Rotten Gods

Turbulent Iranian universities & student protests

2009-10-01T11:24:00.004-04:00

Authorities which anticipated to face new wave of protests with the new school year, called on suspected students who have had history of involving in student movements and protests in universities across Iran and threatened them about consequence of their actions with harsh words weeks before starting of school year but seems it had little effect on what students were about to do.

As you might know, Iranian students have seized any opportunity to protests against regime atrocities since 1979 Islamic revolution. In the beginning they were mostly leftist students but with Ayatollah Khomeini’s command, Islamic regime managed to purge most of them, mostly in mass execution/hanging style. Due to Iran-Iraq war, political terrors among rivals over power and extreme oppression state, universities were quite calm or better to say it was like fire under ashes, cold on the outside and ready to blaze deep down inside.

Until July 1999 that students fed up with ruling system, came out to protest against theocratic regime in streets of Tehran and then other major cities in Iran. This time Ayatollah khamenei commanded armed Basij militia to attack dormitories of Tehran University and set an example out of them. Students were killed, thrown out of balconies and beaten to death but it was far from over and they couldn’t shutdown the angry voices anymore than what they thought was the best course of action. Well, as all totalitarian regimes do.

Ayatollahs tighten the grip once again and new wave repression imposed on society and specially students which have been outspoken fraction of Iranian society (Not necessarily correct but outspoken). Now here we are after presidential election crisis and in the beginning of new school year, so far students managed to protest in two universities in Tehran, Tehran and Sharif University.

Tehran University, 28 September 2009. Take a look at photos!

Sharif University, 29 September 2009. Also check out these photos!

There have been rumors that regime might shutdown universities in order to stop student protests. We are not at that stage yet and it is hard to say, this was regime’s plan or green movement propaganda, I am not sure yet. I’ll fill you in when I get it all.

A summary of New York protests against Ahmadinejad

2009-09-26T20:38:00.002-04:00

If you happened to miss out what Iranian protesters were doing in New York, let me share these videos with you.

This is a good report from NYPost about protests in New York on September 23 that shows different Iranian fractions protesting Ahmadinejad and it is not all green supporting Mousavi & Karroubi. Well mostly green, I guess.

Iranian protesters angry at Ahmadinejad and his atrocities didn’t want him to enjoy a good night sleep in New York. They took the protest behind his window in front of InterContinental The Barclay New York at night of September 23.

Protests continued on second night on September 24 in NYC:

It gets interesting when Iranian delegation in hotel were recording video from protesters. You might ask what do they want to do with this video?! It is should note that the green protest in New York organized by people who are families of reformist party members and dissident mullahs (ayatollahs) which in fact were part of establishment until recent pro-conservative purge within Islamic republic of Iran. So any evidence that proves dissident reformists and ayatollahs’ relatives involved in protests outside of Iranian border (which brought shame to Islamic government) could be used against their relatives inside of Iran.

There were other Iranian parties which green organizers (mullahs and reformist relatives) don’t get along with them, they don’t like their anti-regime slogans and so on so asked them not to be on their way. They call it green democracy.

Iranians protesting Ahmadinejad in New York

2009-09-24T03:57:00.003-04:00

Even before Ahmadinejad reach to New York Iranians gathered to protest against his presidency, poor human rights records, wild and threatening rhetorics on national and international scene, presidential election fiasco and last but not least his presence in UN.

First Iranians presented NYC with moving posters about poor human rights situation in following of fraudulent election protests on day and evening of September 22, 2009.

At the same evening, Iranians preformed Human Screen protest against Ahmadinejad. Here is a photo from that event but you can watch the video in here.

Then on September 23, 2009, the day that Ahmadinejad was about to give rambling hypocritical speech people came on New York streets to protest. Here are some videos:

Protest in front of the United Nations (UN):

Photos courtesy of onlymehdi

Ahmadinejad speech in UN General Assembly

2009-09-23T21:20:00.003-04:00

I just watch and listen to Ahmadinejad speech in UN general assembly and the only two words that come to my mind is hypocrite and disgrace. In fact I couldn’t expect anything else from him. He is a total failure!

