LOS ANGELES, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.
A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.
Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.
“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.
A draft law before the Iranian parliament would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam.
“They went to a court hearing just for show,” the source said, “as secret police had already taken their signatures by force with a statement that they had not changed their religion.”
The charges, however, are still open, said the source, a close friend of the couple.
The female security police official warned Rad that if she and her husband continued attending a house church and holding Bible studies, they could be imprisoned “for a very long time” and would lose their daughter, Odzhan Arya. An officer also told Rad that authorities could concoct a drug case against them, “and you will be punished as drug smugglers.”
A male security police official also threatened Rad, who along with her husband received Christ as savior about three months ago, the source said.
“He told Tina during the interrogation that if she doesn’t cooperate and tell some names and addresses, she won’t see her daughter for a long time,” the source said. “They said, ‘Next time if we catch you, you are going to miss your whole family forever.’”
An officer also told Arya that authorities could place his daughter “in a protected religious institution.”
The charge against Arya of “activities against national security” was based on his allowing Bible sessions with Muslims in his apartment and trying to go to the house church, the source said.
Confirmation from the couple’s denomination of their arrest and mistreatment was not immediately available.
Forced Statements
The couple was forced to sign a statement, the source said, that they wouldn’t go back to their house church and that they would have no contact with other Christians – and that if they did, “they will be punished by the law of Islam.”
The charges and forced statements seem to contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, giving it the force of law. Article 18 of the covenant stipulates that everyone shall have the right to adopt a religion or belief, as well as freedom individually or in community in public or private to manifest one’s religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
The couple would forfeit their bail and their freedom if secret religious police catch them engaged in Christian activities, they were told in the court before their release.
“They were tortured psychologically and physically,” the source said. “There are a lot of blue places on their bodies. Tina can’t walk well and is very ill, and her husband Makan is still very shocked.”
The couple was arrested after a relative of Arya informed security police of the couple’s Christian activities. According to the friend of the couple, officers confiscated their personal computer, satellite dish and television set, as well as all books, videos, CDs, DVDs and even a photo album.
“Tina is very sick, and because of the pain on the right side of her head from the torture, and the shock of the whole situation, she can’t leave the house and their daughter,” the source said. “She knows for sure that they are monitored in all their communications.”
Societal Hostilities
Following their arrest, the husband and wife also suffered at the hands of family and area Muslims.
In order to make the bail payments, Arya obtained financial help from his father – on the condition that he promise to divorce his wife.
“So he did [promise], and now of course he refuses to divorce,” the source said. “So his father gave him an ultimatum. There is discrimination even in the family against them.”
After their release, the couple found the window of their clothing shop had been smashed.
“Almost the whole street knows about them, so imagine how difficult their business is,” said the source. “They want to change the shop and go somewhere else. Every day and night they get some calls from unknown people, and their life at this moment is under invisible and visible surveillance.”
On Monday (June 23) Arya received letters at both the clothing shop and his home stating that he must place evidence on his new window pane indicating his Islamic faith by displaying a statement and photos, or else he would have to buy a new window every day.
The source said Arya displayed a photo of Islamic leaders on the window, “but they want to go somewhere else.”
Arya went to area police asking for protection, the source said, “but they told him not to lie and to ‘go do something about it if you are a real believer of Islam.’”
Archive for the 'torture' Category
Authorities Use Intimidation, Violence to Suppress Online Advocacy
[Cairo, May 10, 2008] – Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate and prosecute those security officials responsible for beating Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch said today. Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer, used the social-networking site Facebook to support calls for a general strike on May 4, 2008, President Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday.
Maher told Human Rights Watch that officers from the Interior Ministry’s State Security Investigations (SSI) department apprehended him on a street in the suburb of New Cairo on May 7, blindfolded him and took him to a police station where they stripped him naked, and beat him intermittently for 12 hours before releasing him without charge.
“This is the work of thugs, pure and simple,” said Joe Stork, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “The government must show that those responsible for upholding the law are also subject to the law.”
Before the incident, Maher said, an SSI officer phoned him on April 25 to invite him “for a coffee” on the following day at SSI headquarters in Lazoghli, in downtown Cairo. Maher did not show up.
