Iran: Warnings of another attack on Camp Liberty, Iraq

Camp Liberty

London, 26 Aug - A letter addressing the US President Barack Obama and General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary, received on August 19, warns against another attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq where Iranian political dissidents are claiming shelter.

According to a guest column in Augusta Free Press by Prof. Raymond Tanter (former member of the U.S. National Security Council Staff) and Col. (Ret.) Wes Marten (former antiterrorism/force protection for coalition forces in Iraq), the letter was signed by “a bipartisan group of 36 former national security officials.”

Prominent figures of the U.S. politics, including Ed Rendell and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, were among those who had signed the letter. The letter expressed fear of another attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq, organised by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Despite the extreme danger that the dissidents of Iran’s ruling regime are facing at Camp Liberty, it will not be the first time that they come under such a threat. Following the July 9 rally, hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris, which attracted a following of 100,000 supporters, the media in Iran reported that “Camp Liberty must be targeted once again with a number of missiles,” according to Otagh-e-Khabar.

Iranian opposition leader calls for international investigation into 1988 massacre of political prisoners

ranian opposition leader calls for international investigation into 1988 massacre of political prisoners

 The leader of the Iranian opposition has stated that an international inquiry into the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran, is essential to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Maryam Rajavi made this speech during a tour of the exhibition of photos depicting Paris’ massacred political prisoners on the anniversary of the liberation of Paris. It also features reflections and testimonials from political prisoners in Iran.

A statement from Paris Municipality 2nd District about the exhibition read: “This exhibition especially commemorates the sad anniversary of the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners during the summer of 1988 in Iran. This terrible episode in modern history is now back on the front burner with the revelation a few days ago of an audiotape recounting conversations that occurred at the highest level with those directly responsible for the killings.”

Iran: Iranian Artist Talks About Oppression and Art

Atena Farghadani drew a cartoon mocking Iran’s parliament in protest of her country’s anti-birth control policies. For this, she was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in the summer of 2014.

In her July 15 interview with Michael Cavna of the Washington Post, after she was released from prison, the Iranian artist says: “I’m stuck in a limbo.” referring to the mental weariness and the physical problems caused by her imprisonment. “At the moment,” she continues, “since I’ve arrived at the certainty that there is miracle lying in the art of drawing and painting, I’m more determined to continue doing it than ever.”

Atena is an inspiration to many. Her creative and political resistance has influenced the community of artists and their supporters around the world. Paintings, drawings and cartoons have flooded in from her fellow artists for the #Draw4Atena call to arms.

While imprisoned at in the gruesome Gharchak prison she went on a hunger strike. She says, “What bothered me the most was to see inmates — many of whom were victims of the economic and cultural poverty in the Iranian system — who were not treated like human beings; their most basic rights were violated. I consider Gharchak prison as a graveyard of time …”                               

Atena Farghadani

Iran: Political prisoner Ali Moezzi invites all to participate in “Free Iran” gathering

political prisoner Ali Moezzi

Iranian political prisoner Ali Moezzi, who is father to two members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), has sent a message from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison declaring his support for the annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance held in Paris on 9 July.

‘Free Iran’ rally gives voice to those still suffering in Iran

Free Iran’ rally gives voice to those still suffering in Iran

Farzad Madadzadeh, a former Iranian political prisoner, who escaped Iran last year, has written his account of why he plans to join tens of thousands of Iranians and their international supporters at the July 9 "Free Iran" rally in Paris.

In an op-ed for The Hill on Tuesday, Mr. Madadzadeh wrote: "Needless to say, it is a significant international event regarding an important international issue. But for me it is very personal. In spirit, I will be with a much larger crowd. We will be joined by a countless Iranians still living under the thumb of the theocratic regime, who will risk reprisals to watch the proceedings on banned satellite television channels."

"How do I know? After this year’s rally, I will have seen the event from both sides of the ideological wall that separates the Islamic Republic from most of the rest of the world. In past years, I was among those Iranians who supported the NCRI and its main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), from a silent place inside the country. I put my safety and freedom at risk, as did many of my colleagues, to carry on the groups’ local activism. I spent five years in jail from 2009 to 2014 and suffered extensive physical and psychological torture for my support for the PMOI.  I fled Iran at the age of 29 last year."