It gets worse when he refers to Jews as

"small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."

What did he accomplish? Except disgrace that many diplomats and countries’ delegates walked out while he was speaking and more than half of seats were empty, probably his hypocritical speech would attract some Islamic radicals in Arab countries and Pakistan.

If you didn’t get to watch it, you didn’t loose anything, indeed you saved some of your worthy time. Anyway you can read the transcript here.

Ahmadinejad in New York

2009-09-23T14:59:00.000-04:00

Well, not exactly himself but someone paid a truck to carry a poster calling to hold him accountable for murder, torture and rape during election crisis in Iran.

Doesn’t look like a nice welcome, does it?! I just have problem to point fingers only at him while we know Iran supreme leader Khamenei has to be far more responsible for crimes than only Ahmadinejad. In fact I go further and I hold whole establishment accountable, all of these ayatollahs and clergies, now reformists and conservatives!

Anyway today Ahmadinejad is in New York and Iranians are just welcome him with protest in front of UN headquarters.

Photo courtesy of Daylife

Deepening political fraction in Eid Fitr in Iran

2009-09-22T18:44:00.006-04:00

The end of Ramadan in Muslims marked by an Islamic holiday called Eid Fitr, in Iran it called Eyde Fetr. It supposed to be at the end of Ramadan and beginning of a new Islamic month called Shawwal but Different Muslim sects announce different days end of Ramadan and celebrate different days.

Above video shows, supreme leader’s chief of intelligence officer Mr. Vahidi is trying to place Rafsanjani next to Ahmadienjad in Eid Fitr prayer, while Khamenei leading the prayer but Rafsanjani refuses to stand up next to Ahmadienjad who is responsible for rigged also he called Rafsanjani and his family corrupt on state-own TV.

Due to differences of interests among Iranian Shia clerics and neighboring Sunni clerics (except that majority of population in Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan are Shia), Pakistan and Afghanistan; Iranian Shia clerics usually used to announce one day later than Sunni clerics as Eid Fitr. Also you need to take into account that there has been a historical hostility among Arab countries and Iran that in fact played major role in development of Shia sect and of course different Islamic ceremonies and traditions. (map of Sunni and Shia Islam)

But this year was a little different. As a result of fraction in Islamic republic establishment in aftermath of presidential election crisis Ayatollah Khamenei’s position as supreme leader is threatened by reformist clerics and some clerics threatened to remove him from the position backed by Hashemi Rafsanjani. So in a tit for tat move, Khamenei indirectly threatened dissident Grand Ayatollahs’ authority (I would prefer) by declaring Eid Fitr on Sunday September 20, 2009 the very same day that Sunni clerics declared Eid and it celebrated among majority of Sunni Muslims in neighboring countries and Shia Muslim followers of Khamenei.

But Iranian dissident ayatollahs didn’t follow and approve Khamenei’s choice of Eid holiday and they declared the day after as Eid Fitr so their Shia followers, mostly Iranians celebrated Islamic holiday (Eid Fitr) one day later on Monday September 21, 2009. It is not really hard to observe the moon and find out when Ramadan finished but it is all about clerical politics and differences among them. This last move proves that fraction is deepening among ayatollahs.

Khamenei who’s “Grand Ayatollah” title has been in question and doubt by major Shia clerics since 1989 and nowadays he faces widespread protests, and criticism for threatening protesters over presidential election dispute and afterwards for killing, torture, rape and show trials of reformists and protesters, either has to accept defiance and cut a deal with reformist clerics to rule the country and crush the rest of people who naturally doesn’t subscribe to ayatollahs, reformist ayatollahs or any kind of mullahs at all. Or he has to deal with reformist ayatollahs asap and the crushing noise calm down the public for a while.

