of discrimination against any worker, including those of other nationalities who live and work in Iran - Afghan or non-Afghan. It announced that workers, unlike the nationalist-religious tendencies and the Islamic feminists, strive for abolition of all kinds of discrimination against women. Finally, and most important of all, on May 1, workers placed an issue at the core of their demands and protests that the whole right opposition has silently passed over: the issue of poverty and misery ravaging the society, as well as the real, root causes of it. They raised the issue of wages that are as low as a quarter of the [officially announced] poverty line. They raised the issue of lay-offs, employment insecurity, the plan to cut subsidies and the fact the objective of this anti-labour plan is to intensify exploitation and increase profitability of capital. In a word, they condemned the capitalist system as the root cause of all these miseries. This was the worker’s May Day message to the society - a clear and explicit message that separated, with a political dimension and on a social scale, the ranks of the workers from the right forces in their entirety.

Our party has long since emphasized the fact that the left and its critique of the existing social condition in Iran is a wide and strong tendency as well as a wide and strong current. May 1st this year itself was yet another vivid manifestation of that fact. On this day, the workers rose and came on the scene, not as victims of the capitalist system, a depiction of workers the right opposition recognizes and is OK with, but as the active avant-garde and standard bearer of masses struggling for freedom and equality. This socio-political self-assertion is unprecedented even in the trade unionist labour movement suffering from reformist syndicalism in the West, and clearly indicates the status and power of the left in the workers’ movement and in the Iranian society as whole. May 1st of this year was the day the left’s critique of, and the left’s indictment against, the status quo was communicated through the workers’ movement. The workers’ movement can and should advance in this direction more actively, more broadly, and in a more united and organized fashion than before.

May 1 also shows the way to other institutions, organizations and activists in the other protest movements, especially the women’s freedom movement and the student movement: unite and organize; declare your demands and objections under the signature of your organizations, institutions, and NGOs of various kinds; issue messages, resolutions and calls to action; declare your solidarity with other protest movements, and organize combined protest actions with them. The current revolutionary movement is in need of organizing and clarifying itself through ever clearer articulation of the demands and the protests of the workers and masses by the masses themselves; and May Day presents the society as a whole with a clear, practical and facilitating guideline for advancing these causes.


First published in Anternasional (International) weeky, No. 347, May 7, 2010

6 more death sentences and 217 prison sentences in Iran

To see news of 6 more death sentences and 217 prison sentences, click here.

Soldiers surround Kamangar's home

Some of the soldiers that have been sent to Kamyaran, Farzad Kamangar's city, for the general strike yesterday are currently surrounding the family's home and filming and photographing anyone leaving or entering the house.

Labour Start's condemnation of Farzad Kamangar's execution

Here is Labour Start's condemnation of Farzad Kamangar's execution. You can see it here.

Protest in Afghanistan against executions

Today a fifth protest was held in Afghanistan against the recent execution of 45 Afghans in Iran. People burnt picture of Ahmadinejad and others held a picture of Farzad Kamangar and his mother.

Demonstration in Turkey against executions

Here is a clip of how a demonstration of a few hundred Kurdish people from Turkey marched to the Turkey/Iran border trying to cross over to join the strike in the Kurdish province in Iran yesterday 13 May.

Why Jennifer McCreight would be executed in Iran

Jennifer McCreight, the initiator of Boobquake, has blogged about why she would be executed in Iran. Read it here.

Farzad Kamangar's memorial ceremony tomorrow

Someone just emailed a leaflet they received in Kamyaran (Farzad Kamangar's hometown) inviting people to Farzad's memorial ceremony tomorrow from 9-11am in Mohammad Rasoolollah Mosque.

I would be executed in Iran if I did this...

I would be executed in Iran if I did this Facebook page

We have all been in love, spoken our minds, joined protests, political groups and campaigns, poked fun at that which is taboo and taken a stand for what we believe in.

The only difference is - depending on where we were born – some of us don’t live to talk about it.

As you may have already heard, on 9 May 2010 four young men and one woman were executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran after being falsely accused, tortured, and charged with ‘enmity against God’ in sham trials. The executions were carried out in secret and without the knowledge of their families or lawyers. Farzad Kamangar (35 year old teacher and trade unionist), Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli (28 years old) and Mehdi Eslamian never even got to call their families to say goodbye.

Tragically, these executions are not new. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the execution capitals of the world and is the only state that continues to execute minors.

The over 130 offences punishable with death in Iran include:

* Sex crimes such as adultery and homosexuality
* Crimes against the state and religion including for enmity against God, corruption on earth, apostasy, heresy and blasphemy
* Acts prohibited under Sharia law such as a third conviction of drinking alcohol, morality crimes like distribution of obscene/pornographic audio-visual materials, public order crimes, and drug-related offences, including for possession.

As I said, it could have easily been you - or me - were it not for this lottery of birth. So what are we going to do about it?