IRAN: Nearly a month into hunger strike the health of Iranian political prisoner is deteriorating

24 May 2016

 

Jafar Azimzadeh, imprisoned at the notorious Evin Prison

The health of an Iranian political prisoner on indefinite hunger strike is in grave danger.

Jafar Azimzadeh, imprisoned at the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, is on Day 26 of his hunger strike protesting Tehran’s crackdown on union activity.

On Saturday, he was taken to hospital complaining of kidney pain but refused to have liquid serum administered and was transferred back to the prison, still in pain.

His wife reports that in addition to his kidney problems, Mr. Azimzadeh has lost a considerable of weight, his blood pressure has dropped and he is having vision problems.

The Tehran bus drivers’ union, the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) called for Mr. Azimzadeh’s release from prison and warned the public that his health had been greatly affected by his strike.

Mr. Azimzadeh, a workers’ rights activist, is being heavily pressured by the regime to end his strike. As previously reported on Stop Fundamentalism, Tehran’s prosecutor's office demanded that he stop the hunger strike after he was unable to walk from his cell on Ward 8 to the visitor’s hall to see his wife, on May 17.

They even offered him the chance to take long-term leave from prison, not out of concern for his health but because they are scared of him becoming a ‘martyr’.

IRAN: Camp Liberty - Laila Mohammadi: The echoes of a common cause

Laila Mohammadi: The echoes of a common cause

Hello. This is my flute!

It appears to be a musical instrument but in fact, it is an efficient weapon that has harmonized hearts of the freedom fighters

with the Iranian people and people all over the world.

I played my flute in a beautiful sunrise in Ashraf. Within a short time I saw a young boy playing the same tune in Iran and then I heard its echo all over the world…! I call this reverberation, one of a “common cause”.

I found this common cause in my childhood. I learned it from my father who was a political prisoner at the time. I found it in the sad eyes of “Farshid”, a poor young boy with little clothing in the brutal cold winter. He was selling goods for a living in front of my high school. Farshid would sell pens in the morning and in the evening he would polish shoes on the street. There are many “Farshid”s in Iran. Yes. In Iran, there are many children and young adults whose childhood and dreams have been changed to gloom and dark prospects because of poverty.

IRAN:Letter of protest by Iranian political prisoner Reza Akbari Monfared to Italy’s PM

Letter of protest by Iranian political prisoner Reza Akbari Monfared to Italy’s PM

NCRI – The following is the English translation of a letter of protest by Iranian political prisoner Reza Akbari Monfared to the Prime Minister of Italy over his planned trip to Iran.

Mr. Akbari Monfared has written the letter from Iran’s notorious Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reiterating that the Italian Premier’s trip to Tehran on Tuesday would only embolden the mullahs’ regime to commit more crimes.

IRAN: Political prisoner pays tribute to Iran’s heroes in Camp Ashraf

          Political prisoner Ali Moezzi, father of two PMOI members, wrote in his tribute

NCRI - Prominent Iranian political prisoner Ali Moezzi has sent out a message from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the April 8, 2011 attack by the Iraqi army against members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

The unprovoked attack on the unarmed and defenseless PMOI (MEK) members in Camp Ashraf, which was carried out at the behest of the mullahs’ regime in Iran, left 36 camp residents killed and hundreds of others injured. The attack was condemned by the international community

Political prisoner Ali Moezzi, father of two PMOI members, wrote in his tribute:

On the fifth anniversary of April 8, 2011, we commemorate the epic valor and sacrifice of PMOI members. We bow our heads in recognition of the sacrifice of PMOI members that destroyed the fundamentalists’ conspiracies. Their blood, mixed with the blood spilt on the asphalt streets of our country and that of the executed political prisoners, will ensure a glorious future for Persia. From Saba Haftbaradaran who bled to death in front of her father’s eyes and lived true to her statement that we will stand resolute to our last breath; to Marzieh who valiantly rushed to her slaughter place and instantly died; to the Madadzadehs and other courageous heroes who were overrun by the [Iraqi] HUMVEEs. What a valiant stand they took at the scene.

IRAN:Maryam Rajavi: No Real Choice In The Iran 'Elections'

Maryam-Rajavi

This week Iran will hold two concurrent “elections,” one for the Majlis (parliament) and the other for the Assembly of Experts, whose theoretical mandate is to select the supreme leader. To those who live and vote in democracies, the irony of these parallel acts is obvious: They take place in a theocratic system whose bedrock principle is absolute clerical rule (velayat-e faqih).