Taking down Hezbollah poster in Iran

2009-09-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

We, people never liked Hezbollah or any other terrorist organization specially when Islamic regime feeds them with Iran's petrol dollars.

At 0:22 young protesters chant “set it on fire, set it on fire”. Irony is all of this happened on the Quds day, the day that the Ayatollah wanted to see people supporting Palestine and of course naturally Hezbollah as an ally for Islamic Iran in their cause.

Green Quds Day

2009-09-19T18:42:00.001-04:00

This post is follow up from Quds day protests post. Carpe Diem, an Iranian blogger published some photos from Quds day showing masses of people protesting and heading towards Tehran university.

Karroubi between his guards and close cadres

They were pro-government protesters and people who are not associating with government or green movement among these people too. Also I have to remind you these photos taken from one of 7th routes (an Iranian blog) that people supposed to rally for Quds day purpose.

It would be nice if we could have some estimation of how many people who came out to defy government orders but it is not as much important as that people changed Quds hate festive to a day for Iranians and only Iranians. People chanted "No Gaza, No Lebanon, I die for Iran" when they asked to shout "death to Israel" and this a big change in Islamic republic.

Surprisingly armed forces and Basij militia didn't stop people during protest until prayer at noon that they attacked people with tear gas and batons. They arrested some of them. Trtpersian published following photos:

This photo look funny, one his guards protects Khatami's turban and Khatami covers his face!

And here is a photo from pro-government crowd that a revolutionary guard member leading them. This guy is quite a famous face in government gatherings

Unfortunately some people ablaze Russian flag and as much as I don’t like Iran is getting all this much close to Russia but I don’t want to see people switch burning flags. Emotional people are still angry at Russia accepting Ahmadinejad and congratulating him for second term presidency.

On the right side pro-government people burning Israel and USA flag and on the green side this people set Russian flag on fire. I see some people are turning this movement to a radical one. We have to wait and see where it is gonna head!

Widespread opposition protests on Quds day - live blogging

2009-09-18T05:57:00.022-04:00

As I wrote before, reformists seized the opportunity to arrange for a widespread protest on infamous Quds day rally and here we have some video footage of these events.

This is stunning, crowd in Shiraz city don’t pay attention to what mullah want them to shout. They refuse and chant their own slogans. Mullah (in the background) shouts “Death to Israel” but people chant “Death to Russia” and they continue to shake the very foundation of Quds day by chanting “No Gaza, No Lebanon, I die for Iran”:

"No Gaza, No Lebanon, I die for Iran" is today's opposition chant and Isfahan city is no exception (some translated it to "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my Life for Iran" or something like that). They continue chanting “Confession (false confessions on show trials), torture does not deter us”:

In this video form Tehran, protesters chant in support of Karroubi (another opposition figure) and against dictator:

While speaker in background chants against Israel and America people refuse and chant “Death to Russia” in Tehran:

Protesters chant in support of Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami in Tehran:

On this video, people warn Ahmadinejad by chanting “Ahmadi this is the last message, Green movement is ready to revolt!"

Look at the green crowd in Tehran heading towards Freedom (Azadi) Sq. Iranian state-own TV carefully censors all this and instead they will produce a propaganda report and air it on TV.

On this video camera man is among the pro-green crowd (above video), shooting the event, says "Quds day, 11:05am". Though conservatives were shouting against Israel and USA but mass pro-green protesters were chanting "Death to Russia" instead, in Tehran. You need to pay attention to hear conservative voice in the middle of pro-green protesters.

Here people chant “coup d'état government resign, resign” and “liar, liar, where is your 63 percent (vote)?”

Cell phone services shutdown in some areas in Tehran and internet blockage is in extreme level. Even email services like Gmail and Yahoo are restricted now.

Parleman News and other sources reported that a group of Ansar Mojahedin (radical conservatives) attacked former president Khatami. People and his guards protected him and he left the scene without a delay.

Mousavi appeared among pro-Ahmadinejad crowd! I received reports that they assaulted him but he was like always kept cool.

