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February 15, 2006 VOLUME 21
E-ZAN VOICE OF WOMEN AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM IN IRAN
To our readers,
February 11th, marked the 27th
anniversary of 1979 revolution in Iran.
While Iranian women joined the public protests against the dictatorship
of monarchists under Shah, their desire for a democratic Iran was not to replace Shah with
fundamentalist mullahs.
The theocratic regime of mullahs has
imprisoned and executed thousands of Iranian people in an extensive suppression
that is rarely experienced anywhere else in the world. Mullahs have used the
most savage forms of psychological and physical tortures on the political
prisoners including rape of female political prisoners, stoning of women and
execution of teenage girls and boys in public. In the last 5 months, according
to governments’ official announcements, 150 people have been executed since
Ahmadinejad took power.
Dr. Roya Tolouei, a human rights
activist and reporter in Kurdistan, Iran; who was arrested last summer for
taking part in a peaceful protest just fled the country. In her interview with
Radio Farda she talks about the atrocities and the physical and mental torture
inflicted on her by the interrogators in the prison. She appeals to the
international community to take Iran to the United Nations Security
Council first and foremost because of gross human rights violations because the
nuclear program is not the only problem with that regime.
The recent turn of events with
regards to Iran has placed the United States at a juncture where a firm policy
on Iran is a necessity for the peace and
stability of the region and the world. It is very clear that Iran’s continued defiance over its
nuclear program, their support of terrorism and disturbing role and violent efforts
to derail Iraq from any stability has created a very
alarming situation. The world community now realizes that the fundamentalist
regime in Tehran jeopardizes the peace and stability
of the region if not the world.
Early this month, International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to report Iran to UN Security Council. WFAFI welcomed
this move and called upon the UN Security Council to also hold Tehran
responsible for its gross violations of human rights, particularly
state-sponsored violence against Iranian women.
In addition to a UN policy to curb Tehran’s danger, there must be a firm
policy by the United States and the EU-3. More specifically,
there must be a focus on Iranian women’s role and political agenda as it relates
to a peaceful solution for a growing danger by the fundamentalist regime in Tehran.
E-Zan Featured Headlines
NCR-Iran website – January 16, 2006
An Iranian woman who had recently
fled the country told reporters that the regime in Iran has benefited from talks with the
EU to build its nuclear weapon. "In the past two years the mullahs have
not given any concession to the West and continued with their secret nuclear
program. The non-conciliatory position of the regime makes it quite clear to
everyone that the mullahs are not going to give up their plan to acquire
nuclear weapon and negotiations only provide them with time to complete their
project," said Sahar, a journalist from Tehran and a women's rights
activist.
State-run Baztab Site – January 29, 2006
Between 10 to 15% of women who achieve
management positions tend to face conflicts and force to become tough in a
workplace. Dr. Majid Abhari (State-sponsor psychologist), said in an
interview that “women tend to be gentler and softer in nature, so, it is
difficult for them to be in management positions.” He added “those who make it
to management face a dichotomy of being motherly and nurturing at home.” He
concluded “in order to preserve the motherly nature of women, they must stay
home and attend to their wifely or motherly duty”.
Radio Farda – February 1, 2006
Interview with an Iranian-Canadian female
bus driver, Forough Hassani: The Iranian regime violates every international treaty and
norm. We support the strikes of the Iranian bus drivers in Tehran. As the only female bus driver in Ottawa, I want to ensure their voice is
heard. I am pushing to gain the support of various other unions and
international organizations in support of Tehran’s bus drivers. We are concerned
about the lives of those who have been arrested and the Iranian regime is known
for pressuring their families and loved ones. In Iran, the voice of opposition is faced with
torture and imprisonment. We need to join in solidarity with the union in Tehran and stand up against the regime.
