They say the world doesn't know who Ganji is and why he is dying, the world doesn't know! Well the world is my all American neighbor with three cars and two kids and an engineer husband. The world is my Swiss friend vacationing in her country with her husband and children; the world is my Chinese university professor standing in the Home Depot line waiting for his turn. The world may never know of the Mandelas and the Ganjis but I know and you know.

Sheema Kalbasi
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The group benefiting from Ganji's death is the wave surfers also known as the Iranian Reformists.
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همسر گنجى در مقابل دفتر سازمان ملل در تهران تحصن می كند

On Wednesday 9:30 Tehran time... Masoumeh Shafie, Ganji's wife is going on a strike outside the entrance of United Nations office in Tehran. She asked others to show their solidarity by supporting her.

  

 

Photos of today's gathering at the Ganjis'... Candles... people...

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Now with the smooth' in of Rafsanjani as their running comrade for the "Free Ganji" cause... you wonder what the Iranian sextillion (1000 trillion) dollar man has offered the reformists to let him add (a straight dope of spices perhaps?) to their "let them eat cake" recipe!

  

 

حال گنجی آنقدر خراب است که 'میرغضب مرتضوی' هم گفته است گنجي تا صبح زنده نمي ماند.

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Uncompromising? This blogger thinks I'm uncompromising! I say... we compromise with a spouse not an apartheid system like the ruling regime in Iran.
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Ten days ago
The Neurologist: The CT scan shows your dad has had two strokes.
Sheema: Strokes?
The Neurologist is explaining to me while the little girl is sitting on a chair... my dad the patient... her words are passing my eyes... I feel blood in my ears... my mood is turning gray... my heart starts beating fast and my hands start swelling... He needs to have two MRIs...I think of Maman... when she visited last... I didn't know she was dying... I am scared... I think of Ganji's daughter...

Dad: What is she saying?

Today
Bang... Bang... khishhhh... ghizh... z... z... z... I am taking out the carpet... the wonder woman... installing hardwood floors all by myself... my coping defense mechanism or/and trying to be my dad?
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The conspiracy theory has a new definition according to this chap!

...his own... reflection flatting out on the monitor... he wondered if he'd be the next James Bond! After all with the multilayer perception in this guy no one will have energy function to watch Pierce Brosnan!

  

 

If you are a Bridget Jones fan you may like to find yourself face to face with a real Kafir Aghani case. Please read Jessica and Hossein's story and sign this petition to stop the deportation of HOSSEIN Siavoshy.
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PLEASE PERSUADE ALL LOVERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO SIGN THIS PETITION


Open Letter to the Lawyers of the World - Iranian Case

Dear Madams / Sirs,

The world has a huge legal problem at hand: A group, with a proven track-record of extreme atrocities, seized the political apparatus of a modern nation-state, 26 years ago, a nation with a three-thousand-years-old history that had begun with pronounced concerns for human rights, a nation that was a founding member of the United Nations, a country known as Iran.

Apart from the fact that the whole world has experienced hardship due to this take-over, those who have been deeply suffering are the people of Iran. The majority of them have been struggling to get rid of this unexpected nightmare and, for a quarter of century, have been exposed to non-stop workings of this horrendous machine of torture and execution.

Recently, an internal report on the conditions of prisons in Iran, surprisingly prepared by an officer of the regime�s justice department, has painted such a bleak picture that no honorable member of the human race can move his/her head away and ignore the plight of this suffering nation.

Apart from the atrocities of the regime's agents towards non-political prisoners, there are many documented reports that show the worsening condition of prisoners of conscious in Iran. These prisoners, who are the best and most knowledgeable men and women of their society whose numbers are constantly on the rise, have committed no crime. They have just spoken up and/or have written about the injustices, atrocities and corruption of this regime. Recent reports show that the exercise of torture and putting physical and psychological pressures on them has been on rise. Your honorable colleague, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Noble Prize Laureate of 2003, who is the defense attorney of some of these prisoners, has constantly been barred from performing her legal duties in this respect. She, together with a huge number of human rights activists, have reported these problems to world organizations in many occasions.