Basij militia and armed forces attacked protesters in different areas of Tehran. They detained some protesters; I don't have figures yet.

This photo shows that a pro-Ahmadinejad wants to attack Mousavi:

Ahmadinejad: Killed protester is a suspicious death

2009-09-18T04:54:00.005-04:00

Ahmadinejad shamelessly declines to answer to rape charges and imprisonment of thousands of people instead he throws propaganda about police officers and their companions killed…where are they anyway? Why they don’t publish their names and pictures?

He talks about police officer companions. Alright, so who are these companions? Ann Curry should have asked about them. They are the notorious Basij militia which in fact Police forces are at their service!

Are there conditions that Islamic Iran would weaponize? The right answer is Islamic Iran is behind schedule. This regime has been pursuing nuclear weapons technology since 1980s.

Update: rest of the interview.

And here is last part of interview.

Opposition rally on Quds day

2009-09-18T04:04:00.002-04:00

Today, September 18 is the last day of Ramadan called Quds day supposedly for liberation of Palestine but it was really a hate festive towards Israel, nothing constructive came out of it since it first suggested by Ayatollah Khomeini (dead), the first supreme leader after 1979 revolution.

But this day is a little different since reformists planned long time ago for this day. There was a general consensus that regime wouldn’t suppress protesters in the presence of masses of their followers in Quds day so reformists seize the opportunity to organize for this day to come.

So on Tuesday September 15, 2009 Mousavi travelled to Qom city to meet with some ayatollahs and mullahs, reformist’s websites called it secret meetings!

In this photo Mousavi’s brother with mullahs in a meeting in presence of Mousavi and other mullahs.

Ramadan enslaving practices

2009-09-17T14:43:00.002-04:00

I just finished writing "Ramadan stinking month" post that I cam across a Persian blog called Close-Up (persian language) with fascinating, yet depressing photos and story of poor people who line up in front of a mosque to get some soup during Ramadan.

As I wrote in other post this tradition, to give food to strangers called Nazr and they call the food Nazri, one might say a good deed but I call it hand out. In these photos the line is very long and people are very poor, they ask for more soup every time they reach to the man who shares it.

Most of the time they empty their dishes hoping to get some more soup in a next round:

If one have adequate food to eat would they go and beg for food? Or even for more?! What I see here is a group of people cut off from huge wealth of Iran and made them to beg for soup and yet they call it Nazr, good deed, a Ramadan practice to shatter people’s dignity and humiliate their soul, if there is any left out.

Probably now you know why I abhor this mass indoctrination and am in fight with all these religious traditions that enslaves people.

Ramadan: Stinking month

2009-09-17T07:14:00.002-04:00

I never knew when it is coming. I know it sounds odd but it is true. I never knew when it is Ramadan until I notice many people have some stinking mouth smell. At first when that gulp of stinking air comes to your face, you might think, probably this person had raw garlic and onion for breakfast (!) or it could be dental or gum infection but when you notice there are more stinking breath air that flows around and hits you hard in your nose then you realize that could be Ramadan!

They say they want to purify themselves during Ramadan but I don’t understand why they don’t take care of that stinking breath at the first place?

The other thing about Ramadan that’s very common about Muslims who fast is they pack their belly with lots of food in early morning and they don’t eat for whole day and after that, they eat like crazy and stuff their belly again. I can’t really comprehend the purpose of this kind of fasting!

They say Ramadan is a festival of giving and sharing with poor. From my observations I have noticed every Ramadan grocery and confectionary prices goes high and they make substantial profit. I haven’t seen any Ramadan prices go down and poor of society could actually feed themselves. They are already short on basic foods and during Ramadan they will face more hardship than other months and they have to rely on hand out of strangers that called Nazr, a good deed! Isn’t it amazing that Bazaar people are looking forward to Ramadan more than others?!

All in all I can say the idea of Ramadan is just stupid. I know Ramadan is going to finish soon and I couldn’t found time to write much about it so far this year but I guess made some people happier until now.

