1.

I want to start this by reminding that right now, 2 women political prisoners Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi are facing death sentence in Iran – the charge is Bagh (an Islamic judicial term which means: war against god). In the last year alone, this regime has executed more than 800 people – more than the US police kills blacks on streets.

Today here, I mainly want to give a factual sense of how IRI rules over nearly 90 million of my people— and your people in Iran. and I do not want to go into the world historic conditions that gave rise to forces of Islamic Fundamentalism in 20th century and in Iran led to formation of IRI. Bob Avakian has analyzed this and has put forward the crucially important concept of 2 outmoded which has proven to be correct many times and continues to do so. I encourage you to study his historical materialist analysis and concept of 2 outmoded very carefully but let me explain some of the evidence that proves this theory and proves there is nothing good or progressive about IRI.

2.

During Woman Life Freedom uprising more than 500 people were killed, many deliberately were blinded by bullets (made in Germany and other European countries), and few thousands were arrested. Young rebellious women as young as Nika Shahkarami who was 16 years old were targeted, raped and killed in streets. The suppression was more deadly in areas like Kurdistan and Baluchistan. In Zahedan, only on one day that is called now the bloody Friday, 90 people were killed brutally. The high school girls who had taken off their scarfs (including in the religious city of Qom which is considered Vatican or seat of Shia clergy) were gas bombed by fatwa (Fatwa is religious permission issued by religious authorities).

All of this brutality happened because people, especially women were rising up against one of the most important ideological pillars of IR: Mandatory hijab and thus against the whole regime. Mandatory hijab was the first step in imposing the standards of Islamic Sharia on women, in imposing the standards of traditional Islamic ethics and the Islamic patriarchal system on the relationship between men and women and all over society. And has been the symbol of Islamic rule over society and inferior position of women. Hijab was never a matter of a scarf or a personal choice, but a matter of oppressive relation concentrated in it. Whoever disobeyed this would face Gashte Ershad or morality police (Like Jina Amini, many other girls experienced this including me), We got arrested, sent to some centers to promise to not repeat this crime! Or if we repeat it, we would face fines or prison.

3.

The systematic oppression against women is woven to the laws of Islamic republic which is based on Sharia law. According to Article 1105 of the Civil Procedure Law in Iran, a woman is obliged to "submit" and obey her husband both in daily affairs and in sexual matters. Against this submission, the woman is considered entitled to receive living expenses. According to this principle, a woman should give in to any kind of sexual desire of a man in any condition and in any situation. Coercion in sexual relations or rape in Iran has a legal and religious basis. Buying and selling of girls over 9 years old by a "legal guardian" who is a father or paternal ancestor is legal and is not considered forced marriage because the father or paternal ancestor agrees to it. So basically, it means Paternal parents can give a girl over 9 years of age to any man for rape. While Same-sex relationship and marriage is illegal and gay people can even face death sentence for practicing homosexuality. Women who have sex outside marriage can be stoned to death based on Sharia. Women’s subjugation is symbolised by mandatory Islamic Hijab and the right of male members of family to kill their daughter, wife, sister if they committed sex outside religious boundaries—honour killing which had vanished in Iran, made a comeback during the rule of IRI. Women cannot divorce, cannot get abortion, cannot get custody of their children over 7 years old, cannot travel abroad or even work if their husbands do not permit. So yes, Handmaid’s Tale is based on reality under Islamic republic in Iran. And this has been the story since day one of IRI for over 45 years now.

Some facts from the day after and early days

4

The day after this regime seized power, Ayatollah Khomeini sent his butcher-priest called Ayatollah Khalkhali with unlimited authorization on an execution trip around the country. He arbitrarily arrested and executed immediately intellectuals, teachers, students who were known to be communist. Shocking pictures of mass executions are on the internet.

Two weeks after coming to power Khomeini called for mandatory Islamic Hijab which was faced with a nationwide protest by women. A year later, tens of thousands of teachers were purged from the educational system for being un-Islamic. Music instruments and art performance of women were banned. The IRI forged its main military wing, the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Revolution (Sepah-e-Pasdaran-e-Enghelab Eslami) in war against the Kurdish and Turkman and Arab people between 1979 -1981.

5

In 1980 Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the Islamization of the universities. They killed many students during implementation of this religious order. According to regime’s statistics, in a matter of two years the number of the university teachers halved—from 16877 to 7835. This counter-revolution was called: “cultural revolution”. Here I want you to take a moment to think how IR has been misusing very important words and filling them with completely different meanings that made people confused. such as calling a regime change from Shah reactionary regime to Mullahs’ reactionary regime with help of western countries as a revolution. Calling an anti-enlightenment and backward religious ideology, as anti-imperialism! And calling oppression and subordination of women in patriarchal family and society as dignity for women! So, we really have to take back these words and redefine them. I will come back to some of these later.

In 1981 all workers, students, teachers, nurses’ “councils” were banned and many arrested and later executed. Every kind of party was outlawed and thousands of left activists as well as activists of an Islamic organization called Mujahedin were arrested in 1982 and many were executed in matter of days. Many of the executed who were from Left and Communist organizations were mass buried in Khavaran cemetery without any names on their graves. This is a cemetery in Tehran vicinity which belongs to Baha’i faith. And since the communists are considered “unclean” they were buried in Bahai cemetery who are equally considered out of Islamic faith and therefore “unclean”.

6

The war with Iraq started in 1980 and lasted 8 years and the guiding slogan was to capture the “holly land” in Iraq such as Najaf and Karbala. They got hundreds of thousands of young men massacred by deliberately sending them on the mine  fields in order to clear the way for advance of the  revolutionary guard. After IRI accepted seize fire with Iraq in 1988, there were nearly ten thousand political prisoners in Iran – in summer of 1988 more than half were given death sentence in 2-minute re-trials and were executed in matter of 2 weeks. Their bodies were carried out of Evin and other prisons to cemeteries by meat vans. All of the above are documented by human rights groups inside the country as well as Amnesty International and other agencies.

I can go on for another several hours to enumerate just facts of crimes of this regime. And yet I still have not covered IRI’s crimes against Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghani and Syrian people. Just to mention 3 facts: in Beirut the IRI forged the Hezbollah by opening the way for massacre of the Palestinian refugees in Beirut to operations of Israeli butcher Sharon. Our party have investigated this through Palestinian comrades who were in the field helping and supporting the Palestinian refugees. IRI worked with the US army in Iraq in 2004 to brutally put down the Fallujah uprising and other crimes of Ghods force of IRI under Ghasem Suleimani have leaked out through Wikileaks and covered by the Intercept. Go search for yourself. In Syria Ghasem Suleimani is called butcher Suleimani, butcher of the kids.

7

Yet, this regime is often considered “anti-Imperialist” by some assorted Left forces (not just in Iran but also Germany, UK, USA, etc.) With this kind of anti-imperialist who really needs imperialists!

And recently you can see growth of that kind of a trend among pro-Palestinian people in the universities. Generally, this is due to lack of understanding of the real nature of the IRI as well as what really “imperialism” is. But those who theorize IRI’s so called anti-imperialism and glorify a filthy alliance called “axis of resistance” are into instrumentalist reactionary position. They are exact mirror image of those who defend Gaza genocide by all kinds of equally reactionary bullshit about Jews having a Holocaust pass to carry out their own holocaust. Among these people, especially those who outrageously call themselves “communist” and “revolutionary” are not to be trusted for anything positive for Palestinian people or for any other people at all. They are opportunists who are siding with not only a criminal fascist theocracy such as IRI but also with Russian imperialists and Chinese imperialists who are trying to replace and take over Middle East from the US and  Western imperialist powers. You should check out crimes of Russian Wagner mercenary army in Africa and economic plunder of that continent by China.  The specific “axis of resistance” people that we know of are political wing of Russian imperialist war mercenaries. They are mentored by the pro-Putin Communist Party of Russia who still wields the old red banner with hammer and sickle of USSR time. We have these kinds of “communists” in Iran—the Tudeh party and Fedayeen Majority who united with the IRI to suppress revolutionary communists – including in Amol insurrection as well as aiding the interrogators of the IRI in prison against the revolutionary communists. This story is amply documented and evidenced.

8

This phony thesis of “anti-imperialism” and “axis of resistance to imperialism” propaganda is supposed to match up the Western imperialists’ ideological war” against Russian and Chinese imperialists “democracy” versus “autocracy” etc. Those who have rallied around each of these poles are just foot soldiers and duped for one or another imperialist power. And each side has their own dark ages religious fundamentalists who raise the bar of reactionary-ness.

Don’t be chumps for the reactionaries and imperialists. We the people of the Middle East need to forge our own movement for revolution with real revolutionary communist leadership based on New Communism and leadership of Bob Avakian.

Everyone listen it up because I am now issuing a challenge.  I am issuing a challenge to the representatives of the IRI. the Islamic Republic of Iran.  I am issuing a challenge to them — upstairs in their mission — to come downstairs,  to come outside, and to face the women the LGBTQ  people that are here,  the artists and the activists that are here. Come downstairs and make your case.

Make your case for why you rule through execution, crushing dissent and basic human rights.  Make your unmakeable case. [crowd responds: “They can't do it!  Come Down! Come Down!”] Come outside, you reprehensible Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran! Come down make your unmakeable case for why you are crushing dissent and the humanity of all that live in Iran.

I want to make it very clear that, while we oppose this oppressive regime, we stand against any all attempts by us imperialism to attack, to meddle and to strangle the people of Iran through sanctions that have already  cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. That's right!

Look, we live in, and we face a world imperialist system, a system of exploitation and oppression.  Our choices are not between Western imperialism and its apartheid outpost Israel or dark ages Islamic —or any —fundamentalism. A whole other way, a whole new world is possible through an all the way Revolution. And what we do, how we take up this fight to free the political prisoners in Iran, how energetically we take this up and spread this message — that has everything to do [with] and will contribute powerfully to the cause of emancipating all of humanity.

Free Toomaj Now! Free Toomaj Now! Free all Iran's political prisoners all Iran's political prisoners!

Thank you.

My name is Mona Roshan. When I was 20 years old, I was arrested by the Islamic Republic of Iran, because of my activities as a revolutionary communist woman. I was imprisoned for three years, giving birth to my first child while I was under torture by the Islamic Republic.

Forty-five years have passed since the rebellion against Khomeini’s compulsory hijab decree. The war on women by the theocratic fascist regime of Iran is still going full force. The 45 years of resistance by women reached its height in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising of 2022-2023, but as yet has not been able to go beyond protest and become a revolution to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran. After the repression of the Mahsa/Jina uprising, coinciding with the Netan-Nazi genocide in Gaza, the fascist supreme leader Khamenei felt that he could proceed freely, more than ever before, to carry out even more repression against women, and murder more prisoners.

In the past seven months, the repression against women has intensified and executions have accelerated. Every five hours, a prisoner is executed in Iran. As we speak, political prisoners go on a hunger strike every Tuesday to protest against the executions. Some Kurdish political prisoners who have been imprisoned for more than 10 years have been part of those executed.

Police attacks on women without hijabs in the cities have expanded along with special operations against female students—with the Department of “Security” handing over arrested female students in groups to police forces. The police have made the release of those arrested conditional on virginity and addiction tests (according to the statement released by Social Studies students of the University of Tehran, broadcast on BBC on 6th of June 2024).

The rape of women in prison and detention centers has been documented by Amnesty International.

Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian human rights advocate who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has requested that her upcoming trial be held in public, so she can expose the rape of detained and imprisoned women by the regime’s male authorities.

Iranian women activists are documenting the rape and sexual assault of women prisoners by the authorities. I was one of the victims of sexual harassment by Islamist torturers many years ago. All those who fight against the Islamic Republic are considered “at war with God,” and in this war, any woman who is captured is treated as a slave who can be sexually assaulted according to Islamic laws. Sexual assaults against women have always been a component part of reactionary wars. But in the Islamic Republic, a legal fatwa/decree is issued to “legalize” this rape.

When the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979, Khomeini, then the supreme leader, issued a decree making the Islamic hijab mandatory. As I mentioned earlier, there was a great mass revolt against this which lasted five to six days. In that revolt, the Association of Fighting Women, which was formed by the cadres of the Union of Communists of Iran, now the Communist Party of Iran (MLM), played an important role. Women were the first forces to challenge the Islamic Republic. Many leftists at that time considered the revolt to be insignificant and unnecessary because it was not about the “rights of workers,” despite the fact that reality shows the oppression of women is indeed a sharp fault line and a very explosive contradiction in Iranian society.

With the Islamic Republic in power, traditional forms of the oppression of women were added to more modern forms of oppression, and this social contradiction became even more explosive. The Islamic Republic brought forth a strange combination of Islamic slavery and capitalist-imperialist social relations—and tightened the chains on women.

The case of Iran illustrates the point made by Bob Avakian that wherever religious fundamentalism prevails, extreme patriarchy and aggressive misogyny will prevail.

Let me say some things about imperialism.

The Islamic Republic and Islamic fundamentalists have propagated and promoted a twisted concept of imperialism that not only does not correspond to reality, but is also highly reactionary. In short, it is against any rational thought, culture, and relations that arose after the rise of capitalism and the anti-feudal revolutions in the 18th century, whose progressive aspects were compressed into the “Enlightenment” movement. One of the Enlightenment’s important achievements was critical thinking, scientific and rational thought in opposition to idealistic and superstitious religious views that reinforce the system of serfdom and servitude.

Today all of those outmoded views have been integrated into traditional patriarchal relations.

But it is important to note that the Islamic fundamentalists present their reactionary views as “Anti-Imperialist struggle” or “Liberation from Imperialism”—using the fact that the “West,” which was the cradle of these anti-feudal developments, became a destructive, plundering, and colonialist vampire. Yes, these fundamentalist forces use the fact of what imperialism is to portray their reactionary return to traditional views and oppressive theocratic social relations as “emancipatory.”

While integrating themselves within the framework of dependence on the global imperialist capitalist system, they revived and promoted traditional, oppressive social relations—especially the traditional relations related to the oppression of women. Therefore, in Iran, the imprisonment of women in loose clothes and hijab, and honor killings, have been legalized.

Unfortunately, many intellectuals dissatisfied with imperialist oppression helped formulate this reactionary worldview and social program. Take, for example, Ali Shariati in Iran, who was inspired by the likes of Frantz Fanon in Algeria, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Léopold Senghor in Senegal...

He advocated “returning to self,” returning to Shiite Islam, as the way to liberation. In this way, he prepared the theoretical basis for the Ayatollah’s regime to rise to power in Iran. One of his students is Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir Hossain Mossavie, who integrated the hijab into an anti-colonial discourse and tool for the Ayatollah’s regime to use.

In the view of these theorists, the unveiling of women was collective aggression of the imperialist West against the Iranian people. This theory [of unveiling as a Western creation] did a great service in diverting attention away from the fact that in the age of capitalist imperialism all countries, regardless of what version of government they have, are integrated into this world system and operate and function largely according to the laws of world capital. And the capitalist exploiting classes, regardless of their particular ideology, act in accordance with the laws of capitalism and in the service of the requirements of exploitation and super-exploitation for profit.

