Mothers of 230 Iranian youth, who were arrested after attending a rock concert, gathered outside Karaj police station on August 4th, to find out about the whereabouts of their children
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Category: music, pop culture
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Category: music, pop culture
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Category: Uncategorized
Apparently those who want to bring Democracy to Iran don’t know anything about Freedom of speech. Hossein Derakhshan, one of the first Iranian bloggers and also a long time critic of the Iranian government has received a legal notice from Mehdi Khalaji who is employed by the conservative Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Other than treating to file defamation charges if Hossein Derakhshan’s posts on Mehdi Khalaji are not removed, they are also asking for $10,000 to cover their legal fees. Here is one of the main posts that Khalaji’s lawyers want to be removed from Hoder.com:
Mehdi Khalaji is the only person on the planet who has indirectly worked for or given advice to both Khamanei’s office and Cheney’s in less than five years.
His recent work for the right-wing American think tanks and his shameful endorsement and help to American Foreign Policy Council’s disgusting anti-Iran campaign has made him the filthiest traitor I have ever seen in my life.
I love to see his face (and that of similar traitors such as Mohsen Sazegara, Ali Afshari and to some degree Akbar Ganji) when the U.S. has no choice but to finally accept that its time in the Middle East has passed. (Link)
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Category: Politics, Iranian Americans
Throughout IRAN Pictures taken by Ali Majdfar
China’s Chery to open auto factory in Iran
History of the Iranian Air-Force
Now you are Iranian - The Facebook Culture Wars
Mehdi Khalaji wants to shut down Hoder.com + $10,000
Iran carpet firm shrugs off US sanctions threat
Iran to join wheat exporting states
Iranian authorities lash man for having bible in car - report
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Category: In the News
Oppressed societies have longed used Political humor as a response to their tyrannical regimes. Humor is a form of peaceful protest to the government in control and an excellent stage to point out the flaws of the ruling authorities. As Social Cultural Anthropologist, Stanley H. Brandes, mentions in his article on effects of political humor in times of crises, “people who live under politically repressive circumstances are more likely to vent their anger and frustration through narrative jokes, riddle jokes or related genres, and thereby create for themselves a temporary escape from omnipresent and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.”
What is very interesting to observe is the emergence of using humor and comedy in dealing with such oppressive ideologies or regimes in Iran.
It has almost been twenty years since the end of the Iran-Iraq War or the Imposed War (Jang-e-tahmīl) as it is known to Iranians. The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly used this war as a propaganda tool to enforce its domestic and international policies on the Iranian citizens.
The Islamic regime has frequently used the Martyrs in order to face any opposition to social or political change in Iran. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, widely seen as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual adviser, and a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, has been quoted to say, “What did our martyrs die for? So that we can trample on all the sanctities and our youth can have more freedom? If freedoms were desirable, why did we bother to get rid of the Shah? He did give such freedoms.”
Yazdi is not the only cleric who uses the Martyrs of the “Eight Year War” to make a point about the social or political changes that he feels are necessary to be implemented. This is a common practice of the supreme leader all the way down to principals of schools who try to encourage the young minds to study harder. As a young student growing up in Iran, I clearly remember our teachers giving us lectures about how we should not forget the blood that martyrs shed. “They sacrificed their lives so you can sit in peace and study the periodic table of elements” my chemistry teacher would often announce!
These practices have had an ironic backlash. With a booming young population, the Iranian clerics are now faced with an enormous challenge. Young Iranians make up an estimated 70 percent of Iran’s population. The generation born largely after the shah’s 1979 deposal is increasingly showing frustration with Iran’s lack of social freedoms. The high rates of inflation and unemployment, especially among the youth, make it harder to believe that what we have today in Iran is exactly what the Martyrs sacrificed their lives for.
According to Brandes, jokes and narratives jokes act as almost a type of ventilation system for the people of the oppressed country. It is interesting to observe the same pattern among Iranians. Iranians even moved beyond just jokes and riddles and have put their focus on making big box office hits such as Marmoolak (Lizard) or Ekhrajiha (The Outcasts).
Marmoolak, directed by Kamal Tabrizi, enjoyed an unprecedented popularity so much so that extra screenings were scheduled past midnight. Marmoolak is the story of a thief and fugitive known as Reza Marmoolak who by disguising himself as a clergyman (mullah) is able to escape prison.
Ekhrajiha, written and directed by Masoud Dehnamaki, is set during the Iran-Iraq War. The movie depicts Majid, a local thug and his friends who join the army during the last days of war in order to impress Majid’s future father in law. The film is one of few Iranian war movies in which the heroes are extremely flawed and shown to commit acts often viewed as “immoral” by authorities in Iran. Majid and his friends don’t pray, gamble, use foul language, smoke and use drugs.
