Mersedeh Ghaedi's act of solidarity with the people of Iran

This is a photo of ex-political prisoner Mercedeh Ghaedi's act of solidarity with the people of Iran:

Iran Solidarity Vancouver branch launched

IranSolidarity Vancouver was launched on Friday July 31, 2009 at SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Downtown Vancouver.

Presentation were made by members of IranSolidarity Vancouver about the situation in Iran followed by questions and comments from those attending. Plan for future actions were discussed.

For more information:
Facebook: IranSolidarity - Vancouver
e-mail:iransolidarityvancouver@live.com

Alfonso Ciuffini's act of solidarity

Here is a photo of labour activist Alfonso Ciuffini's act of solidarity with the people of Iran:























Video footage here:

Professor Jack Cohen's act of solidarity with the people of Iran

Film footage here:

Peter Tatchell's act of solidarity with the people of Iran

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell's act of solidarity with the people of Iran in Trafalgar Square:

Fariborz Pooya's act of solidarity

Iranian Secular Society head Fariborz Pooya's act of solidarity:



Here is a picture of the act:

Marzieh's act of solidarity

Photos of academic Marzieh's act of solidarity will be provided shortly.

Iran Solidarity calls for all-out support on July 25, global day of action, and every day

Iran Solidarity is calling for people across the world to stand with the people of Iran on July 25 and every day.

Since its establishment last week, over 1,000 individuals and organisations have joined Iran Solidarity, including Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Mina Ahadi, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Taslima Nasrin. Its successful launch at the House of Lords on July 13 was hosted by Dick Taverne and chaired by Fariborz Pooya, head of the Iranian Secular Society. Speakers included the philosopher AC Grayling, campaign organiser Maryam Namazie, and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. You can see footage of the launch here.

Iran Solidarity is calling on people everywhere to step up their support for the people of Iran by joining July 25 demonstrations at embassies of the Islamic regime of Iran in cities across the globe. The global day of action is being sponsored by human rights activists, Amnesty International USA, Reporters without Borders and others.

We are also calling for every day to be a day of solidarity with the people of Iran and are looking to have one person every day in central London for half an hour for the next year. With your help, we plan to organise daily acts of solidarity in Trafalgar Square from 6:00-6:30pm for 365 consecutive days starting July 26. We are asking you to volunteer to express your solidarity as you see fit on a day that you are available during the next 365 days. You would need to stand alone, be over 16 years of age, and spend the half hour doing whatever you’d like to do to show your support and solidarity.

To volunteer to take part, email with your name, email and mobile number as well as the dates you are available. We will than get back to you with a confirmed date. We aim to film or photograph all the daily acts of protest and solidarity.

If you do not live in London and want to take part or organise daily acts of solidarity in other cities contact us so we can help you. You can also organise a flash mob that can highlight the situation in Iran, set up information tables or mobilise support for our campaign. You can set up Iran Solidarity groups at your schools and universities, neighbourhoods and workplaces – similar to the anti-apartheid groups that helped get rid of racial apartheid in South Africa. You can join us if you haven’t already done so and get others to join, volunteer your time and skills, donate and raise funds or help organise speaking tours and public meetings. Please feel free to download Neda masks and posters and those calling for the prosecution of Ali Khamenei for crimes against humanity from our website to take to protests or for your own acts of solidarity. You can also download and hand out the leaflets and postcard available on our site.

We have a responsibility and duty to unite to support a hugely important movement in Iran that will help the people of Iran and the world in heralding a new dawn.

We can and will make a difference; the future is ours!

For more information, visit our website: or blog or contact:
Maryam Namazie
Campaign Organiser
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731

On Sohrab Arabi

To see an article on Sohrab and Neda's murder by the Islamic regime of Iran, in which Maryam Namazie is quoted, click here.

Footage of Islamic regime's security shooting at protesters

They raped, killed and burnt the body of our Taraneh

A blogger has interviewed a friend of Taraneh Mousavi, who we reported on a few days ago. She was last seen being dragged off by the Islamic regime’s security agents. Her burnt body has now been found.

Her friend, Sh. Says:

‘Taraneh was very beautiful and very kind; she used to sing with a beautiful warm voice and played the piano with skill. I cannot imagine that all this life and beauty should be buried under dust and dirt, without mercy.’

Sh. is speaking haltingly, and I ask her:

When did the family learn that the body had turned up?

‘They went to Ghazvin yesterday to get her burned body. But as much as we asked them they wouldn’t tell us any details and neither did they tell us where they want to bury her. They have been threatened heavily and are very afraid.’

Was Taraneh arrested on 7th Tir (28th June) near Ghoba mosque?