In Iran, capitalist laws drag women into the abyss of capitalist exploitation. The Islamic Sharia superstructure tries to keep them in the chains of religious bondage. It is interesting that Rahnavard’s criterion for the “perfect woman” includes both of these. She says that a “perfect woman” is one who is both active in society and has “originality.” By being “active” she means becoming a capitalist employee under the dynamics of capitalism. And by “authenticity,” she means to submit to the bondage of the traditional/religious patriarchy. And the observance of the Islamic hijab by women is a signal to the religious capitalist system that acquiesces to both capitalist exploitation and traditional religious oppression.

I am giving this background because many intellectuals who want to join the struggle against imperialism resort to outmoded theories instead of a scientific approach: the new communism. You most likely have encountered these kinds of views in the college encampments that have been set up in many universities to defend the Palestinian people. They mainly look at the problem as colonialism rather than the whole capitalist-imperialist system itself. Even though they call their movement “The movement of liberation from Imperialism” or “Anti-Colonialism”—nevertheless, their understanding is not to end all outmoded systems of oppression and exploitation.

There are many contradictions in the world and there are certain particularities to these contradictions, including the oppression of women and patriarchal relations in the world. These contradictions are intensifying with increasing ferocity. The fight between the fascist Republicans and genocidal Democrats in America is intensifying as well.

These two outmodeds are not choices for humanity, with their oppression of women, imperialist wars, destruction of the environment, and the genocide in Gaza… these are all part of the basic functioning of this system.

But what should we do? Or, what is to be done?

While we are engaging in many different battles against all of these crimes against humanity, we revolutionaries are waging these battles with the aim and goal of a real revolution.

The revolution we need requires revolutionary theory, which has been further developed by Bob Avakian. This is the new communism. “It is a continuation of, but also represents a qualitative leap beyond, and in some important ways a break with, communist theory as it had been previously developed.”

Just as the socialist revolutions of the 20th century, first in the Soviet Union and then in China, would not have been possible without Marxism, which was founded and developed by Marx, and further developed by Lenin and Mao, socialist revolutions in our time are not possible without the new communism developed by Bob Avakian.

Casa de Cultura Las Estancias in the city of Medellín hosted a full Day of Culture. This cultural space in the downpressed neighborhood of Comuna 8 has been called “the birthplace of many rap groups," as described by rapper El Mocho Barrio. A bold and beautiful mural of Toomaj appeared on the wall in front of the Casa de Cultura. A series of large boards around the venue illustrated the stories of Iran’s different political prisoners in an up close and personal way. There were enlargements of IEC’s Emergency Appeal and also information about the Quemar La Jaula campaign. Volunteers gave a presentation followed by hip hop performances from community rappers to a lively audience. The next day, a number of youth who had attended the Day of Culture on the day before, then joined onstage at the Festival R-A-P holding up lettering that spelled out Free Toomaj.

Intervención por la libertad de Toomaj - Festival Erre Apé 2024 (Medellín, Colombia)

Rapper El Mocho Barrio, who later led the audience in a call and response, introduced the event: “Tonight I am with a big movement. We are protesting because a brother of ours in the nation of hip hop, a rapper, is going to be murdered, a rapper in Iran for speaking the truth, for supporting the movement of women, for supporting justice, for supporting the struggle, for supporting the truth in Iran….”

Another MC added: “Brothers and sisters, in a world where injustice and oppression are our daily bread, the people who stand up to protest all this are silenced and oppressed…. That can’t happen in any part of the world…. So today I do raise my hand and raise my voice, not just for Toomaj and not just because he is a rapper, because he is much more than that. We are one single humanity and I raise my hand, not just for him but for all the people whose freedom has been ripped from them unjustly… [applause]”

We are the successors of those millions of women who, since March 1911, have taken to the streets all over the world for the right to vote and in solidarity with those women workers from the sweatshops of Lawrence who demanded “bread and roses” for all. We have lived under patriarchy for thousands of years while this oppressive relationship was justified as “natural” by religion and pseudo-science.

This March 8, 103 years have passed since this was designated as International Women’s Day at the 2^nd  International Communist Women’s  Meeting in Moscow, and 45 years since the women’s uprising against Khomeini’s mandatory hijab decree in Iran. We are the successors of the rebellious women who made our commitment quite clear to the Islamic Republic during the Jina uprising, shouting “You have made the compulsory hijab a symbol of our subjugation, we will burn your symbols and end patriarchy!”

The patriarchy that in Iran takes the form of mandatory hijab, in Afghanistan takes the form of  keeping women at home and barring them from getting an education; in Turkey, it takes the form of  femicide and violence against women; in Palestine, it takes the form of war, humiliation and the rape of women;  in Mexico, the form of the disappearances of women; in Argentina, when Miley came to power, it took the form of an attack against women’s abortion rights; in the US it takes the form of abolishing the right to abortion. Europe (Italy, the Netherlands, France) and China are making return to the traditional role of women in the family and family values headline political debates. All over the world, millions of women and LGBTQ+ are oppressed.

The international labor market has become “feminized” and poverty has become “feminized.”  Women make up an increasing share of not just low-wage service jobs, but of temporary jobs, work in the informal sector, and in the slavery of prostitution in trafficking networks.

Patriarchy is global and so is women’s struggle against the global capitalist system!

The whole framework of the globalist capitalist system is intertwined with male-supremacist/patriarchal relations, and cannot survive without them.  It has viciously attacked even the slightest changes in the in the status of women that have been achieved in recent decades, and promotes a culture of hatred and subjugation of women. Especially in this time, capitalist crises and imperialist contention demand a new order [in the world].  In the response to the problems constantly generated by the functioning of the imperialist capitalist system, it has produced reactionary alternatives [ranging] from fundamentalism to fascism, alternatives that threaten not only women’s lives, but all of humanity.

Today, Palestine is one of the bloodiest expressions of this contention between reactionary alternatives.  It is our blood that is shed in Palestine while people wait in line for "humanitarian aid," yet there is no waiting line for the bombs that fall on our heads.

There is no solution to this situation created by the imperialist countries of the global north and their dependent capitalist countries (of either variety, oppressive Islamic, or "secular and democratic" ), other than internationalist struggle and solidarity.

The women of the world are a single body that, in order to free themselves from the chains of male supremacy/patriarchy, must liberate all humanity from the chains of oppressive and exploitative relations, from traditional property relations and from the outdated ideas and values [they give rise to].

Let's join together and raise awareness of the problem that confronts us and its solution. Without waging this conscious struggle, the potential of women will be diverted and and squandered by various strata and [kept within the bounds] of the ruling classes. We have been fighting and winning some battles for over a hundred years, but our great victory will be to overthrow the ruling class.

This March 8th, let’s take to the streets in our common struggle against capitalism and the patriarchy intertwined with it, and shout out our common pain and fury!

Baloch Women'sMovement @balochwomenmovementt,
Bread and Roses (Turkey) @ekmekvegul,
Burn The Cage @burnthecage, 
Free Nahid @free.nahid,
Institute for Women's Social Equality in Afghanistan,
je.cocreation @je.cocreation,
Osyan @maosyangarim, 
Uxan Global Media @uxanmedia,
Woman Life Freedom Finland @nev.suomi,
Youth in Exile @bahamad_fa/@bahamad_en

Download a one-page excerpt of this letter to distribute.

Greetings to you and to the rest of the imprisoned comrades! With enthusiasm and attention, I read Angelina Jolie's interview with you³, and listened to your message at the Nobel ceremony, which was read by your precious children. Again, as always, you tried to show the brutal, dark-mindedness and murderous nature of the Islamic Republic, to be a justice-advocate for all the prisoners, and to cry out against the suffering of the people, especially the women. Thank you for your persistent and breathtaking efforts to expose the regime’s repressive torture apparatus, for showing the centrality of the struggle to free the political prisoners to the way forward, and to the overthrow of this regime. In the face of the dirty attacks by reactionaries, and sometimes by ignorant friends, stay strong and hold your head high.

We live in a world where reality is deliberately concealed, where facts are deliberately and methodically distorted and twisted, so that the truth about this obsolete world order that exists today and its horrifying outcomes appear to be “normal,” part of the human condition, and to make getting rid of this system seem impossible and unnecessary. In such a situation, where discovering the truth and understanding its relationship to emancipation and to fighting for it can be considered the biggest crime, there is no more powerful tool than seeing reality, discovering the truth and shouting it out, no matter the cost to us.

Dear Narges: I well understand the limitations of prison, but you yourself made it clear that, “I will never let prison stand in my way.” And up to now, you have shown that these words are not just a slogan. Your voice and the voices of our fellow prisoners from behind the walls of Evin have great power and influence, and now with the Nobel Prize, they are being echoed worldwide. It is important that this get fused with the global movement against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. This Peace Prize is awarded at a time when we are witnessing the normalization of [war] crimes in the Middle East. Humanity is standing on the brink of an existential abyss, and the people of Iran and Palestine are part of this humanity that is at risk of being destroyed.

Sometimes events outside of our control will part the heavens like a thunderbolt, revealing the truth to hundreds of millions of people in a way that talking to them for 20 years could not have achieved. The genocidal war on Gaza being waged by Israel and the U.S. did this. Twenty thousand people have been killed so far, and it is unclear how many more will die, and where else in the Middle East it might flare up. For 45 years, the Islamic Republic has been calling itself the protector of the Palestinians. This makes it our responsibility to expose the Islamic Republic’s deceit toward Palestine, and to tell the people that the national aspirations of the Palestinian people mean zilch to this regime.

The Islamic Republic is a bloodsucker that has attached itself to the bodies of the Palestinian people. We must not allow them to wrap their rotten banner of Islamism around the cause of the Palestinian people, or use the blood of the Palestinian people and their 75-year-old displacement to showcase the might [of the Islamic Republic]. Our people have become indifferent towards the Palestinian people and their sufferings due to their deep hatred of the Islamic Republic. But, whatever its source, ignorance is ignorance. Ignorance about the realities of this world is dangerous, and a problem that must be solved.

Today, “democracy” and “peace” deliver the bombs that fall on schools and hospitals in Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah, the dismembered body of a child protruding from the rubble, the body of a Palestinian woman burned alive by a white phosphorus bomb, the young child sobbing over her parents’ dead bodies. These are the true faces of the West’s human rights and democracy, and of Israel that is their military garrison. Today, truth in Palestine is soaked in blood by Western democratic bombs shot from the cannon-barrel of democracy.

The democracies of Europe and the U.S. have banned looking at these truths and talking about them. Award ceremonies for Palestinian and Jewish novelists who have expressed these truths in their novels and articles have been canceled in the very democratic Germany. In the democratic U.S., fascist representatives in Congress ordered that the presidents of prestigious universities be removed [from the floor of Congress], because they refused to go along with the “prohibition of thinking.”

This protracted deathbed of truth and humanity has revealed an important reality to people all around the world. The horrifying reality of bourgeois democracy becomes apparent as its pretense falls apart before our eyes—the revelation itself [as] a result of the workings of the very same global system that proclaims democracy. The system that has shaped and sunk its claws into people's intellectual life, that indoctrinates these ideas, has been forced to act contrary to its own assertions. Some of the people who sincerely believed in the assertions and claims of bourgeois democracy discourse and have been fighting for its realization, have been deeply shaken—or better put, are shedding their illusions. They have to choose between turning a blind eye to reality or taking a hard look at the discrepancy between reality and what is claimed, confronting the real consequences of this conflict on people’s lives. This is difficult to do, and maybe not everyone is up to the task, but searching for truth is a fundamental advantage that opens up pathways.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize is granted at a time when nothing in the world is “routine.” The old world order is in shambles and the laws and principles that govern the world are not working as they once did. But something important is happening: the naked reality of democracy is being more explicitly revealed. Within these democracies themselves, large waves of people are questioning their beliefs about it. In the U.S., people have begun to learn about the relationship between democracy within the U.S. and its [global] pillaging and exploitation; about its support for military and torture regimes in all parts of the world; about its war crimes and domination on the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; about the 700 US military bases around the world and its support for the genocide of Palestinian people; along with its history of genocide against Native Americans and enslavement of Black people. This new awakening should be celebrated, while at the same time it needs to be deepened to reveal the roots and source in the economic, social and political system of imperialism-capitalism that prevails throughout the world, including in Iran.

The war of survival that you mentioned is not limited to the people of Iran. The functioning of the global capitalist system constantly generates poverty, war, displacement and oppression for the majority of the world’s people. Only a minority in the Global North can enjoy a relative prosperity derived from the wealth produced by billions of adults and children in the Global South. In order for the technologists, scientists and artists in the U.S. to work and enjoy some leisure, children must go to work in the mines of the Congo. Peace is a bitter joke for billions of people around the world. The democracy, peace and human rights that exist in “Western” countries are made possible by exercising dictatorship and tyranny in the Global South, and by the benefits and profit derived from it. In fact, the existing world system is able to wear the mask of democracy in ordinary circumstances, and to remove it in times of crises, such as now.

These facts have always been known to a few. I had the good fortune to meet revolutionary communists who introduced me to these truths in a deeply scientific and comprehensive way. But in order to change the world, it is necessary for hundreds of millions of people to grasp these facts—and the root source of destructive wars, the growth of fundamentalist forces, femicide, racism, the destruction of the environment, etc.—in order for them to come to the conclusion that this system must be overthrown, not just in Iran, not just in Turkey, Egypt and these types of countries, but even in the U.S. Yes, in the U.S., where making revolution will lift the heavy burden of oppression and exploitation from the backs of billions of people around the world.

If I had an interview with Angelina Jolie, this is what I would have emphasized, because all the “good-hearted” people in the world deserve to know the whole truth, so they can serve the goals of such a revolution and live a truly meaningful life.

This is an opportunity and a situation that simply must not be missed. Even the staff members in the Biden administration and in the U.S. Congress were shocked to see the contradiction between the ideals they believe in and the reality that is occurring. Some of them resigned and held a sit-in in front of the Congress to protest the ongoing massacre of the people of Gaza that is supported by Biden. As a former 2020 Biden campaign and Biden admin staffer wrote, “Yes, I still view Trump as a fascist. Yes, I still view Trump's potential 2nd presidency as inherently more dangerous than a Biden 2nd term. But, I cannot morally justify working for someone who is supporting a massacre, someone who is as out of touch with Israel's role in a genocide as he is. I can better spend my time working and advocating for a genuine cause. It's not just me. I know many people from the admin/WH and campaign who are feeling the exact same way: a knowledge of how close fascism is to us, and yet a refusal to cross the moral lines of working for an Admin's campaign that is actively lifting up a genocide.”

As you rightly said, the uprising made the voice of our struggle global. But what was the uprising, and what does it have to do with the Islamic Republic and the global system? The Jina uprising is part of the global struggle of women against their conditions in this world.

Male supremacy is woven into the fabric of the current global system. Under the rule of Islamic fundamentalists in Iran, its concentrated expression is the compulsory hijab. In the U.S., where the majority of the judges on the Supreme Court are Christian fundamentalist fascists, it takes the form of banning abortion. It is assumed that religious fundamentalism and the Islamic Republic are an awkward misfit with the body of the global system. But the Islamic Republic, and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and North Africa, are the product of the devastating economic policies and practice of Western imperialist powers in this region. The Western world, led by the U.S., does not export democracy around the world. Their achievement has been the export to the world of those production relations and infrastructures that spread exploitation and oppression, to serve their own interests.

We still recall the catastrophe caused by the export of NATO-flavored U.S. democracy to Afghanistan, and the tragic consequences for the people of that country. Did the U.S. ever think about the interests of the Afghan people when they established the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and then handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban? Never!