Through this futile experience we, the undersigned, have come to realize that no individual government and no United Nations organization has the ability or stamina to challenge this inhumane situation. Nevertheless, we cannot possibly give up hope. We are sure that there are other organizations and conscientious legal professionals in the world who are poised to have a deeper look at the situation in Iran and get acquainted with the atrocities of its legal system. We know that by taking up such a case as an international legal issue they will create a new precedence that could help other nations who are or will be caught in the web of a ferocious and blood-thirsty political machine.

It is upon these assumptions that we, some advocates of human rights in all its dimensions and capacities, see no other resort but to address the conscious of your members, begging them to study this case and, based on their knowledge and experience, come up with a legal solution that could end the miseries inflicted by a group of ruthless thugs on an innocent.

We impatiently look forward to hear from you and, in the meanwhile, will keep this petition open on the Internet, so that anyone interested could join our desperate clamor for help. We will keep you posted on the new signatures they are added every day.

Contact:
Fax: 509-352-9630
E-mail: lawyersforiran@gmail.com

  

 

Where are you from Ms. Sheema? The pear land... and I am going e-bay sir!

  

 

The author of Why Bush prefers a dead Ganji and the nominated councillor in Nakuru have some 20 head of beef cattle and 40 goats in common when voicing their opinions! Good luck to them both!

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"but I came here for freedom"

Mostafa Mirmehdi

Justice for Mirmehdi brothers (Mohammad, Mostafa, Mohsen and Mojtaba). If this had happened in Iran where physical and mental torture are the bread and butter of the ruling regime or if it had happened in Denmark where social and psychological rape is an ever-existing law of the European societies... it wouldn't have surprised me but this is America! America is where they teach your child to share, where parents ask their children to wait for their turn to play, where Bin Ladans cannot recruit because the laws of the country protect every ones rights and the minorities are not under constant pressure to convert into Europeanism, Islamism or whatever ism and logy are there to kill and/or abuse in their unfortunate name! This is outrageous America!

  

 

وقتی افرادی بدون دلیل و منطق و فقط برای ابراز وجود می نویسند، نتایج طلایی آنهامطالبی خواهند بود مانند نوشته این بلبل حمام اکبر شاه و یا گذارش طوطی شکر سخن و دست پرورده تعدادی نمایندگان خواب آلوده مجلس آمریکا!

--------

The regime's hit-hit gang... in front of Tehran University beat and arrested the mother of Mohammadis' (the two university students/turned political prisoners,) and hundreds of protesters... Nasrin Mohammadi (the Mohammadis' sister,) is asking the Iranians to voice the mistreatments of political prisoners and the newly arrested... wherever/whenever possible.

Ganji is in great danger and some say his surgery is an excuse to kill him.

  

 

After 14 days on hunger strike Manouchehr Mohammadi is in a coma.

--------------------
Ahmad Saraji, a blogwriter, has been taken from his house on June 30, 2005, by the intelligence ministry officials to Tabriz Prison. Since his arrest , Mr. Saraji has started a hunger strike and his health has been severly deteriorated. He has been transferred to Tabriz Prison's Clinic.

  

 

روزهایی که می گذرند... روزهایی که سخت می گذرند... روزهایی که نمی گذرند و روزهایی که مثل ماست خیکی در لابه لای الیاف کیسه... کش می آیند ...

چند روز تا سکته سوم مانده است؟

  

 

من به معلم و ریس مهد کودک دختر کوچولو: شما راه چاره ای دارین که به من بگین چه کار کنم... دختر کوچولو مدتیه هر شب ساعت دو نصف شب میاد توی تخت من و شوهرم و همه اش هم ابراز نارضایتی می کنه که جاش کمه.. و سقلمه هست که به پت و پهلوی ما می خوره.