[In a related story, The Iranian
bus drivers, who belong to the 17,000-member Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran
and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), called the strike to protest the
detention of union President Mansoor Osanloo and to demand that the government
recognize their union. Osanloo and his entire executive board were arrested on
December 22 during a union meeting. Police released the other leaders following
a widely supported strike and pressure from international worker and human
rights organizations, including the AFL-CIO.]
Italian AKI News Source – February 6, 2006
A 19-year-old Iranian journalist,
Elham Foroutan, risks the death penalty for a satirical article in which she
compares the Islamic revolution in Iran to the AIDS virus.
Foroutan, wrote the article for the magazine, Tamaddon Hormozgan, a weekly
which is published in Bandar Abbas, in the south of Iran. Foroutan, was arrested
together with six editors of the magazine, whose publication has also been
suspended.
In the piece, Foroutan compares the Islamic revolution to the spread of the
AIDS virus, saying that it "arrived in Iran in 1979", the year
of the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeni. In the article entitled "Make
the fight against AIDS public", the reformist former president of Iran,
Mohammad Khatami is described as "a remedy that allowed for the diffusion
of the virus," while the current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
"the virus in the first person", while the Pasdaran, the judicial
authority and the ministry of intelligence, have been defined as the
"diffusion centres". Tamaddon Hormozgan is owned by Ali Dirbaz, the
parliamentarian who belongs to the Abadgaran faction which supports the current
Iranian president. Ali Dirbaz took immediate action against the editors and in
some statements to the media; he has also called for the death penalty for the
journalist. Foroutan has been accused of insulting the founder of the Islamic
Republic, an act that is punishable by death. In the meantime, the ministry of
culture and Islamic orientation announced the imminent closing of 70 magazines
which "do not respect the values of the revolution and express the
concepts contrary to the principles of Islam".
State-run News Agency – February 6, 2006
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his government
respects the women in the society not for the quantity of work they can do but
rather for the quality of their social service. Speaking in a conference on
'Women, Ninth Government, Prospects for Future' at Interior Ministry's Hall,
Ahmadinejad said that since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, women have
undertaken special role in different scenes including the Iraqi-imposed war
(1980-1988) and the reconstruction era. "Both men and women are created by
the Almighty. Woman is symbol of beauty of God and man is symbol of glory of
God. The two are complementary to each other and help each other attain a lofty
goal." He said that duty of each gender is in line with her/his capability
adding that some tasks are special for women while others are for men and in
the domains that the two genders can do a job…
Iran Focus– February 9, 2006
[Report on British parliament debate
over Iran Policy, Baroness Gould of Potternewton]: As is so often the case, women are
the first victims of the renewed crackdown by the ultra-Islamic radicals.
Earlier this month, the president's adviser said that plans to enforce gender
segregation on Iran's pedestrian walkways were well underway.
The official said that this was part of a government plan called
"Enhancing the hijab"—that is the veil—"culture and female
chastity". When the president was the mayor of Tehran, he ordered all buildings belonging
to the municipality to have separate lifts for men and women. I assume those
lifts were actually working. In Iran, violence against women has been
legalised and institutionalised by the state. A recent study conducted by the
National Welfare Organisation found that two-thirds of Iranian women are
victims of domestic violence. Iran remains one of the only countries
in the world where women are stoned to death. Last year, the UN Special
Rapporteur for Violence Against Women, Professor Ertürk, chastised Iran over what she said were abuses and
discrimination built into the Islamic republic's laws. She wrote in her report:”
Iran’s laws do not provide protection
for victims of domestic violence and make it difficult to escape violence
through divorce". She also said that suffering wives face time-consuming judicial procedures
and stigmatisation. At the same time as condemning the Iranian regime, we
should be offering our support to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, as did my noble friend
Lord Temple-Morris, and the Iranian resistance for staying true to their goal
of standing up for the basic rights of the Iranian people. As well as revealing
to the world the mullahs' nuclear weapons programme, their terrorist atrocities
carried out in various parts of the world and their interference in Iraq, the PMOI and the NCRI have been
fundamentally the primary source of information concerning the Iranian regime.