‘If anyone can do anything, please do. Do not let them execute youngsters en masse. You and the world shall be my defence,’ said Farzad Kamangar’s mother recently.

For the many sitting on death row right now for standing up to this vile regime, we must be their defence…

Maryam Namazie

What you can do

* From 13 May onwards join me in protest against the 9 May execution of the five political prisoners in any way you can. Protests have already been taking place in Iran and at Iranian embassies in various cities worldwide, including a successful general strike in Iranian Kurdistan on 13 May. You can join rallies taking place in your city; pass this information on; ask your friends to support the action; write letters of protest; write to the media; raise the issue at events you organise or attend and at your places of work, school and in your neighbourhoods; do acts of solidarity anywhere you can; volunteer; lend your expertise to make publicity materials, translate, fundraise… Demand the expulsion of the regime from its seat in the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, from the International Labour Organisation and other bodies. Demand that its embassies and consulates be shut down. And call for an end to the death penalty in Iran and everywhere.

* And on 20 June come out onto the streets in full force wherever you are. Start organising rallies or actions where you live or join ones already organised. June 20 is particularly significant because it is the first anniversary of 27 year old Neda Agha-Soltan’s extra-judicial execution in broad daylight by the Islamic regime of Iran at a protest in Tehran. Like Farzad Kamangar and others, all Neda wanted was freedom.

* Click that you ‘like’ the ‘I would be executed in Iran if I did this’ Facebook page.

* Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.

* For background information on the 9 May executions click here.

* For resources against the death penalty, click here.

* For background on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Penal Code, which imposes the death penalty for three classes of crime: Qesas, huddud, and ta’zirat, click here.

Successful general strike in Iranian Kurdistan cities

A big step forward for the people of Iran’s revolution against the Islamic Republic!

Today, people in Sanandaj, Mahabad, Bokan, Kamyaran, Miaandoaab, Oshnavieh, Nowsood, Piranshahr, Saghez, Baaneh, Divaandareh, Dehgalaan, Naghadeh, Sardasht, Javaanrood, Ravaansar, Rabat and all other cities and towns in Kurdistan carried out a successful general strike, despite undeclared province-wide martial law and all other measures the regime had resorted to. Almost all schools, universities and 80% of shopping centers and workplaces were closed. The Islamic Regime found itself, clearer than ever, surrounded by the ocean of people’s hatred! This strike was not just a powerful, magnificent response to the recent cruel execution of 5 political activists. It was not just a crucial step in defeating the regime’s policies of execution and terrorization of the people. It was an act with far-reaching consequences that will radically change the balance of political power against the regime. In a word, it was a significant step forward in the revolution of the people against the Islamic regime and for freedom and equality.

The general strike in Kurdistan on May 13th, 2010, will be remembered as an historic act, and as an historic day, in the process of the Kurdish people’s struggle in the Iranian revolution. People took part in the strike in their millions and broke the wall of the ever-more-severe repression in Kurdistan, thus pushing the Iranian revolution one significant step forward. It will raise the spirits of the people all across Iran and greatly intensify the regime’s desperation and hopelessness. After May 13th, the people in Tehran, Ahvaz, Mashhad, and so on, will feel much stronger in their fight against the Islamic regime!

The mass strike in Kurdistan will also radicalize the current revolution in Iran even further, and swing it more to the left. Kurdistan has always remained the “fortress of the revolution” of 1979. The people in Kurdistan have always said “no” to the murderous Islamic regime. The broadest masses have always shown the deepest hatred towards the regime and all its factions. Now that the people have actively set foot in the arena of political struggle, they show a fact ever more vividly, that is, what goes on in Iran is not a movement to “reform” the regime but a revolution to bury it in its entirety. Meanwhile the “revolutionary Kurdistan”, in general, and the “red Sanandaj”, in particular, have been the stronghold of organized left, revolutionism and communism since the 1979 revolution. The idea of a general strike in Kurdistan per se, the fact that it was called by the communists, the fact that it gained the support of all political forces in Kurdistan, and the fact that it took such huge dimensions in practice, provide yet another air-tight proof that the Iranian revolution turns more and more to the left as it goes further and further ahead.

The general strike of May 13th in Kurdistan showed something else too. It took place following the extensive, vigorous protests by the Iranians living abroad against the execution of five political prisoners in Iran. These protests were supported by the people within Iran. It all goes to prove, once more, that all the people in Iran share the same destiny in their struggle for liberation. The general strike by the people in Kurdistan was a manifestation of our slogan: ‘“No!” to ethnic state! “No!” to religious state! “Yes” to humanist state!’ Right, nationalist forces, as well as the regime itself, i.e., all the forces that seek to divide the people along ethnic and/or religious lines, received a fierce blow in the general strike in Kurdistan.

