"But what am I?
Only a captive,
chained to the earth.
In silence I grow old,
In silence I wither and die,
And before long
nothing will remain of me
But a handful of ashes."

From a poem by Zhaleh Esfahani. She passed away in London last night.

  

 

Iran Drops Out Of Olympics

President Ahmadinejad has announced that Iran will not participate in the next Summer Olympics. He noted that, “Anyone who can run, jump, or swim has already left the country.” The joke is circulating during the recent arrest of Reza Valizadeh, the blogger who revealed Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s overpriced dogs. These four dogs have been purchased from Germany for a total of $600,000.00 despite the recent call by Angela Dorothea Merkel to impose sanctions on Iran.

  

 

In a recent interview with Tehelka - New Delhi,India I was asked if I think think war is imminent?

I don’t know if war is in the cards or not but the world has been quiet when it comes to the human rights crimes committed by the Iranian regime. I believe they have to voice their outrage at these violations before everything else. Why has the world been quiet for the past thirty years while our best people have been killed in the prisons of the oppressive regime of Iran? Why all we hear is 'Peace' and never do we hear 'Democracy'! How can peace work when there is no democracy?

Continues here.

  

 

I drink the words, what a body then to uncover
Half finished, half dressed, but there are edges
Waiting to curve.


I have started my thirty fifth birthday celebration reading about the arrest of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, the Iranian security forces ready to put the Iranian journalist and blogger Arash Sigarchi back in prison, Maryam Hosseinkhah, the Iranian feminist activist jailed over an online petition and charged for propaganda against the system recently labeled as a sympathizer of PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan,) the Sharia law and how an Iranian woman has appealed to the Sharia court to order her husband to beat her not everyday but once a week, an Egyptian Christian woman is going to jail because her father had converted to Islam 45 years ago and it makes her a Muslim, not a Christian, and Taslima Nasrin the Bengali author being exiled from Kolkata and brought to Jaipur following the shutdown called in Kolkata to demand cancellation of her visa after a Muslim outfit protested her stay and demanding her deportation - turned violent.

  

 

Reza Dehghan a member of syndicate of workers has been behind the bars for several days now.

  

 

IRAN: Human Rights Violations


An Iranian-Kurdish teacher Ishmael Shadi and three university students have been arrested in Kermanshah. This happened while more than sixty University students are in the prisons of the oppressive regime. The arrest of the Kurdish- Iranian teacher happened two days after the arrest of Maryam Hossienkhah, Journalist, and member of the Women’s Cultural Center, and Reza Dehghan a member of Syndicate of Workers.

  

 

Happy Birthday Sheema.

  

 

Health Insurance

Yesterday the school nurse called saying my little girl doesn’t have a fever but is cuffing bad. I told her we will come to pick her up before her lunch and on our way to my doctor’s appointment. Now this is my little girl who had a broken leg for 6 weeks with a mom who is still suffering from vomiting and nausea. Coming home early or going to a doctor’s office and not enjoying the art class with the rest of her friends isn’t what a five year old would really like to do. While complaining about it we drove with her to an office my primary care doctor had referred me to twenty days earlier. After driving in the rain and reaching the not so friendly area we waited 45 min. passed my appointment only to be told they have not received the fax. With a full bladder, vomiting, and a room full of patients who have to share one bathroom I was on the verge of a collapse. Despite these all I had to wait two more hours before being told their fax seemed to be out of order! It is not the first time we have been disappointed with this insurance. Amazing that we pay so much money for the health insurance but can’t change it before the year is over. United States is not some socialist country where there is no competition. For the money we pay we simply have to be able to receive a better service and should have the option of changing.

  

 

Kurdish-Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour, who was arrested and to be executed on falls charges, is on hunger strike in prison.

  

 

Did the National Iranian American Council Commit Fraud?

Michael Rubin: "Trita Parsi, you have yet to answer why NIAC told the Congressionally-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) that NIAC’s Endowment-funded civil society programs were a success, netting NIAC a couple hundred thousand dollars, all the while condemning all such programs as failures. Trita, you say NIAC is transparent. Keep your word. I pose the queries again: Please clarify whether you mislead Congress in your letter and other representations to it, or mislead NED in your repeated applications for its money to support your Iran civil society training programs. Don’t take the New Republic strategy. The question isn’t going to fade away."