E-Zan
Featured Reports
Ravaged
countries look to female leaders for healing
By
Georgie Anne Geyer
January 18, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The spirits of many of us revive with
hope every time an old year has passed. Those of us who share this strange
malady (which puts hope above experience) get hysterically optimistic every New
Year's Eve, awake with a headache on New Year's morn (which we mistakenly
analyze as a positive signal from God) -- and then, within days, come out of it
as sobered-up as ever.
Take this new year. On the heels of
our New Year's hopes, Iran situation worsened,
throwing our childish optimism in our faces.
We are dealing with
someone who may be even more difficult than Saddam Hussein, who was merely
a mass murderer without ideology. But the Iranian president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, a Spartan former mayor of Teheran, is a true follower of the
apocalyptic Ayatollah Khomeini; he believes that the Mahdi who went into hiding
in 941 A.D. will someday return and wipe out all non-Muslims. Speaking at the
No soap!
Now, even the Russian, the Chinese and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdogs fear there
is a bomb in Iran's virulently
anti-Israeli future -- and that the American war in Iraq has encouraged Iran's power ambitions by
opening the Shiite south of Iraq to Iranian influence
and union.
But wait
just a minute: Let us pause and look around the world. We will see, on the other
hand, some immensely hopeful developments that could not have been expected
even a few years ago.
This week
saw a handsome 54-year-old Chilean woman, Michelle Bachelet, elected president
of "macho" Chile on the West Coast of
Latin America; and the Harvard-trained Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a stalwart woman
dressed in an elegant white African costume, was sworn in as leader of Liberia. War-weary Liberians
hailed her as the "Queen of Africa" and, sometimes, lest you forget,
"The Iron Lady."
Both
Liberia and (to a lesser degree) Chile have been caught up in
testosterone-fueled convulsions such as Iran's today and in those endless male
conflicts that have poisoned our universe and its better angels.
The new
Liberian president inherits a nation afflicted by one of the most horrible
civil wars in history, which ended in 2003. Trained by Libya's treacherous Muammar
Khadafy, West African liberation "killers" went on a 14-year rampage
in the country, cutting off arms and limbs of tens of thousands of the nation's
youth. At her inauguration, the new president, who definitely gives out
no-nonsense vibes, told the crowd there would be a "fundamental break with
the past." Liberians in the audience saw her in an interesting way: Over
and over, they said things like, "She is our Ma and is going to take care
of us."
The idea
of a materfamilias political policy -- which will sternly keep the
"boys" in line and rebuild, rather than destroy -- is new in Liberia after all the brutal
male "Papa" warlords.
The
Chilean situation is far from Liberia's. But Chile, too, went through a
brutal period, from 1973 to 1987, when the Chilean military, having overturned
a Marxist regime, waged a political war of terror against the people even while
it brilliantly put the economy in top order.
New
President Bachelet clearly sees her job as bringing "change with
continuity" to the country. At her inauguration this week, she recalled
how, during those 14 awful years of the military junta, her father, a general,
was killed in prison, while she was herself imprisoned, tortured and exiled.
"I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that
hatred," she said at her swearing-in. Although a socialist, she supports
the country's free-market economy and looks as though she will be competent to
blend her old ideology and the new.
Two things
come to mind here. The modern world, if it is to be sane, is going to have to
be much more of a woman's world than a man's. The operative words today are not
kill, but negotiate; not hate, but understand; not riot,
but institutionalize. As it happens, these two women represent sanity in
the aftermath of horror, the amelioration of hatred and the beginning of
forgiveness, the end (at least for their two countries) of fanaticism. But in Iran, even after the 1980s
war with Iraq in which at least a
million people were killed, even after the total failure of Khomeiniism and
even after the brutalizing of the Persian people, the traditionalist male
traits still reign supreme, promising more of the terrible past. The least you
can wonder -- and not for the first time -- is whether we don't need more women
running the world.