Finally, the general strike in Kurdistan was a great step forward also in that it promoted the tactics and forms of struggle, and thus contributed to the clearer articulation of the current revolution. It added, in practice, besides street demonstrations, “general strike” to the tactics of revolutionary struggle. At the present moment the adoption of this tactic is an absolute necessity for the revolution to advance. There is no doubt that today’s move by the heroic people in Kurdistan will set a pattern for the revolution across Iran.

The Worker-communist Party salutes the people in Kurdistan and congratulates all freedom-loving people, all the communists and the various political parties who made today’s strike a success.

Down with the Islamic regime of Iran!
Humanist revolution for a humanist state!
For a socialist republic!

Worker-Communist Party of Iran
May 13, 2010

There are reports of clashes in general strike

Baneh, Rabt, Sardasht, Nagdeh, Oshnaviyeh have joined strike.

After the security forces attacked an elderly man in Shushmi area in the town of Nosavad, there have been clashes between people and the security for the past two hours which continues. There are reports that shots have been fired there.

In Dehgalan, there are reports that youth and people have come out in protest; shots have been fired by the security forces and clashes continue.

The regime wil not be handing bodies over to the families

The families of the five executed political prisoners returned back home without the bodies of their loved ones. The regime has refused to hand over their bodies to their bereaved families. They have told the families that they will inform them of where they have been buried in ten days time whilst adding that they will be buried in a special place given that they were not ‘Muslims.’ The regime is holding their bodies as hostage and has warned the families not to hold memorial ceremonies for them and not to participate in the 13 May general strike.

The regime has also been putting pressure on the families of the executed. Ali Heydarian’s brother was summoned to warn their family not to take part in the strike. Shirin’s mother and sister, and later grandfather, uncle and cousin were arrested and then released on bail.

There are reports that the security forces have come out in full force in the neighbourhood of Farzad Kamangar’s family who have returned home but people are refusing to leave them on their own.

May 13 General Strike Update

Today 13 May, a general strike has been called in Iranian Kurdistan by political opposition groups.

Despite the regime’s unofficial military rule and extensive security to intimidate people, many cities in Kurdistan have joined the general strike.

Reports coming in reveal that Bukan, Saqez, Kamyaran, Mahabad, Divandara and Piranshahr and many parts of Marivan and Sanandaj have joined the strike.

Divandara, Piranshahr and Kamyaran have completely shut down. The regime’s security forces have broken down some store doors and are putting pressure on store owners to open their shops. They are being threatened with losing their business license if they do not reopen.

Many children have not gone to school and it is reported that schools are to shut down at noon despite teachers having been warned to keep schools open on the day.

Many of the shops and workplaces in Miyandoab and surrounding villages have shut down. All of the ones in Marivan and the market and workplaces in Mahabad are shut. People are also not entering government offices for any work they may have. Many streets are completely empty.

Heartwrenching interview with Farzad's lawyer

Listen to a heartwrenching interview with Farzad, Shirin and Mehdi's lawyer, Khalil Bahramian in Persian on Youtube or see below:



He says he is shocked at the executions; all their files were under review. He breaks down crying when he says Shirin had promised to study; she didn't even speak Persian (but Kurdish). They made up a case against her. He says what has happened is heinous. In five, six minutes they decide to kill someone - it is intolerable.

He goes on to say you killed them - why? For what crime? For setting of bombs - it is a lie and I say it here...

Here is some background information on Farzad Kamangar

Here is a transcript of a conversation Farzad had with his mother in January 2010.

Interview with Farzad Kamangar’s brother after the execution.

Here is a letter from Farzad Kamangar dated November 2006.

Farzad’s letter to his students written in 2008.

Here is a video clip of Farzad with his students on Youtube or below:



Another letter from Farzad on how one is forbidden to write.

Letter from Shirin Alam Hooli.

A letter from Shirin in January 2010.

Update on the May 9 executions

Four days after the heinous executions of Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli and Mehdi Eslamian, five political prisoners, by the Islamic Republic of Iran their families have still not succeeded in getting the bodies of their loved ones back for burial. The families remain in Tehran going from office to office and building to building in order to get a response. The regime is demanding that the families of the executed give guarantees that there will not be any ‘troubles’ when the bodies are released to them.

Today 12 May, the families of the executed have been standing in front of the Islamic Assembly (Majlis) from early morning. Farzad Kamangar’s lawyer and relatives have informed us that they are still waiting.

Yesterday, in Maku, Shirin’s mother and sister were arrested and subsequently released. In Tehran and in front of Tehran University where protestors had gathered the regime brought out its security in full force and in Iranian Kurdistan it has imposed an unofficial military rule.

There is news from Iranian Kurdistan that tensions have heightened there. Thousands of leaflets calling for a general strike on May 13 have been distributed in various cities. Many of the schools in which Farzad was a teacher and in villages around Kamyaran are closed.

