Iranian People, Scholars Caught in the Middle

I had just finished writing this for a Friend blog when this article was posted. So, first read my piece and then this story.......

I have been wondering about all these photo's and films documenting the brutality of these shameless butchers against the Iranian Youth and Women. Why so much of it and why now? why is there so much state photography and distribution of it? My conclusion is that they are doing it on purpose. They are trying to frighten the silent majority to stay quite and make sure nobody is breve enough to stand up to them. Since the last few years, suspecting that the world community is gearing up against them and that they are getting serious about it, at first ANTARI NEJAD started his holocaust denial bullshit in order to get the people behind him, then when that failed, they started to beat the WAR drams, saying that the Americans are going to bomb Iran, and when the majority of the people welcomed such a move in other to be able to get ride of the mullah's, now they have changed tack. As everyday they lose more man and power in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, they are now inflicting this repression on the ordinary folks back in Iran to say that they still have power at home and can cause damage, even if it is to their own people. They are saying to the world community: LAY OFF or we will KILL MILLIONS in IRAN.Therefore, I will be a little more cautious about these bastard's intentions from now on.

I am sorry about educated people like this chap taking a lot of bullshit and justifying himself by saying that he has lectured here a there and has been in mullah's jail- no though he has been converted to their camp otherwise he would not have ended up in America.

HE SAYS :

If the U.S. government truly wants to support civil society movements in Iran, ( THEY DON'T- IF THEY DID THEY WOULD NOT HAVE UNLEASH THE MAD PEANUT FARMER ON US- BAHRAMERAD)
it has a far greater chance of success by establishing a dialogue with the Iranian government, ( YOU MEAN TALK TO TERRORIST AND CRIMINALS- NO THANKS- BAHRAMERAD)rather than adopting ill-fated policies.
Dialogue between the two countries is bound to prevent the hard-line government from suppressing its civil society ( NOT NECESSARILY- NOT WHEN THESE IDIOTS ARE SEEKING THE END OF THE WORLD AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE MEHDI- BAHRAMERAD)
and would facilitate greater communication between Iranian activists and their counterparts abroad. ( SO WHAT _ WHAT IS THE WORTH OF THIS GREATER COMMUNICATION- BY ITSELF IT MEANS NOTHING- IT DOES NOT RESULT IN OPEN SOCIETY OR A FREE SOCIETY- BAHRAMERAD.)

Now the rest of this bullshit ( the kind that that other idiot- Khatami has been saying for the last 10 years or so )

Iranian People, Scholars Caught in the Middle : May 26, 2007 - Contra Costa Times - ( what the fuck is this publication now ? ) Omid Memarian

The May 7 arrest of Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson Center, by the Iranian intelligence service is yet another sign the government there is clamping down on expatriates with ties to civil society activists abroad. More important, the arrest reveals that the true victims of the animosity between the two states are the Iranian people: the intellectuals and activists caught in between. Esfandiari is not the first Iranian-American scholar to be arrested under the auspices of "espionage" during a visit to Iran. And she is not likely to be the last. Darioush Zahedi, professor of political science at UC Berkeley, as well as Ramin Jahanbeglou, a prominent philosopher and former scholar at the National Endowment for Democracy, shared a similar fate in 2003 and 2006, respectively. They were imprisoned and forced into solitary confinement, despite no proof of espionage, until they were finally released in response to international pressures. What is clear is that the government in Iran is willing to combat any efforts construed as attempts at "regime change," even if it victimizes its own citizens. Arrests such as these are intended as a warning to all civil society activists working to create bridges between the two societies. I experienced this sort of policing, and I have heard their message loud and clear. In 2004, I met Esfandiari in Tehran. She invited me to present a paper on "Civil Society and Youth" at the Woodrow Wilson Center. She felt it was important to shed light on the wave of current activities of the younger generation who were having a great impact on various aspects of society. I accepted. In the following months, I completed my research, finalized the paper, applied for a visa and headed toward the United States, only to be returned to Iran by U.S. security agents in Frankfurt, Germany, without any explanation. Within 10 days, I was arrested by Iranian security agents, interrogated many times and sent to solitary confinement for 55 days. I was questioned about my trip to the United States, and when I said that the trip never materialized, they insisted they had photographs and a film of me in the United States lecturing against the government. "You are mistaken; unfortunately, I -- like most of you gentlemen -- am on the 'No-Fly List,'" I said. In interrogation, they repeatedly questioned me about Esfandiari and other expatriates who tend to invite activists to speak abroad. Their primary concern was whether we were getting paid by the U.S. government to overthrow the current regime; if so, they wanted to know the details of our plans and the names of others involved. I was released and eventually made my way to the United States, though the same questions are put to detainees today. In February 2006, the United States announced it would be "reaching out to the people of Iran." This entailed financial support to various civil society activists, universities and media. Though the policy elicited a flood of objections -- not from the government in Iran, but from the activists and human rights supporters themselves -- the U.S. government carried on. The activists knew that this policy would serve as another excuse for the current regime to suppress their efforts, in lieu of the United States' involvement in the "Velvet Revolution" in Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004). None of the organizations or people targeted by Iran's security agents have ever benefited from such funds. Most activists in Iran believe democracy and social justice should be a grass-roots effort developing from within. International isolation, accentuated by sanctions, has only deepened the gap in understanding between Iranians and the rest of the world; Esfandiari has attempted to bridge this gap by providing opportunities for Iranian activists and academics to present an insight into the recent transformations and changes within the civil society in Iran. On one hand, she is condemned by the government for trying to instigate change within civil society in Iran, while on the other hand she is accused by Iranian opposition groups of supporting the regime in Iran for creating dialogue with scholars abroad. If the U.S. government truly wants to support civil society movements in Iran, it has a far greater chance of success by establishing a dialogue with the Iranian government, rather than adopting ill-fated policies. Dialogue between the two countries is bound to prevent the hard-line government from suppressing its civil society and would facilitate greater communication between Iranian activists and their counterparts abroad. It would also provide a healthy environment for scholars to exchange ideas and consequently create change within their respective societies. The Islamic Republic's greatest fear is not of sanctions or military action, but of its own people who are earnestly seeking a democratic and open society.

Memarian is an Iranian journalist and civil society activist.
He has won several awards, including Human Rights Watch's highest honor in 2005, the Human Rights Defender Award. He has also been a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.