150 Women committed
Suicide in Western Azerbaijan / Reporters of Kurdish Human Rights Organization
Didgah website
January 2006
In the past few months 150 women
have committed suicide in Western Azerbaijan.
The Women’s Rights committee of the
Kurdish Human Rights Organization has recently submitted the names of 150 women
to our reporting committee who committed suicide or set themselves on fire
because of violence inflicted on them by their families or by the society in Western Azerbaijan (a Kurdish province of Iran). The list put together by the
Women’s committee includes First Name, Last Name, Age, Birthday, Marital
Status, Job and Family Status, Literacy Level, Education and Date of their
Suicide. The first names and last name
initials of the women in the list are as follows:
Kaniav A, Halima A, Jamileh K, Kobra
D, Sheida A, Hayat C, Helaleh H, Nishtman M, Soroudeh R, Leili S, Ameneh S,
Nasrin G, Jamileh G, Manijeh A, Shalir R, Maryam A, Golchin D, Mastooreh A,
Nahid A, Maryam R, Hanifeh B, Shahin D, Rooy K, Pari A, Shalir M, Golaleh M,
Nazanin S, Maryam K, Chiman H, Kobra A, Pari M, Zohreh S, Manijeh P, Fatemeh P,
Negar P, Parvin D, Elahe R, Shilan B, Golbagh J, Kordestan R, Shahnaz A,
Golchin K, Sara K, Parvin S, Parizad H, Mahpareh M, Chiman A, Ronak Y, Laleh J,
Shabnam K, Asrin C, Esmat A, Kajal B, Zahra M, Shirin P, Nazila K, Ayesheh C,
Fatemeh G, Kobra T, Chiman D, Tooran A, Tooran T, Shahla M, Midia B, Pari A,
Maryam K, Soghra M, Tooba S, Sima K, Maryam A, Nishtiman M, Soraya A, Hajar A,
Nosrat S, Azar R, Pari S, Maryam M, Lavin A, Parinaz A, Khadijeh K, Homeira J,
Roghieh R, Nahid A, Amenh S, Khadijeh S, Mina B, Zeinab H, Mojgan V, Kajal Z,
Manijeh H, Jamileh R, Fatemeh B, Sima K, Helaleh G, Kobra M, Zahra M, Sham J,
Khadijeh P, Leila G, Bayaneh B, Zeinab G, Afsaneh G, Maryam H, Fatemeh K,
Farideh R, Nashmil M, Bahareh S, Mehri T, Rana K, Shahla G, Shirin M, Leila H,
Helaleh G, Shiler T, Shadi K, Esrin S, Zeinab P, Sanoor G, Kordestan A, Tahnian
N, Shabnam S, Kolsum M, Vafa S, Soheila A, Zeinab Z, Sarchel P, Nishteman N,
Zeinab P, Nazdar C, Khatoon G, Kosar K, Elham F, Bahar B, Tayebeh M, Masoumeh
R, Shahin A, Susan M, Masoumeh M, Homeira R, Narmin S, Elnaz N, Maryam A,
Shabnam A, Somayeh M.
Based on the information received, the
women who committed suicide were mainly between the ages of 14 and 30 with low
levels of literacy; high school diploma was the highest education level among
them. Almost all of them were home makers and about 50 percent were married.
Some of these women could not be saved and lost their lives.
Iran: Kurdish Women's Rights Activist Claims She Was
Tortured In Prison
By Golnaz Esfandiari and Farin Assemi
30 January 2006
Roya Toloui and several other Kurdish human-rights activists were jailed
following protests in several Kurdish cities against the killing of a young
Kurdish activist, Shivan Qaderi, by Iranian security agents in July.
"It’s very
difficult for me to talk about [what I went through. I'm partly worried that
women who are actively involved in the women's movement would fear that they
could face torture in case of arrest. But my message to all Iranian women who
fight for their rights is that their struggle should [continue] with
courage."
