Abysmal

Looks like we have entered a descending whirlwind, which is slowly encompassing all Iranians. It reminds me of Brecht's "first they came for the communists, ... , then they came for the trade-unionists, ... , then they came for the jews, ... , then they came for me..."

Now they have come after two doctors who ran a very successful anti-AIDS programme. Yeah, right, they were attempting a "velvet revolution".

They arrest anyone who is speaking up for human rights, they close down offices of human rights defenders.

They arrest young Iranians who were doing some project for the children in poor suburbs -- oh! but I forgot, they are Bahais!...

And now, doctors who help drug addicts.

And who are "they" exactly? Ah yes! Those who are supposed to bring justice and well-being to the people of Iran.

And in the meantime some eat sushi...

A women's rights defender

Don't you love it when Mr. Ahmadinejad implies that the US is not advanced enough to elect a woman as president?

A MehrNews wire was quoted in the New York Times but unfortunately, I was not able to find the original article.

We all know what the situation in Iran is. I have blogged about it a number of times and things aren't getting better.

But my question to our president is: can a woman be elected as President in Iran in the first place? And since he said that: "Presidency of a woman in a country that boasts its gunmanship is unlikely." Does it mean that Iran is also great at boasting its gunmanship? (and I have no wish to posts links about this...)

Out of the Calif's chest

It seems that our Minister of Foreign Affairs has been learning melodrama: his speech, or rather the opening of his speech at the Human Rights Council last Tuesday was quite well orchestrated: he goes to the Podium, pauses, drinks a glass of water, clears his throat, straightens his goatee, pauses again, makes a reference to the heart-breaking individual case of a six-months old infant and then asks for a minute of silence.

And then he makes yet another bold move: requests that during this minute of silence Muslims in the room recite the "fatehe" and starts reciting it under his breath (and it can be slightly heard in the microphone).

(this year, the webcast is a little less practical, so to watch it, you need to go here, then choose the morning session and then go more than 3/4 into the webcast).

Perhaps he was competing with Mr. Ahmadinejad's halo a couple of years ago.

Aside from his blatant untruthfulness concerning Iran's human rights record in the rest of his speech there are a couple of points that can be raised and are a clear reflection of the behaviour of this government:

Firstly, he uses the Persian pronunciation of an Arab word, and therefore refers to "ghazzeh" (instead of Gaza), so that most people, I am sure, must have been wondering what he is talking about;

but more importantly announces that he sacrifices a minute of his speech and then speaks for 20 minutes instead of the allotted 10, thus, in fact, taking 10 minutes of the time of the following speakers.

In Persian one would say that he is making a donation out of the Caliph's chest.

Next?

There was indeed much of a hullabaloo at the visit of our President, but after all, it can be summed up in one word: denial. We knew about his first denial, now at Columbia he informed us that there are no homosexuals in Iran, and during his UN press conference he enlightened us with the fact that the Baha'is don't have a Prophet.

Clearly, after all that everyone will believe him when he says that Iran is not trying to get the bomb.

Above and beyond Mr. Ahmadinejad's gesticulations, the issue remains what is going to happen to our country. Initially, Mr. Abdi's recent interview made me quite depressed, then today I read Abbas Milani's excellent piece -- remarkably, they are saying the same thing.

Just an ordinary president

When I first started reading Ray Takeyh's Op-Ed, I thought he had learned from Haleh Esfandiari's lessons but no, he remains consistent in advocating Détente with Iran.

However, I was really glad that finally someone was openly saying (to the West) what we all knew: the Islamic Republic of Iran's policy is consistent, whether we have a Rafsanjani, a Khatami or an Ahmadinejad as president.

So I will slightly change Takeyh's conclusion and suggest that rather than raising the spectre of a dangerous and uncontrolled man perhaps one should look at the quite systematic policy of the country's rulers.

PS: for those interested, the text of the poem chanted by Shajarian in my previous post can be found at the end of this article

Once the dust has settled

Ten days have passed since my last post and I am still hung up on the British soldiers!!!

Well, not really... but these past days I read a couple of pieces that I found quite interesting. Firstly, an editorial in Baztab which reveals the thinking of some people within the system, and then another piece in the Washington Post with a different angle than mainstream.

A little bit of reading for the day and no analysis on my part

No comment

"Even if access and use of the nuclear energy requires closing down of other activities for 10 years, it is worth paying such a price", says our President.

Our country is in such great shape...

Who's your friend?

Belarus' president Lukashenko has been visiting Iran and Mr. Ahmadinejad tells us that Minsk and Tehran see it eye to eye on a large number of things.

