'The Iranian regime commits crimes against its own people'

Tehelka Website

New Dehli, India

November 23, 2007

How can we peace work when there is no democracy?” asks Sheema Kalbasi, Iran born poet and human rights activist in an online interview with BIJURAJ. Award winning poet and literary translator, hers is an outstanding and honest voice from the Middle East. She left Iran twenty years ago after the birth of the current regime and has worked for the United Nations and the Center for Afghan Refugees in Pakistan. Today she lives with her husband and daughter in the United States.

What is writing for you and how did you turn to writing?
Writing is a way of expression to me. A line we all walk but some of us take it to a different level. I write in many styles. An experiment I have been doing lately is combining the political, social, and economical issues with erotica, and historical facts.

How much of yourself do you expose in poems? Also, how do people respond to it?
I believe in the universality of human experience. That’s the general framework and the reason why we can read each other’s poems and enjoy them. But there is also a particular element at work here and that’s my individuality. I experience life in a particular body, in a particular age, and in a particular culture. In a sense, when I talk about “me” I am talking about us and when I talk about “us” I am talking about me.
 

You created the horizontal and vertical, a new style in poetry. Tell us about that.
It is a style of poetry written parallel to one another but can be read both horizontally and vertically.
 

Is it easy to write with others? Can you share your experiences of collaborating with other poets?
For me it has been an easy and enjoyable experience to write with other poets. I have joint poems with Roger Humes and Ron Hudson, two American poets, Alessio Zanelli, an Italian poet, and Yahia Lababidi, an Egyptian-Lebanese poet in English. I have also co-written several poems in Persian with Naanaam (Hossein Martin Fazeli,) an Iranian-Canadian poet, and filmmaker.

You are actively engaged in translation. What method do you generally use? There's a phrase that goes, "the poem is that which is lost in translation." What do you say?
I only translate poems that I feel connected with. I don’t see translation as just translation. I believe the translation of a poem should also embody the accent and mood of the original poem. The Seven Valleys of Love, the Bilingual Anthology of Women Poets from the Middle Ages Persia to the Present Day Iran is an upcoming book that I have translated and edited.

You are also an activist. How does poetry mesh with your activism?
Being a Human Rights activist, poetry has been a way to bring attention to the crimes committed by the Iranian regime and other human rights issues around the world. In fact one of my poems Hezbollah, where I have described the suffering of Iranian religious and ethnic minorities in addition to the arrests and executions of the political prisoners, was awarded the Harvest International prize last year.
One senses a lot of restlessness and agony in your poems...
Yes. I am. My parents did their best to provide me with everything I needed. But I was born in Iran and, before I left as a teenager, experienced totalitarianism first hand.

While dealing the woman subjects in a poem, you seem more aggressive. Do you agree?
I primarily write as a human and not as a woman. People like to say that I am a woman activist. I don’t deny that I am a woman activist or a feminist but first and foremost I am a human rights activist. I believe in equality and therefore I don’t see myself as a woman first. This applies to my poetry and art as well.

Your poem For The Women of Afghanistan has a strong local flavor. Have you ever been to Afghanistan?
I have never been to Afghanistan. When I lived in Pakistan in the eighties I worked for UNHCR. I heard about Afghans’ sufferings first hand and later when I moved to Denmark and Taliban came to power I decided to write the poem For The Women of Afghanistan and got it published in 1998. Ever since its publication this poem has received great deal of attention. It has been anthologised, presented by students, taught in colleges and school classrooms by professors and teachers around the world including India, and has been used in art and crafts as well as paintings by artists.

What forced you into exile \? Tell us about your life in the US.
What forced me to leave my country of birth was the current regime of Iran. Your readers may be familiar with the ruling regime of Iran. Just to give you an example, in the last fifty three days there have been seventy nine executions in Iran. Twenty seven of those were public hangings. Twelve of those broadcast on the Iranian TV. Women have no right to divorce, or to leave the country unless they have permission from their husband or, if they are single, from their father or guardian. For as long as I lived in Iran and remember and from what I read and hear, the political activists are routinely imprisoned and executed. There have been massacre of ethnic minorities such as Kurds. Recently 700 hundred Iranian Baloch were arrested to be executed. University students are hanged under false accusations. When I turned 14 I simply decided I had to leave the country. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese philosopher and writer: “He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.” Today I no longer see myself just as an Iranian. I am a Danish citizen as well as a U.S. resident and that said, I like to once again say that I see myself as a human and not a citizen of this or that country. In answer to your question about my life in the U.S., I like to say that in my opinion the United States is definitely not perfect but it is the one country where democracy is at its best.