We have the experience of U.S. democracy exported to Iran in the form of the Pahlavi monarchy. Do we want that once again, or something similar to that? Many people incorrectly see the “free world of the West” on one side of the equation, and Islamic fundamentalism on the other side. But that is not the case. These are players at different levels of a global system of oppression and exploitation which the imperialist powers are at the head of, and they dictate the terms and conditions that keep this global order spinning. The Islamic fundamentalists who rule Iran have “quarrels” with the imperialists who rule the U.S. But they are different parts of a single system that has oppressive and exploitative relationships with workers and toiling masses, with women, with intellectuals, with LGBTQ and with various ethnic nationalities in Iran.

Therefore, you cannot unite with one against the other, because that approach will end up benefiting both of them. Supporting one actually strengthens both, and neither one is a solution for our people, and the people of the Middle East. The choice between supporting one of these two forces has been imposed on the entire Middle East for decades, and we see its terrible consequences everywhere. The Islamic Republic is a theocratic capitalist state, not just a theocratic dictatorship. This reality necessitates a revolution for our society that will simultaneously destroy the theocratic form of the rule and its capitalist underpinnings, and this revolution can only be a communist revolution to establish a new socialist republic. Getting into “what is the problem and what is the solution” is vital for our society today, for tomorrow, and for the future of all societies, especially in a situation where the world is in the throes of great changes.

During my debate tour last summer that we called the “War of Alternatives,” I said that the world situation has placed not only Iran but all of humanity at a decisive crossroads. And I repeated [revolutionary leader] Bob Avakian's statement that we face “A Truly Terrible or a Truly Emancipating Future.”⁴ In other words, either humanity will suffer the intensifying disasters created by the functioning of the worldwide capitalist imperialist system, or it must prepare and bring about the destruction of this system through communist revolutions, in order to reorient human society towards a fundamentally different future.

The overthrow of the Islamic Republic is not only an objective necessity, but also an urgent requirement to chart a course toward the future. The present challenge in regard to the question of what alternative to choose is this: what must be changed so that not only the current problems are solved, but society can get onto a different road? How will this change be achieved? In the current situation, one of the most important methods is to differentiate ourselves from both old and new revolutionary programs, and to put forward the alternative of a real revolution and map out the coordinates and practices of the new socialist society. It is clear to us, the revolutionary communists, that if we are not bringing this forward, we are actually abandoning the field to right-wing alternatives, and the restoration of the bourgeois dictatorial state in another form.

The character, principles and the practices of this alternative are carefully laid out by the Communist Party of Iran (MLM) in its draft “Constitution of the New Socialist Republic of Iran.” This “constitution” is based on universal principles formulated by Bob Avakian, for the society that will be established after the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.⁵

One of the important lines of demarcation in the alternative we put forward is regarding the issue of human rights. Most people who speak about “human rights” are referring to the “rights” enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948, and other such declarations. But as Bob Avakian has correctly noted, “within the current power relations obtaining in the world, there is no real way to ‘enforce’ these rights—and, in a more basic sense, there is no real way to ‘effect’ these rights within the confines of a capitalist-imperialist world economy and political system.”⁶ The intellectual and physical capabilities of billions of people who produce the wealth in this world is crushed and destroyed by the daily workings of the capitalist system.

When people rise up against this situation, branding irons, bayonets, imprisonment and torture await them. The challenge before us is to create a society that will break down these barriers and establish a government whose responsibility and existential necessity is to pave the way for the realization of the “four alls” (ending all class distinctions, all production relations that create such distinctions, all oppressive social relations that arise from those social distinctions and oppressive relations, and all the ways of thinking that flow from those social distinctions and oppressive relations), and to secure the freedom for the oppressed to put these “four alls” into practice, while at the same time, ensuring the freedom of critical thinking and dissent in society—even when they are in opposition to the principles of such a society.

Dear Narges! War, terrorism and fundamentalism are not the result of a lack of the attributes of the Middle East’s “very rich historical civilizations.” The war-torn and fundamentalist Middle East was produced by the working of the capitalist system that rules the world. And the character of the future we need must be qualitatively different from any kind of “historical civilization.” Yes, all of us in Iran, in the Middle East, and in the world, are suffering from a very dangerous “lack.” The lack of taking up the potential of the available revolutionary theory needed to lead new waves of revolution. Your work and the work of your noble comrades are very important to building those waves of revolution.

Within the opposition to the Islamic Republic, there are various political forces whose social outlooks and interests conflict irreconcilably with each other. But there are also various trends whose perspectives are close to each other. Such differences are very natural, because life is full of necessity. When tackling necessity in order to change it, human beings will always have varying opinions about how to assess those necessities and how to change them. These differences can and must become the source of the flowering of a rich intellectual life, and of practical unity. When we outline clearer alternatives for a truly better society and world, we will be able to open our arms wider for broader alliances.

As the contradictions within society and the world intensify, the various hues of “we” will come closer together. That’s great, and it is the essence of a human response to unbearable disasters. But, starting today, we must grapple with the differences in the viewpoints and programs of those in opposition to the Islamic Republic, so that we can become more aware of demarcating programs that can only lead from catastrophe to catastrophe, [from that which] unites our alliances that are aiming for a totally different future. Only then can we together, by relying on each other's knowledge and art, victoriously sail this storm-tossed ship amid rocks and turbulences, and aim our fists as one toward the ramparts of the tower of oppression.

----

Footnotes

1. Osyan means rebellion in the Farsi language. It is a group of Iranian and Afghan women who are the voice of women’s rebellion to express the determination, and to serve the struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban.

2. “For some 30 years, Narges Mohammadi has been a fierce, courageous and selfless fighter against Iran’s Islamic Republic (IRI)—a misogynist theocracy. Over these years she’s been arrested 13 times, convicted in sham trials five times, and sentenced a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes (i.e., whipping). She’s now serving a 10-year sentence for ‘anti-state propaganda’ in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison." Mohammadi received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. "Free Narges Mohammadi" Resource Page‍

3. U.S. actor Angelina Jolie interviewed Narges Mohammadi for Time magazine after Mohammadi had won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023. See the article “Imprisoned Nobel Winner Narges Mohammadi Tells Angelina Jolie Iran’s People Will Prevail,” Time magazine, time.com, November 2, 2023.

4. This is a reference to SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap for This Revolution, by Bob Avakian, Revolutionary Leader, Author of the New Communism.

5. The Draft of the Constitution of the New Socialist Republic of Iran, available in Persian at cpimlm.org.

6. Avakian, “Human Rights in the Labor Chain,” April 11, 2022, available in Persian at cpimlm.org, and in English in “Interview with Bob Avakian,” at revcom.us.

December 10, the Human Rights Day, is a good time to raise our voices together, against the oppression and execution machine in Iran, which has claimed many victims in recent weeks. We are witnessing an unprecedented growth of executions in Iran. Although the Islamic Republic has always carried out executions since its coming to power, there has been a significant increase in executions, in the shadow of the on-going war in Gaza, with the aim of pushing back the people's revolution.

At least 120 people have been executed since the beginning of October 2023. A number of those who were arrested during the protests of recent years, including Milad Zohra Vand (21 years old) and Hani Albushahbazi (22 years old) and Kamran Reaei (33 years old) are among those executed. Also, the death sentence of a number of political and religious prisoners who have been in prison for many years has been carried out recently...

Saman Yasin, the protesting rap singer, has been tortured and subjected to mock execution in prison. Hamid Reza Azari, a child criminal who was only 16 years old at the time of his arrest, was recently executed...

Prisoners are subjected to "silent execution" by being deprived of needed medicine and treatment, or being transferred to psychiatric “treatment centres” and forced to use psychoactive drugs.

We, the three organisations, Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran, Committee Against Execution and Free Them Now, Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran, call on all people in Iran and the world, especially families who are a strong pillar against executions, to protest against the growing wave of the Islamic regime executions, on the occasion of December 10th International Human Rights Day, and act immediately to stop the machine of repression and killings, in Iran. You can respond to this call by setting up pickets or street performances, issuing statements or sending letters of protest to the authorities and officials of the Islamic regime, holding seminars and photo exhibitions, as well as publishing photos and videos in opposition to the executions in Iran. It is important that the Islamic Republic knows that the peoples of the world not only are not silent about the crimes of this regime, but together with the people of Iran, they want to end the oppression and the criminal life of the Islamic regime. Our demands are:

• An immediate end to executions in Iran
• An immediate cancellation of all death sentences
• The unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners

The full statement and news of Human Rights Day can be found at www.cfppi.org.

Israel must stop the genocidal operation against the people of Gaza! We will not tolerate the racist, fascist army of Israel calling the Palestinian people “animals” and ordering their mass murder, and will not tolerate the Western democracies, led by the U.S., putting their stamp of approval on this order. This is not racism as usual—it is a genocide committed with the support of one of the most powerful armies in the world.

No one should tolerate it! Silence in the face of the genocide of Palestinians will open the gates of hell not just for people in the Middle East but for people all over the world. Challenge the fascist Zionist ideology! We especially invite Israeli men and women who do not defend this blatant racism: Do not tolerate this, not only for the sake of the Jewish or the Palestinian people, but in the name of humanity and for the sake of humanity! Hitler's Holocaust against the Jews was one of the most monstrous crimes in human history. But there is only one correct response to it: This must never be allowed to happen again—not to the Jewish people, not to any people anywhere. But Zionist ideology preaches the opposite.

It is alarming, and instructive, that the majority of the anti-fascist movement in Israel has unified with the fascist army of Israel—and it shows how misguidedly relying on, and working within, the system will eventually lead to uniting with the system itself! If we do not stand against the terrible situation we are facing right now, we ourselves will turn into terrible people!

No More Demagoguery! The hired mouthpieces of these regimes are telling people that the issue of Israel-Palestine began with the October 7 operation by Hamas. But what about the 75 years of occupation? What about all the bombing, genocide, assault and imprisonment, the military occupation of Palestinian lands, and the creation of Jewish security and military settlements? The result of this 75-year crime is that the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been confined in the world's largest prison, under siege by land, air and sea, in an ongoing massacre. This is the basic reality that governs that region, one we should all want to end.

The Jewish people, especially those in Israel, need to know that, after the Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel is the worst disaster that has happened to them. Of course, the suffering caused by the existence of this disastrous government is felt not only by them, and not only by the people of Palestine and of Israel. It is also the people of the world who suffer, and will continue to suffer, from the effects of the existence of such a government.

Do not deceive yourselves! When apartheid Israel was established, Hamas did not even exist. In 1948, during the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”), when one million Palestinians were expelled from their lands, villages and homes by terror, assault, and mass murder, when even their olive and orange trees were wiped out, Hamas did not exist. Hamas is just a local criminal gang. By comparison, Israel, with its army and its security forces, is supported by—and in actuality is—a branch of the military and security apparatus of the world's largest power, U.S. imperialism. Hamas appropriated the historical struggle of an oppressed people, and rebranded it with fascist Islamism. Israel, with the cooperation of the U.S. and the U.S.’s puppet regimes in the Arab world (especially Saudi Arabia and Jordan), strengthened Hamas, killing and uprooting the secular and leftist forces of Palestine.

Hamas is an obstacle and not a solution!

Like the Islamic Republic, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are dark theocratic, patriarchal, misogynistic, racist and corrupt forces who have used Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people as “capital,” and a way to win permission to enter the club of reactionary governments in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Using religious mythology, they twist and distort the nature of Israel’s colonial occupation of Palestine, trying to turn the secular and progressive struggle of the Palestinian people into a religious and racial fight between Muslims and Jews. Instead of fighting to liberate Palestine from the yoke of colonialism, they have diverted Palestinian youth into a reactionary Islamist movement that fights and dies for the “cause of God.” This is the same type of catastrophe that befell Iran during the anti-monarchy revolution of 1979. Hamas, with every intention of replicating what happened in Iran, named their recent reactionary operation after the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel's crimes have destroyed the lives of several generations of the Palestinian people. Not only does Hamas not represent the interests of the Palestinian people, it is a serious obstacle to their liberation. The coming to power of [Iran’s] Islamic Republic as a theocratic state and as godfather to other Islamist forces, has cohered Hamas and other religious forces in the region under the banner of “Axis of Resistance.” What they have in common—despite differences and similarities between the Israeli government and various Islamist currents such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic—are their crimes against the Palestinian and Israeli people. Both sides are the product of the same global capitalist system and its two outmoded, reactionary forms [imperialism and theocratic fundamentalism]. Instead of acting as an appendage of either one against the other, another path forward for the people must be opened up—from Iran and Afghanistan to Palestine and Turkey.

The history of Israel-Palestine state relations is one of those realities that are presented to the world in a partial or upside down way by the global capitalist-imperialist system, to influence people’s thinking and maintain its ideological hegemony. Both the formation of the state of Israel and all the crimes it has committed have been carried out with the cooperation and support of world powers led by the U.S.

The instrumentalist thinking that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a deadly poison. Influenced by this worldview, the global world order’s right and “left” wings are siding with either one side or the other in this war. This superficial and harmful way of thinking is promoted far and wide. We must fight this way of thinking, no matter what shape, form or disguise it may take. Using the same argument, based on their hostility to the Islamic Republic, a section of the population in Iran is defending Israel. But Israel is not only the enemy of the Islamic Republic, it is also the enemy of the Iranian people—from the Arab and Baloch to the Kurd and Turk [national minorities in Iran] and Persians, etc. If the Israeli army thinks it necessary, it will speak the language of bombing to the people of Iran or any other country, just as it does to the Palestinian people.

We are against this way of thinking. More than anything else, seeing and understanding reality is required to end these conditions. But under the domination of the ideologies and ways of thinking created by the capitalist system, [“enemy of my enemy is my friend”] has become a part of people's way of thinking. Time after time, around the world, actions based on this pragmatic paradigm—even by forces that once were progressive—have borne bitter fruit and only made the situation even worse. The result is always the same: the continued destruction of people's lives.

Again, Do Not Tolerate Deception or Self-Deception. Capitalism's “democracy” and “human rights” show their true nature in wars like this, when they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the criminals. The flood of messages of support and sympathy sent from the heads of state to Tel Aviv, like the U.S. deployment of battle-ready ships and arms in the region, are intended to make it more possible to support and guarantee the continuation of Israel's crimes in the service of their own interests. Demonstrations in support of Palestine are suppressed and declared illegal. Right away, the White House sent the message: “The U.S. government's support for Israel's security is firm and unwavering.” This steadfastness not only gives license to the Israeli government's limitless criminal massacre of the Palestinian people, but also gives the U.S. more leverage to advance its imperialist competition with the imperialists of China and Russia.

Let's Look at Every Important Political Event with Our Eyes Wide Open and a Global Scope to Our Vision! What happened in Israel-Palestine is actually a concentrated expression of the current state of the whole world today. The operation by Hamas and the start of Israel's war against the people of Gaza, is a global event that can suddenly spark even more massive wars. But this is not because the military operation of Hamas is “unprecedented”! It is because of the chaos that has engulfed the whole fabric of world society. Even the globalization of the Jina uprising was related to the situation that prevails in the world overall.