According to the latest news from Evin prison, the executed were told of their execution the night before and immediately taken to special cells. Shirin was studying when they came for her. Other prisoners said they heard her shouting and asking for permission to call and say goodbye to her mother, which was not granted. Others in her unit waited for her until morning when the guards came to collect her things and were then told that she had been executed.

On Saturday 8 May at 4pm Farzad spoke to his family though unaware that he was to be executed early May 9.

The regime brutally executed them and now refuses to hand over their bodies. It has even issued arrest warrants for Farzad’s mother and other relatives.

The International Committee against Executions and Iran Solidarity calls on people everywhere to step up their protests against executions and the Islamic regime of Iran and join the May 13 general strike in Kurdistan and elsewhere.

Warrants issued for Farzad Kamangar's mother and family members

Today Wednesday 12 May, families of the five executed political prisoners still wait to get the bodies of their loved ones held hostage by the regime. The International Committee Against Executions has received news that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of a number of Farzad Kamangar’s family members, namely, Soltaneh Rezaie (mother), Mehrdad Kamangar (brother), Shirin Kamangar (sister), and Javid Kamangar (15 year old nephew).

I finally joined Twitter

I have just joined Twitter: http://twitter.com/MaryamNamazie today.

Call for General Strike in Kurdistan

The following is a statement released by the Kurdistan Committee of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, condemning the execution of five Kurdish political prisoners Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alam Hooli, Mehdi Hosseinian, Farhad Vakili, and Ali Heydarian on May 9, 2010. The letter demands the unconditional release of political prisoners and supports the call for a general strike in the province of Kurdistan, Iran on May 13, 2010.

On Sunday May 9, 2010, the Iranian government committed another heinous crime when they executed five political prisoners Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alam Hooli, Mehdi Hosseinian, Farhad Vakili, and Ali Heydarian.

Thousands of our dear ones have been put to death for demanding their rights so the sinister and backwards regime and its system of exploitation, stealing, and suppression, can be saved. We must resist these crimes and stop this killing machine.

To object to this crime, Komeleh (The Kurdistan Organization of The Communist Party of Iran) has issued a call to the people of Kurdistan for a general strike on Thursday May 13, 2010.

The Worker-Communist Party of Iran supports this call. We call upon all of the people of Kurdistan, the workers and university students, teachers and school students, shopkeepers, and civil servants to object to the regime’s savage crime and to honour the memory of our loved ones by uniting.

A wide and successful general strike will be an important factor in the continuation of our just struggle, in consolidating our empathy and unity, and in organizing and preparing for the conclusion of the battle to overthrow the sinister regime. In recent months, millions of people throughout the country, in many ways, have demonstrated their hatred and opposition to the government and their will to bury it. The success of this strike, while the regime is struggling with a wide array of crises, will be a crushing response to their crimes and an important step toward strengthening the political balance of power in favor of the peoples’ struggle for freedom throughout all parts of Iran.

Freedom-seeking people of Kurdistan:

Unify in support of this call and participate in this general strike to respond forcefully to the ruling criminals. We must not leave our dear ones alone in prisons. In objection to the execution of these dear ones, who lost their lives on charges of opposition to the government and having a difference of opinion, we need to react with utmost force to demonstrate to the regime that they will be confronted decisively. You should demand the unconditional release of political prisoners by this wide and simultaneous strike in protest against execution, torture, and any forms of pressure against prisoners.

Our strike will undoubtedly be greeted with joy by millions of freedom-seeking Iranians throughout the nation and will create a new environment for toppling the Islamic Republic.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Victory to the revolution of freedom-seeking people of Iran.

Kurdistan Committee of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran
May 10, 2010

translated by persian2english

Join May 13 General Strike against Executions in Iran

In the early hours of Sunday 9 May 2010, the Islamic regime of Iran executed political prisoners Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli and Mehdi Eslamian. The four young men and one woman were executed for their political opposition to the regime. Farzad Kamangar was a teacher and human rights activist who was arrested in 2006 and charged with ‘enmity against God’ in a ‘trial’ that lasted seven minutes. Mehdi Islamian was arrested on May 4, 2009 and spent six months in solitary confinement; his brother has also been executed. Shirin Alam Hooli was arrested in May 2008 in Tehran and sentenced to death in November 2009. Ali Heydarian and Farhad Vakili were imprisoned since 2006/2007.

The sentences were carried out in secret, without their families or lawyers being informed, and despite the fact that three of the cases were under review. The Islamic regime has refused to hand over the bodies of the dead unless their families guarantee that there will be no protests in Iran and abroad.

Since yesterday, thousands have gathered in protests at the Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates in various cities across the globe. In London, Paris and Frankfurt angry demonstrators pelted the buildings with eggs, red paint and stones.

The families of the five had called for a demonstration outside Tehran University in Iran on Monday 10 May, which was attacked by the regime’s security forces. On May 13 a general strike has been called in Iranian Kurdistan and elsewhere. Many are expected to join this day of protest.