Over the course of the following week, Maher spoke with international news media about the strike. He told the BBC that several SSI officers had contacted him, but that he was undeterred. “If we allow ourselves to fear them, we won’t do anything,” he told the BBC. “Then I would consider myself a partner in the crimes taking place in Egypt.”
On May 4, it appeared that few Egyptians had heeded the call for a strike. On May 7, however, as Maher was driving in New Cairo at around 1 p.m., an unmarked van with non-official license plates pulled in front of him. Three other unmarked cars, also with non-official plates, surrounded the car and some 12 men in civilian clothes pulled him into the van, where they handcuffed and blindfolded him.
Maher told Human Rights Watch that the men took him first to the New Cairo police station. There, he was beaten and insulted by men he could not identify because he was blindfolded. Maher said that around the time of the afternoon prayers (4:30 p.m.), his captors took him to SSI headquarters at Lazoghli. There, they stripped him down to his underwear, threatened to rape him with a stick, and continued kicking, beating, and insulting him, and dragging him across the floor. The blows fell mostly on his back and his neck, he said, and he lost some hearing after a sharp blow to one ear. Maher said his assailants wore gloves and applied lotion to his back between beatings in an apparent attempt to reduce bruising.
According to Maher, the officers did not accuse him of anything, but asked for the password of the May 4 Facebook group that news reports said he had started. They also asked him about members of the group he had never met. The SSI officers released him before dawn on May 8 with the warning that he would be beaten more severely the next time State Security detained him. The evening after his release, May 8, Maher went to a private hospital for a medical examination, including a CAT scan, the results of which were not available as of this writing.
“Sadly, Maher’s treatment is part of a pattern of abuse and extralegal intimidation by state officials,” Stork said. “Egypt needs to put an end to the lawlessness of its law-enforcement officers.”
In another incident a month earlier, Isra’a `Abd al-Fattah, 29, was among roughly 500 people arrested by police nationwide in connection with a call for a strike on April 6. (Most of those arrested were from the industrial Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, where demonstrations against rising prices turned violent.) `Abd al-Fattah had also used a social network group on Facebook to publicize the April 6 strike, leading to her detention for more than two weeks. Prosecutors had ordered her release a few days after she was arrested when charges against her of “inciting unrest” were dismissed, but interior ministry officials kept her in detention until April 23.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1982, holds that “no one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law,” and that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Fledgling Rebellion on Facebook Is Struck Down by Force in Egypt
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 18, 2008; A01CAIRO — At 1:49 a.m. in an Internet cafe only then quieting after Cairo’s daily rumble, 27-year-old Ahmed Maher worked at a computer. He wore the same shirt he had had on for two days. The essentials of his life on the run lay splayed out next to his keyboard — car keys, cigarettes, prepaid cellphone.
Maher pursed his lips, typing intently. His dream of a people’s uprising organized on Facebook was beginning to slip through his scrabbling fingers.
Worries about the risks of political activism in Egypt were spilling onto his screen. It won’t work, one man wrote. The government’s already infiltrated us, wrote another. This is stupid, wrote a third.
Since late March, 74,000 people had registered on a Facebook page created and run by Maher and a few other young Egyptians, most of them newcomers to activism. Even some of Egypt’s older, more disillusioned proponents of democracy had let themselves hope that a social networking Web site created by American college students could become an electronic rallying point for protest against President Hosni Mubarak’s 27-year rule.
But the experience of the Facebook activists showed the limits of technology as a means of organizing dissent against a repressive government. Maher would end up among what rights groups said were 500 Egyptians arrested during two months of political activism in Egypt — and find himself stripped and beaten in a Cairo police station, he said.
In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, May 4, the day of a planned strike, the failure of his Facebook movement was only just becoming clear. Maher and other organizers worked to prop up the spirits of their supporters. We’ve got to do something, Maher insisted online.
At 7 a.m., he leaned back and let himself close his eyes for the first time that night. Opening them again an hour later, he saw a message saying his account had been shut down. He had sent so many messages, Facebook suspected him of spamming.