Terrified memories from Tehran

2009-09-16T09:33:00.000-04:00

Iranian authorities treat imprisoned foreigners with respect and very carefully, specially foreign journalists and even though they released Iason Athanasiadis more than two month ago but he still gets terrified when he talks about his arrest and afterwards.

You can watch his first interview with Aljazeera after he released in here.

Venice film festival gone green

2009-09-10T06:05:00.001-04:00

These days Iranians go green on any venue that they can and this time they took green to the 66th Venice Film Festival in Italy.

Director Shirin Neshat (middle) arrive before the screening of the film "Zanan Bedoone Mardan" (Women Without Men) at the Palazzo del Casino during the 66th Venice Film Festival on September 9, 2009.

Hat tips: Hydra, Y!News

Ahmadinejad is a liar?!

2009-09-08T08:57:00.000-04:00

I can’t laugh at Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric at all but seems a witty group of artists came together to make a sarcastic animation from his presidential campaigns.

Can music overcome violence in Iran?

2009-09-04T21:21:00.001-04:00

I don’t know anything about this topic but seems Heiko knows how music can play a positive role in Iranian struggle for democracy. I guess a montg ago he wrote me:

Salam Fariborz,

I live in Germany with a mixed family background. I want to support and encourage all Iranians in a non-political way to overcome the separation of their nation with a positive self-belief.

Together with European Universities we have developed a method to digitally transform words into music. I have designed a soundtrack in Farsi (he meant Persian language) and I would like to spread it into the Iranian online community.

We exchanged some emails and he sent me a song. It was interesting song. It reminded me of Kitaro music, a new age genre. Here you can listen to small part of this song:

This soundtrack contains Persian (Farsi) positive words that are synthesized with the music.

Then he continued:

My idea is to build a strong positive future vision for the Iranian community to finally solve the conflicts in Iran itself. We have done so in Eastern Germany and e.g. Ukraine, or South America and it always works out positive results without any political interference. Like Gandhi I am convinced that strong passive moral powers are much more effective than violence.

As I said earlier I don’t know anything about this topic so I leave it to you and your inputs very much appreciated. Let me add that couple of days ago I saw a program from PBS about “Playing for change: Peace through Music” and it reminded me again of Heiko so I thought I should share the story with you guys too.

By the way don’t miss this song that so many musicians and vocalists united to inspire people.

Rape in Mullahs’ Prisons

2009-09-04T04:35:00.002-04:00

Since the inception of the Islamic regime in 1979, rapes of political prisoners in Iran have increasingly been committed and decreasingly reported. Many courageous victims have recently revealed their rapes. However this time, for the first time, Mehdi Karrubi, the losing candidate of the recent June controversial election, surprisingly revealed that both male and female detainees of post-election protests have been systematically subjugated to vicious rapes.

After the conquest of ancient Persian by Arab Muslims in 644, thousands or millions of Iranian females were raped, enslaved, and transported as war trophies to be sold on slave markets in Arabian territories. The Persian word “Tajovoz” does not only mean “rape” by which a man seized or stole a wife, but also means destruction and occupying of own environment by invaders. In a belief system that a passive nine – year - old girl can be raped by her “husband”, rape, as an extension of such a patriarchal society’s control over females, was introduced as the most hideous, shameful, and submissive embodiment in the culture of occupied Iran. Since the occupation of Arab Muslims, Iranian women, who once equated with their male compatriots, have been since viewed as possessions of first their fathers, and then of their husbands. In the case of rape, they were more subjected of blame and shame than their rapists.

Female rape
Shortly after the 1979 revolution, many intellectuals, political activists, and sympathisers of leftist opposition were arrested and a number of them were summarily executed. Virgin prisoners were raped before being executed. The reason is that according to IRI interpretation of Islamic laws, killing of a virgin woman is prohibited because her soul does not go to Hell after death. To solve the dilemma, the night before the execution, the virgin is married (raped) by one of the guards. Such a rape, before execution is however different from the usual rape committed by interrogators as a tool of torture to obtain information, confession, or simply to humiliate the prisoner.