معلم دختر کوچولو: دختر منم که سه سالشه نایت میر/کابوس می بینه که خرچنگ زیر تختش هست و میاد توی تخت ما ...یا اگر نگذارم بیاد توی اتاقمون... پایین تختش می خوابه که خرچنگها رو ببینه!

ریس مهد کودک: من سه تا بچه دارم توی سنین مختلف و هر ساعت از شب یکیشون میاد توی تخت و نمی گذاره ما بخوابیم. اگه چاره ای پیدا کردی به منم بگو.

من به پدر: آره بابا جون... اینجوری گفتن... پس شما و مامان ما سه تارو چه جوری تربیت کرده بودین که هیچوقت تو اتاق شما نمی آمدیم.

پدر: خوووب

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عباس فخر آور، يكي از فعالان جنبش دانشجويي كه چند سالي از زندگي خود را در زندان هاي جمهوري اسلامي گذرانده و مدتي را با اكبر گنجي در يك سلول به سر برده، در مصاحبه با راديو فردا به نقل از منوچهر محمدي كه شب گذشته اكبر گنجي را در بيمارستان زندان ديده، مي گويد: وضع جسمي اكبر گنجي هنگام انتقال به بيمارستان ميلاد بسيار وخيم بوده است
راديو فردا...

رئيس بيمارستان ميلاد: گنجي هيچ مشكلي ندارد و از شب گذشته طبق رژيم خاص بيمارستان شروع به غذا خوردن كرده است. فتاحي در گفت‌‏وگو با خبرنگار "ايلنا"، حال اكبر گنجي را بسيار خوب توصيف كرد و گفت: وضعيت گنجي به هيچ وجه وخيم نيست و من وخيم بودن حال وي را شديدا تكذيب مي‌‏كنم.
خبرگزاري كار ايران

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دختر کوچولو: من گرسنتمه.
من: شما نیمساعت پیش غذا خوردی
دختر کوچولو: (صدای عجیب غریب که یعنی داره سکسکه می کنه...) ببین شیکمم صدا می ده
من: نه عزیزم شما گرسنت نیست. نیم ساعت دیگه که وقت دیدن کارتونت شد می تونی بلوز کلوزتو (نوعی آب نبات کشی) بخوری
دختر کوچولو: من ولی الان گشنتمه بلوز کلوز می خوام

دختر کوچولو: این پرنسس کراون داره. مام کراون داریم؟
من: آره داریم مانی... به فارسی می شه تاج
دختر کوچولو: نه به فارسی می شه کلاه پرنسس، تاج نه!

دختر کوچولو: این مورچه هه بال داره مانی
من: نه مانی، این اسمش مگسه
دخترکوچولو: مانی... بی ی ی یا بامبو بیز تو کفشمه

  

 

امروز ... دختر کوچولو پوستمو کنده و پدر بزرگش که به نظر میاد از بزرگ کردن من دل خونی داره می گه: آفرین... بجزوون... من: وای! از دست دختر و بابا و پدر بزرگ کجا برم... چهارتا شویدی هم که روی سرم مونده بود... ریخته!

  

 

They (Roozeonline is an Iranian regim -reformists!!- sympathizer a.k.a the wave surfers) reports : Ganji is taken to hospital.

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In the time like this when activists blame the oppressed for shouting their rights asking them to shut up or die, when the nobel laureate talks about Gauntanemo instead of those stoned to death and hanged in public, when political leadership is about spotting waves to surf on, when expediency is everything and principles don't mean a thing (rememer the Moin-Rafsnajni suporting crowd? ever listened to their arguments?) we need people like Ganji to break the rules of this vicious game, to overthrow the discourse of decadence. We need people who just don't tell but show how to sacrifice for a greater good.

Sheema Kalbasi
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Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism and falsehood. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement, seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision.

- Abraham Joshua

  

 

A university student, Hasan Asadi has been arrested.