Strategizing OnlineIsraa Abdel Fattah, a 27-year-old human resources administrator with no political experience, launched the online movement with Maher, sending out an open invitation to join an April 6 strike against Egypt’s rising food prices.
When the strike overlapped with a textile workers’ walkout over low wages and soaring prices, the result was one of the most dramatic political protests in Egypt in years.
In the city of El Mahalla el Kubra, two hours from Cairo, security forces battled civilians, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. Many in Egypt gasped at scenes of protesters toppling a giant billboard of Mubarak, wondering if it marked a turning point.
Security forces around the country arrested hundreds, including Abdel Fattah, who had become known as “Facebook Girl” after she co-founded the April 6 group. She came out of jail swearing off activism.
Maher took over for the May 4 strike, called to mark Mubarak’s 80th birthday.
“Ninety-five percent of the members of the Facebook group have no previous political party — we are not a political group,” Maher said in a Cairo cafe two days before the planned May 4 protests. “Our main job is that the people have awareness of their rights and know how to break their handcuffs and remove their shackles.”
Surmising that the government was watching their efforts, leaders created Facebook subgroups with innocuous names such as Eggplant and Cucumber.
Online, they swapped ideas and plotted strategy: They would ask people to stay home that Sunday, a workday here. The bravest would gather for protests, in sites to be announced via text messages. The less brave would be asked to wear black T-shirts or hang Egyptian flags on their doors or roofs. Organizers deleted any messages calling for violence.
Maher said many of the most committed were girls and young women. Israa Mustafa, an 18-year-old college sophomore in Cairo, had never taken part in a protest, joined a movement or voted. She joined the Facebook group at the start. Police briefly arrested her April 6. The arrest strengthened her, Mustafa said. “I realized what I was doing was only my legitimate right,” she said.
The activists knew some of the challenges they faced: More than a quarter of Egypt’s 80 million people are illiterate. Only 8 percent have access to the Internet.
To get the word out, the Facebook group encouraged its members to use spray paint and banners to advertise the strike. They wrote slogans on currency, choosing notes of the smallest denomination to better reach the poor.
On Friday, May 2, security forces tailed, then chased Maher, Mustafa and another young Facebook member through downtown Cairo, Maher and Mustafa said. Maher ducked into a shop to escape. Mustafa fled into Cairo’s subway and a women-only carriage, where other women evicted security men trying to arrest her.
Maher went into hiding. He said goodbye to his 3-month-old daughter and his wife, who worried he would go to jail and lose his job.
Political veterans mocked the Facebook members for calling on people to stay home — a passive people, they said, protesting by becoming more passive.
The government took actions of its own as May 4 approached. Authorities announced bonuses for the Mahalla textile workers and a 30 percent raise for civil servants, defusing some anger over rising prices.
Officials also ordered cellphone companies to block all text-messaging and voice services for anonymous subscribers. The government filed charges against a broadcaster that had distributed images of protesters tearing down Mubarak’s portrait.
On May 4, Cairenes woke to new billboards in main squares. “Young people love Egypt,” the signs said. “Serious people create, not destroy.”
Bitter OutcomeAt 2 p.m. that day, cars clogged Cairo’s busiest streets. There were no signs of a popular strike. Maher, cruising the capital in a car, took a call from his wife, who was increasingly distraught over the dangers of his activism.
She had taken the baby and gone to her parents, she told him. Maher, in a black T-shirt and sunglasses shoved up on his shaved head, stared at his phone after the call. “All this for nothing,” he said.
In front of Cairo’s main scene of recent protests, security forces stood guard. A few young men in black T-shirts handed out pamphlets. Some women chanted in an area ringed by police and State Security agents. When two young men walked up to join the women, police pushed them away.
Elsewhere in the city, some heeded the call to strike.
Poor people, even more than the middle class, knew what the strike was about, Hibba Imam, 22, said in the decayed and crowded quarter of Imbaba. “The connected people, they don’t feel the suffering. They don’t see the bread lines,” she said, adding that she had stayed indoors until Sunday afternoon. Imam had heard of Facebook, she said. Many others in the neighborhood said they never had.