  

 

IRAN: Gays Should Be Hanged, Says Iranian Minister

The Times: "Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference."

  

 

IRAN: Sufi Muslims Arrested and Injured

Around 180 Sufi Muslims have been arrested and 80 people injured in Iran for practicing what some religious leaders have branded as "a danger to Islam" and "illegitimate". Their lodge was partially destroyed in the clashes.

I myself am an exile,
an unwelcome guest on the dust of your earth,
and nowhere in all the void of space,
in all of unpitying heaven,
nowhere under this cracked, cold dome
have I ever found a home,
a haven, a place to rest.

Today is the anniversary of Bijan Mofid, the Iranian playwright and poet. I am all too familiar with his CITY OF TALES. It is amazing that after all these years the tales still breath over the city. The misery imposed on Iranians is an ongoing story. Here is more in Persian.

  

 

IRAN: Human Rights Violations

The two women activists, Hana Abdi arrested in Kurdistan, and Ronak Safarzadeh are still in prison, and the Kurdish-Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour is to be executed.

  

 

Trita Parsi: Man of the Year!

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) has been at the forefront of lobbying against continued Congressional funding of Voice of America-Persian service; Radio Farda; and grants for Iranian civil society. Now it turns out that NIAC accepted not one grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), but three: here,and here.

And so a few open questions:

1) If you believe all Iranian civil society activists don’t want these programs and, indeed, they backfire, why did you reapply for grants in 2006 and 2007?

2) In your grant applications, did you tell the National Endowment for Democracy that your programs were successful when you now say the programs are counterproductive? Did it take you three years to come to this conclusion, or did you believe differently in 2005 and 2006?

3) For the sake of transparency, will you release publicly the reports you issued to the National Endowment for Democracy so we can compare your statements to them with those in your letter to Congress? Do you not believe that a discrepancy would equate with fraud? Will you return the money you took from NED if a discrepancy exists?

4) You demand that the State Department should release to you and the public the names of Iranian civil society activists who have accepted grants, participated in conferences funded with the Congressional Iran civil society grant, or participated in citizen exchange programs supported with the Congressional Iran civil society funding. Will you publicly release the names of the Iranian groups with whom you have worked during your three years of receiving NED funding? Are these groups representative of democracy activists and independent civil society or do they represent the reformist faction of the Iranian government? I hope that you should not oppose transparency.

5) You cite Akbar Ganji in support of your efforts to cut off funding to Radio Farda. Are you aware of reports that Mr. Ganji is seeking to start his own radio program? Do you not believe that Iranians should have access to as many voices as possible? You also differentiate between Iranian civil society activists that fled Iran in recent years, Akbar Atri, for example, and those who remain in Iran, like Mr. Ganji. In what country does Mr. Ganji now live? Has he returned to Iran after coming to the States?

6) While you seek a cut-off of Congressional funding for democracy in Iran, do you feel the same way about the funding George Soros gives to civil society activists? After all, the Iranian government cited Mr. Soros' grants in their recent crackdown. Do you believe U.S. policy should adhere to whatever the Iranian government says?

  

 

Judge rules Iranian Christian woman's beating justified due to her evangelism efforts

onenewsnow: Despite what Iranian leaders may want people to believe, the truth is that the Iranian government does not allow citizens to worship freely. "They will point to churches that exist in Iran, and say, look, we have churches, we have freedom. The reality is those are Armenian churches, [and] the Armenian community there is considered to be Christian," Nettleton points out. "But churches that preach in the Farsi language, which is the language of most Iranians, are forbidden. The people there don't have the freedom to change their religion." In Iran, Christians are not allowed to print literature or Sunday school bulletins. Converts from Islam to Christianity are also subject to the death penalty.

