Iran Solidarity calls for all-out support on July 25, global day of action, and every day

Iran Solidarity is calling for people across the world to stand with the people of Iran on July 25 and every day.

Since its establishment last week, over 1,000 individuals and organisations have joined Iran Solidarity, including Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Mina Ahadi, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Taslima Nasrin. Its successful launch at the House of Lords on July 13 was hosted by Dick Taverne and chaired by Fariborz Pooya, head of the Iranian Secular Society. Speakers included the philosopher AC Grayling, campaign organiser Maryam Namazie, and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. You can see footage of the launch here.

Iran Solidarity is calling on people everywhere to step up their support for the people of Iran by joining July 25 demonstrations at embassies of the Islamic regime of Iran in cities across the globe. The global day of action is being sponsored by human rights activists, Amnesty International USA, Reporters without Borders and others.

We are also calling for every day to be a day of solidarity with the people of Iran and are looking to have one person every day in central London for half an hour for the next year. With your help, we plan to organise daily acts of solidarity in Trafalgar Square from 6:00-6:30pm for 365 consecutive days starting July 26. We are asking you to volunteer to express your solidarity as you see fit on a day that you are available during the next 365 days. You would need to stand alone, be over 16 years of age, and spend the half hour doing whatever you’d like to do to show your support and solidarity.

To volunteer to take part, email with your name, email and mobile number as well as the dates you are available. We will than get back to you with a confirmed date. We aim to film or photograph all the daily acts of protest and solidarity.

If you do not live in London and want to take part or organise daily acts of solidarity in other cities contact us so we can help you. You can also organise a flash mob that can highlight the situation in Iran, set up information tables or mobilise support for our campaign. You can set up Iran Solidarity groups at your schools and universities, neighbourhoods and workplaces – similar to the anti-apartheid groups that helped get rid of racial apartheid in South Africa. You can join us if you haven’t already done so and get others to join, volunteer your time and skills, donate and raise funds or help organise speaking tours and public meetings. Please feel free to download Neda masks and posters and those calling for the prosecution of Ali Khamenei for crimes against humanity from our website to take to protests or for your own acts of solidarity. You can also download and hand out the leaflets and postcard available on our site.

We have a responsibility and duty to unite to support a hugely important movement in Iran that will help the people of Iran and the world in heralding a new dawn.

We can and will make a difference; the future is ours!

For more information, visit our website: or blog or contact:
Maryam Namazie
Campaign Organiser
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731

On Sohrab Arabi

To see an article on Sohrab and Neda's murder by the Islamic regime of Iran, in which Maryam Namazie is quoted, click here.

Q&A with Ophelia Benson

The co-author of the new book Does God Hate Women? discusses patriarchy, the burka and capitalism in the New Statesman.

'What inspired you to write your new book Does God Hate Women?

My co-author, Jeremy Stangroom! It was his idea. More broadly though, I've been following women's rights issues at Butterflies and Wheels for about six years, and I've published many articles by women who are right at the coal face on issues of religion (Maryam Namazie, Azar Majedi, Homa Arjomand, and Gina Khan to name a few). It interests both of us strongly, and once Jeremy thought of it it seemed inevitable...'

Clear footage of Islamic regime's security shooting at protesters

They raped, killed and burnt the body of our Taraneh

A blogger has interviewed a friend of Taraneh Mousavi, who we reported on a few days ago. She was last seen being dragged off by the Islamic regime’s security agents. Her burnt body has now been found.

Her friend, Sh. Says:

‘Taraneh was very beautiful and very kind; she used to sing with a beautiful warm voice and played the piano with skill. I cannot imagine that all this life and beauty should be buried under dust and dirt, without mercy.’

Sh. is speaking haltingly, and I ask her:

When did the family learn that the body had turned up?

‘They went to Ghazvin yesterday to get her burned body. But as much as we asked them they wouldn’t tell us any details and neither did they tell us where they want to bury her. They have been threatened heavily and are very afraid.’

Was Taraneh arrested on 7th Tir (28th June) near Ghoba mosque?

‘Yes. On that day, Taraneh was wearing a green shawl and manteau and high heeled shoes and because she also had beautiful green eyes, she probably caught the attention of the plain clothes agents. But she wasn’t participating in the rally and she cried and said so many times to the agents, but they threw her into a van with other detainees. Her car was parked in the vicinity and she was on the way to her Beauticians’ Training Establishment which is situated near Hosseinie Ershad.’

And then they brought her to a detention centre?

‘Yes, they brought her and about 40 other blindfolded boys and girls to a secret detention centre, a building with high walls on Pasdaran Street, and put them in a large room. They were harassing the girls very much and Taraneh’s interrogation took longer than the others’…

Did Taraneh give her phone number to the others there?

‘Yes, when she had come back to the others from her long interrogation she said she had been harassed and asked some of the others to call her parents and some of her friends and tell them that she had been arrested. She was crying all the time, and when they allowed all the girls except her to call home briefly she grew even more worried.

‘Then they took all the detainees away from this building; some were taken to Evin and others to Nobonyad police station. Only Taraneh they kept with them, which worried all the other detainees.’

And afterwards, were her family and friends contacted?

‘Yes, the other detainees who were freed the same evening or the next days and had the numbers were all worried about Taraneh’s state, as they had seen the savage behaviour of the agents. They called Taraneh’s family and friends and told them she had been arrested.’

And did the family follow up?

‘Yes, after some days they found her car but there was no trace of her until last week…’

…when an unidentified person called…

‘Yes, an unidentified person, probably one of her abductors, called and said Taraneh had a moral problem and that she hadn’t been arrested at all. He said she had been raped and her womb and anus had been torn and she had wanted to kill herself by throwing herself in front of a car. He said she had been brought to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Karaj and that she had also tried to kill herself there with a serum tube.