By late afternoon, of the 74,000 people who had registered on the Facebook protest page, only 15 — three men and 12 women — were still eager to gather for a protest. Maher was not one of them.
“What should I do?” Mustafa asked Maher by cellphone after police forced her back from the main protest area. “Go home,” Maher told her.
“By the end of the day, I was sobbing,” Mustafa said later. Bitter, she deleted herself from the Facebook group. After a few hours, she signed back up.
The next day, Monday, May 5, the government stunned Egyptians by increasing fuel prices more than 40 percent.
That Wednesday, police arrested Maher as he tried to return to his empty home for the first time in days. Police and then State Security forces beat him from 1 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday, stripping him naked, slapping him, dragging him across the floor tied to a rope and threatening to rape him, Maher said. They demanded passwords to the Facebook groups, although the groups do not require passwords, and the real names of those who had registered, he said.
Maher was released with bruises and one ear deafened by blows. “This time we were just tugging on your ear,” Maher quoted a State Security official telling him. “Next time it will be serious.”
Special correspondent Nora Younis contributed to this report.
“Beyond Fitna”
Iran’s counter punch to Geert Wilders film Fitna is to make an anti-Christian film. What a bunch of hypocritical jackals.
Iran planning to shoot anti-Christian film
(PanARMENIAN.Net) Stung by a Dutch lawmaker’s graphic documentary depicting barbaric acts carried out in the name of Islam and the Koran, an Iranian film organization says it is producing a counter-documentary, “Beyond Fitna.”
Iran’s FARS news agency reports the film focuses on “orders given to worldwide Christians in the (distorted) version of the Bible for stoking violence, committing genocide, attacking others, beheading and burning women and children who have been taken into captivity.“
Those acts are committed by Christians daily. Silly me… did I just say Christians? What a slip of the tongue. I meant Muslims.
The Iranian film announcement comes a week after far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders released his 17-minute film, “Fitna” in the Web.
The release of “Fitna” on March 27 sparked noisy protests from Islamic groups and leaders – some threatening Wilders with death – and the United Nations and several nations called for the removal of the film from video Web sites such as Google and YouTube, FOX News reports
Iranian parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel called on his country’s citizens to boycott Dutch goods. European states will leave the road if they see threat to their economy,” he said.
The upcoming film will follow on the tail of the other Iranian anti-Christian film “Islamic Jesus”
TEHRAN (AFP) — A director who shares the ideas of Iran’s hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the “common ground” between Muslims and Christians.
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, “Jesus, the Spirit of God,” as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which he praised as admirable but quite simply “wrong“.
“Gibson’s film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong — it was not like that,” he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, …
Gotta love that “common ground” Heh.
[…]Iran called it (Fitna) a “provocative and Satanic” act.
Could they be any more supercilious?
Spit!
Cross posted from Ironic Surrealism II
Related:
Out of time: Radical Islam Taking Over Europe & West
“Europe’s Speechless, Frantic Surrender”
UAC Documentary “An Inconvenient Religion”
Another Islamic / UN Obscenity
IHEU “ambushed” by Whiny Sanctimonious Islamists at Human Rights Council
The Vast Islamic Conspiracy
The United Caliphate of The United Nations
The UN Has Lost Their Dhimmi Status…
Islam 101
Islam Religion of Peace
Geert Wilders Editing Fitna – Stay Tuned
LiveLeak Pulls Fitna: “Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature”
Imagine…
Video: Geert Wilders Interview on Danish Television
Fitna? or No Fitna?
“Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil”
– Thomas Mann
Great news clip on islamisation of Europe. If these statistics don’t wake you up, I don’t know what will. Radical Islam is a grave threat to Europe, there is no denying this. Europe as we know it will be taken by Muslims within the next 100 years. It’s time we stop being politically correct with Islam and confront it for what it is.
—————————
Welcome LGF readers!
Thanks elrushbuni!
Thanks Behead Me Bob!
—————————
Welcome Footballguys Free For All Readers!
Thanks tommyboy!
—————————
Welcome Jihad Watch Readers!
Thanks interestinconundrum!