Iran Solidarity is outraged at the executions of the five political prisoners as well as the recent execution of 45 Afghan immigrants in Iran and calls on people everywhere to stand in protest against executions in Iran and everywhere by joining the May 13 general strike and ongoing protests at the regime’s embassies or consulates or by carrying out acts of solidarity against executions wherever they are. Another 27 political prisoners are at imminent risk of execution and need public support.

Farzad Kamangar’s mother recently said: ‘If anyone can do anything, please do. Do not let them execute youngsters en masse. You and the world shall be my defence. Please let the world hear my plea.’

Notes:

1. You can find out about protests in various cities on the Iran Solidarity blog. You can also add your protests here.

2. Join us on 20 June 2010 in London and across the world to break that silence and take a stand against Sharia law and Islamism and in defence of universal rights and secularism. June 20 is particularly poignant because it is the first anniversary of Neda Agha-Soltan’s extra-judicial execution in broad daylight by the Islamic regime of Iran at a protest there. Like Neda, all Farzad Kamangar and the others wanted was freedom. You can find out more about the rally here.

3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.

4. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.

5. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.

6. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk

Our Farzad is alive

Farzad Kamangar's mother holding his photo. Farzad was executed on May 9.

I woke up crying this morning having dreamt of Farzad Kamangar who was executed early morning on May 9 along with four other political prisoners. I did not know him but his life and humanity have moved me.

Like many others who never met him, I mourn his loss and wonder how long they will kill our loved ones whilst the world stands aside and looks…

I held my sleeping four year old son close to me and thought of Farzad’s mother who had lost her most precious beloved to the killing machine that is the Islamic regime of Iran.

‘My Farzad is alive’ she shouted in a face off with the regime’s security.

Yes, he is. And we pledge to keep his memory – and that of so many others - alive by bringing down this brutal regime.

Do not let them execute our youngsters

Photos of the five political prisoners executed on May 9, 2010


‘Today, my work has just begun,’ mother of executed political prisoner, Farzad Kamangar, holding his photo.

‘If we stay silent, these executions will continue,’ Mohammad Amin Kamangar, relative of executed political prisoner Farzad Kamangar

In the early hours of Sunday 9 May 2010, the Islamic regime of Iran executed political prisoners Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli and Mehdi Eslamian. The four men and one woman were executed for their political opposition to the regime. The sentences were carried out in secret, without their families or lawyers being informed, and despite the fact that three of the cases were under review.

Farzad Kamangar (born 1975) was a teacher and human rights activist who was arrested in 2006 and charged with ‘enmity against God’ in a ‘trial’ that lasted seven minutes. Mehdi Islamian was arrested on May 4, 2009 and spent six months in solitary confinement; his brother has also been executed. Shirin Alam Hooli was arrested in May 2008 in Tehran and sentenced to death in November 2009. Ali Heydarian and Farhad Vakili were imprisoned since 2006/2007.

The families of the five have called for a demonstration outside Tehran University in Iran for Monday 10 May. Many are expected to join the protest. Since yesterday, thousands have gathered in protests at the Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates in various cities across the globe. In London, Paris and Frankfurt angry demonstrators have pelted the buildings with eggs, red paint and stones. Protests will be continuing throughout the week,

Iran Solidarity is outraged at the executions of the five political prisoners as well as the recent execution of 45 Afghan immigrants in Iran and calls on people everywhere to stand in protest against executions in Iran and everywhere by joining gatherings at the regime’s embassies or consulates or by carrying out acts of solidarity against executions wherever they are. Another 27 political prisoners are at imminent risk of execution and need public support.

Farzad Kamangar’s mother recently said: ‘If anyone can do anything, please do. Do not let them execute youngsters en masse. You and the world shall be my defence. Please let the world hear my plea.’

Notes:

1. You can find out about protests in various cities on the Iran Solidarity blog. You can also add your protests here.

2. Join us on 20 June 2010 to break that silence and take a stand against Sharia law and Islamism and in defence of universal rights and secularism. June 20 is particularly poignant because it is the first anniversary of Neda Agha-Soltan’s cold-blooded murder in broad daylight by the Islamic regime of Iran at a protest there. Like Neda, all Farzad Kamangar and the others wanted was freedom. You can find out more about the rally in Trafalgar Square here.

3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.

4. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.

5. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.

6. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk

Farzad Kamangar and 4 other political dissidents executed in Iran

Join the campaign to expel the Islamic regime of Iran from the International Labour Organisation (ILO)

In the early hours of Sunday 9 May, the Islamic authorities in Iran executed Farzad Kamangar and four other political prisoners. Farzad Kamangar was a teacher and a human rights activist, whose release had been the object of high profile campaigns in Iran and internationally over the past two years. The other four political activists who were executed on Sunday in Evin Prison were Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli and Mehdi Eslamian.

All five had been sentenced to death for their political opposition to the regime. The sentences were carried out in secret, without their families or lawyers being informed.