Democratic elections, where people are afforded a real choice to pick their leaders, are non-existent in today’s Iran; the genuine opposition has no  voice. What currently exists is a constricted power struggle through sham elections whose outcome is shaped not by popular vote but by the regime’s internal balance of power.

All candidates in the regime are required by law to exhibit “heart-felt and practical allegiance” to absolute clerical rule as a prerequisite for their candidacy. Even then, the faithful will have their qualification determined by the Guardian Council whose six clerics are installed by the supreme leader while the remaining six jurists are appointed by the head of the judiciary who himself is selected by the supreme leader.

The regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has also formed a special committee consisting of his own chief of staff, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the IRGC commander of Tehran and the secretary of the Guardian Council. This committee’s supreme power trumps that of the Guardian Council. Its mission is to purge, or at least dramatically undermine the rival faction from the elections, thus safeguarding Khamenei’s power.

Women's News Iran: 74 lashes, three months jail for mother of political prisoner and human rights activists

Iran: 74 lashes, three months jail for mother of political prisoner and human rights activists

18 human rights activists including families of political prisoners and martyrs were sentenced each to 91 days imprisonment and 74 lashes.

They had participated in a peaceful gathering outside Tehran's Evin Prison on November 21, 2015, demanding abolition of death sentence for prisoner of conscience Mohammad Ali Taheri, and freedom of all political prisoners.

The 18 convicted activists included Mrs. Simin Aiyvazzadeh (mother of political prisoner Omid Ali-Shenas), Azam Najafi, Parvin Soleimani, Sara Sa'ee, Farideh Toosi and Zahra Modarres Zadeh. They were charged with "illegal gathering disrupting public order."

Syria’s Opposition Says Cannot Attend Talks if Third Party Joins

Riad Hijab, head of the council representing Syrian opposition

RIYADH - A Syrian opposition council backed by Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it will not attend January 25th peace negotiations with the Syrian regime if a third group takes part, a reference to a Russian bid to widen the opposition’s team.

Riad Hijab, who heads the council formed in Riyadh last month, accused Russia of impeding negotiations, and also told a news conference in Riyadh that the opposition could not negotiate while Syrians were dying from blockades and bombardment, Reuters reported, Jan. 20th.

He also announced the names of opposition figures that would negotiate on behalf of the council in any talks.

They included Mohamed Alloush, a political figure in the Jaysh al-Islam (Islam Army) rebel group that is deemed a terrorist group by Damascus and Moscow.

'The opposition delegation is now ready,' George Sabra, an opposition politician also named as a negotiator, told opposition channel Orient TV. Asaad al-Zoubi, another opposition figure, was named as the head of the negotiating team.

Iran: Young woman’s death still in a halo of mystery

Scheler Farhadi's" 

Three years ago, on this day, a 25-year-old student, graduated in political science at Razi University in Kermanshah, his father took his own life with a shotgun.

"SchelerFarhadi's" Il martial girl squirrel, in the fall of 1390 while he was preparing to pursue a master's degree, disappeared. After about 5 months her family, physical and emotional complexity of Ministry of Intelligence detention in Evin Prison were delivered and returned to his village in Kermanshah. Intelligence agents with the proviso that if the summons was delivered him to his family go to prison.

Continuation...

Iran: Negar Haeri, former political prisoner is deliberately ran over

Iran: Negar Haeri, former political prisoner is deliberately ran over

The news has just got out that Negar Haeri, a lawyer and former political prisoner, was deliberately ran over by unidentified persons on December 17, 2015.

She had previously been threatened time and again and finally on December 17, she was chased by a black Peugeot 405 with dark windows and hit after she got out of her car in Shahrara district. The Peugeot then sped away and disappeared.

Ms. Haeri was subsequently transferred to hospital. She suffered a broken right arm and a broken left leg and bruises all over her body.

Ms. Haeri had been summoned on phone to Evin’s Prosecutor’s Office on May 18, 2015, where she was insulted and arrested in front of her mother. She was held in the Evin’s women’s ward for one day and transferred to solitary confinement for another nine days where she was interrogated under torture. She was ultimately released on May 27, 2015.

Before this, she spent eight months in Varamin’s Qarchak prison and was released only after much efforts and on a 2billion-touman bail.

Ms. Haeri’s license for law practice was annulled and she was not banned from giving legal advice to her clients. Security and intelligence officers have instructed her not to leave Tehran in any circumstances.

