THE EYERANIANS

Here is my reading of Khosrow Golesorkhi’s poem “Agar Yek Ba Yek Barabar Bood” which in translates to “If one was equal one” during last weekend’s Persian Performing Arts Show at the University of Texas at Austin. Sina Najmai played the Sitar. The text of this poem is posted at The Iranian.

Golesorkhi was famous for his leftist poetry and was convicted with his friend, Keramat Daneshian, a director, for plotting to kidnap the Shah of Iran’s son. The military court was shown to the world because at the time of the trial the Shah was hosting the Conference for Human Rights in Tehran. The video is also posted below.

Golsorkhi’s execution was broadcast on state television. The court became a symbol of the Shah’s dictatorship and hypocrisy, due to its content most of the trial proceedings was censored. After the 1979 revolution the entire trial was shown on public television, but again it was censored after the fall of Mehdi Bazargan’s government. A few month ago Iran’s Channel 3 showed a censored version of Golesorkhi’s trial which is the same video posted below. Full Text of Golesorkhi’s speech can be viewed at Fars News and Noqte.

Protests in 11 cities: Boston; Chicago; Jonesborough, Tenn.; Los Angeles; New Orleans; New York City; Orlando; Philadelphia; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; and Seattle.

GET INVOLVED TODAY. Your participation will help make this national day of action the massive outpouring for peace that it needs to be.

Journalist Emadeddin Baghi who is also the head of Iran’s Organization for the Defense ‎of Prisoners’ Rights (Anjomane Defa az Hoghooghe Zendanian) has been in Evin prison ‎for 6 days now. He has written a letter to ayatollah Shahrudi, the head of the country’s ‎judiciary branch of government in which he mentions the threats that have been made ‎against him, and the violations of human rights by security and judiciary agencies.‎

Read more about the letter on Rooz Online

Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban and Majid Tavakkoli, Three students of the Amir Kabir University were sentenced to 2, 2.5 and 3 years of prison a few days ago. Officials arrested the students in May along with five other students on charges of endangering national security and insulting Islam. They were accused specifically of distributing newsletters with anti-Islamic images. The three students maintain that the newsletter that contained the “insults” was made by more conservative people to frame the reform group to which they belonged.

News coverage (in Persian) and more pictures are posted at AUT News at Amir Kabir University.

This letter was written by an employee of the NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company), Ali Mokhles, back in the 1960`s to his American boss, Mr.Hamilton.

Dear Mr.Hamilton
I, the undersigned, have worked in the NIOC in Masjed-Solyeman for three years, But since Mr.Ahmadi transferred here everything has changed. I don’t know “what a wet wood I have sold him” that from the very first day he has been “pulling the belt to my lift” With all kinds of “cat dancing” he has tried to become the “eye and the light” of Mr.Wilson.
He made so much “mouse running” that finally Mr.Wilson “became donkey”, and appointed Mr.Ahmadi as his right hand man, and told me to work “under his hand” Mr.Wilson promised me that next year he would make me his right hand man, but “my eye didn’t not drink water”, and I knew that all these were “hat play”, and he was trying to put a “hat on my head” I “put the seal of silence to my lips” and did not say anything.
Since that he was just “putting watermelon under my arms” Knowing that this transfer was only “good for his aunt”, I started begging him to forget that I ever came to see him and forget my visit altogether. I said “you saw camel, you did not see camel”….but he was not “getting off the devils donkey” … “what headache shall I give you” I am now forced to work in the mail house with bunch of “blind, bald, height and half height” people. “Imagine how much my ass burns.”
Now Mr.Hamilton, “I turn around your head” you are my only hope and my “back and shelter”….”I swear you to the 14 innocents” please “do some work for me”….”in the resurrection day I`ll grasp your skirt”….”I have six head bread eaters”…..I kiss your hand and legs.”