The bereaved families of the five have called for a demonstration outside Tehran University for Monday 10 May. Many are expected to join the protest, despite the brutality of the regime. At the time of writing, hundreds of Iranians in Europe have gathered in protest outside Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates. In London, Paris and Frankfurt angry demonstrators have pelted the buildings with eggs, red paint and stones.

These latest political killings are part of the Islamic Republic’s brutal last attempts to cling on to power in the face of the anger, hatred and massive protest of the people in the past year and their clear demand for this despotic, medieval regime to go. However, these executions are not expected to dent the resolve of the people and will only deepen the loathing for this regime in Iran and around the world.

We call on all trade unions and human rights organisations and all those outraged at this barbaric act to condemn the Islamic regime of Iran in the strongest possible terms. In particular, we call on all to join the campaign of expulsion of this regime from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This regime should not be allowed to seek legitimacy for itself through its continued membership of the ILO. A regime which jails, flogs, tortures and executes workers and political dissidents; a regime which executes children and stones women to death; a regime which shoots at unarmed demonstrators and rapes detained protesters should not be not allowed to set foot in any international body or forum, and least of all in an organisation bearing the name of worker. This regime belongs not in the ILO, but in an international court to answer for its crimes against humanity.

We call on the governing body of the ILO to annul the membership of the Islamic Republic forthwith on grounds of its flagrant violation of human rights and its denial of a human life to workers and the people in Iran. The expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from the ILO has been the demand of the workers in Iran, conveyed to the ILO on numerous occasions. It has been the object of repeated protests at the International Labour Conferences by our party’s International Labour Solidarity Committee. The appalling human rights violation by the regime in Iran have been brought to the attention of the ILO through tonnes of evidence submitted to its governing body and various committees by the world’s trade unions, by our party and by worker campaigns and activists year after year. However, unfortunately, the ILO executive has failed to heed these calls.

With the murder of Farzad Kamangar and four other political dissidents today, any bureaucratic excuse for the continued membership of this regime in the ILO becomes totally unacceptable; any diplomatic justification for continued ties with this regime will be viewed with utter disgust by the workers and people in Iran and by the world labour movement and progressive community. We call on the ILO to immediately withdraw its invitation of the government of Iran to the June 2010 International Labour Conference. We call on trade unions globally to support our call and urge the ILO to annul the Islamic Republic’s membership.

Finally, in the event that, despite worldwide protests, the ILO admits the Islamic Republic to the June conference, we call on the workers’ groups and delegates from all countries represented to walk out of any session at which the delegates of the Islamic regime of Iran may be present. As in previous years, our party, on behalf of the workers and people of Iran, who remain unrepresented in the ILO, will mobilise for powerful protests at the conference.

International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (ILSC-WPI)
Shahla Daneshfar, Coordinator
Bahram Soroush, Public Relations

FAX your PROTEST - 9th May! Demand the release of Jamal Saberi!

Dear Friends!

The Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba) is holding a conference on Japan’s migrant and refugees’ situation and laws this Sunday 9 May. They will be reading a message from Jamal Saberi, the Iranian political activist who is currently in detention and in danger of being deported to Iran. In the past Jamal Saberi has attended several of these conferences as a speaker on the crimes of the Islamic Regime of Iran and in support of workers, women and human rights in Iran. This time however Jamal who is currently being held in a Tokyo detention centre was only able to send a message to the conference when members of the Doro-Chiba visited him in detention.

Three weeks ago, in that very same detention centre, a 55-year-old woman from the Philippines died as a result of the harsh conditions in the detention centre. She is the third person in as many months to die there.

In support of the conference in Yokohama and in protest at the barbaric treatment of refugees by the Japanese government the Free Jamal Campaign is asking you to send your protest FAX to the office of the Japanese Ministry of Justice on the day of the conference, 9 May.

It is an easy thing to do and will have a huge impact. Japan will see that people around the world are against its brutal treatment of refugees and immigrants and it will also show the Japanese authorities that we are firmly behind the struggle to free Jamal Saberi! So please FAX your protest!

There is also a demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy in Washington DC organised by Mission Free Iran on Sunday at 1pm at 2520 Massachusetts Ave NW.

Please find a sample letter to fax below.

Thank you!
International Federation of Iranian Refugees

-----------------------------
Ministry of Justice Fax: +81-3-3592-7393

To: Japanese Ministry of Justice & UNHCR Japan

I am writing to express my strongest concern over the fate of Jalal Amanzade Nouei (aka Jamal Saberi) who is currently in detention in Tokyo and is going to be deported to Iran from Japan.

Mr. Jalal Amanzade Nouei is a well known political opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran that came to Japan in 1990. In 1992 he joined the Worker-communist Party of Iran [WPI]. Mr. Amanzade Nouei has been politically active with the WPI and the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) as well as the International Committee Against Executions (ICAE) for the past 18 years in Japan, including printing and distributing WPI literature as well as writing several articles against the Islamic regime of Iran, which have been published in Persian and Japanese magazines and websites. He also has organized and participated in major political activities against the Islamic regime of Iran in Japan.