—————————
Thanks! Henryk M. Broder @ Die Achse des Guten (Translated version)
Original German
—————————
Note: I post the above thanks and credits as those mentioned
have brought a huge influx of traffic to this post. 🙂
Additional links:
The Vast Islamic Conspiracy
The United Caliphate of The United Nations
“Europe’s Speechless, Frantic Surrender”
Another Islamic / UN Obscenity
The UN Has Lost Their Dhimmi Status…
Snakes in the Grass – Islamic Thinkers Society
‘Islamic Thinkers Society’ View of the White House
Islam 101
An Open Mind
The religion of fear – Pat Condell
Misunderstanders of Their “Peaceful” Faith
The “Barbarians” Strike Again
The “Barbarians” have abducted and tortured another young Jewish man. This time the victim escaped alive. Thank God. Sadly not the case for Ilan Halimi who the “Barbarians” kidnapped and tortured to death two years ago.
Francia: se repite el caso de Ilan Halimi @ Spanish Pundit (II)
French officials voiced outrage Wednesday after it emerged a gang had locked up and attacked a Jewish youth in the same Paris suburb where Ilan Halimi (pictured) was tortured to death two years ago.
Six youths from the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux, aged 17 to 25, are accused of locking up 19-year-old Mathieu Roumi in a storage room on February 22, beating and sexually tormenting him.
Aged 17 to 25, the six youths — who knew the victim — had falsely accused him of stealing from them in order to lure him into a trap, judicial sources said.
Once he arrived in the apartment of one of his aggressors, the young man was handcuffed on a radiator and beaten.
With a pen, the aggressors scrawled “dirty Jew” and “dirty faggot” on the face of their victim. Later they forced him to swallow down cigarette butts and to suck a condom on a stick. The man’s ordeal reportedly lasted nine and a half hours.
He was later hospitalised “in a state of shock”. He lodged a complaint.
They identified themselves as members of the “Barbarians,” the same gang that kidnapped Halimi from his store, demanded ransom for his release, and when that was not forthcoming, tortured the 23-year-old over the course of three weeks. Moments after he was dumped on the street, Halimi died. Roumi told police investigators that throughout his ordeal, his assailants employed measures with sexual and sadistic connotations.
The “Barbarians”. How apropo. Monsters. Vicious sadistic barbaric monsters.
The face of a monster. A monster who acts like an animal. How can we look at him as if he is human? May he and his minions roast in hell!
Youssouf Fofana. ‘Brain of the Barbarians’ Photo: AP
Gang to face trial for brutal murder of French Jew
Twenty-one suspected members of a self-styled “gang of barbarians” will be tried in France for the kidnapping and murder of a young Jewish man in 2006, a legal source said on Tuesday.Another seven suspects face trial for failing to report a crime, while one will be tried in a court for children because she was under 16 at the time of the attack on Ilan Halimi.
The kidnappers used a pretty young woman to entice Halimi into a trap, dragging the telephone salesman into a cellar where they proceeded to beat and torment him.
Police say the gang attempted a string of kidnappings of Jewish youths before capturing Halimi. They then sent a series of ransom demands to his parents, asking for as much as 450,000 euros, but lengthy negotiations failed to secure his release.
The self-proclaimed “brain of the Barbarians,” Youssouf Fofana, was eventually arrested in the Ivory Coast.
The ‘Barbarians’ are at the gate!
For years the Parisian establishment has quaked at the prospect of angry hordes invading their affluent heartland and last week that nightmare came true as gangs of hooded youths robbed and bludgeoned white students attending anti-government demonstrations.
Disquiet about the spread of barbarism across the boulevard périphérique has been fuelled by the chilling story of Yalda.
More than 30 neighbours in the building knew what was happening but said nothing about the crime, part of a worrying wave of attacks against Jews all over the country.
With that horrid news in mind. I invite you to view this video.
The Path To The Final Solution
The path to Hitler’s “final solution to the Jewish question” has branched and deviated since his death, but it’s fundamental principle remains the same.
Antisemitism did not end with WWII, and it’s seen a fresh resurgence in recent years. While some might have you believe that talk of antisemitism is merely a ploy on the part of Jews to divert attention or curry some advantage, the threat it poses cannot be ignored.