‘Yes. On that day, Taraneh was wearing a green shawl and manteau and high heeled shoes and because she also had beautiful green eyes, she probably caught the attention of the plain clothes agents. But she wasn’t participating in the rally and she cried and said so many times to the agents, but they threw her into a van with other detainees. Her car was parked in the vicinity and she was on the way to her Beauticians’ Training Establishment which is situated near Hosseinie Ershad.’

And then they brought her to a detention centre?

‘Yes, they brought her and about 40 other blindfolded boys and girls to a secret detention centre, a building with high walls on Pasdaran Street, and put them in a large room. They were harassing the girls very much and Taraneh’s interrogation took longer than the others’…

Did Taraneh give her phone number to the others there?

‘Yes, when she had come back to the others from her long interrogation she said she had been harassed and asked some of the others to call her parents and some of her friends and tell them that she had been arrested. She was crying all the time, and when they allowed all the girls except her to call home briefly she grew even more worried.

‘Then they took all the detainees away from this building; some were taken to Evin and others to Nobonyad police station. Only Taraneh they kept with them, which worried all the other detainees.’

And afterwards, were her family and friends contacted?

‘Yes, the other detainees who were freed the same evening or the next days and had the numbers were all worried about Taraneh’s state, as they had seen the savage behaviour of the agents. They called Taraneh’s family and friends and told them she had been arrested.’

And did the family follow up?

‘Yes, after some days they found her car but there was no trace of her until last week…’

…when an unidentified person called…

‘Yes, an unidentified person, probably one of her abductors, called and said Taraneh had a moral problem and that she hadn’t been arrested at all. He said she had been raped and her womb and anus had been torn and she had wanted to kill herself by throwing herself in front of a car. He said she had been brought to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Karaj and that she had also tried to kill herself there with a serum tube.

‘The family immediately went to the hospital but Taraneh’s name wasn’t registered at the hospital. However one of the nurses confidentially told one of her friends that some days previously a girl with these particulars had been brought to the hospital unconscious and had been removed again after a couple of hours.

‘Hearing this, we guessed that Taraneh had probably been brought to the hospital in the last moments of her life after suffering repeated rape. We grew very worried.’

At this stage, what enquiries did Taraneh’s family make?

‘Our main problem was the family’s silence and the fear they had that the story would come out. Taraneh’s mother and father are very religious and over sixty; Taraneh was their only child, which they had had after years of praying and longing and medication, and they had given her a good life. But when this happened they became very afraid and didn’t talk to us any more. But after all we are her friends too and have a right to know where her body is and where she will be buried.’

Is there no information at all about the funeral ceremony?

‘No. Yesterday the family were informed that a burnt corpse fitting Taraneh’s description had been found between Karaj and Qazvin. The family has been threatened severely not to talk about their daughter’s arrest.’

Now that this story has come out in the media and in the weblogs, do you think the truth will be found out?

‘I just want Taraneh’s voice to go on, and our call that our most beautiful friend has been cruelly taken from us, that they have raped her brutally for several days and then burned her lifeless body and tossed her out in the desert.

‘When Taraneh sang, her beautiful voice was always in my ear, but from yesterday until now I have only been hearing her screams. Taraneh’s suffering was over, but our pain and suffering will remain with us as long as we live; she was our Taraneh [song].’

More news of arrests yesterday

Yesterday, lawyer Shadi Sadr was arrested by plainclothes security forces; she was dragged into a car and driven away with several others.

A few simple shots

View a full feature film on the regime's crimes against humanity, here. Maryam Namazie is interviewed on it.

Film footage of 17 July protests in Tehran

'Free political prisoners.'



'Dont be afraid, we are all together.'











'Down with Dictator'

Human rights update

* Mothers of the dead have issued their fourth statement asking people to come out to parks around the country to commemorate those killed on Saturday 18 July. Whilst giving their condolences to Parvin Fahimi, Sohrab Arabi’s mother, they are asking people to come out between 7-8pm on the Saturday also to protect the mothers. The statement says that the regime’s security threatens, harasses and throws them out, arresting those who refuse to leave and that people’s solidarity and support is needed.

* According to Amnesty International, hundreds of detainees are at risk of torture and ill-treatment.

* As a result of the security forces’ inability to control the protesters, the regime’s head of security – Ismail Ahmadi-Moghadam has said in an interview that new weapons are needed in combating the protesters as the traditional ones are not effective.

* Tomorrow is a day of protest in Iran.

Update: more dead or feared dead

Yaqoob Barvaieh, 27, born in Ahwaz, died at hospital today. He was shot on 25 June by a basiji from the rooftop of Lowlagar Mosque in Tehran. He was an MA student in performing arts.