Qaderi Protest
Protestors had called on the
government to arrest Qaderi's killers and put them on trial. During some of the
protests government buildings and offices were attacked. Human Rights Watch
(HRW) reported that during the protests government forces killed at least 17
people. Many others were arrested. In August, HRW called on the Iranian
government to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the "violent
response " to the protests in Kurdish cities. HRW said that the government
opened fire on demonstrators protesting the killing of Qaderi. Local
journalists and activists, including Toloui, had reportedly criticized the wave
of repression that followed the unrest. Toloui who had been summoned to court
on several occasions in connection with her human-rights work, and was arrested
in her home in Sanandaj on 2 August. Human Rights First, a U.S.-based rights
group which campaigned for the release of Toloui, describes her as a vocal
critic of the Iran government's policies on minority and gender issues. The
Writers in Prison Committee of the International PEN had also expressed serious
concern about Toloui's arrest and called for her release. She was released in
October after having spent more than two months in prison, including 17 days in
solitary confinement, she said.
Charged With Several Crimes
She told Radio Farda in a 27 January
interview that authorities brought many charges against her ranging from
"acting against Iran's national interest " to
" disturbing public order." "In total they brought [at least 10]
charges against me," she said. "Anything not considered a crime
against others was a crime when it came to me, for example the publication of
my book in the Kurdish language in Iraq's [Al-Sulaymaniyah] was considered
a crime. There were other charges, the most important of which is acting
against national security and also giving interviews to different foreign radio
stations was considered propagating lies against the establishment." Toloui, who is currently outside Iran, added
that her interrogators were putting pressure on her to confess that she was one
of the main organizers of the protests that erupted in the wake of Qaderi's
murder in Sanandaj and other Kurdish cities. "They wanted me to make a
[written] confession, they were forcing me to confess," Toloui said.
"I wrote that I will speak only in the presence of my lawyer and they
laughed at me. I wrote that this is against human rights and that I had the
right to see my lawyer. They lost their patience and they ordered that my
children should be brought in and they threatened me and said that they will
burn my children alive in front of my eyes."
Torture Claims
Toloui added that she was also
subjected to physical torture that included beatings. She did not want to
elaborate. Her claims of torture cannot be independently verified.
"During the night of 6 August, Kurdistan's deputy prosecutor, Amiri (no
first name available), personally tortured me in the most brutal ways and
subjected me to such behaviors that cannot be expressed," she said.
Toloui told Radio Farda that she was
later transferred to a prison where convicted murderers and drug traffickers
are held. She claims the transfer was a move aimed at putting her under more
pressure. But she added that despite her difficult time in jail she refuses to
be silenced. She says the international community is focusing its attention on Iran's controversial nuclear activities
while more attention should be paid to human rights abuses that are occurring
inside the country. "I was tortured
and I want to complain about it to all of the world's human rights
organizations," she said. "I say the Islamic Republic should not be
taken to the UN Security Council only because of its nuclear issue but our main
problem -- the main issue of the Iranian people -- is the abuse of their rights
and pressure from the regime."
Toloui is one of the signatories of a letter signed and published last year by
women's rights groups, personalities and activists that calls for a change in Iran's Constitution in order to
guarantee equal rights for women and men.
Toloui says she is now concerned that her fate could create fear and
concern among other women's rights activists who are fighting for more rights
and freedom. "It’s very difficult
for me to talk about [what I went through]," Toloui said. "I'm partly
worried that women who are actively involved in the women's movement would fear
that they could face torture in case of arrest. But my message to all Iranian
women who fight for their rights is that their struggle should [continue] with
courage.
Human rights organizations and
activists say torture is prevalent in Iran's prisons. In July, Iran's hard-line judiciary acknowledged
-- in an unprecedented report -- that human-rights abuses, including torture,
have in some cases taken place in prisons and detention centers.
