UPDATE: Arbitrary Detentions in Iran Expand
(17 June 2009) Ebrahim Yazdi, General Secretary of Nehzat e Azadi, was arrested today at 15:00 Tehran time, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said, while he was in Pars Hospital in Tehran in the Intensive Care Unit. It was reported that his home was searched.
Saeed Laylaz, the prominent economist who challenges existing economic policy, was arrested on 17 June in his home.
Mohammadreza Jalaieepour, a student at Oxford University and an active member of the youth branch of Jebheh Mosharekat called Puyesh Mouj e Sevom (third motion wave), a leading reformist political front, was arrested on 17 June in Tehran Airport, as he was about to leave Iran.
Nehzat Azadi, or “Freedom Movement,” is one of the national political parties that urged all citizens to participate in the election in the national interest. Before the 12 June election, Motamedi Mehr, a member of the political office of this party and the Committee to Defend Free and Fair Elections, was arrested on 10 May 2009.
Mohammad Tavasoli, the director of the political office of the party, was arrested on 16 June. Other members of Nehzat Azadi in Tehran and other cities were arrested, as previously reported by the Campaign.
Thank you for keeping us informed.
Is it possible to put together a bulleted list of names and titles/origin so that people from Twitter, FB and blogs can link to the master list?
The growing reformist movement in Iran has taken the world by surprise. The movement and the mullahs response to it is very fluid and evolving rapidly.
Professor Mark Levine writing about Iran on the Brink makes crucial points:
“It seems that the Iranian elite has been caught similarly off-guard, and is still trying to read its own society to understand how broad is the societal discontent reflected in the mass protests. This calculus is crucial – in some ways more so than whether the results are legitimate or, as some claim, electoral fraud.
It will determine whether the Iranian power elite – that is, the political-religious-military-security leadership who control the levers of state violence – moves towards negotiation and reconciliation between the increasingly distant sides, or moves to crush the mounting opposition with large-scale violence. The religious establishment is itself split into hard-line, moderate and more progressive factions, each of whose members are tied to factions within the economic, political and security elite, producing a complex and potentially volatile set of competing and contradictory loyalties and interests.
Ahmadinejad’s and Khamenei’s decisions in the coming days will be telling. If the official tally was in fact broadly accurate, then they will likely be more willing to agree not just to a recount, but even to a run-off election, if that is what it takes to pacify the angry protesters”.
There is much in his logic I agree with however I have a differing perspective on the nature, scope and source of the world system he recognizes. I further believe humanity is totally incapable of extricating itself from the grip of this “system” whose origins and source of power operate in various dimensions or realms, being spiritual in nature. In short humans are caught in an epoch and universal struggle that has engulfed earth. We have been given volition and can choose, individually or collectively, to resist this “system”. Being born in this matrix was not our choice, being of it and owned by it is optional. Through disciplines of logic and meditational prayer, the truths of Biblical teaching shine ancient light desperately needed in our confused “modern” era.
Pray for Peace and Justice for our Earth and it’s people.
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http://www.meaning.org/news/matrix.html
http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news/ exec/view.cgi/5/12824
http://www.biblenews1.com/babylon/babylo n1.html
People in Iran who show courage and display independent thinking are the most serious threat to the regime which leans on the conformity of traditional religious thinking. The mullahs will try their best to silence these free spirits. The best we can do for them is to remind the regime that we are aware of what they are doing and that we don’t like it and much less approve of it.
Our weapon is thus handed to us by the mullahs themselves whereby they commit political suicide. Mullahs maybe hardliners but must surely remain realists with respect to their own goals therefore they will suffer from mistakes like those they’re making now; arresting and killing protesters and open-minded individuals who have shown they have had enough of the mullahs terror regime.
So keep posting those names of courageous individuals who willingly risk their lives and may die for the hopes and dreams of a better future for millions of others.
Each heartbeat of mine supports your fight for human justice and dignity…for the freedom to believe in your personal human values….and the indoctrination and repression of the Iranian people by religious fanatic extremists (just as extreme as the Jewish religious fanatics who keep on their retarded and blind hate against my people on the West Bank) have to be stopped and turned into freedom for all….for Muslims, Hindus, Christians,Jews, women and gay people and so on…for everybody in Iran…in every way…We’re all God’s children….
Wisdom, Love and Peace from Mir in the Netherlands to you…Keep up the struggle…we all stand behind you…
I am very glad to see this open discussion on human rights in Iran and certainly wish you all well.
I have followed and supported your struggle for a fair election and for democratization in Iran.
I am deeply disturbed however to note that the comment by Mir Hunscheid is the first one to even mention gay rights on your site. When the demonstrations began I was happy to find your site and immediately looked at your articles. I was amazed to find that you had literally hundreds of entries on the status of women in Iran and not a single reference to he persecution of gay and lesbian people. I for one know of at least one gay man who has fled iran because of gay persecution. There has been much documentation of gay harassment in iran.
All my best to you in your struggle for human rights in Iran. I will continue to demonstrate in your support,
Please acknowledge and support your sexual minorities as well and join the rest of the world in its concern for these issues.