Your servant,

Ali Mokhles

Mr. Hamilton replied: “My liver is barbecued”

As many of you will be aware, jailed Iranian labour activist Mansour Osanloo faced the loss of vision in one eye while the regime refused him medical treatment.  A massive online campaign involving Amnesty International, the International Transport Workers Federation, and many thousands of LabourStart readers has resulted in Osanloo receiving the medical treatment he needed last weekend.  The more than 10,000 messages you sent to the government in Tehran had a great — and immediate — impact.  Thank you!

But only hours before Osanloo had his much-needed surgery, we received some very bad news from elsewhere in Iran.  Last Thursday, five masked men fired seven bullets into 48-year-old Majid Hamidi (pictured), a labour activist.  Iranian labour activists believe that an armed attack of this type could only have been carried out with the involvement and knowledge of the regime.

In a country where trade unionists are routinely arrested, jailed, and beaten, this represents a considerable escalation.  There are fears that Iran may become one of those countries, like Colombia, where trade unionists are routinely gunned down.
We have been asked to mobilize as many of you as possible to send off urgent messages to the International Labour Organization (ILO) asking it to take action now.  I am asking you to help us in two ways –

First, please visit the campaign page and send off your message now.

Second, please forward this message on to other members of your union today.

In addition to this campaign, we have a second urgent action appeal ready today — this in support of Mexican workers at the Vaqueros Navarra blue jean factory who are also being denied their right to join the union of their choice.  In the last week alone, 50 more workers were sacked for being in the “wrong” union, the one the employer didn’t approve of.

I’d like to ask you to take a minute and  send off your message to the governor of Puebla asking him to intervene and ensure that the sacked workers are reinstated and that a fair vote is held.

The two urgent appeals we’re making today come from radically different countries in very different parts of the world.  And yet in both cases, what the workers are fighting for is the same — the simple, universally-recognized right to join and form  unions of their choice.

They deserve our support, and I know that I can count on you.

Iranian veteran actor Ezzatollah Entezami recited the Message of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 20th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty during a ceremony at the Honar Cultural Center.

Entezami, who has previously raised funds for Afghan children during the USA invasion, alluded to a sentence in the message reading ‘let us all stand up’ and asked people to give a hand to fight poverty. He mentioned that he himself had at times been the victim of poverty.

In the Millennium Summit in 2000, when world leaders, including representatives from Iran, agreed to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this was a turning point in the fight against extreme poverty, the summit set the deadline of 2015 to achieve its goal. In 2007 we have reached the midpoint towards improving the situation, Entezami mentioned.

At the end of the ceremony Dariush Merjuii’s acclaimed film “The Cow” was screened. This is a film which depicts poverty and in which Entezami starred.

He has been known as the “Master Actor” of Iranian cinema since journalist and film critic Hushang Golmakani wrote the memoirs of Entezami in a book with this same title. In September 28, 2007, UNESCO honored Entezami with a lifetime achievement award in a ceremony at its headquarters in Paris.

Knut Ostby, organizer of the United Nations Development Program, also participated in the meeting. He mentioned that a large proportion of poverty in societies is caused by discrimination in various social fields.

Iranian actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mahtab Keramati also attended the ceremony.

Source: Mehr News Agency

One of Iran’s best known human rights defenders, Emaddedin Baghi, the head of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners Rights and leading anti-death penalty campaigner, was detained on 14 October when he attended a session before Branch 14 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Details

Mansour Osanloo, the jailed leader of the bus workers’ union in Tehran, faces the possible loss of his eyesight unless he receives urgent medical attention — which the Iranian authorities are denying him.

Amnesty International has just now launched an online campaign calling on the Iranian government to allow Osanloo to receive medical attention.  I urge all of you to sent off your messages today.  The Iranian government must be made aware that the world is watching.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), which has spearheaded the international campaign in defense of Osanloo, has now produced a short film entitled “Freedom Will Come” which tells his story.  It can be viewed online on YouTube, and will shortly be available as a DVD as well.

If every reader of this message passes it on to a few friends and colleagues, we can flood the Iranian government with email messages — but we must do this quickly, before Osanloo loses his vision.

Thanks — I know that I can count on you.

Eric Lee