His lengthy political activities with the WPI, IFIR, and ICAE and against the Islamic regime of Iran have come to the attention of the Iranian authorities.

As laid out in the Geneva convention on the Rights of Refugees (1951) Mr. Jalal Amanzade Nouei can become a refugee “sur place” as a result of his own political actions, such as associating with WPI, IFIR, ICAE and expressing his political views in Japan. His political activities came to the attention of Iranian authorities.

It is well known that the Islamic Republic of Iran has arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed Iranians who were forcibly returned to Iran if they had unlawfully departed from the Islamic Republic of Iran, had stayed abroad without authorization, and/or had applied for asylum in another country.

I consider the forcible return of Jalal Amanzade Nouei to Iran a violation of the principle of non-refoulement. This prohibits the forcible return of a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. It is a principle of customary International Law, which binds all states. Japan is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Mr. Amanzade Nouei clearly fulfils the criteria to be recognised as a refugee as detailed in relevant international instruments. He holds and has expressed opinions not tolerated by the Iranian authorities. His opinions and his relationship to the Iranian opposition organizations which are banned in Iran have come to the attention of the Iranian authorities. He faces a threat to his life or liberty if refouled to Iran.

I urge the Japanese Immigration Authorities to immediately release him and to reconsider its decision and grant him refugee recognition based on his well-founded fear of persecution on the ground of political opinion.

I am awaiting your immediate intervention in this life-threatening situation. Needless to say, UNHCR and the Japanese government will be held accountable for Jamal Saberi's life and freedom.

Sincerely,

Bita Ghaedi's deportation cancelled

Message from Bita and Mohsen: DEPORTATION CANCELLED!

Here is a message from Mission Free Iran.

The below is a mail sent by Mohsen at 9:27pm EST on May 4 2010:

Dear all

Bita’s flight has been cancelled at 6.30pm. Home Office had to cancel Bita’s removal direction after it had been ordered by United Kingdom High Court(5pm) and EU Human Right Court(6pm).

I use this opportunity to express our gratitude to all who support us in different occasions all the time. Even though Bita is still in detention centre and it seems there is a long way to get our aim but it is the hardest step that we could successfully pass with your help and I am sure you will support her till the end.

The solicitor Mr Vasoodoven has already asked Home Office to release her and as we are sure they are not going to do that so he will ask for bail court.

We have to collect and prepare all the documents for Oral Hearing set on 21 July.

In the end, thanks for all who had planned to join us for tomorrow demonstration, there won’t be any at the moment.

Your sincerely
Bita & Mohsen

Stop Bita's deportation today!

IKWRO just sent this in:

Bita Ghaedi is being deported to Iran on Wednesday where she is likely to be executed because she dared exercise her free speech. This is a clear cut case of human rights abuse and the UK government is too busy electioneering to care.

Here is more information on Bita's case.

Join our protest on Wednesday at Heathrow. Details for the protest are here.

If you cannot make the protest, click on the above link for some immediate direct action you can take.

Also, here is another petition in her defence.

Here is an article on her case in the Guardian.

Baring one's body can be a legitimate form of resistance

Here is a piece in the Paris Herald on ‘Boobquake’ versus ‘Brainquake.’ Since I only found out about Brainquake when the journalist in question contacted me for a comment (which she didn't use), let me briefly say the following:

Of course women are wrongly sexualized everywhere including with the veil and sexual apartheid. But for Brainquake to reduce Boobquake to the sexualisation of women misses the point. Ridicule is a wonderful way of criticizing religion and religious rules, particularly given that it is becoming more and more taboo. Also intent is important. Jennifer’s intent was a defence of women’s rights and status and cannot be compared with pornography.

More importantly, though, when you are confronted with an Islamic movement that deems women’s bodies as sources of corruption and chaos, and actually criminalises everything from a woman’s hair, her bare arms or legs, let alone breasts, baring one’s body can become a legitimate form of resistance.

I don’t know Golbarg Bashi and cannot speak of her intent but I find her reasoning against Boobquake sounding very much like that of the Islamic regime of Iran’s and other Islamists, which say they promote women’s dignity and intellect whilst imposing medieval laws that veil, segregate and deem women as sub-human. I would think that if she was as concerned about women’s rights as she says, she would not be calling on campaigners to remain passive and merely donate to ‘Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.’ Her call is a disservice to the international solidarity that all progressive social movements demand and deserve and particularly the important women’s liberation movement in Iran.

Joint May Day Resolution of 10 Labour Organisations in Iran

May Day is the day of international solidarity of the working class; the day of workers’ worldwide protest against poverty and inequality. On this day millions of workers throughout the world stop work, take over the streets, declare their outrage at the countless calamities that capitalism has imposed on humanity, and shout out the cause of liberation from oppression and exploitation and the building of a better world.