Conference on Iranian regime’s high number of casualties in Syria

Conference on Iranian regime’s high number of casualties in Syria

Syrian and Iranian experts were guests of an online conference on Monday organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to discuss the scale of the Iranian regime’s defeats in Syria, particularly its military casualties

Ahmad Ramadan, chairman of the Media and Public Relations Bureau of the opposition Syrian National Council, Saleh Hamid, an Arab political and human rights activist, and Sanabarqh Zahedi, Chairman of the Judicial Committee of the NCRI, participated in this conference.

Dr. Zahedi touched upon the Iranian regime’s active involvement in the massacre of the innocent Syrian people. He referred to two stages of the defeats and high number of casualties of the regime and its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in Syria and said:

Last June, the regime’s official news agency IRNA announced that 400 Revolutionary Guards had lost their lives in Syria until that time. One should mention that this number only encompasses the Revolutionary Guards and the Bassij forces dispatched to Syria from Iran and does not include the mercenaries from other countries who lost their lives in Syria. This casualty figure relates to the first half of the last year when Syria’s armed opposition forces had significant advances in the north in Aleppo region, in Jisr al-Shughour and in Sahl al-ghab, as well as in Daraa, capturing strategic areas. The outcome of these advances was the defeat of the Iranian regime and Bashar al-Assad that promised the toppling of the regime in not too distant a future. Secret intelligence from inside the Iranian regime indicate that during that period the various regime forces, including the Revolutionary Guards, the Hezbollah and the Afghan forces, had lost their morale due to the blows they suffered at the hands of the opposition in Syria and were running away from the fight in different fronts. The regime’s assessment at the time was that it could save Assad only if it would inject 30,000 Revolutionary Guards into Syria.

It was after this stage and these defeats that [IRGC Quds Force commander] Qassem Soleimani went to Moscow and asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help. Subsequently, Putin met with [the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei. According to these discussions, the two parties agreed that Russia would heavily bomb the opposition forces in Syria and in return Khamenei and Soleimani committed to bring in the necessary ground forces to push back the opposition from the areas they had captured. Khamenei told Putin that he would continue the fight in Syria until the last Revolutionary Guard. We are now three months past this stage and we are witnessing consecutive defeats of the regime, including the loss of Hossein Hamedani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria, the injury to Qasem Soleimani, right hand to Khamenei and Commander of the Quds Force, along with around 20 other IRGC generals and hundreds of regime’s forces.

Aylan Kurdi’s relatives arrive in Canada to start all over again

Aylan Kurdi’s 

Montreal, AFP, 29 December 2015 - Relatives of Aylan Kurdi -- the toddler whose lifeless body was washed ashore on a Turkish beach and has become a heartbreaking symbol of the Syrian refugee crisis -- arrived Monday in Canada where they hope to rebuild their shattered lives.

Canadian media showed the boy’s aunt Tima Kurdi, who now lives in Vancouver after emigrating to Canada in 1992, in tears as she welcomed her brother Mohammed, his wife Ghousun and their three children, at the airport.

Tima Kurdi, from Canada, stands next to a painting of her late nephew, Aylan on a board outside of EU headquarters in Brussels

'Thank you to the Canadian people,' Kurdi said.

'Thank you to our Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau for opening the door and showing the world how everyone should welcome refugees and save lives. Thank you very much for doing this.'

The refugee policy became a political issue some months back, when the Canadian government earlier was accused of refusing asylum to some members of the family who since drowned. Ottawa said it never received the applications.

Abdullah Kurdi, 40, father of Syrian boys Aylan, 3, and Galip, 5,

Trudeau’s Liberal government has pledged to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.

The prime minister earlier this month personally welcomed the first group to arrive at the Toronto airport aboard a military transport plane.

Syrian refugees are greeted by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on their arrival from Beirut at the Toronto Pearson International Airport

Iran: Women suffer from numerous economic problems

Iran: Women suffer from numerous economic problems

Women economic problems

Women and girls in our society,especially university graduates, suffer doubly from problems in economic and employment arena,” asserted an Iranian cultural activist.

Mohammad Rasoul Mehnatfar talked to an ILNA reporter in Kermanshah (western Iran) about problems of women. He noted, “Compared to men, women enjoy far less social and political privileges in the cities of Gilan Gharb, Sarpol Zahab and Qasr-e Shirin and are deprived of many of their inalienable rights.”