US now placed its eyes on Iran. Do you think war is imminent?
I don’t know if war is on the cards or not but the world has been quiet when it comes to the human rights crimes committed by the Iranian regime. I believe they have to voice their outrage at these violations before everything else. Why has the world been quiet for the past thirty years while our best people have been killed in the prisons of the oppressive regime of Iran? Why all we hear is 'Peace' and never do we hear 'Democracy'! How can peace work when there is no democracy?

If there's war, as an Iranian living in the US, you may be put in complex situation...
No. I don’t believe my life will be any more complex than it was when I was living in Iran. In fact I believe the United States is the one country where my dignity as a human being is never questioned.

How you evaluate the governments in Iran and US.
There is no comparison between the Iranian regime and the U.S. government. The Iranian regime commits crimes against its own people and supports terrorism around the world. The United States has a democratic government and if people are dissatisfied with one political group they have the chance to elect a different one four years later. Even when they U.S. government commits war crimes in Abu Gharib prison in Iraq we hear and read about it and people get convicted. The same doesn’t apply to the ruling regime of Iran.

You have been criticising Iranian government, so is there a chance that you might be in danger when you go back to Iran? Have you visited Iran lately?
I don’t travel to Iran. I left Iran twenty years ago. Ten years ago I traveled back to Iran because my grand mother had passed away. That was when I decided to voice my concerns even more. A year or two years later I published an opinion article where I wrote my observations and experience of the visit. Here is what I wrote for the Iranian Times:
“With pain and sorrow I saw a dreadful, poverty-stricken, dark Iran on the eve of the new millennium. My childhood dream of the year 2000, for the most part, looked something like rocket-shaped cars, lunar colonies, and electric toothbrushes! It was disillusioning to find Tehran 2000 as a city of beggars, of barefoot children with cheeks of tan and dust, of the dark-red sun trying to breathe through the heavy dark clouds of municipal mismanagement. Iran 2000 is an economy based on subsidies, to fill people's bellies just enough so they can survive. Survive to see more of the misery. Survive to receive token dowries and pastries for the blood of their raped virgins in the prisons of oppression. Survive to see fellow human beings buried in a hole up to their chests, stoned to death by a bloodthirsty mob of howling beasts. Survive to find that questioning, yes even questioning this bloodbath, is punishable by death. So much for our economy. So much for our individual and intellectual freedom. So much for justice, and above all so much for our human dignity.”

Let us go back in time a bit. What is your opinion on the Iranian revolution? Do you think what was originally a progressive revolution got hijacked?
Iranians in hope and search for democracy started the revolution. Unfortunately the outcome, only two days after the regime change, was killing, and stabbing the army and intelligence officers in the streets. Such bloodshed is never a good start for any change. Later Bahais, Kurds, and political activists become the targets for the new dictators.
 

After the September 11 attack, we often hear that people from Middle East and Asia are under suspicion in US and Europe...
Yes. I do feel so when I go to the airport. Recently my husband, the director of a research center in Washington, D.C. was humiliated on the airplane and his safety was put in danger by the flight attendant when he was on his way back from a business trip. But the United States is where we can voice our concern and are heard.

Tell us something about Iranian writers in exile...
Exiled writers are contributing a lot, not only to the Persian literature but to the world literature as well. Exiles and immigrant writers and poets have, throughout history, had an important role to play in discovering new frontiers in articulating experience and finding new means of expressions. Think of Russian exiles like Marian Tsvetaeva or Josef Brodsky. Think of German exiles like Paul Celan. The same applies to Persian literature. Not many people might know the bright exiled Iranian writers now. But in time they will.