  

 

Kianoush Sanjari, Manouchehr Mohammadi... there is no news of Kianoush... Mohammadi is on hunger strike... I have bought color pencils for the little girl... She has made a mask in school... She promised to sleep in her bed... Dad talks about Maman... I call P on the phone... he says he loves me... I am still typing somewhere between the little girl's color pencils and my hands... she is sleep in her bed... I have postponed another interview... this bloody backspace keeps erasing my notes... I need to shut my ears and eyes... hello kitty the news media... hello world... dear frenzied fans of Harry Potter and CIA leak case readers... A living Jesus is sacrificing his life... the people are watching him on the cross... the soldiers, the Rabbis, the thieves, the virgins... the whores...

I am still typing somewhere between the little girl's color pencils and my hands...

  

 

"Iranian dissidents appealed to the United Nations to support calls for freedom for Akbar Ganji, the brave writer who is being tortured in Tehran for the sin of exposing the murderous activities of the theocratic regime of the Islamic republic.The top dog at the U.N., Kofi Annan, declined to take a stand, claiming he did not know enough to have an opinion."
Michael Ledeen
-----

via Iranian Times

This candle is dying out, but its voice will not

"Many inside and outside the country ask why I have staged a hunger strike and why I am trying to reach legitimate ends through self-destruction. Is it not true that practical rationality demands that the ends and the means to those ends be in proportion with each other? Is it not true that theoretic rationality demands that for all claims (opinions and beliefs) suitable reasons should be offered? Is my action consistent with practical and theoretic rationality? Am I not considered a madman by intellectuals and liberals and human rights defenders? Here I shall try, despite the extreme physical weakness that has completely worn me out, to share my views clearly with everyone."

Akbar Ganji
Second Letter to the Free People of the World
read the rest on /Free Ganji

  

 

Mr. Kofi Annan... What do you mean by saying: "I have not enough information on this case (Akbar Ganji) and, thus, cannot comment on it." ... or better in Dr. Nooriala and my dear Ms. Mirzadegi's words "Dear Sir! As citizens of the planet earth... we have a few questions for you: "How much information on a case is considered to be "enough" for you? And, as the head of a world organization that is created to expand peace and human rights all over the word, what will your action be after uttering that comment?"

To the kind readers of this blog... if you are currently residing on earth (unlike the god father of all bloggers who is still vacationing on moon!) please sign this petition and be good to your neighbors! May god bless your soul and (similar to Mr. Masoud Behnoud's caring words...) never suffer from a stroke. Hallelujah!

دومین نامه‌ی اكبر گنجی به آزادگان جهان

این شمع درحال خاموش شدن است، امّا صدایش نه

امروز (یکشنبه، ١٩/٤/١٣٨٤) دقیقاً ٣٠ روز از اعتصاب غذای من می‌گذرد...
...این شمع در حال خاموش شدن است. ولی این صدا خاموش نخواهد شد. این صدا، صدای زندگی مسالمت آمیز، تحمل دیگری، عشق به انسانیت، ایثار برای مردم، حقیقت طلبی، آزادی‌خواهی، دموکراسی خواهی، احترام گذاردن به مخالفان، پذیرش سبک‌های مختلف زندگی، تفکیک دولت از جامعه‌ی مدنی، تفکیک سپهر خصوصی از سپهر عمومی، تمایزِ نهاد دین از نهاد دولت، برابری تمامی انسان‌ها، عقلانیت، فدرالیسم در چارچوب ایران دموکرات، نفی خشونت و... است.
این شمع در حال خاموش شدن است امّا این صدا، صداهای بلندتری به دنبال خواهد آورد:
شب با تابوت سیاه،
نشست توی چشم‌هاش
خاموش شد ستاره
افتاد روی خاک