The protest at the hardships of the capitalist system and workers’ call for equality echoes around the world at a time when in Iran the celebration of this day is banned; right now many organisers of May Day 2009 have either been sentenced to prison or are threatened with heavy sentences, and tens of worker activists and leaders are in prison for building workers’ organisations and defending their human rights.

Such horrific lack of social rights is being imposed on workers in Iran at a time when capitalism in Iran, three decades after the 1979 revolution, has cut the workers’ pay to a quarter of the poverty line; by not paying workers’ wages on time, by mass firings and layoffs and through temporary and so-called ‘blank’ contracts, it has imposed appalling impoverishment on millions of working-class families. In addition, to ensure ever more profits for capital, they are abolishing subsidies and closing down factories, so as to take away the last means of sustenance from the tables of workers’ families to pockets of capitalists.

But as we showed in the 1979 revolution and have shown in the past few years, we the workers of Iran will not put up with such impoverishment and lack of rights, and despite imprisonment and repression, we will stand up to the violation of our most evident rights, at the forefront of the people of Iran, and will not let them ruin our livelihood and the right to life even further. We are the main producers of the wealth and resources of society, and regard it as our right and the right of all the people of Iran to enjoy a human life at the highest standards possible for humanity today.

Towards this end, while protesting against the current situation which since May Day last year has subjected workers and people of Iran to repression and lack of rights, we insist on the following demands and call for their immediate and unconditional realisation:

1- It is our indisputable right to set up organisations independent of the state and employers, to strike, to protest, to demonstrate, to assemble and to exercise free speech; these rights should be recognised as the inviolable social rights of workers and all the people of Iran;

2- We regard the plan to abolish subsidies (so-called ‘goal-oriented’ subsidies) and a minimum wage of 303 thousand tomans [US$300 dollars] per month tantamount to imposing a gradual death on millions of workers’ families; we call for the immediate stoppage of the plan to abolish subsidies and for the rise in the minimum wage to one million tomans [US$1,000].

3- Workers’ delayed wages must be paid immediately and without any excuses; failure to pay wages must be made a prosecutable offence, and workers affected reimbursed with damages;

4- Firings and layoffs under any excuses must be stopped; all unemployed persons and all those who have reached the age of employability and are ready for work should be provided with unemployment benefit at a level which affords a dignified human life;

5- We demand the abolition of temporary and ‘blank’ contracts; we demand job security for workers and all wage-earners, the highest possible standards of hygiene and safety at work, and the dismantling of all government-sponsored bodies in the workplace;

6- We demand the abolition of the death penalty and the immediate and unconditional release of Ebrahim Madadi, Mansoor Ossanlou, Ali Nejati and all worker activists and all activists of other social protest movements, and the revoking of all judicial actions against them;

7- While condemning any attack against workers’ and people’s protests, we regard protesting against lack of rights and free expression as the indisputable and inviolable right of workers and all people;

8- We demand the repeal of all discriminatory laws against women and full and unconditional equality of women and men in all fields of social, economic, political, cultural and family life;

9- We demand the provision of a prosperous life for pensioners, free of economic worries, and an end to any discrimination in payment of pensions, as well as the provision of social and medical care;

10- Child labour must be abolished; all children, irrespective of their parents’ economic and social status, and regardless of gender and national, racial or religious attributions, must be provided with equal and free educational, welfare and medical services;

11- We declare our support for all social movements which are demanding freedom, and strongly condemn the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of their activists;

12- While declaring our categorical support for the demands of teachers, nurses and other working people in society, we regard ourselves as their allies and call for the immediate realisation of their demands;

13- We are part of workers of the world, and condemn the firing of, and any discrimination against, immigrant Afghan workers and workers of other nationalities;

14- While expressing our appreciation for all acts of international solidarity with the struggle of the workers in Iran, and while categorically supporting the struggles and demands of workers around the world, we regard ourselves as their allies, and more than any time before stress the international solidarity of workers for liberation from the hardships of the capitalist system;

15- May Day must be recognised as an official holiday and designated as such in the national calendar; any prohibition of and restrictions on the celebration of this day must be ended.

Long live May Day
Long live workers’ international solidarity

1st May 2010

- Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company
- Union of Workers of Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company
- Free Union of Workers in Iran
- Committee for the Re-opening of Metal and Mechanical Workers’ Union
- Committee for the Re-opening of Painting Workers’ Union
- Association of Kermanshah Electrical and Metal Workers
- Follow-up Committee for Setting Up Free Workers’ Organisations
- Co-ordinating Committee to Help Set Up Workers’ Organisations
- Association to Defend Sacked and Unemployed Workers of Saghez
- Women’s Council

[Translated by the International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran. workersiniran@gmail.com www.kargaran.org]

Long Live May Day!