Iranian films have been appreciated the world over.. do you follow Iranian cinema?
I like some Iranian movies. Movies like Gaav (the Cow) by Dariush Mehrjui or Baad Maa Raa Baa Khod Khaahad Bord (The Wind Will Carry Us) by Abbas Kiarostami. But in general I am not an Iranian film buff. That said, I am happy about the success of Iranian movies on the international stage. I think it brings attention to richness of my culture and also exposes the problems we’re facing in Iran (in movies like Zendaan-e Zanaan, Women’s Prison). I just remembered reading an article in New York Times in 2001 in which the author, a renowned film critic, had called Kiarostami “arguably the most important filmmaker alive”. That’s a pretty big statement by a big paper! I am not crazy about Kiarostami’s cinema but that statement made me happy!

In Decolonizing the mind, Ngugi wa Thiong'o argues that the primary duty of any writer is to write in his\her own language first. However, writers like you prefer to write in English. What do you say about this?
I write in English but also in Persian and Danish. In fact I am one of the few Iranian contemporary poets who write in rhymes as well as the free style in Persian. Any language the writer feels comfortable with is great to write in.

There are human rights violations happening in the US as well. As you know, writers like Mumia Abu Jamal and Marlyn Buck are now in prison. What are your views on this?
I disagree. There are not many Human Rights violations in the United States. If there were, we would hear about it. How many cases are there like Mumia abu Jamal? As for Marilyn Buck she and 6 others were convicted in the Resistance Conspiracy Case of the bombing of the United States Capitol Building to protest the US invasion of Grenada.
 

Iran: Female Doctor's Prison Death Causes Public Outcry
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

By Farangis Najibullah

November 23, 2007

Zahra Bani Yaghoub was a 27-year-old medical university graduate from Tehran who some two years ago volunteered to work in the western city of Hamadan. Bani Yaghoub was due to return to Tehran next year to complete her medical studies and become a specialist in urology. But instead she died in suspicious circumstances in Hamadan prison on October 13.  Eyewitnesses said she was arrested by Iran's morality police while walking with her fiance in a Hamadan city park. Her fiance was released an hour later, but she was kept in prison overnight.
The next day, her lifeless body was handed over to her parents with the police claiming she committed suicide by hanging herself.
"Now people see that even an ordinary person does not have basic security; and a person simply can get arrested on a street and, instead of returning home, their bodies are buried in a cemetery." -- journalist Isa Saharkhiz
Bani Yagoub's family, however, say they have no reason to believe that their daughter would take her own life.
Her father, who reportedly works at an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps facility, accuses the police of assaulting and murdering his daughter.
The family also says her brother had spoken with her over the phone 15 minutes before the time the police claim she killed herself. Bani Yaghoub's brother said there was no indication she was minutes away from taking her life.
The family says Bani Yaghoub's body was bruised and that there was blood in her nose and in her ears.
Bani Yaghoub's death has caused worries in Iranian society about basic civil liberties and personal safety.
Iran's state media has briefly reported the official version of the event. The independent media, however, have been covering all sides of the story and public reaction to her death.
Isa Saharkhiz, an independent journalist and a member of the Association of Press Freedom in Iran, says the details of this woman's tragic death in prison have reached the Iranian people through the country's independent media and foreign news agencies.
Saharkhiz says that under the Islamic regime, Iranians have somehow become accustomed to political activists or independent journalists being arrested and even killed in suspicious circumstances, but this ordinary woman's death while in custody has shocked society.
"Now people see that even an ordinary person does not have basic security; and a person simply can get arrested on a street and, instead of returning home, their bodies are buried in a cemetery," he tells RFE/RL. "It has become a very sensitive issue in our society and created many questions."
In an open letter to the head of the Iranian judiciary this week, a group of former Iranian parliamentarians called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances around Bani Yaghoub's death.
The Iranian Alumni Association of Majlis Representatives, which brings together more than 400 former Iranian parliamentarians, urged Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi to fully investigate the case in order to answer all outstanding questions.
Bani Yaghoub's death attracted more attention this week with high-profile lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi discussing the possibility of an autopsy being done.Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi (Fars)
Mehrangiz Kar, an Iranian-born, human-rights lawyer and author based in the United States, says whether the cause of death was a murder or a suicide, the police and judiciary are responsible for this tragic event.
"Who, how, and why could push such a young girl -- one who had a bright future ahead of her -- to the point of anxiety and despair?" she tells Radio Farda. "No matter what has happened, the authorities are responsible for this death."
Both Kar and Saharkhiz say the chances are slim that the authorities would hold any police officer or a prison worker responsible for Bani Yaghoub's death.
They say the authorities cannot ignore the case, which has taken on a high profile with all of the media coverage. But they believe officials will probably drag on the investigation for months and even years until publicity around it eventually fades.
Bani Yagoub's death in prison was similar to that of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer who was arrested while taking pictures outside Iran's notorious Evin prison in 2003. Kazemi later died amid allegations that she was severely beaten, tortured, and possibly raped in prison. Prison officials, however, said Kazemi had a stroke.
Earlier this year, Iran launched a "public security and moralization campaign" during which many citizens, including many women, were arrested and questioned for their alleged un-Islamic attitude, such as Western-style hairdos or outfits.
Unmarried men and women cannot walk together in public holding hands.
There are many cases in Iran when young men and women have been arrested for walking together. However, most of them were later released after paying a fine or receiving other punishments such as flogging.
 