اکبر گنجی

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Akbar Ganji maybe a day from the religious ritual killing by the Iranian regime and Iran says hunger-striking journalist is being treated! As if the Iranian rulling clergies are telling the truth and have become our modern day Saint Augustus... they claim to give special medical treatment to Akbar Ganji inside evin! What they really want is to produce a steady stream of international Ganji-is-fine belief and make a public Mother Teresa sculpture out of themselves.
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Here is one of the few blogs who have consistently covered the Iran cause.
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این هم یک نامه از چند نفر که اگر همه ایشان نه... لااقل چهار تایشان به همان دسته وطن پرستان دبش تعلق!! دارند! باز هم خوب است که مثل ریس جمهور اسبق جناب خاتمی، اینها هم افراد مدبر، کارگشا و دلسوزی هستند! ذوق شاعرانه ایشان... هم چشم حسود کور کن است
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اکنون که مرد میدانی
ابلیس را زخود راندی
از دل غبار افشاندی
...
ای کاش می توانستم
بر عمر تو بیفزایم
سویت ز اشک خود جامی
آب حیات بفرستم
ای کاش می توانستم
شرحی به خون کنم امضا
در تنگنای زندانت
حکم نجات بفرستم

سیمین بهبهانی

  

 

دختر کوچولو می دود...می آید روی پاهایم می نشیند... تا به قول خود کمکم کند... روی دکمه های کامپیوتر بکوبد و ای... بی... سی.. بنویسد... عکس گنجی روی صفحه کامپیوتر است...

دختر کوچولو: این خسته اس؟ داره می خوابه؟ برا چی خسته اس؟
من: چون غذا نخورده
دختر کوچولو: این بیداره؟ برا چی بیداره؟
من : تا بقیه رو هم بیدار کنه

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Defender Alert
Release Akbar Ganji: Jailed for Exposing Iranian Government's Complicity in Murder

Imprisoned Iranian journalist and human rights activist Akbar Ganji is gravely ill and in need of immediate medical attention. Ganji suffers from an acute and worsening asthma condition and severe back pain. A vocal critic of the Iranian government, Ganji is being held incommunicado in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison. Akbar Ganji was tried and imprisoned as a result of his work to expose and bring to justice government officials involved in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s, which came to be known in Iran as the "serial murders." Several hundred protesters gathered outside Tehran University on Tuesday, July 12 to demand the release of Akbar Ganji. According to news sources, Iranian police broke up the protest and beat several of the protesters, including a young woman, and made at least six arrests. The Iranian authorities that have imprisoned Ganji are responsible for his health and safety. Join Human Rights First in calling for the Iranian authorities to allow Akbar Ganji immediate access to urgently-needed medical care.

Human Rights First



Photos of Akbar Ganji's last days... via Iranian.com

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticize oppression...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A friend sent the above poem to me....

I am a poet... the only way I can express my concern about the existing ills are by writing but as Faraj Sarkoohi (the Iranian writer living in exile) once said... we cannot use our pen for a situation in need of immediate action. Now what can bring more attention to the cases of Human Rights Abuse in Iran but the last days of Mr. Akbar Ganji on Hunger strike?

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I checked these... and non of them has posted anything on the Akbar Ganji's case! Now I say their bloging just increases the cost of their cheep internet connection!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 6...7...

Oddly enough even the Iranian godfather of all bloggers vanishes in to a container when he very well can blog about Ganji and other political prisoners in Iran (it's cooool to have his dad... you know!) ... Masoud Behnoud suddenly starts his show off articles of care for Akbar Ganji and Ebrahim Nabavi all charged up with the fat dollars is still writing bla bla about the election! In the words of my three year old daughter: oh! Pickles!

  

 

...


When the children called Him
When the fathers called Him
When the mothers called Him
The sisters
Brothers...

god
took his eyes out
cut his ears off
cut his tongue off
out of the dirty land (god) took his heart out

god banished that land!

part of my poem... A Fading Voice... I didn't know it will come to life!