In an age of rogue nations armed with WMD, a worldwide Islamic jihad and the resurgence of various hard-left and hard-right militias, how long before someone will successfully enact Hitler’s ‘final solution’?
This video is dedicated to the men and women of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Also see this post not entirely related. But pertinent just the same.
Qassam Rocket Hit @ Dj Konservo
Even though this clip is not in English, the footage alone is enough to get the message. The video is from Israeli TV, and shows a Qassam rocket hitting a house in Sderot.
The next time you hear of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza, remember this, and put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinians who commit these acts of terrorism.
Sierra Leone women demonstrate for ‘traditional’ mutilation
FREETOWN (AFP) – Some 800 women in the Sierra Leone town of Kailahun paraded Tuesday in favour of genital mutilation and told donors opposed to the practice to keep their money, demonstrators and witnesses said.
Women wearing colourful beads and adorned with seashells chanted songs in the local dialect that warned authorities and foreign organisations against “any attempt to take away our traditional ritual.”
A group called the National Emancipation for Progress has led workshops and seminars to have FGM banned in Sierra Leone, but faces opposition from people who hold the practice is harmless, promotes marital fidelity and is in tune with religious values.
H/T Dj Konservo
Related:
Britain: Female Genital Mutilation
Fighting Female Circumcision & Debating It’s Religious Ruling
Iranian “Islamic Democracy”
Leader: Iranians to maintain confidence
Wed, 02 Jan 2008
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution has called on Iranians to maintain their self-confidence to defuse propaganda of the enemies.
Addressing an assembly of people in the central city of Yazd on Wednesday, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei hailed the courageous contribution of the Muslim people of Yazd in defending the very identity of the Islamic Revolution.
He asserted that the Iranian nation needs to maintain its self-confidence in order to secure its ideals, stressing that it has achieved great progress through this self-confidence.
“For many decades, our enemies tried to shred our historic identity and destroy us and confound us as a nation with no identity,” said the Leader, calling on the nation to preserve the Islamic values that have been subject to attacks by enemies.
Ayatollah Khamenei added that prominent local martyrs, POWs and their families are witness to the courageous presence of the people of Yazd on political, religious and cultural scenes.
“We are moving toward an Islamic society in which Islamic values are comprehensively observed by strong and powerful people who are subservient to the Almighty. They are happy with the dictates of the Almighty,” he continued.
Highlighting the role of Islamic democracy in the country, the Leader touched on the West’s failure to establish social justice and liberal democracy, saying Westerners are faced with moral problems.
”Man will not be happy with only scientific progress. Welfare also requires spiritual and moral security,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
He urged the Iranian nation to maintain its vigilance and commitment and as before, to elect the most qualified candidates. These candidates should be quite familiar with the problems of the people, he said.
Iran’s Leader described the city of Yazd as a center of religion and science, saying the people of Yazd are modest, talented and full of religious beliefs, a people who enjoy innovative ideas.
The Leader also said the Iranian nation should consider the upcoming parliamentary election the most important event this year.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=37218§ionid=351020101
What is Iranian “Islamic democracy” exactly? Is there such an animal?
Families of detained Iranian students protest outside UN office in Tehran
NCRI- On Monday, the families of detained Iranian students staged a protest outside the UN office in Tehran to call for the unconditional release of their loved ones despite extensive efforts by the Iranian Regime State Security Forces (SSF) to prevent them.
The protestors who carried the photos of detained students called on the United Nations to take urgent action to release their children. The UN office representative met with protestors and promised them to consider their requests.
The overwhelming confidence shown towards their leaders is astounding!
Iran – Democratic Movement gets a boost from student protest
Early in the week, despite extraordinary measures by the State Security Forces and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), more than 3,000 Tehran University students staged an anti-government protest. The occasion for the protest was the National Student Day. Its target, however, was the entirety of the ruling regime.
None of these measures proved effective, however. In the mid day, with hundreds of students protesting inside the campus and shouting “death to dictator” and “no fascism,” hundreds of students from other universities were blocked by the security agents at the university’s gates. That did not last long. Students crushed the huge gate and rammed through it to join those inside. Before long, the chants of “Down with the fascist regime,” “Death to this deceitful government,” and “Live free or die” were heard all over the campus and beyond.
