My blog’s Persian version has been filtered in Iran!

Unfortunately Iranian government has filtered my blog in Persian language, so it will be non accessible anymore in Iran. I don’t know how long they will continue this policy against opposition but obviously our clever people find their way to access free world’s media. Who can hide the truth forever?…

Opposition in Iran Urges Continuing Challenge

FROM: NEW YORK TIMES, 01/11/2009

Anti government protestors

As Iran prepares for a major commemorative rally on Wednesday, the leaders of the opposition movement called over the weekend for a renewed challenge to the government, setting the stage for a possible showdown between protesters and the police.

Although the opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mohammad Khatami, did not openly call for street protests, their remarks were widely seen as a call to arms on a day of considerable symbolic importance.

The occasion is the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran by hard-line students on Nov. 4, 1979. The day is marked every year with anti-American rallies.

For weeks, opposition groups have been calling for their supporters to turn the event into a protest against the disputed June presidential election and its violent aftermath. The authorities have repeatedly vowed to put down any protests fiercely.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said questioning the results of the elections was “the greatest crime.” He did not refer directly to the Nov. 4 rally, but his comments were widely interpreted as a stark warning that the government would brook no challenges. Mr. Khamenei is said to have been surprised and angered after an annual pro-government rally in September, known as Jerusalem Day, was largely hijacked by antigovernment protesters.

Mr. Moussavi, in his first statement in more than a month, urged his supporters on Saturday to continue their opposition to the results of the election, which he dismissed from the start as fraudulent. He urged them to avoid violence, as he often does, and pointedly cited the Nov. 4 anniversary as a reminder that leaders should follow the will of the people. Mr. Moussavi, who was the lead electoral challenger to the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called his supporters “the real owners of the country” and added that “sooner or later, God willing much sooner, the enemies of the people will leave the scene.”

Mr. Khatami, a former two-term president who has joined the opposition, gave a similar speech on Saturday in which he once again questioned the results of the election. He urged opposition supporters to continue their fight, saying, “If we who believe in the basis of the system cannot speak, others who do not believe in it will take action.”

For the first time since the takeover of the embassy in 1979, the government has declared that all groups, including pro-government ones, must obtain permits to demonstrate. Ahmadreza Radan, the deputy national police chief, issued a fresh warning against any protests on Sunday.

The authorities issued similar warnings in September before the Jerusalem Day rally, but to no avail. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets.

There have been no major street demonstrations since then, though smaller protests have rocked Iran’s universities every week since the official start of classes in late September.

The authorities have continued to respond to the opposition movement with a mix of firmness and clemency, alternately arresting more opposition figures and releasing those detained earlier. On Saturday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that Morteza Alviri, a top aide to the opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, had been released from jail.

Thousands of reformist figures were arrested in the unrest that followed the election, and many remain in jail.

A message from “Mubarak Awad” to people of Iran

Dear people of Iran,

For the past thirty years, the Iranian regime has used the cause of the Palestinian

people as a way to distract from its own oppressive rule. I thank the people of Iran for

showing their support over the years with the people of Palestine, especially because

on this day of Qods, the people of Iran suffer under the kind of unelected oppression

that is comparable in some ways to that suffered by Palestinians.

As a Palestinian, life-long fighter for the freedom and independence of Palestine and a

leader of the first Palestinian intifada, I strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s

violations of human rights and repeated use of violence against the nonviolent Iranian

protesters, activists and prisoners. I stand in complete solidarity with and support for

the Iranian people and am confident that with their resilience, they will achieve a free

and democratic Iran to raise their children in and have a good life.

In unity,

Mubarak Awad*

 

* Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian-American psychologist and advocate of nonviolent resistance.

A narrow border between angel and devil

Who is he?

Mahdi (Mehdi) karroubi is an Iranian cleric. He was a person which has played a great role in a regime comes after 1979’s Iranian Islamic revolution which withdraw Pahlavi dynasty ruling Iran for 50 years.

He was one of the most trustable and closest individuals to the leader of revolution (Grand Ayatollah Imam Khomeini), so Karroubi became head of the Imam’s relief committee and martyr’s foundation, one after another. Further he entered to parliament and played his role as a most radical faction’s member. On that time, he didn’t tell even a word against Islamic republic of Iran’s crimes and practically was counted as a part of dictatorship’s machine.

But day after day people experienced his positively developed characters step by step. At first steps he did a mild support to the reformists in 6^th post revolution parliament as a head of parliament. The particular support was somewhat week that critics challenged him and asked him to clarify his position between conservatives and reformists. Soon after that people found him among reformist candidates in 2005 presidential election, although finally they had to tolerate former Tehran’s mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their president for a four years period. Ahmadinejad’s false way of leading Iran made people more sturdy to withdraw him from power and don’t let him to be a president for next period.

Soon after presidential election in 2005, Karroubi who had some objections about election’s process founded a party named as Etemaad-e-Melli means national trust and a newspaper with the same name.

After four years, again he tried to be a reformist president. In a 2009 interview with the AFP, Karroubi promised to expand women’s rights as well as religious minorities if successfully elected president of Iran. He questioned mandatory Islamic dress code and proposed that Hijab needs to be optional. He also campaigned with his wife, which had previously been an unusual behavior for Islamic politicians, especially among clerics. Iranians had expected one of two reformist candidates become their president But election’s result changed by a coup managed by Ahmadinejad and other radical Islamists leaded and supported by present religious leader (Ayatollah Ali Khameneyi).

Mehdi Karroubi and the other reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi objected and didn’t accept the result indicating that Ahmadinejad has won the match!

Karroubi stood with millions of people who came to the streets demonstrating against government comes to power with coup and mousavi did same thing also. In this way he demanded investigation of Iranian prisons for terrible tortures and sexual harassment of men and women in jail.

Nowadays, people of Iran are demanding their basic rights. They are willing freedom and they won’t go back till they reach their movement’s goal. Each individual, specially a politician who stayed with them and support them, will be a hero angel in their green list. They are forgiving and giving more opportunities to them to cover their past time anti freedom activities if they had. There is a narrow border between angel and devil nowadays and it seems that Karroubi knows it very well and decided to be an angel for his people.

  

Raping in Iranian disreputable prison

Mehdi Karroubi, Reformist Candidate

Mehdi Karroubi, one of two reformist candidates in recent presidential election, has told yesterday that an investigation should be done about some news which indicate that anti-government protesters were raped while in custody.

Last week Iranian’s religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneyi ordered government  to close Kahrizak prison, a disreputable place that was not only a prison but a place to torture and keep protestors in critical conditions.

Ayatollah Khameneyi - Religious leader

“A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely” Mehdi Karroubi wrote in a letter to Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric and former president that nowadays doesn’t try to hide his problems with Ayatollah Khameneyi.

In this letter, he added: “Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped, they were suffering from depression and serious physical harm after the alleged attacks.”

Protestors

Police around Tehran University

Violence against protestors

injured protestors

Soldiers searching for protestors even in female toilets!