... I am cold... I go to bed to sleep... tears fall off my right eye... the left eye is dry! I'm scared... it's 32 days now that Ganji is on hunger strike... I am 32... 32 years of living as an Iranian... of...


****************************************************************************************


What is your share of light my dear Mr. Ganji?
Hurt, hurt, and hunger strike?


****************************************************************************************

People stood by the front gates of Tehran university. People asked for the freedom of Ganji and the political prisoners. People were attacked and the attackers will get paid for their stipendiary services in a few hours... people... Mullahs.. people.. Ganji... people.. Zarafshan... people... Aghajari... People... Iran... Iranian people want freedom...

سو ء قصد به جان زندانیان سیاسی امنیتي زندان رجایی شهر کرج

  

 

Support Freedom,
Human Rights and
Democracy in Iran

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Chokh Saghol* to the missy flowers of the European Union! Finally! After 27 years of being Mullas' bed fellows, the union is asking for Akbar Ganji's freedom. Only now... Ganji is throwing up blood and may soon his cold body be taken to the Tehran cemetery... Do you hear me? STOP your Frank Stein-making-factories in the Middle East! Stop washing your hands off the blood! The monsters you support and make business deals with... are training terrorists in Iran and kill your children in New York, Madrid, and London and crucifix our children in their prisons.

Chokh Saghol means thank you in Turkish/Azeri (The EU refuses Turkey to join the EU for Human Rights abuse cases but makes business deals with countries like Iran!)

**************************************************************************************

What can I do? What can I do but write? Blog? Sign petition after petition and write to the senators? What can I do to get the deaf politicians realize Akbar Ganji may be a day from his grave. My mind is blank… my heart worries… my hands shake and my eyes are tearful… Why Shirin Ebadi is not taking Ganji’s case to an international court is beyond my understanding! She has the Nobel Piece prize immunity, wealth and fame… why doesn’t she indict this regime for its crimes?

  

 

I read Hossein Derakhshan's recent article "Iran's young reformers" on Open Democracy. I disagree with him as usual. Where Derakhshan claims "Reform, as a political process for change, is still alive in Iran," the untouchable Iranian blogger misrepresents the reform case! The author of Iran's young reformers reminds me of a quote by Benamin Franklin that a man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. Otherwise "the father of all Iranian webloggers" would have noticed that what is alive and kicking in Iran is not the reform (of the kind coming from within the establishment) but rather Human Rights Abuses and a set of of backward principles, aka Islamic Republic's constitution. Another point that I differ with Mr. Derakhshan is in the use of kitchen as the point of inspiration for my blog. I can't blog from my kitchen because a) kitchen is where I cook, b) I can't quite fit my large old fashioned computer anywhere in the kitchen, c) even if I could my back would kill me by the sheer thought of relocating my computer (d) that would be beside the point.


*************************************************************************************

God made the illusion look real and the real an illusion. He concealed the sea and made the foam visible, the wind invisible, and the dust manifest. You see the dust whirling, but how can the dust rise by itself? You see the foam, but not the ocean. Invoke Him with deeds, not words, for deeds are real and will save you in the afterlife.

-Rumi

If I recall correctly Saidi Sirjani (he was murdered by the Regime in Iran) in one of his books had written at the presence of fascism and in order for your people to be heard you gamble with your life. Now this is not the exact quotation but last night they kept coming back to me. Ganji is living Saidi Sirjani's words...


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Please sign the petition for freedom of Dr. Hossein Ghazian... here.

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Growing up in Iran has a lot of advantages. One day you know there is a street called Churchill the next day it is Bobby Sands! Did I say Bobby Sands? Oh! Yes. The dear to heart Bobby Sands who was unfortunate to die because he wanted freedom for his Ireland... but please stop comparing Akbar Ganji to Bobby Sands! Sands belonged to a terrorist group... killing the innocent people! Sands and Ganji may have one thing in common and that is their hunger strike... stop playing mind game... I for one don't want to have any streets in Ganji's name. I want his freedom. His freedom!