Tribal leader: Evicting Iranian regime is only solution for Iraq

CNN News

CNN's Thomas Evans, Charley Keyes and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

November 23, 2007

The leader of a prominent group representing tribes in southern Iraq is calling for "the eviction of the Iranian regime from our homeland."
Sheik Jasim al-Kadhim, president of the Association of Nationalist and Independent Iraqi Tribes from the south, condemned what he called Iran's meddling in Iraq by those affiliated with Quds Force, an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The United States accuses the Quds Force of aiding Shiite militias in Iraq and has designated it as a terrorist group.
Al-Kadhim, speaking by phone Friday, said evicting the Iranian regime -- in particular from the southern Iraqi provinces -- is "the only solution and hopeful prospect for Iraq."
Al-Kadhim's comments represent another kink in the relationship between the two nations, who share the Shiite faith and whose friendliness toward each other has raised U.S. concerns.
Additionally, 300,000-plus Iraqi Shiites signed a petition calling for an end to what they call "Iranian terrorist interferences" and demanding the United Nations investigate the Islamic republic's involvement in Iraq.
The United States has been at the forefront of a bitter battle over Iran's nuclear program. Washington suspects Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran has said its program has only peaceful aims.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi Shiite groups announced they had completed the six-month process of gathering signatures for the petition.
The groups demand the United Nations "dispatch a delegation to investigate the four years [of] crimes in the southern provinces by the Iranian regime and its proxies," according to the Independent National Tribal Organization in Southern Iraq.
The petition has the support of 14 clergy members and 600 sheiks as well as the signatures of 25,000 women, the release said.
"The most painful stab on the back of the Shiites in Iraq by the Iranian regime has been its shameful abuse of Shiite religion to achieve its ominous ends," the petition said.
The People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran -- or Mujahedeen-e Khalq -- which seeks to overthrow the Islamic regime in Iran, also backs the petition.
The organization has been labeled a terrorist group by the United States, Iraq and Iran -- all for different reasons -- but it continues to operate in Iraq under the U.S. military's protection. The United States considers the group a source of valuable intelligence on Iran.
Iran has blamed the group for supporting Shiite insurgents, but the organization has said "these allegations are only to cover up the crimes of the Iranian regime and its mercenaries in Iraq," according to the Shiite group's statement.
Another Iran-Iraq tiff emerged this week when Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh announced upcoming talks that he said will "help to establish security and stability in Iraq and to dispel the tensions in the region."
According to Iran's Press TV, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini expressed concern about some of al-Dabbagh's remarks.
"Al-Dabbagh earlier said that as Iran had cut its support for insurgents in Iraq, Tehran and Washington should take advantage of the situation to hold a new round of talks," the report said. "Hosseini vehemently dismissed the accusations, calling on the Iraqi government not to be influenced by the [psychological war] waged by the U.S."
Al-Dabbagh's office then expressed "surprise and regret" at Hosseini's comments.
In the 1980s, Iran and Iraq fought a nearly decadelong war that left more than 1 million dead. The two countries have been working to improve ties since the U.S.-led invasion ushered in a Shiite-dominated government.
No date has been set for the expert-level talks, which will follow three earlier meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials in Baghdad. But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said another round of talks will occur in "the near future," according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, and the Swiss Embassy represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Some signs suggest tensions are easing: Iraqi and U.S. officials have indicated recently that Iran is using its influence to improve security in Iraq by restraining cross-border weapons flow and militia activity, and U.S. commanders released nine Iranian prisoners in Iraq this month.
 