Well surely, on human rights, they do. We know all about Iran, but let's look at Belarus, which has the privilege of having a UN Special Rapporteur just to its own and also some interesting reports from human rights organizations ...

Birds of a feather...


Iran Human Rights Belarus Ahmadinejad

Set them free

Nearly at the outset of his statement delivered on Monday at the UN General Assembly, our president indicated:

"What afflicts humanity today is certainly not compatible with human dignity; the Almighty has not created human beings so that they could transgress against others and oppress them."

The full text in English can be found here and the webcast here.

I have already made a number of references to various reports on the human rights situation in Iran, whether by the UN or NGOs, however, another of those came out just a few days before Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech. In its introduction it says:

"Government actions and rhetoric created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all religious minorities..."

Or maybe the reference to the Almighty was only for some ...

Iran human rights religion Ahmadinejad UN

A new blogger in town

At a time when our best Iranian bloggers (here, here and here) have either stopped or taken a looong leave of absence, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has decided to launch his own personal blog. Silly me! Six months ago, I thought I was late in starting mine!

Now a few remarks:

- Mr. Abtahi will either complain or be honoured because I noticed that Mr. Ahmadinejad has taken a few ideas from his blog -- he has even used the same font in the Persian header!

- The flag that represents English for the choice of language is really strange, looks a little like the American flag and yet not quite -- perhaps another way of destroying it?

- Mr. Ahmadinejad has immediately started a poll. When I checked last, there were more "no" than "yes" -- if the final result remains the same, will he face a fate similar to that of previous pollsters?

Iran Blog

On the fringe of "the letter"

Much has been said about "the letter". I would like to mention two: Firstly, an interesting point at the end of a New York Times article that quoted Wahid Abdel Maguid of the Egyptian Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, saying that the letter "was addressed more to young people in the Islamic world than to the American president" (this point was subsequently repeated by others). And there was also a much-needed response to the missive, posted on a blog, which brought everything back into the right perspective.

Reading the letter, I could not but notice the amount of "(PBUH)" it contained, associated to the various prophets mentioned. Of course, Muslims are familiar with the letters in brackets that always appear after Prophet Mohammed's name, but I was wondering what Americans, and Westerners in general, would make of it.

This led me to another, perhaps more fundamental reflection: one of Mr. Ahmadinejad's points in the letter was to show his own piety and somehow prove that not only was he a fervent believer in Prophet Mohammed, but he was also knowledgeable about and respectful of the Teachings of Christ -- a claim Mr. Bush seemed to make but not put into practice. However, if one reveres the Divine Messengers, then it could indeed be a form of respect to follow the utterance of their names by the expression of the wish that peace be upon them. But then reduce this to a few letters in bracket? To me, this kills all reverence, piety and spirituality.

Football and populism

The strategy involved various entities in power and the orchestration was smooth: Mr. Ahmadinejad played the card of women's rights by announcing that he was allowing indiscriminate access to football stadiums, then a number of grand Ayatollahs publicly expressed their disapproval (one of them being the President's own mentor) and finally the Leader himself said that it was inappropriate and the President bowed to Ayatollah Khamenei's wish, of course. Back to square one, with a few popular gains.

A few days ago I came across an article about a talk given by Ramin Jahanbegloo at the Amir Kabir University some months ago (unfortunately it is in Persian). During the talk Mr. Jahanbegloo made reference to the present government by calling them "populists" and in response to a question on the present situation in Iran he cited Jean-Paul Sartre saying France was never as free as during the Vichy regime. Later in the presentation, he went on to strongly criticize the Reformists as well, saying that the Populists appeared in our society because people no longer trusted the Reformists...

No wonder the man is now in Evin.

Human or nuclear rights

Amnesty released a report on Iran at mid-day yesterday. In the opening paragraph its press release stated: "The current standoff regarding the country's nuclear programme must not distract either the government or the international community from addressing the country's long-standing human rights problems." What about the media? I watched all day yesterday, for a Reuters, perhaps an AFP ... and again today, no sign of it... Until -- finally -- it appeared on Radio Farda (I know, again, sorry, but hey…) and later on Payvand.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Ahmadinejad said (and unfortunately I am paraphrasing because I can no longer find the link) "If we solve the nuclear issue then they will come after our human rights situation.”

It’s been a while since Amnesty has written a full report on Iran. And as must be the case for all those concerned about the situation of human rights in a given country, I guess, I wish there would be more coverage about it. But the human rights discourse is no longer fashionable. We all know why too, and I will come back to this soon.

I just need to add one more point on the report: although it starts with a clear indication that the situation has worsened since the election of the new President, many of the abuses reported in there were commited during Mr. Khatami’s tenure...