The vociferous protest also drew a sharp line between these students and some state-sponsored student organizations which, under of the banner of peace, work to derail the movement for democratic change when they shouted “yes to peace, no to fascism,” and “students would rather die than live under suppression.” In clear and uncompromising statements, the students showed that genuine peace could only be brought about with rejection of the religious dictatorship.
Do any of you recognize this photo?
Hosseinkhah, Javaheri: jailed in Iran
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi says bail set for two jailed Iranian women’s rights activists, whom she says are innocent of charges laid against them by the country’s ruling authorities, is far too high.
All Iranian websites offering news about the country have been forced to register with the culture ministry, says RWB, adding:
“According to the council of ministers, insulting Islam or other monotheistic religions, spreading separatist ideologies, publishing false news (according to the council) or publishing news that invades privacy are all grounds for declaring a website illegal.”
Democracy in action! /sarc
Hosseinkhah and Javaheri are among those who want to change Iran’s Sharia-based laws for women by collecting a million signatures online and in person, says AFP, adding:
“The two women were among the 33 women arrested in March outside a revolutionary court where fellow feminists were on trial for organising a protest in June 2006 in a Tehran square.”
This horrifying story should open up eyes otherwise closed. And send shivers down your spines.
DOCTOR SAYS ZAHRA KAZEMI WAS TORTURED AND RAPED IN PRISON
TORONTO, First of April (IPS) Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was savagely beaten, tortured and raped while in Iranian custody in 2003, according to Dr. Shahram A’zam, an emergency-room doctor who examined her before she died.
Dr.A’zam has recently received political asylum in Canada and was speaking with Canadian and Swedish newspapers about the murder of Ms. Kazemi.
Warning: Marked as: mature & graphic.. [images]
H/T Freethoughts
THE PERSECUTION OF FEMALE PRACTITIONERS OF FALUN GONG IN CHINA
Although practiced by as many as 100 million people, it was banned — under pain of imprisonment, torture and death — by the Chinese government in 1999.
Falun Gong, literally “Practice of the Wheel of Law”) also known as Falun Dafa, “Great Law of the Wheel of Law”) is a system of “mind and body cultivation” introduced by Li Hongzhi to the public in 1992. Falun Gong refers to five sets of meditation exercises (four standing, and one sitting meditation), and Falun Dafa refers to a set of religious teachings Li claims to provide salvation for mankind .
Falun Gong has been the focus of international controversy since July 20, 1999, when the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) began a suppression of the movement nationwide, except in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The PRC government claims to have banned the group for what it considers to be illegal activities. The Falun Gong claims that the ban was the result of personal jealousy of the group’s popularity on the part of Jiang Zemin, a former President of the People’s Republic of China. The suppression of Falun Gong is considered a human rights violation by a number of (mostly western) human rights groups and politicians.The atrocities being committed against women who practice Falun Gong are escalating. The accounts below are just a small sample of typical examples of torture being endured by these women in detention centers and forced labor camps throughout China.:
• Widespread use of electric stun devices to shock women on sensitive body parts such as the genitals, breasts, mouth, head, and anus.
• Force-feeding using liquid mixtures containing hot pepper or a thick saline solution with only a small amount of water added; this usually causes severe vomiting.
• Forced injections of higher than normal dosages of drugs that damage the central nervous system.
• Prolonged hanging from shackles on the wrists.
• Forced standing for long periods of time in freezing temperatures, wearing little or no clothing and drenched in ice water.
• Piercing through the fingertips with sharp bamboo sticks or through the nipples with wire.
• Prolonged and daily beating with instruments such as wire cables, nail studded batons, planks, etc.
• Sleep deprivation.
• Beaten with poisonous iohuomals branches, a hemp-like perennial plant, with downy branches and piercing thorns that causes red, blistered and extremely painful, itchy skin.
• Public humiliation by being paraded through the streets wearing derogatory signs.
• Subjected to snake and scorpion bites or left outside without clothing in mosquito infested areas.