Multi
Track Strategy to the Tehran-problem
By Ramesh Sepehrrad
February 13, 2006
Global Politician
In the
past several months pundits and analysts have attempted to provide roadmaps for
change in Iran. While some ideas are
settling in the minds of Americans, the results are real. More than half of
Americans are now prepared to face some kind of confrontation with Iran; to curb its nuclear
weapons drive and end its support for international terrorism. Remarkably,
beyond popular reason, some analysts still advocate fostering behavioral change
through engaging fundamentalist clerics with an "all carrots, no
stick" approach. More coherent pundits favor of non-military-style change,
by funding Iranian groups and their exiled satellite programs. The least
appealing of all is the call for overt military strikes against Tehran's political, economic
and nuclear interests. Unfortunately, none will entirely solve the free world's
Tehran problem. Test
Tehran has become far too dangerous to the well being
of its own citizens, regional stability, and the democratic ambitions of Iraqi
people. The diversity of conclusions withstanding, the speed of growth of the Tehran's threat is the reason
for a national consensus on the need to act. Most agree, the status-quo in Iran is no longer an option
yet before conclusions are drawn, we should keep a few hard-learned facts in
mind. First, we must not ignore lessons learned from an Iraqi-style military
actions or futile rapprochement. Both options are just as reckless and
detrimental to meaningful change in Iran. Second, a clear
assessment of Iranian opposition forces is a prerequisite to any discussion
that will tip a "velvet" or "orange" revolution in Iran. That said, the choices
for fostering change in Iran may seem limited to the
good (fund satellite broadcasts), the bad (military attacks) or the ugly
(appeasement).
Fortunately,
the policy quagmire outlined above is an illusion rooted in the ephemeral scope
of its authors. The real solution for change in Iran is revealed when one
looks to people inside the country who are capable to shoulder the changes the
community of nations so desperately seeks. This approach requires political
resolve and concrete actions to qualify well meaning statements such as "support
women and youth", "support pro-democracy forces", and
"stand with Iranian people". Now is the time to show resolve, in
order to steer us all away from the worst case scenarios of nuclear conflict.
To do so, the West must pursue a parallel path. One path should be toward the
development of a Tehran-policy that represents rejection of the regime and the
other is the collective effort of the international community, engineered
specifically to isolate and eventually eliminate the root causes of the Tehran-problem.
Washington's leadership was essential in reporting Tehran to the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC). This was a leap in a right direction. To this day, Tehran continues to flout the
international community with its nuclear ambitions, therefore the International
Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors submission of Iran to the UNSC should be
followed by calls for smart sanctions. Imposing sanctions on Tehran is a necessary step;
however, we should be cognizant of its limitations. Sanctions by themselves are
not good enough. More importantly, a clear policy on Tehran must in place in Washington, Paris, London, and Berlin before a concerted
effort; beyond sanctions, can take shape internationally. To compliment the
sanctions, U.S. and the EU-3 must take
immediate steps to develop a robust Tehran-policy geared toward change of
regime in Iran. To begin, Washington
must adopt a policy that includes the following components:
1. Tighten and codify existing US sanctions, bar subsidiaries of U.S. companies
from doing business in Iran and cut foreign aid to countries that have
businesses investing in Iran. Publicly and privately criticize governments
engaged in oil, arms, technological, diplomatic relations with Iran. In a bi-partisan
effort, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is pushing for a robust Tehran-policy. She
recently told Reuters that: "There is a growing restlessness at a
bipartisan level in the House to get tougher on Iran and I think that that's
going to build up even more".
Senate Majority leader, Bill Frist, also linked the success of US sanctions to
a broader international effort. In his Los Angeles Times op-ed piece he said:
"We should persuade other countries to follow our lead. A multinational
sanctions regime might begin with an embargo on technologies that Iran can use in its nuclear
program". He added "the full spectrum of measures the U.S. has in place to isolate
Iran." More than 350
members of congress have called for a more qualified and stronger sanction. It
is time to announce it as component of official US policy on Tehran and urge EU-3 to do the
same.