Everyone knows that the world system, which had been relatively stable despite destructive wars and rivalries, is now rapidly coming apart at the seams. An enormous explosive energy has accumulated within it, and the world cries out for change. This change could go in the terrible direction outlined by the Israeli Defense Minister: “kill the human animals!” Or it can go in another (far better and emancipating) direction as a result of our work and activity. We can totally snatch the initiative from the hands of the governments of the world—both the great and so-called “democratic” powers and the reactionary regimes like the Islamic Republic—and be the decisive factor that determines the future path of the world.

Seeing the scenes of this reactionary war makes our anger at this old world of oppression and exploitation even more molten, and our determination to get rid of it even more resolute. The greater frequency of wars and crimes does not normalize them for us. We, the people of the world, have a responsibility to confront this situation. The global capitalist system, including its continuous creation of war, poverty and oppression, exploitation and destruction of the environment, has turned the world into a minefield of strategic trip wires.

Let Us Be Vigilant and Not Pin Our Hopes on the Mirage of Changing the System in a Positive Direction!

No salvation for the people of the world and the whole of humanity can come about from within the world’s ruling system. The same explosive situations that continually erupt into crisis or war—in Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Palestine, Turkey, etc.—also present us with a rare opportunity to build a different future for our people all over the world. Everywhere in the world, we must create new political alignments/polarizations that are radically outside of the framework of each country’s ruling system, outside the worldwide system, and against the thoughts and ideologies that the ruling powers produce (and promote). We must create such a unified political environment that the ruling powers cannot marginalize or suffocate the truth that we speak or our efforts to open up a pathway that is fundamentally different from what prevails today.

We must open the path for the initiative and leadership of a conscious revolutionary force. We are fighting on the side of emancipation in this situation. We call on all those who hate/are fed up with this situation, those who are not willing to stand by and watch the suffering and misery of billions of people in the world, those who know, as we do, that people are not “animals”—not the Palestinian people, not the Jewish people, not people anywhere not the world—and people do not deserve punishment and revenge: this is our common fight against these conditions and those who created them.

Whether it is the proxy war of the nuclear imperialists in Ukraine, Israel's war against the Palestinian people, the Islamic Republic's war in Syria, the U.S.’s war in Iraq, Turkey's war in Kobani [Kurdish city in Syria], the Taliban's war against the people of Afghanistan… it is our people who are displaced and killed all over the world by the capitalist-imperialist system ... so that this system of oppression and exploitation can continue to exist. We must not and will not tolerate this!

October 15, 2023

Signed,

Burn the Cage/Free the Birds

Baloch Women’s Movement

Youth in Exile

Osyan/Revolt

‍

* Burn the Cage/Free the Birds is a movement in Europe to free Iran’s political prisoners. Baloch Women’s Movement: Baloch people are an oppressed ethnic group of nationality in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Youth in Exile are Iranian youth based in Europe. Osyan/Revolt is “the voice of women’s rebellion to express the determination, and to serve the struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban.”

El Cabello de la Mujer
a Jina Mahsa Amini
(21/9/1999 –16/9/2022)

El cabello de las mujeres rizado
como fina lana merina o como
el zarcillo de la parra o ondulado
como las ondas en un estanque
o lacio como la crin de un caballo
no debe ser visto en público
dicen los hombres que gobiernan
porque dicen que incita
la lujuria de los hombres según su
idea de dios tóxica, patriarcal.

Pero la opresión engendra rebelión
y tu corazón estalló con necesidad
de libertad, de dejar al sol calentar
tu pelo suelto para que el viento
lo peinara, la luna lo acariciara.
Por este simple acto te tomaron,
te encarcelaron, te golpearon y moriste.
Pero tu muerte fue chispa que encendió
en llamas la yesca de las vidas recortadas
de las mujeres y ellas tomaron
a las calles por el mundo entero.

En pie, hermanas, por la mujer, la vida,
libertad, y nosotros sus hermanos
estamos con ustedes porque nadie
es libre si las mujeres no lo son.

© Rafael Jesús González 2023

***

The Hair of Women
for Jina Mahsa Amini
(9/21/1999 – 9/16/2022)

The hair of women, tightly-curled
as fine merino wool or loosely
like the vine’s tendril, or wavey
like ripples in a pond,
or straight as a horse’s mane,
must not be seen in public
say the men who rule
because they say that it incites
men’s lust according to their
idea of god, toxic, patriarchal.

But oppression breeds rebellion
and your heart burst with need
of freedom, to let the sun warm
your hair let loose for the wind
to comb it, the moon caress it.
For this simple act you were taken,
imprisoned, beaten, and you died.
But your death was a spark that set
aflame the tinder of women’s
curtailed lives and they took
to the streets worldwide.

Stand, sisters, for the woman, life,
freedom, and we your brothers
stand with you because no one
is free unless women are.

© Rafael Jesús González 2023

****

"One year since the powerful uprising:

SPEECH: Why does the struggle of the women and the people of Iran represent humanity's desire and need for true emancipation and the possibility of achieving it? Thurs Sept 21, 5pm Dept Library, Jorge Garcés Borrero.

"GRAPHIC EXPOSITION: Burn the Cage, Free the Birds! Fine Arts Dept., Cali

"FORUM - FILM: Discussion and presentation of clip and videos" - Fine Arts Dept Chamber Hall, Cali

'We ask the freedom-loving and justice-loving people of Iran and the world not to remain silent in the face of all this repression, injustice, discrimination and crime and to raise our protest cry every day': Mothers of Laleh Park"

"The women and the people of Iran have stood up. Their heroic struggle is our struggle!"

Sept 14, 5pm @teatrolamascara

"The people of Iran cry out for freedom, life, an end to the oppression of women. Millions have not only risen up and taken to the streets, but have also raised their heads to dream of a completely different and better world. One year since this beautiful uprising, the struggle continues in different forms inside and outside Iran. Let us celebrate their courage with music, poetry, videos and discussion as part of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran."

"The women and the people of Iran have stood up. Their heroic struggle is our struggle!"

Sept 14, 5pm @teatrolamascara

"The people of Iran cry out for freedom, life, an end to the oppression of women. Millions have not only risen up and taken to the streets, but have also raised their heads to dream of a completely different and better world. One year since this beautiful uprising, the struggle continues in different forms inside and outside Iran. Let us celebrate their courage with music, poetry, videos and discussion as part of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran."

Photos in lightbox at right depict:

1 Morning vigil at busy intersection in front of Unitarian Universalist Society of SF

2, 3 Banner and sign holding events around San Francisco

4 Composite: Placard for Evin women strikers was displayed and IEC Appeal distributed at rallies in Seattle, WA September 15 and 16.

5 Book table, Stockholm film festival

6 Distributing flyers, books at Collective Action by Independent Iranian Women conference

7 Poet Laureate D.L. Lang Instagram post (see post for all poet pics) about Evening of Poetry at Revolution Books Berkeley. "Incredible night of poetry @revolutionbksb in support of @iranprisonemerg"

8 From Cali, Colombia: See @QuemarLaJaula Twitter for more photos of Event for International Support of the Struggle of the Iranian People, Teatro La Máscara, Sept. 14.

One important reality which has brought us here today—a cross-section of women's activists—is the reality of the return of the Taliban to power. How will this affect the lives of the people of Afghanistan, and women in particular? The ramifications of the return of the Taliban are not just limited to Afghanistan. The growth and the spread of religious fundamentalism is occurring all over the world. The addition of a fundamentalist Islamic state, in addition to the Islamic Republic [of Iran], has widespread implications for the region and the world. The question is how to understand this problem and how to deal with it.

I will address two points on the topic of this panel that represent the predominant approach to this problem in the world today: first, “what are the implications of the term “marginalized,” and second, what are the underlying assumptions of an “alliance.”

1. Implications of the Word “Marginalized”

Let me start by saying that replacing accurate political words such as “oppressed” with words like “marginalized” has a specific political content. The term “marginalized” is not merely a word: it involves presuppositions that write off class interests. It is anti-Marxist, much like the rest of the convoluted innovations of post-modernism and post-structuralism. Also, it is an important tool in the hands of governments and liberal think tanks of the capitalist system.

For example, they talk about the “marginalization of women” instead of oppression of women, or about “marginalization of Black people” rather than the oppression of Black people. This formulation is an outgrowth of the theory that “the majority are at the margins” and a “minority is at the center.” Therefore, the problem is defined as the relegation of certain social groups—women, different sexual and gender orientations, oppressed national minorities—to the margins of the existing sociopolitical system. Therefore it concludes that the solution to this problem is for these social groups to move from the “margin” to the “center” [within the existing system]. Such an analysis is counter to reality, and the solutions derived from it are reformist and reactionary!

The fact of the matter is that the capitalist system, in its various forms, is dominant throughout the entire world. It produces and reproduces these social oppressions and class hierarchies because they are essential to [its functioning]. These oppressive social relations can never be ended within the framework of this system, because the source of the production and reproduction of these oppressions is the capitalist system itself! It is what connects the oppressed—by sexuality, gender, nationality, the exploited classes—to each other and to humanity as a whole and even to the devastation of [the environment]. It is the system of capitalism-imperialism in its various forms—a worldwide system dominated by countries like the United States, European countries, China and Russia—that inter-connects the whole world, including Iran and Afghanistan.

The ruling governments and the capitalist system in general, use a variety of mechanisms to produce and reproduce these oppressive social relations, as well as to prevent the revolt of the oppressed masses against their exploitation and oppression. The backbone of these governments is their repressive security and military forces. They also require an ideology that rationalizes oppression, to fully utilize these repressive forces. Eliminating the word “revolution” and replacing it with the notion of “transitional justice” is part of this! Transitional justice is an imperialist technique for effecting regime change, without overthrowing [the regime]. The U.S. implemented this in the Doha talks with the Taliban, and now they're testing it out on the Islamic Republic.

It is within such a framework that [pro-U.S. monarchist] Reza Pahlavi and part of the Iranian opposition are pushing forward transitional justice, and using it to reassure and gain the support of the Western imperialists. We experienced “transitional justice” in Iran when the Islamic Republic replaced the Shah, and we continue to live with what that set in motion. I stress that “regime change without overthrow” means that they will continue to make use of the existing reactionary forces. The Doha Talks with the Taliban was an application of such a “solution.” The reactionary NGOs [nongovernmental organizations]—hirelings and flunkies of imperialism—along with the Taliban and Ashraf Ghani's regime were all pushing for that “solution.” In fact, the NGO projects were little more than an auxiliary to the prosecution of the war and occupation in Afghanistan.

As I said, capitalism constantly uses very diverse mechanisms to produce and reproduce oppression. This includes turning some from among the oppressed into its servants and flunkies, in order to convince people that the system can be reformed. That is how this system is able to recruit social reformers and political brokers from among all sections of society.

Let's look at some examples. Everyone remembers the Doha Talks with the Taliban. Everyone has heard that the one of the biggest achievements of the Round Table Talks with the Taliban was the participation of some of these women servants of the system around the table with the Taliban. On the other hand, one of the most prevalent criticisms of these Talks was that not enough women were present, that they had only a token presence—as if the content could be decided by gender alone!

Another example: for two decades after the massacre and suppression of the revolutionaries in Iran, a number of secular men and women allied with the reformist wing of the regime, launched the “One Million Signatures Campaign” to take advantage of the so-called “powers” in provisions of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. But the same secularists who enthusiastically championed this project were promoting the reactionary pragmatism of “situational feminism,” in order to win over young women who were prepared to rebel against the Islamic Republic and its compulsory hijab. “Situational feminism” simply means that when you are raped, if you aren’t stronger than your rapist, stop resisting and submit to the rape. They stopped young women from rebelling against the compulsory hijab and instead preached “organization from below” that encouraged “organizing religious rituals with a feminist flavor”—gatherings of women around a “votive meal” [to share their feelings].

The Islamic Republic, from top to bottom, works to mobilize people around backwardness and superstition. But at certain times, it needs to unite with these so-called seculars when their help is needed to achieve its objectives. In fact, along with their ongoing use of armed repression, they sometimes also need the “velvet glove” and “soft” tongue of the petty-bourgeoisie and the intellectuals who articulate their interests. Some men and women of Iranian descent in Western universities also teach this type of reactionary pragmatism as a “women’s innovation”!

Of course the actual explosive potential of women was on full display during the spectacular Jina uprising that upended many of the political and cultural norms in Iran. We all know about this, so I won’t elaborate further. On the other hand, this uprising has been full of bourgeois-democratic illusions. Probably many of you saw Sarina Alizadeh's short videos. Sarina was an early victim of the Jina uprising. She was killed by the Islamic Republic's mercenaries at the age of 16. In her video she talked about her dreams saying “I know that in the world, there's an Ethiopia and a Los Angeles, and because I am a perfectionist, I prefer Los Angeles."

One can talk and write for hours about her brief comment. Our young uprising-generation must come to understand that it was neither the people in Ethiopia nor the people in Los Angeles who arranged their lifestyle. It is this global capitalist system that causes these terrible divisions within and among different societies around the world. In Los Angeles, a wide-swath of people lead parasitic lives, and in Ethiopia the majority of people lead meager lives, if they don’t outright die. They are always affected by the devastating wars that arise due to competition among world powers. Our Sarinas need to know that the relative well-being of the majority of the people of Los Angeles is the result of child labor in Congolese cobalt mines and Bangladeshi textile factories, etc.

These are facts of our world that cannot simply be wished away. The dream of many young people in Iran that found expression in this uprising, is to achieve the “democracy and prosperity” that exists in Western countries. But what about those countries? The continuing existence of the capitalist system requires imperialism. And what these countries—the U.S. in particular—spread around the world is not democracy, but rather the political, economic, social and military framework needed to maintain the capitalist-imperialist system. Never in history and nowhere in the world has bourgeois democracy ever been able to eliminate the oppression of women, and other social oppressions. And today we are witnessing the intensification of the oppression of women in every corner of the world, even in the heart of the bourgeois democracies. We need to cast away illusions. Capitalism’s best-case scenario is the promise of formal equality side-by-side with actual economic and social inequality. This is one of the main characteristics of capitalism most often trumpeted by democratic intellectuals.

Let me give you a third example: Iraqi Kurdistan. In Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, NGOs have always been an important lever of U.S. imperialism to neutralize the revolutionary potential of movements of women, students, workers and oppressed nationalities, etc. When U.S. imperialists talk about “civil society," what they mean is the forces networked around NGOs. Their objective is to undermine social movements that are not only against the ruling governments in each country but also take a stand against the imperialist powers. Their other objective is to establish a social and political beachhead [for imperialism] in these societies.

After the fall of Saddam's regime in Iraq, the U.S. government repeatedly invited Iraqi women—Kurdish and non-Kurdish—to come to the U.S. so they could receive “democracy training.” One such [NGO] was the “American Enterprise Institute,” an extremely misogynistic, right-wing, racist organization that has cloned counterparts in Iraq and in Kurdistan. These projects help to create a new stratum of female intellectuals to serve as a social base for the U.S. imperialists. U.S. imperialism has a department for “democracy, civil rights and labor” that makes use of some extremely misogynist and conservative forces in countries under U.S. domination. They create NGOs that can induce people to replace their social struggles with “lobbying” in order to bring “the marginalized” into “the center.”

The role of NGOs was highly promoted during the 20 years of U.S. imperialist rule over Afghanistan. But they had virtually no effect on Afghan women’s understanding of emancipation and how to achieve it. Instead, what they did was to lower sights, and limit women to working within to the framework of the system. This kind of negative polarization continues, as can be seen in the kinds of struggle being waged against the Taliban, and especially in the struggle against the oppression of women.