Mehnatfar added, “Women’s capabilities and powers are completely forgotten in economic activities.”

(State-run ILNA news agency, December 28, 2015)

Iran political prisoner denounces demagoguery in Christmas message

Ali Moezzi, an Iranian political prisoner in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison,

Ali Moezzi, an Iranian political prisoner in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, has sent a message on the occasion of Christmas, denouncing the Iranian mullahs’ reactionary interpretation of religion.

Two of Mr. Moezzi daughters are members of the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Camp Liberty, Iraq. Mr. Moezzi is held in Ward 8 of the dreaded Evin Prison.

His message reads in part: “Greetings to my Christian and Muslim compatriots on the occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ. The birth of Christ which coincided this year with the birth of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad is a cause for double celebration. These prophets were harbingers of mercy and emancipation and equality and unity. Being reactionary is incompatible with the path of the prophets who are the pioneers of historical progress. The mullahs ruling Iran and Salafist and blood thirsty fundamentalists do not know Christ or Mohammad or Abraham. They foster despicable and ugly qualities in people and promote demagoguery. In anticipation of these festive days, we ask God to eradicate this scourge of the era and help us to establish friendship, co-existence, peace and cooperation between human societies."

Mr. Moezzi who suffers greatly due to obstruction of the intestines was prevented last month by the regime’s henchmen from being transferred to hospital. Following protests by political prisoners in Evin, he was taken to the prison infirmary, but was returned to the ward shortly afterwards without receiving any treatment.

Mr. Moezzi who is a political prisoner of the 1980s suffers from various diseases, including cancer and acute kidney disease, due to years of torture and imprisonment in the Iranian regime’s dungeons. Nonetheless, along with a number of other political prisoners, he staged a hunger strike last month to protest the suppression and the arrest of families of political prisoners and their supporters.

Iran - Brave mothers criticize Khomeini in Iran memorial

Brave mothers criticize Khomeini in Iran memorial

A number of brave Iranian mothers of youths who were martyred in the 2009 nationwide uprising against the mullahs' regime have publicly criticized Khomeini for installing a regime which is murdering Iran's children by the day.

The mothers spoke out at a gathering in Tehran’s Shahriar District last Friday to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of Mostafa Karim-Beigi who was killed by the Iranian regime in the course of the 2009 anti-regime uprisings. Many relatives of martyred opponents of the regime and political prisoners took part in the ceremony.

Ms. Shahin Mahin-Far, whose son Amir Arshad Tajmir was killed in the course of the 2009 uprising, said her heart had been ripped apart by her son's death. The regime's henchmen riding a police vehicle ran over his body three times.

Ms. Fatemeh Golgari, whose son, labor activist Afshin Osanloo, died in mysterious circumstances in prison in Iran on June 20, 2013, said at the gathering: "Now should have been a time for joy among our youths, but instead it's their time to be bured."

"I've got something in my heart which I need to say. Let my dear ones and let even the regime hear this. The day when the Imam [Khomeini] came and sat in a cemetery and said 'they've turned this place into a cemetery but I'll turn it into a garden full of flowers,' we didn't understand what he meant by a garden full of flowers. Now we know, he meant that they will kill our youngsters and bury them, and each time we'll have to go there to law flowers on their graves," Ms. Golgari said.

"I long for the day of freedom, when Iran will be free and blossoming and we can all be friends and good brothers and sisters," she added.

Women in History - 22 December

Mukhopadhyaya

Mukhopadhyaya was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal. Sarad Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother. Sarada Devi played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.

Lucy Burns

American suffragist and women’s rights advocate, formed the National Woman’s Party with Alice Paul

LucyBurns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was born in New York to an Irish Catholic family. She was so inspired by their activism and charisma that she dropped her graduate studies to stay with them and work in the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. While working with the WSPU, Lucy Burns met Alice Paul at a London police station. Both women had been arrested for demonstrating, and Alice Paul introduced herself when she noticed that Lucy Burns was wearing an American flag pin on her lapel.

Burns was the first woman to speak before the Congressional delegates in 1914 when the Anthony amendment finally made it out of committee and into the House. Burns and other suffragists had been told by the chairman of the House Committee on Suffrage that the House would not pass a suffrage amendment before 1920. To their surprise, it was announced in late 1917 that the House would make a decision on January 10, 1918. She died on December 22, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York.