Male rape
The rape of a male victim typically consists of forced penetration of the anus by a penis or other object as is reported by some Iranian rape victims. Because of traditional self sensor, male rape has until recently remained unreported in Iran. It is believed that man in a patriarchal culture should be emasculate, strong and able to protect him self. Therefore, nothing can be worse for a proud man than being raped. Young men who have survived the post-election rapes are now suffering from rigorous psychopathological injuries. Rape of male prisoners in the Mullahs’ jails has resulted in serious damage of the inner organes and depression. Since male victims feel shame to identify themselves, they avoid medical treatment unless the victim is physically injured.

It is believed that religious permission of rape including male rape of “opponents of the Islamic regime” has been recently given by Ayatollah Mesbah - Yazdi, the monitor and guru of president Ahmadinejad. Islamic authorities usually deny that rape is being committed in their prisons because they fear facing the response of the inner and outer public opinion.

In an interview at the Jamkaran gathering after the revelation of rape in the Mullah’s prisons, Mesbah-Yazdi was asked, “can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?” He answered, “The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it’s acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed.”

Zahra Bani Yaghoub, Azar Al Cana'an and Roya Toloui, are among the female prisoners who were raped and murdered in previous years under the same Islamic regime. Additionally, at least two recent teen female victims of the post-election oppression in Iran, Taraneh Mousavi and Saeedeh Pour Agha’i, were documented by the media as being burnt in an attempt to cover up the hedious crime.

To shed light on Mesbakh -Yazdi’s permission of rape, It is believed that in numerous offensive raids called “Ghazawat”, early Muslims, under the Prophet, attacked “infidel” tribes; they killed men, robbed their properties, and took whichever females they wanted, raped them, and then brought them to their tribe as their possession. Tolerance of such brutalities may not be the general belief of all Muslims and might be regarded as myth; however these are the mindsets of the brutal Islamic regime which occupies Iran and commits such crimes.

In an ultimate psychological analysis of rape, rapists seem to come from a subculture of violence whose values may be different from those of the dominant culture. A rapist is often a poorly educated man from the lower socioeconomic level who had a criminal record of offences. Therefore such a man may be demonstrating his toughness and masculinity in a more violent and antisocial manner, but in the case of a rapist of the Mullahs’ prisons, this is not the dominant factor.

Rapists of the Mullahs’ prisons are not necessarily the psychopathic and antisocial torturers, but most likely are “good” Muslims, married men, and even can be kind fathers. They are just following the “divine” guidance of the Islamic regime and do not consider raping as a crime, and do not feel remorse after the assault. These sexual “offenders” are not accountable for their sexual assault because rape is allowed or tolerated by Islamic clerics of the regime.

Rape in the Mullahs’prisons is not an individual decision of an interrogator, as one may commenly believe; it is a systematic process due to a belief system and for promoting a political agenda. In the Mullahs’ prisons, rapes are often planned. The primary motive for rape is not sexual. They regard and believe in rape as a routine duty, due to its acceptance by Islamic clerics like Ayatollah Mesbakh -Yazdi. With that in mind, their act of rape is not merely a question of psycho-criminology, but a justified crime.

Montreal World Film Festival goes green

2009-08-30T01:24:00.001-04:00

Well-known Iranian director, Jafar Panahi is in charge of the international jury of the 33rd Montreal World Film Festival and he brought green moment from Iran to the gala.

Distance journalism and Iranian crisis

2009-08-25T08:17:00.003-04:00

I watched “Tweeting For Revolution in Iran” program and it truly presents failing of distance journalism at analyzing Iranian uprising. Sometime distance journalism is the only way to get the news out of a country, like Iran at the moment, but at the same time it is imperative to have insider knowledge on events like this. One needs to pay attention to details to get to know real events, critical turning points, and people’s quest that would give one adequate insight to distinguish between realities on the ground and imaginative guess work.