This takes two prominent forms in the struggle for women’s right to education: seeking a solution within the framework of the existing system and begging the Taliban for concessions. Then, when conditions disintegrate, they adjust by lowering their sights, a method that can never lead to the realization of their demands. The second approach is to say that nothing can ever change without revolution which in practice translates to waiting passively for the arrival of that revolution-day—which incidentally will never come if today’s struggles are not linked to the cause of revolution, and waged on the basis of building a movement for revolution.

2. The Underlying Assumptions of Alliance

My second point is about “unity/alliance.” First, you have to ask for whom and for what? Clarifying the goal, or “for what purpose,” is very important. As I said in the example of the One Million Signatures Campaign, that alliance was never about going up against a regime that rests on the pillar of the compulsory hijab. Instead, they tried to prevent women from targeting the government of the Islamic Republic in their struggle for women's emancipation. From this and other examples, we can see that it is also possible to form reactionary women’s alliances.

So before making any alliance and/or calling for unity, we need to determine its content. Otherwise, the effort will be worthless and futile. No alliance can be discussed without clarifying the content of that alliance, its framework and its purpose. These are the ABCs of taking any step toward unity.

In fact, all of the preceding discussion about “marginalization” and “NGOs” and “civil society,” etc., proves that the content of alliance is a very crucial question. Even an alliance with a goal that is short of a revolution, one that focuses merely on resistance against oppression, must remain completely outside of the system’s existing framework and its corresponding way of thinking. Clarity on this approach to unity can make everything we do today serve to help building a movement for revolution.

Take the example of the Osyan (Rebellion) [collective of women from Iran and Afghanistan]. What's the content of our unity? Our alliance exists to organize a revolt against the male supremacist/patriarchal oppression that focused against the compulsory hijab in Iran. But our outlook in this struggle is not identity-based, because this oppression is linked to other oppressive social relations and even to the destruction of the environment. All of them are part of the fabric and functioning of the capitalist system.

We carry out this struggle within the framework of a struggle against the theocratic fascist regime of the Islamic Republic. We call out all forms of social injustice, devastating wars, and the destruction of the environment—and we stand with all the oppressed people of the world. Our method of struggle is to rely on ourselves, the people of Iran, and the people of the world; because humanity is entangled together, we consider people all over the world as our own people.

All that can emerge from the workings of the global imperialist system are conditions that are hostile and antagonistic to the interests of the vast majority of the world’s people. Having illusions about the friendship, or relying on the support, of any of the governments of the capitalist world—governments that are themselves guilty of creating this situation in the first place—is to turn our backs on the people of the world.

In Osyan, our alliance is not based on unity for revolution. This means that we don't have a strategy and a roadmap for revolution to overthrow the Islamic Republic and establish a Socialist Republic. This is simply an alliance to organize the resistance and struggle against the Islamic Republic around the faultline of the oppression of women along the lines described above.

At the same time, we know that the roots of this oppression cannot be pulled up from within this system. The framework we propose—namely opposition to imperialism and theocratic fundamentalism—is outside the framework of the system. My activism with other women in Osyan is based on this framework. But for myself as a revolutionary communist, this is not sufficient, because I know and I believe that in order to eradicate male supremacist/patriarchal oppression and other oppressive social relations, it will take a revolution. Activity within the framework of Osyan as a fighter for the liberation of humanity is insufficient [even as] I consider the activities of Osyan to be very important [in contributing] to the revolution.

Nonetheless, to make a revolution we need a party whose goal is revolution, that has a strategy for revolution, and that works for it in a planned and organized way. And by party, I don't just mean just an organization, but the necessary mobilization around its goal and roadmap.

To sum up: neither papering over its horrors nor self-improvement can change this terrible reality we confront. This fact demands an answer, and the answer is not related to which geography we operate in (inside or outside the borders of Iran and Afghanistan).

As leading forces on the scene, our task here is to make an important decision: Will we stay within the framework of the system, or will we, at long last, get out of it? Deciding to get out of the system is a crystallization of our understanding of the situation, a scientific understanding.  An understanding of the roots of the problem and of today’s revolutionary situation, of the fact that revolution is necessary and possible, which must be taken to the masses, to the intellectuals, and to people in all walks of life.

Today, amidst the storm-tossed waves that have shredded the world order, this is a rare moment that opens the possibility of a revolution for the emancipation of humanity. That is our immediate—not long-term—task, because we do not have much time and we must move forward to organize a movement for revolution.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Osyan means Rebellion in the Farsi language. It is a group of Iranian and Afghan women who are the voice of women’s rebellion to express the determination, and to serve the struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban.

Many of you saw and supported the uprising for “Woman, Life, Freedom” [in Iran].  But maybe it took you by surprise, and you may have asked yourself what was it that caused the whole of Iran take up the struggle against the Islamic Republic and the mandatory hijab with such fury and such heroism?

The Women, Life, Freedom uprising was ignited by the state murder of Jina Amini.  And … there was a transformation. It turned into an uprising against broader issues in society – especially the oppression of women –as well as oppression of lgbtq+ and [non-Persian] nationalities. But also, this rebellious uprising gave voice to, and is part of, the struggle of humanity against the conditions of oppression and exploitation that the capitalist system has imposed on us all.

The workings of the imperialist-capitalist system have knit together the lives of people all around the world, making slaves not only of all human beings, but also of the environment of the whole planet! If anyone has still not noticed the relationship between capitalism and humanity, they have not fully grasped the destruction and degradation it causes.  A look at the environment should clarify this!

If we look at it and understand it correctly, we will see that the globalization and intertwining of the social life of humankind is our strength in the struggle against this system.  But people have illusions about this - Iranian people as well as people in the rest of the world. We need to recognize and cast away these illusions.

Your solidarity with the people of Iran, the solidarity of the people of France and around the world, is valuable and important. But it must not be limited to solidarity only.  You shouldn’t look at the uprising of people in Iran like it is an uprising of people who are deprived of rights that you enjoy, and give them your sympathy. Similarly, people in Iran should not look at it like people in Europe and North America have the kind of life-style and rights that we wish to have. This prosperity and lifestyle is not attainable without exploitation and super-exploitation. Wishing and working to get a share of this because of Iran’s integration in the global capitalist system, is not only impossible, it is immoral.

We are fighters in a common struggle against the system that has created such horrors for us and for all life on Earth. The living conditions of our people in Iran have a direct connection to your situation and the lifestyle and living conditions in Europe.  It is only because of exploitation and super-exploitation in the global South that imperialist governments can provide relative prosperity and rights for their citizens. The difference in the living conditions of our people in Iran and people, for instance, in Europe is not because we are living in two different worlds, on two planets; it is the product of a common system. The uprising of our people for Women, Life, Freedom is part of this common struggle.

During the uprising of Women, Life, Freedom, a section of the right-wing opposition to the Islamic Republic came to France to beg Macron and the French government for freedom and to save them from the Islamic Republic. I hope that the atrocities that occurred during the murder of Nahel has revealed the emptiness of that to those swept up by that trend. Macron cracked down on the protest and announced that he was even willing to shut down the internet.²

Our opposition to the Islamic Republic is not like that of the monarchists,  who hope to replace the Islamic Republic with the help of Israel and the United States, nor like that of the MEK [People’s Mojahedin], who have set their sights on likes of fascist Mike Pence. No government or power in this capitalist world sympathizes with us or is our friend, and we have no illusions about them. What we rely on is the people of the world and their internationalist support against this system. We try to carry out our internationalist responsibility in Iran. Support for us by the people of the world should be taken up in the same spirit and framework of a common battle against this life-sucking system that destroys so many lives.

How many of you have had, or have heard of the experience of many, many people in the murderous waters of the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, who lost their lives or risked their lives to reach Europe? Or who were captured and displaced by a ruthless bureaucracy, held in desperate asylum camps in Europe, only to be declared “undesirable” refugees? These displacements, injury and death are the product of the same system of capitalism-imperialism that created the conditions that forced people to risk their lives.

During the Jina uprising the Islamic Republic not only killed, arrested and tortured many people, it also blinded many others by firing shotguns directly into the faces of protesters. Afterwards, people gathering the shell-casings from the ground saw that the bullets had been made in Belgium or Germany, and I'm not sure if they weren’t also made in France.

The reality of the world shows us that not only are we like one body, but our exploiters and oppressors and suppressors are also like one body.   We are on the opposite side, against them. This is the reality of our lives and our world. If we don't see it that way, we're delusional. And we are wasting the opportunity and possibility to put an end to this system, and while giving them more time to destroy the lives of more of us around the world.

The mandatory hijab is one of the main ideological pillars of their theocratic rule. It not only is the most prominent emblem of the Islamic Republic’s oppression of women, it is fundamental to the Islamic Republic. They utilize the mandatory hijab both to institutionalize social relations around a lower, second- sex status for women, and to organize the whole society around this way of thinking, and to promote master-slave relationships throughout society.

The struggle of women against the Islamic Republic and against the mandatory hijab is not limited to this uprising. It began with the Islamic Republic's rise to power [in 1979].  For the regime to remain in power, they must enforce the mandatory hijab. Without it, if it were to fall, the survival of the government in its current form would be impossible. The mandatory hijab must be kept in place in order for their theocratic rule to stay in power. The mandatory hijab is not just a head cover, but an unmistakable symbol of the social relations and power relations in society, and is used to strengthen them.

The view that the Islamic Republic is softening on the issue of the hijab or is making reforms is just an illusion. The amplification and propagation of this illusion by intellectuals or representatives of various political trends is not merely complicit with the Islamic Republic.  It is opportunist, against reality, and harms the interests of the people for liberation. For this reason, the hijab is not a neutral thing, it has political and social content, and because of that the views of different individuals and groups about mandatory hijab also have class and social content.

The situation of women and their struggle in Iran must be viewed in the context of the global situation. In Iran, as in the rest of the world, the political, social, economic order is in great disarray and no longer works as before. The signs of this worldwide turmoil include the intensification of imperialist rivalries, such as the rivalry between China and the United States, the Ukrainian war and the risk of nuclear war, the far right’s rise to power and risk of the consolidation of fascism, systematic attacks against women, Black people and other minorities, and the escalation of the environmental crisis.

Take a look at France and see how immigrants are treated, even second-and third-generation immigrants. They are met with a declaration of a state of emergency and repression when they protest.

The situation is getting worse and demands an answer. The moderate and reformist answer doesn't work. The future will be radically different – either radically reactionary or radically revolutionary. If things are left as they are, they will get worse. But within this objective reality there is also the potential and possibility for revolutionary change. Here the role of the organized conscious forces is crucial — to work on the contradictions to move the situation towards revolution and fundamental change. As a part of the people of the world, this is the responsibility of us all.

The worsening situation of women in Iran and all over the world is connected. Religious fundamentalism, whether of the Islamic, Jewish, Christian, or Buddhist variety, spearheads assaults on women everywhere.  Look at the repeal of the right to abortion in the US. Positive change in the situation in Iran will not only affect Iran. It could have a positive effect of altering the hegemony of a world power, and could have a direct effect on the lives of people around the world.

In Iran and Afghanistan the lives of women and people in general are held hostage by two reactionary and obsolete forces. On the one hand, imperialism is the principal cause of devastation affecting the whole world including in Iran and the Middle East. On the other side is religious fundamentalism is a reactionary response that emerged from these capitalist-imperialist dynamics, and has turned against it. Such forces are historically and socially past their expiration dates and can and should be swept away. Supporting either of these two, or putting your hopes in either one of them only strengthens them both, and can only lead to more oppression, exploitation, and destruction of the environment. For generations, the lives of the people of Afghanistan have been the manipulated by the imperialists and the fundamentalists. The Taliban and the US presence have brought only war, destruction and the displacement of Afghan people.

We are the inhabitants of one planet which is in serious danger of being annihilated. We don't have time to waste by putting our hopes in reactionary forces. Staying focused on our own interests or trying to keep stability in our own lives comes at the cost of destroying the lives of others. Besides when we are in the midst of crises and worsening conditions worldwide, even the concept of creating stability is meaningless.

Right now we are engaged in a class war. Now is the time to consciously choose. Which side we are on, where we do we stand?  What do we contribute to, who do we serve? It makes no sense to stay in the middle. Standing in the middle eventually ends up serving reaction. We are fortunate, because we have a chance [to get beyond all this]. We are the people of the world who have a common interest in saving the world and ourselves from this capitalist-imperialist system.

+++

‍¹ Osyan means Rebellion in the Farsi language.  It is a group of Iranian and Afghan women who are the voice of women’s rebellion to express the determination, and to serve the struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban.

² Powerful Uprising Against Police Murder and Racist Oppression Rocks France for Six Days, Defying Massive State Repression and Fascist Menace | revcom.us

The staff person from Revolution Books welcomed the audience, situating the event in Bob Avakian’s analysis that this is a rare time, when the US, citadel of global imperialism, is tearing apart from top to bottom, and contention between nuclear-armed imperialist powers is sharpening internationally, and something terrible, or something truly emancipating can come out of this, that it is possible that the chance to make an actual revolution could emerge in the United States. He said of a major feature in the world – the contention and clash of two outmoded forces - U.S. imperialism vs. Islamic fundamentalism –  “Both are cruel, exploitative, destructive of the environment; there has to be another way, and there IS another way.  Support for the prisoners and for the uprising of the people in Iran (since the murder of Mahsa Amini) is one important part of forging this other way.”

He said: “Supporting the struggle to free Iran’s political prisoners, goes to the bedrock of what our store is all about.  We are not talking about a revolution for the people inside what is now the US – we are talking about a revolution that has as its goal the emancipation of humanity, we cannot stand aside when great crimes are committed, and powerful resistance to those crimes emerges, anywhere in the world.”

As Nasser Mohajer began his talk about what happened in July of 1988, people listened in rapt attention. Voices of a Massacre is the only book on this Great Massacre published in English. In it Mohajer documents the unfolding of this massacre, the courage of the prisoners, as well as the ongoing and necessary struggle to demand justice.  Voices reveals many layers of the events of 1988, how the theocratic regime carried out a nationwide coordinated pogrom of secret retrials, torture and murder throughout Iran’s prisons, though much, including those individuals responsible and even the number of people murdered, is still hidden by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Voices contains many moving testimonies of political prisoners who survived this horror, stories of great courage and resistance in the face of the IRI’s terror and cruelty.

Among the audience were ex-political prisoners and relatives of people executed in 1988. Many listened with tears in their eyes, and Nasser Mohajer himself had to stop a few times to collect himself.

When asked what it was like to research and write about such a heavy, chilling historical event, he said: “I have been working on prison literature for 35 years, it was the most difficult thing in my life to write this book... the only way for me — sometimes you know after writing a paragraph you will cry, there is no way out, sometimes you cry when you are asleep, there are certain things that we cannot forget: when we think about those things, we tremble. But I think that for me, what was most helpful was that I forget myself.... I do not have the right, I do not have the luxury to think about myself. I have to be an honest person. In this book there is no exaggeration, prisoners in Iran... if you were a political prisoner… regardless of the organization, the group you belonged to. You went through hell. And it is my responsibility... to portray, write and make it clear what this person meant... and when I reread the writing you say that ‘OK, I have done justice. I have been her voice, I have been his voice.’”