Taraneh Mousavi (left), 28, was among hundreds arrested on June 19, 2009. Since than her family has had no news of her whereabouts. There are reports now that her mother was contacted by an anonymous caller from the regime’s security after three weeks of her disappearance to say that she had been hospitalized in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Karaj due to the rupturing of her womb. Her family went to the hospital but did not find her there. They say some of the nurses recall a woman there whose womb was torn but that she was removed whilst unconscious. The caller said she had tried to hang herself in prison because of her lack of honour. According to a witness who was arrested with her, she was detained in the vicinity of Shariati Street in Tehran. ‘The security forces physically and mentally abused us. Some were transferred to Evin prison and some others were released. Her interrogation took longer than the rest; she was very beautiful with green eyes. Whilst they released us and transferred others, they kept her. She was not even allowed to contact her family. Taraneh's father suffers from a heart condition and is seriously ill after the disappearance of his only child. The family have been warned not to mention that she was arrested in the protests. There is concern that she was raped and killed.

A mother of one of those who is missing reports that she were taken to a cold storage facility in Southwest Tehran which is usually used to store fruits and dairy products. She was shown pictures of hundreds of dead in an effort to identify her missing child. It took, she said, half an hour, to go through all the photographs. The mother had to pass by dead bodies piled up on each other to leave the facility. Whilst she had not located her child, she says she fainted at the sight of the dead; when she came to, she was in the car. Sohrab Arabi’s family was also show 20-60 photographs of the dead in order to have them identify Sohrab.

There are reports that one of the bodies of the dead returned to his family was covered in cement. The family believe it is to hide evidence of torture.

One blogger, Nima Namdari, has said his 47 year old uncle, Behzad Mohajer, has been missing since 15 June and they have been unable to locate him wherever they have turned.

There has been a rise in executions by the regime in recent weeks; many are fearful that imprisoned protestors and political prisoners are being executed under the pretext of other offences such as drug trafficking.

Iran Solidarity launch a success!

Iran Solidarity's launch on July 13, 2009 at the House of Lords was a success. Lord Dick Taverne, AC Grayling, Peter Tatchell, and Maryam Namazie spoke at the event, which was chaired by Fariborz Pooya.

Opening by Fariborz Pooya


Maryam Namazie's statement:


AC Grayling and Dick Taverne's statements:



Peter Tatchell's statement:


Q&A Session:

19 year old Sohrab buried on July 13

19 year old Sohrab was buried today in Behesht e Zahra cemetery. His family had no news about his whereabouts for 26 days. The regime's security said no slogans were allowed and made the family end the ceremony quickly. Mourners went back to the family's home afterwards.

Here is film footage of his mother saying: You all know; they killed my child. They told me he was in Evin; they gave me the run around but they had killed him. They had shot him through the heart. They are inhuman. No one can stop me...'

Iran Solidarity to be launched on July 13

Iran Solidarity is to be launched today from 1230-1330pm at the House of Lords, London.

In June 2009 millions of people came out on to the streets of Iran for freedom and an end to the Islamic regime. Whilst the June 12 election was a pretext for the protests - elections have never been free or fair in Iran – it has opened the space for people to come to the fore with their own slogans.

The world has been encouraged by the protesters’ bravery and humane demands and horrified by the all-out repression they have faced. It has seen a different image of Iran - one of a population that refuses to kneel even after 30 years of living under Islamic rule.

The dawn that this movement heralds for us across the world is a promising one – one that aims to bring Iran into the 21st century and break the back of the political Islamic movement internationally.

This is a movement that must be supported.

Declaration

We, the undersigned, join Iran Solidarity to declare our unequivocal solidarity with the people of Iran. We hear their call for freedom and stand with them in opposition to the Islamic regime of Iran. We demand:

1. The immediate release of all those imprisoned during the recent protests and all political prisoners
2. The arrest and public prosecution of those responsible for the current killings and atrocities and for those committed during the last 30 years
3. Proper medical attention to those wounded during the protests and ill-treated and tortured in prison. Information on the status of the dead, wounded and arrested to their families. The wounded and arrested must have access to their family members. Family members must be allowed to bury their loved ones where they choose.
4. A ban on torture
5. The abolition of the death penalty and stoning
6. Unconditional freedom of expression, thought, organisation, demonstration, and strike
7. Unconditional freedom of the press and media and an end to restrictions on communications, including the internet, telephone, mobiles and satellite television programmes
8. An end to compulsory veiling and gender apartheid
9. The abolition of discriminatory laws against women and the establishment of complete equality between men and women
10. The complete separation of religion from the state, judiciary, education and religious freedom and atheism as a private matter.

Moreover, we call on all governments and international institutions to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran and break all diplomatic ties with it. We are opposed to military intervention and economic sanctions because of their adverse affects on people’s lives.

The people of Iran have spoken; we stand with them.