*************************************************************************************
July 5, 2005

To: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations

Re.: Deterioration of the situation of political prisoners in Iran



Dear Mr. Secretary-General:



IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by independent Iranian human rights associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as other UN’s human rights conventions.



Following our letter of june 8, 2005, on the situation of political prisoners in Iran, we would like to reiterate our deep concern about their situation, in particular Mr. Ganji (journalist and human rights activist) and Dr.Zarafshan (defense lawyer).

According to reliable information, these political prisoners are suffering from kidney illness, gums diseases, bone fractures, asthma, and serious back problems caused by torture, inadequate medical treatment, and unhealthy conditions in the prison.

Political prisoners are held in solitary confinement in spite of the specific recommendation made by UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on June 27, 2003, to put an end to this widespread practice, which it considered arbitrary in nature.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has ignored this recommendation as well as recommendations by other international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch.

Human rights activists in Iran continue to fight for their freedom and human rights at the risk of imprisonment, torture, disappearance and death.

We, The Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America, express our deep concern about the life and health of these political prisoners, especially Mr. Akbar Ganji (journalist and human rights activist) and Dr. Nasser Zarafshan (defense lawyer).

We are afraid that if the unlimited hunger strike of Mr. Akbar Ganji continues for long, it may even lead to their death, which would be a human-rights catastrophe.



We urgently request your intervention to put as much pressure as you can on the Islamic Republic of Iran to:



A. Unconditionally free all the political prisoners;

B. Appoint a special United Nations Committee to investigate the recent, widely reported human-rights abuses in Iran and ask that Committee to report its results to the General Assembly during August 2005.



We appreciate your prompt attention to our homeland, before is too late.



Sincerely,





Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)*



E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com

Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)

Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden





Iranian Human Rights Activists Association, Canada - Human Rights defense committee of Iran, Sweden - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran, Deutschland - Stichting voor de Verdediging van Democratie in Iran, Nederland – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada, Vancouver - Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – Activist of Human Rights- Irantestimony - Committee for defense of Liberty and Democracy in Iran – Austria , Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran – Washangton, U.S.A – Association of defender of Human Rights and democracy in Iran , France- Iranain Human Rights Activitists group, Switzerland - Center of activists for the defense of Human Rigts in Iran, Belgium , Menschenrechtgruppe IRAN – Deutschland - Verein zur Unterstützung der Politischen Gefangene im Iran, Berlin, Deutschland



* And support of: Iranian Mothers for Freedom, Washington D.C, U.S.A

  

 

Human Rights First support human rights activists who fight for basic freedoms and peaceful change at the local level; protect refugees in flight from persecution and repression; help build a strong international system of justice and accountability; and make sure human rights laws and principles are enforced in the United States and abroad.

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What is national freedom if not a people's inner freedom to cultivate its abilities along the beaten path of its history?

- Ahad HaAm

Recently I read an article by Professor Fred Halliday stating that major revolutions like the one in Russia, China or Cuba after twenty something years came to a cleansing up stage before entering their second runner up phase... Although this maybe right, the situation is different this time. Iran neighbors the recently rejuvenated Afghanistan and Iraq and the world is not what it used to be fifty years ago. Globalization is in full force and utopian ideologies have been thrown into the trash bin of lies and deceptions.

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I am visiting my in-laws and as much as I like to say I don't listen to the news I'd be lying. This house is one big News mansion with the Iranian and international news agencies on loud speakers. Despite being tired from the two days of driving and ready to collapse, we took the little girl to the Fourth of July fire work last night and it was magnificent. The fire work synchronized by the all American music and the people standing next to one another waving, singing and clapping was almost like a rock festival. My daughter was all eyes and ears, recording every aspect of her life as an American with a Persian heritage. I on the other hand like to say the sounds didn't remind me of the anti-aircraft guns but I would be cruel to the recorded memories of growing up an Iranian.