Watch the full program

With all due respect to Andrew Sullivan and his colleagues in Atlantic in covering Iranian uprising in aftermath of presidential election, I disagree with some of the points they raised on this program but I am just going to touch on one of them, “spiritual movement” that Andrew brought up. I noticed many people got this wrong impression that movement was some sort of Islamic movement, well, I have news for you it was far from that.

I guess most of you might have seen videos of people chanting ‘allah is great’ (Allah-o Akbar) from their rooftops and it might have given you wrong impression of a new religious movement reminisce of 1979 Islamic revolution. Although the chant is an Islamic prayer, the very same chant that people shouting back then in 1979 but many things have changed since Islamic revolution and above all, people. People are not same anymore.

Why people were chanting ‘allah is great’ then? People didn’t have much of a choice. Frightened of armed forces and Basij militia’s violence they thought if they chant an Islamic prayer, first, it might deter armed forces to break in their houses and arrest them. Second, it could have attracted conservative people and possibly some of Ahmadinejad supporters. But armed forces didn’t really care what people are chanting, they ransacked houses and apartments that sounded or looked suspicious anyway. Third, Mousavi, Karroubi and their trained cadres were pushing for Islamic chants because they wanted to make sure protests won’t go out of their hands and people stay within Islamic revolution boundaries.

In the beginning people were shouting slogans within limited Islamic revolution values but after confrontation by armed forces and Basij militia during violent days in Tehran suddenly people’s mood changed. People saw and heard clergy man sanctioned violence against peaceful protesters in order to keep Islamic regime intact so people remembered the bigger problem is theocracy.

People came to their senses and recalled that they were fed up with Islamic atrocities by clergy men since 1979 Islamic revolution so they chose to chant, “Down with Islamic Republic” and “Independence, Freedom, Republic Iran” instead of the usual “Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic” slogan. Mousavi quickly issued a statement on his site and said: “People’s key slogan in the green movement that they chose is ‘Islamic republic, not one word less, not one word more’!” (Literal translation of Mousavi statement on August 1, 2009)

It was too little too late to stop protesters from their real demands, something that suffocated them for three decades and it has been “Islamic” side of republic. Mousavi stressed out on preserving Islamic revolution values over and over, so people challenged Mousavi by shouting against Islamic republic again. It became crystal clear for protesters that they are alone in fight with theocratic regime and Mousavi is not with them. Sadly too many lives shattered to get to this point.

People face a dreadful dilemma; Mousavi backed by some mullahs or Ahmadinejad backed by some other mullahs including supreme leader. Both options are equally bad and people will gain nothing, just they hope that an independent leader somehow emerge out of this crisis to take the lead; someone that has nothing to do with mullahs; a visionary that makes the nation his only mission and leans toward no more than people.

Protests have been fading away; Mousavi and Karroubi haven’t called on people anymore and suddenly Rafsanjani took side with supreme leader, Khamenei. The purge is underway and it will eventually catch others if they don’t come back to people.

Ahmadinejad blames and slap west

2009-08-18T14:18:00.002-04:00

Iranian regime like other totalitarian regimes blames others particularly west for their own wrongdoings. Presidential Election took place in Iran and it handled so badly that it didn’t leave any doubt for majority of Iranians that their votes rigged so they protested to the result. Instead of handling the situation with more care, supreme leader showed his teeth and put revolutionary guards and Basij militia “Iron Fist” in front of protesters.

Ahmadinejad in conference (Mosque week) in Tehran on August 16, 2009

Mr. Ahmadinejad won't answer to Iranians, to the nation that he allegedly became President and he must be accountable to. He decided to put critics behind bars, torture them to make coerce confessions to run show trials. He chose shortcut to dictatorship and yet he goes around and blames others for election crisis.