Learning that so many were able to resist and refuse to submit to this raises the question of how people were able to look beyond profound human suffering to see a different future and resist. This is critical to understand in today's world where the future of humanity is at stake. Iran's political prisoners then and now truly are heroes and a much needed inspiration for our time! This book provides an objective and crucial understanding of the many complex political forces involved in the struggle in Iran.  This includes the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) that emerged from that horrific 1988 massacre and is fighting to lead a revolution in Iran today.

Note: Revolution Books plans to make video of the event available soon. We encourage everyone to get a copy of this important book and read it, to support the work of this important author, and the revolutionary work of our important bookstore.

(Report by Revolution Books’ staff, revolutionbooks.org)

[Opening title] Voices of internationalist solidarity to demand that the Islamic Republic of Iran free ALL Iran’s political prisoners NOW

Child drummer and man together:

“From the district of Aguablanca*, Cali, Colombia, we support the just struggle of the Iranian people."
Child: “Free all the prisoners!”
Man: “We all have the right to freedom of speech”
Child: “Their struggle is our struggle”

* Aguablanca is one of the most oppressed districts of Cali, where Colombian revolutionaries took “Stop the Executions!” broadly out among the masses last month

[poster] Free Nahid Taghavi

Rapper:

“This is a message of solidarity for Brother Toomaj
From the campaign Burn the cages, free the birds!
Because all the people matter
And the message of consciousness and revolution
Will come to all the corners of the globe.
Free the political prisoners.

[Poster] Free Toomaj Salehi

 Singer

Well, I am José Sebastián Potes, puppet master
Often a musician too.
From here in Cali, Colombia, I support Iran’s political prisoners
Most of them artists, women…
Who have wanted to change the conditions of life in their country
I support the freedom of human beings everywhere on the planet
Because freedom has no limits, or else it wouldn’t be
And of the earth, the freedom of the earth
So that freedom for human beings can exist.
Strength and resistance to the peoples of the east,
To the oppressed peoples, to the Iranian people.

Comrevco (Grupo Comunista Revolucionario, Colombia) in several posts on May 21 in Instagram and Twitter, reported: 

"May 21 in the city of Bogotá, Colombia, in Ciclovia, the message was taken to riders and pedestrians, Stop the execution of political prisoners in Iran, denouncing the wave of death and oppression that this regime inflicts on the Iranian people, and taking out the message that we are united by the same interests and the same struggle for a radically different world. We are not willing to allow the slipknots of the gallows that are around the neck of the fighters in Iran to cut short the rebellion of a whole generation. The people of Iran, the people of Colombia and all the oppressed and exploited peoples of the world under the capitalist mode of production are called upon to unite in a single effort: Revolution, nothing less!”

"The cry, 'Islamic Republic of Death! Stop the executions of political prisoners in Iran, now!' rang out in Aguablanca, Cali, one of the districts hardest hit under this horrific system, together with the message: The struggle of the Iranian people is our struggle!"

"The shameful regime in Iran has cut short the life of 3 youths, repudiated by people in many places like Cali, Col, where people struggle to understand the source of these horrors and build a different world where people would have the right to live."

On Instagram, a reply that questioned this action caused a lengthy response.

A user commented: "What benefit do they receive by going out to spread this information? Informing the basic people could do little or nothing to prevent deaths and even change a regime and its religious culture if that is the intention..."

Another responded at length, including these profound remarks that many others around the world should take to heart:

"In Colombia, during the struggles of many basic people in 2019, 2020 and 2021, each time a voice of encouragement was heard from 'outside' for the youth and the people opposing injustice and repression, police brutality and paramilitary attacks, the criminalization of young people; it was cause for celebration and inspiration, they felt validated and many others were forced to consider the reasons for this support and enter the debate and the fight... exposure in embassies abroad to what the regime was doing in Colombia, the voices of prominent artists who could not simply remain silent in the midst of social unrest... all those voices from 'outside' were powerful and important... and still required more and more in-depth debate about the source of the problems and a real solution...

"This small group of people in this work in Cali, Bogotá, and other cities, and together with people in other parts of the world who do not feel small before the responsibility of responding to injustices and thinking of the whole world first and foremost, deserve all our support, and to make this work something very powerful that resonates with even more voices in the world and in Iran, that reaches the prisons of Iran and that the fighters know that they are not alone, and that there are people ready to fight for a truly different world, for an actual revolution, where the horrors imposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the threats of war from the imperialists and their invasion of peoples and their 'sanctions', the horror suffered by half of humanity, women, under patriarchal imperialist capitalism (in Iran and the rest of the planet), the destruction of the environment, poverty and war and the looting by the imperialists in Syria or Sudan or Afghanistan, or in Cali or Medellín or Bogotá, or in Lima or Rio de Janeiro, become part of history... let's sweep that away and build a radically new world through revolution."

Text in video:

The people of Iran cry out for liberty, for life, for an end to the oppression of women. Millions have not only taken to the streets, they have also raised their heads to dream of a completely different world.
When they do, questions arise: What is the road to follow to reach those objectives? What do different groups represent and where will their answers lead? And can the US and their European allies play a positive role in the current situation?
To speak frankly, but truly, at a time when the truth is most vital, involving the US and other imperialist powers is a deadly trap for the people.
We call on you, the people of our planet, to support the uprising in Iran, to join your own longing for a radically new and better world with the hope that beats in the hearts of the heroic women and men of Iran.
“The women and the people of Iran have risen up. Their struggle is our struggle!”

‍

Wednesday Esfand 17 [March 8], 06:00 p.m.

Morning & Noon: protest performance, festive stomping and chanting slogans, forming human chain and singing revolutionary songs all over the country

Evening & Night: holding hands starting at 6 p.m., holding gatherings and march and protest demonstration with slogans and revolutionary actions on streets and on main roundabouts, for the occupation and the takeover of the streets with large crowds all over the country!

Prior to call on International Women's Day:

Spreading the word, invitation and encouragement of your contacts in joining the great call on International Women's Day, using social networks on the internet, and field activities such as writing slogans, distribution of fliers and communiqués, putting up banners, street graffitis, spreading the revolution siren and chanting slogans every night at 9 pm!

List of [the joint] 52 organizations and groups announcing the call:

1. Vanguard Students Organization
2. Neighborhood Youth Unity of Iran
3. Freedom Fighting Students Unit at Noshirvani University of Technology in Babol
4. Nationwide Committee of Kurdistan Students
5. Freedom Fighting Students Unit
at Kharazmi University
6. Physicians Unity Organization
7. Emancipation School
8. Revolutionary Elementary Students Organization in Boushehr
9. Revolutionary Elementary Students Organization in Tehran
10. Unity of Students at Alzahra University
11. Azad University Unit of Khvorasgan
12. United Unit at Isfahan University of Technology
13. Freethinkers Unit at Jondishapour University
14. Women's Rights Activists in Sanandaj
15. Militant Revolutionary Women in Kurdistan
16. Revolutionary Women & Youth Group of Tehransar
17. Girls' Sunlight Group of Urmia
18. Revolutionary Women's Group of Shiraz
19. Revolutionary Neighborhoods Youth of Sanandaj
20. Revolutionary Red Youth Committee of Mahabad
21. Revolutionary Youth Committee of Qazin
22. Revolutionary Youth Council of Dezli
23. Revolutionary Youth of Zhaveroud
24. Revolutionary Youth of Piranshahr
25. Revolutionary Youth of Kamyaran Neighborhoods
26. Revolutionary Youth Committee of Khamesan
27. Dezireh Revolutionary Youth Nucleus in Tehran
28. Group of Activists & Students at Isfahan University
29. Group of Activists & Students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
30. Group of Activists & Students at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran
31. Group of Activists & Students at Beheshti University of Tehran
32. Group of Activists & Students at Kurdistan University
33. Group of Activists & Students at Payame Noor University of Kurdistan
34. Group of Activists & Students at Girls Technical Institute in Sanandaj
35. Group of Activists & Students at Yazdan Panah University of Kurdistan
36. Neighborhoods Youth of Gorgan
37. Neighborhoods Youth of Ahvaz
38. Neighborhoods Youth of Hamedan
39. Neighborhoods Youth of Alborz
40. Neighborhoods Youth of Boushehr
41. Neighborhoods Youth of Najafabad
42. Neighborhoods Youth of Firouzabad
43. Neighborhoods Youth of Mashhad
44. Neighborhoods Youth of Gilan
45. Neighborhoods Youth of Mazandaran
46. Neighborhoods Youth of Hormozgan
47. Neighborhoods Youth of Varamin
48. Neighborhoods Youth of Isfahan
49. Neighborhoods Youth of Anzali
50. Neighborhoods Youth of Balouchistan
51. Neighborhoods Youth of Zanjan
52. Neighborhoods Youth of Dashtak

“December 31, 2022

A New Year’s Message from the ¡Quemar la Jaula, Liberar a los Pájaros! campaign, for the life and liberty of the political prisoners in Iran:

The year 2022 comes to an end with a defiant uprising in Iran which, among different possibilities, includes the potential for positive radical changes. The women and youth have unleashed a rebellion against patriarchal oppression, repression by the Islamic theocracy, persecution of oppressed nationalities, xenophobia and other horrors. This massive wave of protests is not only just, it is profoundly inspiring.

All over the globe, fascist programs with theocratic inclinations are advancing, reaching alarming levels. The struggle against religious fundamentalism in Iran represents an important experience for the peoples of the world. But it is not only that the current uprising holds possibilities for a truly different and better world; also it needs much support from the whole world.

The regime labels the just rebellion “waging war against God.” Scores of people have been sentenced and are awaiting execution by hanging. The families of the accused are threatened, the trials are rushed, without legal defense, and the prisoners are forced to confess. In December, the young athlete and teacher Majidreza Rahnavard was hanged in public with the aim of terrorizing the people, but his message was: “I don’t want them to cry at my grave. Don’t read the Quran. Don’t pray. Just celebrate. Play joyful music.” The list of injustices is very long, these are not isolated cases.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is ruled by Sharia law, which imposes Islamic norms on other religions and on non-believers, particularly suppressing women. Being a theocracy, what the creed considers a “sin” is raised to the category of a crime. Since long before the current popular uprising, there has been a barrage of arrests, tortures and executions, [now] with more than 500 protestors killed and 20,000 arrested just since September. There is an imminent danger to the life and dignity of hundreds of political prisoners [jailed] since before the uprising: artists, writers, cinematographers, environmentalists, athletes, students, women who struggled against the forced hijab, Kurdish activists and representatives of religious minorities.

To carry out a cohesive campaign with the aim of liberating Iran’s political prisoners, the “Burn the Cage, Free the Birds” movement was formed in Europe @burnthecage, and also in Colombia @quemarlajaula.

The Iranian people have issued a call, not to the governments but rather to the peoples of the world, to take this struggle up as their own. An important goal for this New Year should be to answer the invitation of the Iranian masses and, overcoming narrow thinking, unite in an organized way with this campaign with all its challenges. We, the peoples of the world, have no borders.  

There is much for you to do:

Sign the call (at www.freeiranspoliticalprisonersnow.org)
Join discussion groups to expose the crimes of the IRI
Express the beauty of this uprising with diverse types of art
Join the talks and discussions which are being organized, spread the campaign, open up spaces to exhibit the gallery and other activities
Promote on your social media the hashtags #QuemarLaJaula #StopExecutionsinIran

Everyone who stands for justice and longs for a truly better world should support this uprising and echo the just message which spreads around the world: Free Political Prisoners in Iran NOW!”

On display were large posters of executed prisoners Majidreza Mahnavard and Mohsen Shekari, of soccer player Ali Nasr-Azadani (sentenced to death) and rapper Toomaj Salehi (indicted), and names of other prisoners sentenced to or at risk of execution.

Protestors wore signs that read “Free All Political Prisoners in Iran NOW”, “Bury the forced hijab! Overthrow the Islamic Republic!” “The cry for REVOLUTION by Iranians is our cry!” “The people of Iran are our people!”

A giant photo of “Supreme Leader” Khamenei and illustrations of flags of the IRI, the US and Israel were set on fire. There was also red paint splashed on the Embassy steps and sidewalks symbolizing the blood on the regime’s hands.

Quemar la Jaula has enhanced their original video with in-depth captions and music tracks from Bella Now by Outernational featuring Shekib Mosadeq with Baran Sajadi, and Baraye by Shervin Hajipour.

The text in English below was translated by volunteers with IEC, so English speakers can appreciate, learn from and share this example of firmly relying on the people of the world, and not imperialist governments and organizations.

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Translated captions

Emergency! The Islamic regime is executing political prisoners
Only by making ourselves felt all over the world canwe take the noose off from the neck of the Iranian youth and tear down the murdering gallows!
Action in defense of political prisoners in Iran

Iranian Embassy
Tuesday, December 20, 2022

STOP THE EXECUTIONS! @quemarlajaula @IranPrisonEmerg
We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!

We should not allow any opening for the dangerous bullshit that dominates in the “left” movement that the Islamic Republic is an anti-imperialist, anti-Yankee force. No! The Islamic Republic is a reactionary force and the Yankees are even worse. We choose another way and we struggle for it, together with our sisters and brothers in the streets and jails in Iran.

We must ACT now!

Imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism are two equally outmoded poles which reinforce each other. We cannot trust in one of them to liberate us from the other.

The rise of Islamic fundamentalist fascists in the Middle East and of Christian fascists in the US is related to the functioning of this system of capitalism-imperialism.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran!

The life and dignity of hundreds of political prisoners in Iran are in grave danger.

“All those who stand for justice and yearn for a better world must rally to the cause of freeing Iran’s political prisoners NOW.” – Emergency Appeal, International Emergency Campaign (IEC) @IranPrisonEmerg

Cali, Dec 18: "In the halls of the University Del Valle, murals have called attention to the emergency situation of our Iranian brothers, while inviting broadly to a talk to get more information".

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Bucaramanga, Colombia, Dec 18: "Today, in the Univ. & downtown, activists for freedom for political prisoners in Iran carried out agitation against execution of prisoners, passing out flyers from the Campaign & Iranian revolutionaries".

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Dec. 17: "In Medellín, Colombia, a performance called on people to act in support of the life and liberty of political prisoners in Iran and to publicize the emergency appeal of @IranPrisonEmerg."

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Dec 17: "Today in Cali, Colombia. A performance with a gallows, & a pop-up speech giving context to this symbol of horror which many are facing in Iran today, including the soccer player Amir Nasr-Azadani."

“For the People Of,” a concert in support of Iranian prisoners was held at the Manhattan School of Music on Friday, December 2. This “collaboration between Iranian composers both in and outside the country” was “dedicated to the people imprisoned in Iran, many of whom are artists and musicians, for protesting their government,” the musician organizers wrote.

Over a riveting two plus hours, the humanity and courageous struggle of the Iranian people and the brutality of Iran’s ruling regime was conveyed—better, driven home—through intense, cacophonous, haunting music, spoken word, short presentations, and video in English and Farsi. The 25 or so audience members, overwhelmingly students, had been met at the door by one of the musicians handing out the IEC’s Emergency Appeal, and its “Freedom for Toomaj!” palmcard. Around the room, sheets of paper with color drawings of women’s hair had been taped to the floor.

Four compositions—Zakhmeh (Wounds), The Time Has Come, Crackdown, and Our Song—each by a different composer, were the heart and driving force of the evening. Each was “influenced by improvisation, as a result of which the musicians express the experience of liberation in their performance,” the musician-organizers wrote.