Fundamentalist regimes post grave threats to women
Forum calls for examination of means to offer assistance
By Eileen Connelly, OSU

The Catholic Telegraph
December 14, 2007
ARCHDIOCESE — This past June, Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Louise Akers, co-coordinator of the congregation’s Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, was among the participants at a large international forum held in Villepinte, a small town north of Paris, France.
The objective of the gathering, comprised of more than 50,000 people — Iranians, along with supporters from the United States and Europe — was "to witness to an alternative way of governance while calling for an end to the systematic oppression carried out by the Mullahs (clerics), especially toward women whose rights are not acknowledged nor allowed," Sister Louise explained.
Iranian Mullahs persist in their oppressive fundamentalist regime, ruling in the name of Allah, Sister Louise said, noting that all fundamentalisms are extreme political and religious ideologies grounded in patriarchal tradition that manifest themselves through exclusive and oppressive doctrines, policies and structures.
In Iran, she said, these are demonstrated by the existence of military tribunals, stoning of women and imprisonment, torture or killing of dissidents. Sister Louise went on to quote Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, who noted the fundamentalists’ analysis of the status quo is that it’s being threatened, and said, "There’s a sense that the world is out of control and chaotic, and that if we can control our women then the world will be a safer place. That’s a real perception on the part of a lot of religious conservatives — Muslims, Catholics, Protestant fundamentalists."
At the forum, numerous international politicians addressed those gathered. Featured speaker Maryam Rajavi, President-Elect in Exile of Iran, spoke in favor of establishing a democratic Iran and against clerical policies that violate human rights. She also addressed the significance of the European Union’s recent identification of the Iranian Resistance Movement as a "terrorist group." Yet, the movement’s history and philosophy "contradict such a label," Sister Louise said. "The United States has also labeled them a ‘terrorist group.’ What sense does this make in light of the government labeling Iran as part of the ‘axis of evil.’"
The following objectives outlined by Rajavi counter the terrorist label and "challenge us to call for an alliance with rather than against the NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran)," added Sister Louise. "The United States and European Union need to listen to these alternative principles and relinquish their policy of appeasement toward the mullahs."
The objectives are:
The ballot box is the only criterion for legitimacy.
In Iran of tomorrow, we will respect all individual freedoms. Expression of opinion, speech and the media are completely free, and any censorship or inquisition is banned.
We support and are committed to the abolition of the death penalty.
The Iranian Resistance will establish the separation of the church and state. Any form of discrimination against the followers of all religions and denominations will be prohibited.
We believe in complete gender equality in political and social rights
We are committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and international covenants and conventions.
Our foreign policy will be based on peaceful coexistence. . .
The day was also filled with music, celebration and intense conversations, according to Sister Louise. "On my way home, a song by folk singer Holly Near came to mind," she said. "I believe her refrain captures the grounding and necessity for an alternative to fundamentalisms — that of a pluralistic posture toward all in the human community.
Sister Louise offered suggestions for further reading and reflection for area Catholics interested in learning more about the issue including Karen Armstrong’s Battle for God (fundamentalism in the three Abrahamic faiths); Diana Eck’s A New Religious America (pluralistic approach to religion and faith); and American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, a one-time speech writer for former President Richard Nixon, who sounds an alert related to theocratic characteristics within the U.S. government. She also recommended visiting www.theocracywatch.org and www.womenfreedforum.com for more information.