Now I want to see how west would reply? Are they gonna invite him to a New York tour and give him an international stage to speech to?! Hopefully not although I have learned my lessons hard during past 30 years that I shouldn’t hope for something logical to come out of the nasty secret relationship of Islamic Iran and some countries.

Journalism abroad

2009-08-17T08:37:00.000-04:00

Roxana Saberi shares her insight about her imprisonment in Iran.

While her advices about journalism abroad make sense, I should comment on one of them. When it comes to Iran and other totalitarian regimes that have access to eavesdropping technologies, having a close local friend to check on you is not the best option because authorities can arrest you and your local friend. I recommend having constant overnight contacts with your overseas employer/family/friend.

Khamenei Iranian Stalin

2009-08-11T18:56:00.001-04:00

I guess it was during his early supreme leadership or late presidency period when Khamenei was younger and a little inexperienced during Tehran International Book Fair he wouldn’t mind that state-owned TV reporter to come forward and ask one or two questions to get people to see him on book fair, I suppose.

Although questions were about books and book fair but this time two simple questions about his taste in book, revealed his intentions for Iran’s dark future, nowadays, one might say. I literally translate this questions and answers.

Reporter: “What kind of books do you like?”
Khamenei: “I like police and crime stories.”
Reporter: “Which police stories do you like most?”
Khamenei: “Beria”

Those days Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria’s biography was popular among book lovers who read spy and crime stories. Beria was the chief of the Soviet security and secret police under Stalin which was famous for brutality and being a great player of foreign spy agencies. He poisoned Stalin.

Khamenei knowing too well that trusting anyone over security forces could bring him Stalin’s faith and get him killed so he decided to supervise and take security forces to his own hands even intelligence ministers should have report to him before they go to president that they serve to. Khamenei has combined power and influence of Stalin and Beria at the same time. (FYI two ministers, foreign and intelligence ministers should have Khamenei’s approval and to be loyal to him, before president could introduce them as ministry candidate to parliament.)

I notice that some tried to blame Mojtaba Khamenei, supreme leader’s son for the violence and killings of protesters but in fact, Khamenei himself is the architect of security forces and we should have hold him, Ahmadinejad and security forces accountable for the violence and brutality.

I wrote almost same article in Persian language on August 6 and Fareed Zakaria on GPS took on the crisis in Iran and compared show trial in Iran with Stalinist’s trials. It becomes very clear that Islamic Iran incorporated Stalinist methods in their day to day Islamic dictatorship.

Earth our home

2009-08-11T04:03:00.003-04:00

A must see for everyone. Everyone will learn something out of this movie.

If you have difficulty to watch above video please find your desired language in following and click on one of them.

I was rightly so caught up with crisis that we have in Iran so I almost forgot everything else including this fascinating movie yet horrible reality that it brings to our attention.

It comes in different languages like English, Arabic, French, German (only subtitle), Spanish and Russian.

Protesters tortured in prison

2009-08-04T10:14:00.004-04:00

Thousands arrested in aftermath of presidential elections in Iran. Some of them are famous like Maziar Bahari, Kian Tajbakhsh, Abtahi and so on but most of detainees are just ordinary men and women who merely protested peacefully against fraudulent election results. They are unknown to many of us, they don’t get news coverage and they get worst treatment in prisons.

Interrogators usually keep well-known people in solitary confinement and put them through excessive mental torture. Islamic regime needs them for coerced televised confessions so they get a little different treatment but all in all it is prison and torture.

So now that you hear this news, think of ordinary people that brutally tortured and kept in highly crowded prison cells in a very hot temperature.

Iranian MP, Dr. Pezeshkian criticized brutal torture of protesters and said: “Mr. Rouholamini’s son was the person that security forces knew him but still his fate become this. So we are worried for ordinary people.” (Translation from Persian language news)

Mohesn Rouholamini died in prison, autopsy showed that he lost his teeth and his jaw was broken. His father is a regime insider and advisor to defeated conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaee.

People in prisons need your attention now.