The performers—men and women, from different parts of the U.S. and the world—included piano, double bass, steel string guitar, electric guitar, flute, alto sax, bass clarinet, percussion, violin, and voice. Other music students contributed set up, lighting, sound, and other elements.

Zakhmeh began quietly, with eerie, ethereal music from the double bass, with tension building as other instruments joined in. The Time Has Come had the feel of tensions building, “spreading the word and collecting forces,” as a friend put it, as music echoed and two singers circled the room whispering “Mahsa,” “Continue,” “Don’t be afraid.”

Crackdown opened with a furious, pounding piano and percussion blast—the pianist standing up and attacking its strings by hand. The intensity built as the other instruments mounted a gathering assault—“unmistakably street fighting music” a friend commented. One of the musicians explained afterward, that the “piano represents the tyrannical forces and everyone else represents protesters and in the end we all came together” to defeat the repressive forces. Our Song felt more accessible, hopeful, forward looking.

The audience was rapt throughout.

Afterward, the Iranian composer who opened the evening with a poem in Farsi and English about the bird, iconic in Iran, that symbolizes hope arising from all the pain and suffering people feel. “Every piece had this idea—out of the suffering this spirit rises, in the end this common voice comes from the bird. You go on a journey, an intense journey. The whole evening was very emotional—I felt like I was going to cry.”

The violin player showed me her “sheet music,” which was comprised of lines designating the rising and falling intensity for each instrument, i.e., the basic storyline. Within that framework, she explained, each musician contributed their individual interpretation. It was like a “call and response to other musicians in the room,” which demands very careful, attentive listening to the other musicians.

“In this performance we managed to encompass the full range of human emotions, from very intense to very reflective.” In Crackdown, “we were being individual protesters. I was trying to be a violently outspoken protester—you all make your choice. What character is missing in this mix and what should I add to it. It’s very emotional to put yourself in this role. It’s the closest thing I could do to acting. It was a very emotional experience to play the piece.”

She added, “For me, the immediacy of music and how it touches you is very different than reading something. Music has an immediate emotional impact. I was trying not to cry. The whole experience was very compelling. It’s hard to know how to help in a meaningful way, so I was happy I could be part of spreading news about it [the struggle in Iran], touching other people, and sharing stories. It means a lot to me.”

“We Plan to Do It Again, and Make It Bigger”

“This concert seeks to not only challenge the oppressive forces in power in Iran, but to also envision a better structure and society that values the emancipation and well-being of all people.”

—Concert organizers

“What is happening in Iran is that the people have had enough,” the main musician-organizer of the concert said. “There’s a structure in place over there and the people are simply saying they don’t accept it. What I’m trying to do with my music is basically questioning the structures and challenge the structures that are imposed on us. Those on top of the structure want us to conform, but we don’t have to; we don’t have to accept what we have; we can strive for something else. That’s what the people of Iran are doing and its very inspiring to me. And I think it translates into the arts. That’s what we need art for—to challenge ourselves and to challenge the structures we live under.”

“We plan on doing it again in other venues and making it bigger, making it a series. ‘For the People Of’ originally started with the Iranian people in mind. But I’m trying to see a bigger picture. What’s going on in Iran could potentially cause similar uprisings to happen in other countries. I think the whole world is watching. And it’s a really crucial moment over there. So ‘For the People Of’ is an invitation to the audience to fill in that blank. It’s for which people? The people of the world? The people of Iran? The people of the United States? The people of Haiti? Which people? It’s for all the people!”

See videos of reenactment below, and photos on the right column.

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Cartagena, 22 October: 

Discussion in the library of a poor and working class community about support for the struggles of the masses in Iran and the struggle for the freedom of political prisoners. On Oct. 23, a day of flyering and agitation in Barrio San José.

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Bogotá, 22 October. March in the Chapinero [tourist] district as part of the International Day of Action in support of the struggle of the people of Iran against the theocratic Islamic Republic and for the immediate release of political prisoners.

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Bogotá, 21 October: Rally in front of the Iranian embassy in Colombia. Several dozen protesters chanted slogans in support of the Iranian people, against the theocratic regime, and against imperialism and Zionism.

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Cali, 18 October. Mural in front of the University Hospital of Cali: Free the political prisoners from the dungeons of the Islamic Republic now!

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Bogotá, 17 October: Monday, a holiday, more than a dozen protesters walked a few kilometers through downtown chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic and imperialism, and in support of the uprising in Iran and for the freedom of political prisoners...

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Barranquilla, 14-15 October. In the central, well-attended Peace Square, for two days activists for the freedom of political prisoners in Iran interacted with hundreds of people, distributing thousands of flyers condemning the Islamic regime and imperialism.

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Bogotá, 14 October. A discussion with students and the creation of a mural opposing the Islamic Republic and imperialism, changed the atmosphere in the Macarena area of the District University.

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Medellín, 13 October. Exhibit for the life and freedom of political prisoners in Iran. The lives of political prisoners in Iran are in danger and immediate international action is urgently needed for their release!

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Bucaramanga, 9 October. On Sundays, the Industrial University of Santander opens its doors to the public. There we installed a table of revolutionary literature, we exhibited posters against the Islamic Republic of Iran and imperialism, and for the liberation of women.

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Cali, 8 October. Universidad del Valle, Engineering Dept. Mural opposes the "two outmodeds": "Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran! Down with imperialism!" based on a poster by Osyan.

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Cali, 6 October. Universidad del Valle. Campaign "Burn the Cage!", "Free Iran's political prisoners NOW!" Invitations to the screening and discussion of the documentary "Nasrin".

San Francisco, California, USA:

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Sept 23. Cornel West, signer of Emergency Appeal, publishes support in English and Farsi.

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Sept 23, Rome, Italy: Protest in front of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic. Chants: “Khameni, Assassino” and “Die, Die, Dictator”

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Sept 25, Chicago. Third demonstration.

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You can also support the wishes of the families and activists and join them with your signature at the given addresses.

Parisa Powende parisapouyande@gmail.com

Shiva Mehboobi shivamahbobi@gmail.com

Collective statement of Justice Seeking Mothers and relatives of political prisoners, political and civil activists on the anniversary of the Massacre of 1988 in Iran.

Thirty-four years ago, after ongoing protests and upheavals in Iran, authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran started a crackdown of arrests, imprisonment and executions of political prisoners in the 1980's.  We once again endured the massacre of our loved ones in September of 1988.
Those massacred were freedom-loving, honorable and decent people who have been fighting in defense of freedom of expression, political and social freedoms and a better life who eventually  sacrificed their lives for the rights of humane ideals.

In 1988 the IRI killed these freedom fighters. They buried them secretly at night in mass graves in places like Khavaran. This was a crime against humanity that will be remembered in our history.

The powers that be have tried to destroy this historical evidence, but they have not yet been able to eradicate the evidence of the massacre of our loved ones because there have been  massive protests against these crimes.

During the past forty-three years, the killing of our loved ones has continued. The answer to the demands for people's rights has been imprisonment, torture, bullets or execution. Today,  mothers and families of those who have lost their loved ones in 1999, 2009, 2017, 2018, and The Mothers of Aban/Nov 2019 have joined forces with families of the downed Ukrainian passengers flight of 2019. They stand together with the families of the 1980's. The movement for justice has become stronger than ever and is standing on the front lines of the fight against poverty and misery, lack of any rights for  women and children and all those imprisoned and executed...

Today, this movement and the support it has gotten from different sections of the people has become much stronger. The September 1988 massacre has been recognized by individuals and dozens of institutions, human rights organizations and human rights defenders and various institutions such as the UN human rights rapporteur Javid Rahman. The government of Canada  has now officially acknowledged the massacre as a crime against humanity.

Lately, the trial of Hamid Nouri, one of the perpetrators of this massacre, has been tried in Sweden. The Swedish court has issued the harshest punishment, life imprisonment. This is a great victory for the movement for justice and for the people of Iran.

Families, institutions and organizations defending human rights are calling for the establishment of an independent commission for criminal investigation to be formed to investigate and try the perpetrators and leaders of this crime and the death committee in 1988. Today, this demand has become a public demand.

While we are again asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to form an independent criminal investigation commission to deal with the crimes of the Summer 1988 Massacre, we ask all honorable, freedom-loving and philanthropic people to not stand aside, but to join us in demanding an independent investigation of these crimes.

Copy sent to the United Nations Human Rights Council
European personalities and governments

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Our team of about ten (from Medellín and other parts of Colombia) spread out to events in different venues of the city. Inspired by the Appeal of the International Emergency Campaign (IEC), we aimed to publicize the situation of Iran’s political prisoners, the IEC and its Appeal. We urged artists to sign the Appeal and get it to others worldwide. We asked them to join in denouncing the repression, torture, imprisonment, and assassinations by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), to join in condemning the threats and war moves of U.S. imperialism and its economic sanctions that add to terrible suffering of the Iranian masses. We distributed the Appeal in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French; setting up a huge exhibition with “Burn the Cage, Free the Birds!” theme with a collection of 36 displays (see photos). We held a screening of the documentary Nasrin. We spoke about the IRI’s recent escalation of imprisonment, torture and execution of artists, poets, human rights defenders, feminists, activists, environmentalists, and many other people, highlighting the recent jailing of filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al Ahmad.

Broad Receptivity to the Emergency Appeal

From the start, we urged poets from Africa, Europe and Latin America to sign the Appeal and spread it. The response was generally very receptive. Many were unaware of the ongoing situation in Iran. Some people expressed surprise to encounter this campaign in Colombia and found it inspiring.

A young man from the Festival organizing team, upon hearing about the Appeal, asked with some sarcasm “What does that have to do with Colombia?” After explaining the situation in Iran, and its prisoners, we highlighted key points of the Appeal like “All those who stand for justice and yearn for a better world must rally to the cause of freeing Iran’s political prisoners NOW.” He then took us to the co-director of the Poetry Festival to tell her this was an important campaign and that they should know about it. The co-director then spoke to a Peruvian woman who said she would spread it among her friends, especially Iranians.

About 20 poets signed the Appeal, agreed to share it with others, and left their contact information. Kayo Chingonyi, a Zambian poet living in England, said that after signing it, he read the IEC webpage and then shared it with others, including his producer, an Iranian. In general, everyone expressed recognizing the serious situation in Iran, and among the majority, a willingness to listen with genuine receptivity.

In the closing days, we organized two graphic exhibitions with several portraits of Iran’s political prisoners and short write-ups of their cases, some poems by Iranian prisoners, the Appeal in Spanish and its English ad in The New York Review of Books. We also had a flyer of Bob Avakian’s quote on “the two outmodeds.” These were held at the University of Antioquia and the Casa Cultural La Pascasia, in downtown Medellín. A professor of “History of Art in Times of War” who taught at Arts Department of the University of Antioquia, stopped on her way to class to see the exhibition with some of her students. She said the exhibition grabbed her attention and invited us to speak in one of her classes.

Fierce Struggle over Nationalism vs. Internationalism

On the other hand, besides some apathy related to the idea that “things are already changing here” with the “left” government, many people were curious about why people in Colombia were actively promoting a campaign for the political prisoners from another country. This enabled discussions of a very important aspect of this campaign: Internationalism. We explained this is not simply to express solidarity with those suffering repression in Iran, but to see their cause as our cause. Our starting point is not what “affects our country” or “our people” understood in a narrow nationalistic way. Our starting point must be humanity and the planet and the struggle to end oppression and exploitation in all parts of the world, not just in what is considered “my” country.

Most people did not ask these questions with bad intentions but with concern. However, among those who did ask questions with bad intentions, there were accusations such as “they do not care about the problems of Colombia.” In addition to defending Iran as part of a “bloc of anti-imperialist countries,” one Festival organizer approached those talking with the poets for “taking advantage of HIS space.” And a retired professor, a member of the university professors’ union, criticized our concern for the political prisoners in Iran and being against U.S. sanctions on Iran. He said you have to support the Islamic regime because it is a force “opposed to Yankee imperialism” and “we cannot forget that the main enemy is North American imperialism.” He also stated that, although he does not agree with the treatment of women in Iran but this as “part of their culture.” We confronted these wrong positions and after listening to our arguments, the professor-unionist decided to go and see the Exhibition.

Many of these collaborators have political affinity with the organizers of the Festival who are members of the old, non-revolutionary Colombian “communist” party (PCC). One of them argued that “the U.S. is the country promoting and financing the protests in Iran,” “Iran is part of an anti-imperialist bloc,” “I have not seen you defending the political prisoners of Colombia,” etc. to try to censor us. This same position is defended by almost all the reformist “left intellectuals,” including some directors of the Bogotá teachers’ union (ADE), who have openly declared the IRI anti-imperialist. In 2019, they even held a celebration of the founding of the IRI.

This festival was a real opportunity to struggle against the narrow sectarianism and evasion by some “left” intellectuals with petty attitudes. These forces criticize our support of “others” and want us to limit ourselves to the problems of “our” country (i.e. Colombia). This time, they ask “why only Iran?” Other times they ask “why only Palestine or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Brazil?” Or they ask “why only women or LGBT?” Or “why only at festivals?” Or “why only at Universities?” Or “why only in neighborhoods?” and so on ad nauseam! It is necessary to carry out struggle to transform their way of thinking which takes individualism to another level. There have been some successes in this struggle.

Join Us

The world cannot allow what the IRI has done since its founding in 1979, nor allow again the complete elimination of a generation of brave and powerful critical minds. The courage and sacrifice of the masses and of the voices of conscience must receive a response of frank global support in various social sectors. In this sense, it ` key that artists, lawyers, and journalists welcome the Appeal and urgently disseminate it in all possible ways and in all possible areas. As the Appeal puts it: The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance—We Must ACT Now!... tirelessly.

Prominent Poets and Writers from Africa, Latin America and Europe Endorse the Emergency Appeal

During the time that ads to Free Iran's Political prisoners were running online in Ms, dozens of artists from Africa, Latin American and Europe signed the Emergency Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now!  Among the signers were Nimrod Bena, poet, writer, editor and philosopher from Chad, Kayo Chingonyi; Zambian writer, editor, broadcaster; Hilde Susan Jaegtnes, poet, fiction writer, screenwriter, actress and composer (Norway);  Martín Barea Mattos, poet and director of the international poetry festival "Mundial Poético" in Montevideo, Uruguay; Oscar "Puky" Gutiérrez Peña, poet, cultural manager and editor (Bolivia); more than a dozen Colombian writers and artists including Luis Villa  and Angela Briceño; and Chilean poets Eugenia Brito Astrosa and Amanda Durán.

We encourage people to get a copy to bring into your classrooms to share! Or ask your favorite bookstore to display the ad. Or bring it with you to show people at events, protests and speakouts!

For a complete list of signers, visit the IEC website. For your friends and colleagues to add their voices to this Emergency Appeal, share this link. Or print this page for people to sign.

Bella Now! in Berlin Festival, Aug. 13

The song by Shekib Mosadeq and Miles Solay "Inspired by the struggle to free all political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in Afghanistan"  will be performed live at a music festival in Berlin this weekend.

IRI President Raisi plans September visit to the United Nations

The IEC received a call for demonstration in September from UK-based CFPPI (Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran).

Stay tuned for the latest on this from the IEC. In the coming days, be sure to check the IEC Website/Plans or IEC Website/Events for future plans!