• Restrained with dirty items stuffed in their mouths, such as used sanitary napkins, cleaning rags, dirty socks, etc.Chen Lihua 36, female, a farmer from Dawangzhuang Township. She was detained in an office of the township government on January 4, 2000, for going to Beijing to appeal. Dozens of young male officials led by Li (an official in the office of the communist party committee,) came to the office and forced her to take off all her clothes. Official Bo thrust an electric baton into her vagina, shocking her to the floor. Then, one man held her arm and electrically shocked her body and handcuffed one of her hands to the window. Official Wang held her other hand while Bo grabbed her breasts and shocked her upper body repeatedly. She was tortured this way for quite a while, and then was told to put on her shirt and sit on the floor. Dozens of men kicked her so hard that she rolled around on the floor screaming in agony.
A 14-year old girl was forced to walk with a heavy brick on top of her head and her feet were bound to heavy rocks. While she walked, guards repeatedly slapped her in the face. At night the officer ordered her to hold a position touching her toes with knees straight. When she could not maintain the position, the guards beat her with clubs. After being tortured like this for an entire night, she could not walk without being assisted by someone. Guards threatened practitioners who protested the mistreatment saying they would stuff their mouths with used sanitary napkins.
Because the sheer magnitude of these abuses against women this is only a small number of cases, representing the specific types of torture and brutality being unleashed upon female practitioners by Chinese government officials.
The evidence that Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted by being extracted of their organs
Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.liveleak.com posted with vodpod
Saudi Rape Victim Pardoned
Saudi king pardons teenage rape victim
1 day ago
RIYADH (AFP) — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pardoned a teenage girl sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes after being gang raped in a decision swiftly welcomed by Washington on Monday.
Justice Minister Abdullah bin Mohammad bin Ibrahim al-Sheikh hailed the king’s “laudable instructions to grant the pardon”, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The sentence against the 19-year-old girl had drawn criticism of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom from key ally President George W. Bush.
The girl, who was 18 at the time she was raped, was attacked at knifepoint by seven men after she was found in a car with a male companion who was not a relative, in breach of strict Saudi law.
The king also pardoned the male companion, the justice minister announced.
The victim’s identity has not been revealed but she has become known as “Qatif girl,” after the Shiite-populated area of Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province from which she comes.
In October 2006, a judge sentenced her to 90 lashes for being with the man — a taboo in the conservative Muslim kingdom which imposes segregation of the sexes.
She appealed against the sentence but despite her ordeal the court ruled that her punishment should be increased to 200 lashes and a six-month jail term.
The judges decided to punish the girl further for “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media,” a court source told the English-language daily Arab News.
The rapists were initially sentenced to one to five years in jail, but those terms were also toughened in November to between two and nine years.
A rape conviction carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, but the court did not impose it due to the “lack of witnesses” and the “absence of confessions,” the justice ministry said last month.
The girl’s husband praised the king for granting the pardon.
“This fatherly care and noble gesture will help (in) lifting the emotional and psychological stress and suffering that our family has been enduring,” the husband was quoted as saying on CNN television’s website.
“This is not something new because we know that the king was always generous in dealing with his people and the entire world,” the husband said. “This week, we have two holidays to celebrate; the Eid and this great news of the pardon.”
King Abdullah’s pardon came on the day that Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage as two million faithful set off from Mecca to the valley of Mina in Saudi Arabia. Source.
Good news to be sure. And how wonderful for her that her husband is so supportive.
Saudi king ‘pardons’ rape victim
Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheikh, the Saudi justice minister, told Al Jazirah daily that the pardon does not mean the king doubted the country’s judges, but instead acted in the “interests of the people”.
The girl’s sentencing had triggered international outrage.
“The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair.” Source.
Heavy, heavy sigh. An 18 year old female who has suffered through the violent attack of a gang rape is ALREADY experiencing damaging psychological effects! Two hundred lashes after being raped, fair?!
Not in the civilized world!
But then again we are speaking of Saudi Arabia….
Previously: Saudi Arabia: Gang Rape Victim Receives 200 Lashes
Scarlett Crusader 
Say what?