  

 

خبرگزاری کتاب آمریکا: شیما کلباسی شاعر ایرانی مقیم آمریکا با مجموعه اشعار انگلیسی تحت عنوان "پژواک در تبعید" در بخش مسائل زنان به عنوان فینالیست جایزه کتاب ملی سال دو هزار و هفت آمریکا انتخاب شد.

Echoes in Exile is now an Award-Winning Finalist in the Women's Issues of the National Best Books 2007 Awards.

  

 

Interpol Issues Warrants for Ex-Iranian Regime Officials in Argentina Terror Case

Interpol has finally made the decision to move forward on the capture of five Iranian regime officials and bringing to justice those believed to be responsible for the killing of innocents. According to the news the men on the capture notices by the Interpol are the former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahian, former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai, regime’s former diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari, also known as “Moshen Randjbaran,” Ahmad Vahidi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Al-Quds Force, Mohsen Rabbani, the cultural attaché in the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, and Hizballah’s military chief Imad Mughniyeh of Lebanon.

  

 

IRAN: 6 Human Right Activists in Solitary Confinement

Iranian Political Prisoners Association: The six activists have been arrested in Firouzkuh, Sanandaj, and Tehran simultaneously by the Intelligence ministry on Sunday 9 September. Abbas Khorsandi, Meisam Rudaki, Bahram Rasekhifar, Sepideh Pouraghaei, Mansour Faraji and Ghassem Shirzadian have been arrested and held in solitary confinement in 209 Evin prison. Sepideh Pouraghai a graduate of languages is a journalist and has been previously detained for participating in student protests. Intelligence Ministry agents attacked Ms.Pouraghaeis house on Sunday and arbitrarily transferred her, with some personal belongings, to Evin prison.Ghassem Shirzadian, a close friend of Ms. Pouraghaei, was arrested the same day. He is a weblogger and has just graduated.Abbas Khorsandi was also arrested in his house in Firouzkuh. He had been previously arrested 3 years ago on charges of conspiracy against the government, and had been kept in 209 Evin prison for a month, before he was released on bail. Families of the detainees have tried very hard to verify the situation of their beloved ones but in vain. The “revolutionary courts” have not announced any charges with regards to the detainees, although some families have approached the Evin prison authorities searching for results, but have been turned back. Prison authorities have told the families that they have no traces of the missing persons.

  

 

IRAN: Human Rights Violations
Akhbar Rooz: Eight Arab-Iranians are to be executed. Among them is Faleh Abdullah al-Mansouri, a Dutch national and UNHCR-registered refugee was deported to Iran by the Syrian authorities in May 2006. Al-Mansouri is currently being tortured in Section 209, a notorious prison run by the Ministry of Intelligence. He was sentenced to death while in exile and is likely to be executed in Iran. Three more are sentenced to life. One of them is Hamzeh Savari who was arrested at the age of eighteen and two of his brothers were executed last year.

  

 

Urgent Call for Action

Change for Equality:"A women’s rights activist, Delaram Ali was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months and 10 lashing in appeals court."

  

 

IRAN: Ruled by Religion or Tyrants?

Why some Iranians are desensitized to the crimes of the Iranian regime?! This is a regime that invests millions of dollars for its terrorist activities around the world and its people suffer from poverty and oppression. In this movie we can see worms emerging through the skin of its living human host in the streets of Tehran!

پیکر متحرک کرم زده یک انسان در خیابانهای تهران!

  

 

When Women Are Sacrificed!

It is a known fact in Pakistan that women who are raped will be stoned to death or have to commit suicide. Girl gang-rape by order of tribal jury is a common knowledge in Pakistan as well. It is now a common knowledge and known fact that in Iran a twenty-seven-year-old medical doctor, whom we have come to know as Zahra Bani Ameri (Zahra Bani Yaghoub) was gang raped by the regime agents while she was hold a prisoner on unknown charges during Eid ul-Fitr. The difference between Mukhtaran Bibi also known as Mukhtar Mai of Pakistan and Zahra Bani Ameri of Iran is that one is living and we know what went on but with Zahra and thousands of other Iranian girls who were raped in the prisons of the oppressed regime of Iran we will never hear the horror stories from them.