‘The family immediately went to the hospital but Taraneh’s name wasn’t registered at the hospital. However one of the nurses confidentially told one of her friends that some days previously a girl with these particulars had been brought to the hospital unconscious and had been removed again after a couple of hours.

‘Hearing this, we guessed that Taraneh had probably been brought to the hospital in the last moments of her life after suffering repeated rape. We grew very worried.’

At this stage, what enquiries did Taraneh’s family make?

‘Our main problem was the family’s silence and the fear they had that the story would come out. Taraneh’s mother and father are very religious and over sixty; Taraneh was their only child, which they had had after years of praying and longing and medication, and they had given her a good life. But when this happened they became very afraid and didn’t talk to us any more. But after all we are her friends too and have a right to know where her body is and where she will be buried.’

Is there no information at all about the funeral ceremony?

‘No. Yesterday the family were informed that a burnt corpse fitting Taraneh’s description had been found between Karaj and Qazvin. The family has been threatened severely not to talk about their daughter’s arrest.’

Now that this story has come out in the media and in the weblogs, do you think the truth will be found out?

‘I just want Taraneh’s voice to go on, and our call that our most beautiful friend has been cruelly taken from us, that they have raped her brutally for several days and then burned her lifeless body and tossed her out in the desert.

‘When Taraneh sang, her beautiful voice was always in my ear, but from yesterday until now I have only been hearing her screams. Taraneh’s suffering was over, but our pain and suffering will remain with us as long as we live; she was our Taraneh [song].’

More news of arrests yesterday

Yesterday, lawyer Shadi Sadr was arrested by plainclothes security forces; she was dragged into a car and driven away with several others.

A Few Simple Shots

View a full feature film on the regime's crimes against humanity, here. Maryam Namazie is interviewed on it.

More footage from July 17 protests in Tehran

'Free political prisoners.'



'Dont be afraid, we are all together.'











'Down with Dictator'

Millions out on the streets of Tehran today

Millions of people in Tehran are out on the streets protesting against the regime

Today Friday 17 July, in various sections of Tehran, we are once again witness to mass demonstrations in Iran. There are reports that there are more than 2 million people giving slogan in the main streets and squares of Tehran. Some of the slogans are: ‘Down with Dictator,’ ‘Free all Political Prisoners,’ ‘Coup d’etat government; resign, resign,’ ‘Down with Ahmadinejad;’ ‘Our Neda isn’t dead; it is the government that dead,’ amongst others. There were also slogans saying ‘People didn’t get killed to make concessions’ (ma koshteh nadadeem keh sazesh koneem), referring to a rejection of any behind the scene wheeling and dealings between the opposing factions of the regime.

The demonstrations are continuing right now; Azerbaijan Road, Vali Asr Square, Keshavarz Boulevard, Hafez Road, Daneshjoo Park, North Amir Abad, Ferdousi Square towards Iranshahr, Haft Tir Square, and the cross section between Karoun and Hashemi are teeming with protesters. From Vanak Square and above, protesters are giving slogans of ‘Down with Dictator,’ and burning photographs of Mousavi and Rafsanjani.

Despite the extreme heat and the widespread presence of security forces, people have taken to the streets en masse. Live reports from the protests are being broadcast via New Channel TV and the Worker-communist Party of Iran throughout the day.

In Keshavarz Boulevard and North Amirabad there are over 2-300,000 people shouting ‘Down with Dictator’ and have been clashing with the regime’s security forces. People are moving towards Fatemi Square and the Islamic regime’s broadcasting house.

According to reports, the regime’s security forces have attacked people, including with plastic bullets, batons, and tear gas. The numbers of arrested is unknown.

New Channel TV has also been receiving reports of protests in other cities including Shiraz, Esfahan and Yazd

Via New Channel TV, protesters are asking for doctors and nurses to get to the demonstrators as many do not want to go to hospitals in case they are arrested by the regime’s security. Also the public are being asked via New Channel to allow protesters fleeing security forces to enter their homes in order to protect them.

Friday 17 July is a day of protest in Iran and other updates

* Countless groups and individuals have been calling on people in Iran to come out on to the streets on Friday 17 July via New Channel TV with slogans including ‘Down with Dictator,’ ‘Down with Khamenei,’ ‘Down with the Islamic regime of Iran,’ and ‘Free all political prisoners.’ People are being asked to come out in full force to demand freedom and an end to the Islamic regime.

* Mothers of the dead have issued their fourth statement asking people to come out to parks around the country to commemorate those killed on Saturday 18 July. Whilst giving their condolences to Parvin Fahimi, Sohrab Arabi’s mother, they are asking people to come out between 7-8pm on the Saturday also to protect the mothers. The statement says that the regime’s security threatens, harasses and throws them out, arresting those who refuse to leave and that people’s solidarity and support is needed.

* As a result of the security forces’ inability to control the protesters, the regime’s head of security – Ismail Ahmadi-Moghadam has said in an interview that new weapons are needed in combating the protesters as the traditional ones are not effective.

* According to Amnesty International, hundreds of detainees are at risk of torture and ill-treatment.

Maryam speaking in Lancashire today

Date: July 15, 2009
Time: 8:00-9:30pm
Venue: The Village Centre, 59 High Street,The Square,Great Eccleston. (Nr Preston). PR3 0YB
Organisation Hosting: Lancashire Secular Humanists
Maryam Namazie will speak about the One Law for All campaign
Contact: Ian Abbott, ian@ianzere.demon.co.uk