2. Open
direct dialogue with Iran's main opposition
groups. Isolate Tehran's regime by cutting all
private talks and make them worry about US's political preference in having
talks with the opposition. Specific steps in this area must include lifting the
political and legal ban on the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
and Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK). These groups have raised international awareness
on Tehran's human rights records since the 80's, terrorism and regional
interference along with missile technology since the 90's and illegal nuclear
activities in recent years. So, it behooves Washington to open and have a
direct dialogue with such influential opposition groups. Not to know what Iran's opposition, the
NCRI/MeK, is thinking and doing is not only bad diplomacy but also foolish
politics. With an ability to maintain an active network inside and outside of Iran, one can easily measure
NCRI/MeK effectiveness and seriousness in changing the regime in Tehran. In a published
Whitepaper by Iran Policy Committee, a Washington-based think tank, an 8-month
study on Tehran's fear of its
opposition placed MeK at the highest rating among all groups. Members of
Congress and Europe's Parliamentarians routinely hold talks and
engage with the representatives of the NCRI and the MeK. Administration
officials could certainly benefit from similar engagements.
3. End Tehran's growing influence in Iraq by encouraging and empowering the progressive
and anti-fundamentalist forces in Iraq including the Shiia, Sunni, Kurdish and
any other Iraqi religious and ethnic groupings networked with the Iranian
anti-fundamentalist MeK. Early this year, more than 12,000 Iraqi Jurists and
lawyers declared and emphasized a nationwide support for the MeK and their 40
years of struggle against two dictatorships in Tehran. For the sake of
stability, peace and security in the region, Tehran's role must end in Iraq. As an Iraqi political
expert, Dr. Rashid Al-Jubori, recently outlined in his Washington Times op-ed
piece "The Iranians like to portray Iraqi Shiites as seeking an
Iranian-style regime. However, developments in the last two years, particularly
the last 10 months, must be seen as an organized bid to spread Iran's influence in Iraq by taking advantage of
a gap in U.S. policy and political
imbalance in Iraq... The Iranian regime
has decided that, with its progress meddling in Iraq, it has paralyzed and
neutralized the international community." Strategically and tactically,
empowering an anti-fundamentalist coalition in Iraq would serve as the best
buffer against Tehran's increasing influence
the region.
There is little time left for Washington to act. Similar steps
must be taken by Paris, London, and Berlin. Having policies
aligned with rhetoric in place will indeed urge others like Russia, China and India to take extra steps in
isolating Tehran.
The steps
mentioned are actions that constitute the political resolve to qualify
declarations in support of Iranian people. Tehran's terror has gone
beyond Iranian boarders and world's Tehran-problem is far too complex to be
resolved just by funding exiled satellite programs. Moreover, Tehran's regime is too
inherently brutal for a "velvet" or "orange" revolution to
take place in the streets. However, a country specific policy as mentioned
above, in coordination with international efforts is likely to facilitate the
prerequisite conditions for positive change in Iran by the Iranian people.
Given time
and solid relations between the West and Iran's main opposition, we might
forecast that the United Nations could move beyond sanctions and impose an
internationally monitored referendum on Tehran's regime, as proposed by NCRI's
leader, Maryam Rajavi. Indeed, the world community can assist in a democratic
revolution in Iran without violence. In
the past, Iran's civil society has
taken on the ruling regimes in the street with protests and civil disobedience.
Once coupled with NCRI/MeK's organized and highly effective network inside and
abroad, this democracy movement will ultimately bring the regime down faster
than our nation's pundits and analysts might imagine.
In short,
yes, that sums up an Iranian solution to the Tehran-problem. Honestly, if it's
not an Iranian solution, how likely are the Iranian people to adopt it?
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us your comments or op-ed on relevant topics for future issues, email editor@wfafi.org
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