The Iranian population has expressed a tremendous amount of interest to such movies and the aforementioned films have broken many box office records. These works do not specifically attack an individual or a certain policy imposed by the regime, but in their own clever way they act as a safety valve which creates a momentary sense of relief.
Many Iranian and Arab stand up comedians in the United States and Europe have also joined this peaceful resistance. Comedians such as Omid Djalili, active in England, and Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-American comedian who is part of the “Axis of Evil” comedy group, have contributed to the fight against the oppressive ruling elites. The “Axis of Evil” comedy tour is a voice from the Middle East directed toward the Western audience. With its members from Palestine, Egypt, and Iran, it provides a unique and unified voice from the region. By using humor, this group of comedians is trying to transform the negative image that has been painted by the media in the West. “a lot of people that are non-Arab and non-Middle Eastern who come to our shows and have never seen us, they’re always curious and they want to hear a voice from that region of the world. It’s like finally we’ve been able to have that voice. And Middle Easterners and non-Middle Easterners are laughing with us because it’s a breath of fresh air…”
Mr. Ahmad, the Egyptian member of the group, has been quoted to say in an interview with the National Public Radio.
The power of humor and comedy should not be taken lightly. Humor is a form of peaceful protest to the current regime and an excellent stage to point out the flows of the ruling authorities. The names of different saints and Imams, as well as using the name of the martyrs as a propaganda tool are proving to be not as effective as they once were. In the name of humor, rather than in the name martyrs, a new peaceful revolution is on its way.
Reza Akbari Scholar Intern,
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
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Category: Politics, pop culture
The ITF and its affiliates, together with the ITUC and members of Global Unions have been campaigning in support of independent workers’ movement in Iran. For more than 20 years, state-run Workers House and Islamic Council exist but have failed to represent workers’ genuine demands. Tehran Bus Workers’ Union (Vahed Syndicate) was established in May 2005, overcoming massive oppression by the authorities. The leadership was, however, arrested in December 2005.
On 15 February 2006, a global action day was organised by the ITF and the ITUC, demanding an immediate and unconditional release of Mansour Osanloo, President of Tehran Bus Workers’ Union and a large of union supporters who were arrested by the authorities in January for organising a one-day strike. As a result of our action, all but M Osanloo were released within days.
The ITF and the ITUC submitted the joint complaint to the ILO in July 2006. M Osanloo was first released on 9 August, ten minutes before the closing of the ITF Congress in Durban where the delegates unanimously adopted an emergency motion in support of the union. He was, however, re-arrested in November and after a fresh round of worldwide protest, release in one month.
In June 2007, he took part in the ITF’s Road Transport Workers’ Section Conference in London for the first time. The union has been a member of the ITF since 1 May 2006. M Osanloo was then invited to Brussels to address the ITUC’s General Council Meeting.
He was again abducted by four unknown assailants on 10 July, three weeks after his return to Iran from Europe. Needless to say, the ITF, together with the ITUC responded immediately by condemning this cowardly act. As of 20 July 2007, he is detained in the nortorious Evin Prison in Tehran.
Visit the ITF campaign page where you can sign the petition and read more about the history of the workers’ struggle in Iran and international solidarity.
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Category: Uncategorized
Thats the title of Scott Glover’s article in Los Angeles Time about tasering of an Iranian student in UCLA’s library. You can watch the original video on YouTube.
Even with use of force policies that are “unduly permissive,” a UCLA police officer violated department rules when he repeatedly shocked a student with an electric Taser gun last fall during a confrontation captured on video and posted on the Internet, according to a report released Wednesday.
Los Angeles police accountability expert Merrick Bobb found that the decision to use the Taser on student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was “unnecessary, avoidable and excessive.”
The findings are at odds with an earlier inquiry by UCLA Police Chief Karl Ross, who cleared Officer Terrence Duren and two colleagues of any wrongdoing.
Tabatabainejad, then a 23-year-old senior at UCLA, was in the campus library one night last November when a security guard asked him to provide identification during a routine check to make sure everyone in the library after 11 p.m. was a student or otherwise authorized to be there.
Tabatabainejad, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, refused repeated requests to provide his identification, explaining later that he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance.
In an ensuing confrontation with university police, Tabatabainejad was shocked at least three times with a Taser when he failed to get on his feet and walk out of the library as officers demanded.
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Category: Uncategorized
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