  

 

Letter to the Free People of the World

Nineteen days have passed since I began my hunger strike. I have lost nineteen kilograms. I am imprisoned. I do not have permission to make phone calls or read newspapers. I have been denied visitation. I cannot walk outside my cell. The liars say they have no political prisoners. They say the political prisoners are not on hunger strike. They distort the facts by calling a cell a suite, saying that prisons are as comfortable as they can be in a hotel! Calling a donkey a parrot does not miraculously turn the donkey into a parrot! Prisoner is someone whose liberty has been taken away. Does calling a prison a hotel change the nature of the prison? A political prisoner is someone who speaks his conscience. We are arrested solely because we differ from what is permitted. Human rights organizations are aware how hundreds of people have been imprisoned only because of different views. The liars change their words. First they say Ganji is in solitary confinement. Next he is on hunger strike. Then they say Ganji has to be punished. Next they quote doctors that Ganji has asthma. Have the doctors prohibited Ganji from visitations, reading newspaper, making or receiving phone calls, breathing fresh air, or seeing the sunlight? Is it why you have sent a smuggler who is sentenced to 15 years in prison to my cell in order to murder me? If punishment is to force me show remorse for my manifests, you will not achieve your objective. Iranian Stalinists have inherited these techniques from Stalin's interrogators. I have written the republicanism manifests after much research and study. I will not take back my word. I will not show remorse. I will not stop my hunger strike until I reach my goal.
Today my weary face reflects the true face of the Islamic republic of Iran's regime. Today I am the symbol of justice. Look closely and you see the regime's injustice. People wonder if I am the same person they once knew. Their torture has reduced my weight from 77kg to 58kg. They hide me from the world. They hide me from the journalists.

Khamanei will be directly responsible for my death. Mortazavi gets his orders from Khamanei via Hejazi (Khamenei's chief of staff). I am against Khamanei's unlimited lifetime rule because it is contradictory to the rule of people. I knew my statements would have ramifications and I was right. Even Rafsanjani, Karoubi, and Moin tasted a bit of Khamenei's democracy in this election. One-man rule contradicts democracy. In this system, one man orders and the rest have to obey. Mortazavi has told my wife that hundreds die everyday, Ganji could be one of them. These are Khamenei’s words that are spoken by Mortazavi. Ganji may die but seeking liberty, justices, democracy, hope, dream, and ideals will never die. Loving one another and making sacrifices will always stay alive.

Akbar Ganji

June 29th 2005

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note: I translated 90% of Ganji's letter from the original Persian... hoping to have his voice be heard by more people around the world.

  

 

After 19 days on hunger strike, Akbar Ganji has written a letter from the prison saying incase of his death, Khameni Is Ganji's executioner.

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After years of human rights abuse... the western media is showing part of the humiliation and misery of what many Iranians have faced for the past two decades. The Belgians for example are playing sign language with the Iranian officials. After 27 years they are signaling the terrorist regime that their tolerance of murderer Mullahs is shrinking! I remember when I dated the Belgian consul in Denmark and he loved to work in Iran because his colleagues were all happy and joyful working there! (I also recall asking my parents if I could introduce him to them and my mom said: what? He is 20 years older than you! He is your dad's age! Have you lost your mind... break it off!)

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این جریان انتخابات و اینکه کی چی گفته و چرا گفته و ای-میلهای فدایت شوم وحشتناکی که برام تو این مدت فرستاده شده منو به فکر انداخته نکنه واقعاافراد متعهد، لایق، زبردست و آدم کم نکش رژیم جمهوری اسلامی عین الاغ مش قاسم توی این سی ساله کار کردن و زحمت کشیدن! اگه اینا واقعا اینجوری بودن که ارزش موجودیت کاری داشته باشن... من از همین امروز ...البته اگه قوه قضاييه ایران اجازه بده برگردم... میرم جلو مسجد شاه آفتابه می فروشم!