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Earlier, a video was published on the internet that showed a "famous person" [IEC: well-known female IRI agent who bullies women for not properly covering their hair in public] on the bus being aggressive to a woman under the pretext of covering up, causing that women and other women on the bus to defend themselves in protest. While filming the protesting woman, she threatens to send the video to the "Army". Shortly after the wide distribution of this video on social networks, it was found out that the woman who protested was Sepideh Rashno, and she was arrested by the security officers and taken to an unknown place. At the same time, the media of the government also began to file and make accusations and attributed this protest, like countless other protests, to "external factors".

In recent months, many such news items have been published after crossing the censorship barrier: the news that reveals both the increasing pressure on women and their resistance. The government has revived its old tools, and its officers, called "Moral Security Police", are busy oppressing women even more and depriving them of their safety.

The basis of this repression has been prepared before; The government, which has realized that in the absence of women's organizations and institutions, it is easier to violate the rights of "Sepidehs" and marginalize their voices, has violated the right of women to organize for years and has narrowed the space for activists in this field by filing cases, arresting and jailing.

The Iranian Writers Association, while defending the right to choose clothing, once again declares its support for women's right to organize and considers these arrests and forced confessions to be a continuation of the organized repression of women. Unconditional freedom is the right of Sepideh Rashno and all political and ideological prisoners.

Iran Writers’ Association, August 1, 2022

Video of march on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LBKxgLxBQ&t=54s

The government of Iran is guilty of grotesque injustices against workers, artists, writers, lawyers, democratic activists, socialists and others who protest or speak out and protest against their patriarchal and fascist like regime.  It is therefore our responsibility as human rights advocates in this country to speak out and act in solidarity with this growing movement of protest among Iran’s courageous prisoners.

It is doubly important for us to do this since the United States government,  represented by this building we stand next to, carried out crimes against the Iranian nation going back to the 1950s, and continues to do so with sanctions that  cause great harm to the ordinary people of Iran.  And this government does this not to defend democracy or people’s rights as they claim, but to help the U.S. maintain a grip on the Middle East, all the better to exploit the people there.

Furthermore, in our country we are witness to the great efforts from powerful interests to rile up the people with U.S.A. first chauvinism, whose most disgusting manifestation is MAGA, with which fascists in this country wish to harden the people here to accept any manner of brutality to, in their words, “make America great again”.  This poisonous ideology represents the deadening of the spirits thus infected by it, and, as an outlook, if not challenged and defeated, will be a death sentence to humanity generally.

Therefore our solidarity is not only for the sake of our courageous sisters and brothers in Iran but for ourselves and for all our human kind trapped as we are at this time in an immoral and unjust social order.

None of us are free, until all of us are free.

Free Iran’s political prisoners now.

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The film was really good. Great subject, good acting, well directed and produced. (More about the film at the end ).

The overall experience was mixed. Maybe it was not the best venue to achieve the results that we were hoping for, since we were not allowed in the area of the Museum where people who had come to see the movie were entering but only a general museum entrance, we ended up passing out fliers to all people who passed by us, only a few of whom were actually there for the Iranian festival.

But we did learn some things, which are important in their own right. We found that most people we came across had no idea about the situation in Iran, let alone the plight of political prisoners. But many people were curious to learn and took the fliers in that spirit. Some asked how they could help the International Campaign, for which we were happy to give out the flier " Five ways to help....".  

I had the opportunity to engage a couple of people on the premises close to the entrance gate, before the Security Guard noticed my presence and asked me to leave. A young Iranian woman, a college student, who was probably waiting for someone to join her, took the flier, but said she had no idea about the prisoners' situation in Iran. She added, “I don't like the government of Iran", without further elaboration. A couple, in their 30s or so, took the Emergency Campaign flier. They said they had no idea about the prisoner situation but were curious to find out and asked how they could help. I gave them the flier with the " five ways to help" written. Another man, in his early fifties, took the flier and said he knew democracy had been hijacked in Iran after the ouster of Mossadegh, and installing of the Shah. He counter questioned me to ask what was happening in Iran and what needed to be done. At this point I engaged him a little on how this system had no solution to end humanity's suffering and gave him the palm card showing BA's latest work, " Something Terrible or Something Emancipating...." .

The movie, "No Choice" seems to have deeply impacted the people watching the movie (as it surely deeply moved me), the audience coming out of the hall were suddenly eagerly asking us for the fliers on Iranian prisoners. One middle aged Iranian man, while taking the fliers, said, "I really want to thank you for doing this ".

The Movie : ** NO CHOICE **

I thought the film was very powerful in showing the savage exploitation of women in the brutal and oppressive patriarchal theocratic system, especially for the poor and downtrodden, but really for all women, at all levels. I liked the subtle ways in which the movie was critical of the theocracy and its leadership. The film shows the helplessness of women who try to "claim" justice from the system, and are met with mountains of hurdles in their path at every step. The film shows that a woman lawyer, who picks up the courage to pursue the case of a homeless teenager, and with a lot of tenacity manages to cross a number of hurdles, becomes a threat to all those in the chain who have been responsible for the exploitation of this homeless teenage girl. The lawyer is followed, and literally murdered on the street.

From a sustainer of the Revolution Tour

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Carrying posters with the images and a brief story of some of the fighters on the front and designs from the campaign with text in English or Spanish on the back, as well as a couple of banners with enlargements of the ad that appeared in the New York Review of Books, the protesters chanted insistently for several minutes: “The eyes of the world are on Iran...,” “We demand from the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!,” “We demand from the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!,” while a couple of protesters wrote one of these slogans on the pavement.

After dispersing in groups as they had arrived, the protesters regrouped about three kilometers to the south in the Plaza de Lourdes, a park in the Chapinero sector that is visited by mainly foreign tourists. For more than an hour, the protesters circulated around twelve blocks of the sector while each one read from the poster that they carried about the case of the corresponding prisoner. After every three readings, they would stop while a speaker read excerpts from the Emergency Appeal or from the IEC [International Emergency Committee to Free Iran's Political Prisoners] statement “Eyes of World on Iran as JCPOA Talks Resume,” denouncing the nefarious “two historically outmoded strata” in Iran, and around the world.

During the whole route, several of the marchers interacted with pedestrians, street vendors and store employees, and on the whole were warmly welcomed, while in some cases they had to address questions about why the protesters were committed to a “far-off” or “other people’s” cause. It was a good opportunity to make clear how and why the freedom fighters in Iran are OUR people, and the cause of defending them (and their struggles) are OUR cause and should be embraced by many more people.

It was an afternoon full of internationalist fervor that was sparked the night before with a preparation session in which the participants in the internationalist action watched the documentary Nasrin, read various materials from the International Emergency Campaign, were infuriated by the murder of Heydar and worried about Baktash’s condition.[1]

[1] Baktash’s death occurred only a few hours after this action. While his death was a hard blow to the participants who heard the news when they met to sum up the action, it also strengthened our sense of urgency to strengthen the Campaign more throughout Colombia. Indeed, our eyes are on Iran and our hearts beat in unison with the hearts of the fighters in the Iranian prisons.

El pasado jueves 6 de enero, poco después del mediodía, unas tres docenas de manifestantes con desbordante espíritu internacionalista se concentraron frente a la embajada de Irán en Bogotá para hacerles saber a los representantes de la  reaccionaria República Islámica de Irán que “Los ojos del mundo están puestos sobre Irán” especialmente en cuanto a la situación de los presas y presos políticos que tiene en sus garras.

Portando carteles con las imágenes y una corta historia de algunos de los luchadores en el anverso y diseños de la campaña con textos en inglés o español en el reverso, así como un par de pendones con ampliaciones del anuncio aparecido en el NYRB, los manifestantes corearon  insistentemente durante varios minutos: “Los ojos del mundo están puestos sobre Irán…”, “¡Exigimos a la República Islámica de Irán: LIBERTAD PARA TODOS LOS PRISIONEROS POLÍTICOS YA!”, “¡Exigimos al gobierno de Estados Unidos: NO A LAS AMENAZAS O MANIOBRAS BÉLICAS CONTRA IRÁN, LEVANTEN LAS SANCIONES!”, mientras un par de ellos escribía en el pavimento una de estas consignas.

Tras dispersarse en grupos tal como habían llegado, los manifestantes se reagruparon unos tres kilómetros al sur en la Plaza de Lourdes, un parque del sector de Chapinero muy visitado por turistas principalmente extranjeros. Durante más de una hora los manifestantes recorrieron unas doce cuadras del sector mientras cada uno leía del cartel que portaba el caso del preso/a correspondiente. Tras cada tres lecturas hacían una parada mientras una oradora leía extractos del Llamamiento de Emergencia o del comunicado del CIE “Los ojos del mundo están puestos sobre Irán ante la reanudación de conversaciones del PAIC”, denunciando los nefastos “dos sectores históricamente anticuados” en Irán y en el mundo.

En todo el recorrido varios de los manifestantes interactuaban con los transeúntes, con los vendedores ambulantes y con empleados de los comercios, encontrando por lo general acogida, requiriendo en algunos casos abordar cuestionamientos por el compromiso de los manifestantes por una causa “lejana” o “ajena”. Fue una buena oportunidad para dejar en claro cómo y por qué los luchadores de Irán son NUESTRA gente, y la causa de su defensa (y de sus luchas) era NUESTRA causa y debía ser acogida por mucha más gente.

Fue una tarde llena de fervor internacionalista que encendió desde la noche anterior con una sesión de preparación en la que los participantes en la jornada internacionalista vieron el documental “Nasrin”, leyeron diversos materiales de la Campaña Internacional de Emergencia, se enfurecieron por el asesinado de Heydar y mostraron preocupación por la situación de Baktash. La muerte de Baktash no muchas horas después de esta jornada, a la vez que golpeó a los participantes al enterarse mientras se encontraban reunidos en un balance de la jornada, elevó el espíritu de urgencia de fortalecer más la Campaña en todo el país.

Sí, nuestros ojos están puestos sobre Irán y nuestros corazones laten al unísono con los de los luchadores en las cárceles iraníes.

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Here a just a few of the findings highlighted by a CHRI wrap-up:

• Juveniles who were detained in the wake of the protests were tortured and raped, and Amnesty International told the tribunal that at least 22 children were among those killed during the protests.
• Students were pulled out of classrooms, beaten, shocked with electric tasers and raped for their alleged participation in the protests.
• A police officer in Iran said he had been sentenced to five year in prison “for refusing orders to shoot at people.”
• A surgeon testified that “wounded people were being taken away from the hospital every night at 1 am in the cover of darkness,” and that he had to treat people at his home to ensure they could be protected.

The statement from Swedish public prosecutors Kristina Lindhoff Carleson and Martina Winslow, accusing Nouri of “intentionally killing, together with other perpetrators, a large number of prisoners who sympathized with various left-wing groups and who were regarded as apostates,” has been a source of encouragement for families who have been ignored or persecuted by the Iranian authorities for seeking justice.

CHRI considers Nouri’s trial an unprecedented opportunity to reveal long-hidden aspects of gross human rights violations that were committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The international community, and especially human rights organizations, should consider this a vital chance to access facts about the 1988 massacre.

Witnesses Have Identified Nouri, Who Worked Closely with President Elect Ebrahim Raisi

Nouri was arrested on November 9, 2019, as he arrived at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport to visit relatives, and was held on suspicion of committing mass murder in Iran. His detention order was extended for 20 months to give prosecutors time to build their case.

Witnesses have come forward to identify Nouri as an assistant prosecutor in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, during the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988.

According to Iraj Mesdaghi, a former political prisoner and eyewitness at Gohardasht, Nouri worked closely with current President Ebrahim Raisi and former Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi. In 1988, Raisi and Pourmohammadi were members of a “death committee” that ordered the execution of the approximately 5000 political prisoners, all of whom had already been issued and were serving their prison sentences.

The committee, appointed by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, included Raisi, who was then deputy prosecutor of Tehran; Pourmohammadi, an Intelligence Ministry representative at the time; Morteza Eshraghi, Tehran Prosecutor at the time, and Hossein Ali Nayeri, then the religious judge at Evin Prison and now a high court judge.

Iranian authorities have remained largely silent on Nouri’s case ever since his arrest, and have not commented on his indictment.

The victims’ families, especially the group known as Mothers of Khavaran, have kept the memory of the tragedy alive with annual vigils at the Khavaran Cemetery in south Tehran, where many of the victims were buried in mass graves. Families have been harassed and persecuted by the Iranian authorities for trying to find information about their murdered relatives.

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Iran’s Islamic Republic is a theocratic regime and the religious beliefs of the ruling elite are meticulously written into law. Moreover, interpretation of this law is itself a haphazard affair because there are several schools of interpretation of Sharia law and each has its own clerical authority and all of these sects have control of their own jurisdictions.

This situation makes even a pretense of the rule of law impossible, because the constitution and whatever rights which might be inscribed in that constitution are in a constant state of being interpreted and re-interpreted through the prism of Sharia law.  So there is no rule of law. There is no due process. And the prisoner is presumed to be guilty, and on the basis of this presumption of guilt, the prisoner is arrested.

After the arrest, prisoners are completely at the mercy of the whims of their interrogators. The lack of Habeas Corpus means prisoners do not have the right to appear before a court immediately and do not have the right to a lawyer.

Interrogations begin with prisoners having no contact to the outside world.  They are often accompanied by physical torture and always paired with the psychological “white torture” of isolation and sensory deprivation. In the case of women, it is accompanied by verbal and different degrees of physical sexual abuse.

This behavior is sanctioned by Sharia law as well, because according to Sharia law, a prisoner has the status of a slave who is to be used and abused.

Some prisoners are tortured by being held in solitary confinement for months and even years, blindfolded when they leave their cells, kept under 24-hour video surveillance, and subject to inhuman conditions such as sleeping on the hard stone floors of their cells without pillows.  They are often denied access to medical care.  All this is designed to destroy prisoners physically and mentally.

This whole process is meant to produce "evidence" in the form of wrenching "confessions" from prisoners. Even when enough real evidence of a prisoner’s thinking, writing, and activities are seized in raids to demonstrate their opposition to the regime, the torture keeps going.  Why? Because the goal is to prove not only the prisoner’s guilt, but his or her "sinfulness.". This is related to Sharia law. Torturing the prisoner has two goals: one is to extract information and the other is to "break" the prisoner and, as the Sharia puts it, to bring them to do "tobeh,” to admit their regret for having violated the Sharia.

Once the interrogations are over and a dossier or a case file is created, the case is taken to the court. Until then, prisoners usually have no access to an independent lawyer. A few days - sometimes hours - before the trial, their lawyer is allowed to inspect the case files. These files may only be read in the courthouse and in the presence of security officers. In some cases, lawyers are not admitted to court at all, and trials even take place without the accused being present. Iran’s judicial processes are a sham because the judgments have been made by prosecutors and interrogators – Iran’s judges are not independent -- before the case even comes to court. And these can be extremely harsh judgments which often include cruel punishments like lashings or even execution.

The Iranian judicial system rejects and acts in opposition to the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”  In fact, there can be no just society without the rule of law; there can be no rule of law without due process of law; and there can be no due process of law without the presumption of innocence!

All of this points to the fact that these political prisoners should never have been arrested. They are heroes who have stood up for others. They should be celebrated, not behind bars.

Therefore, the only just remedy is:

Immediate and unconditional freedom for all political prisoners in Iran!

“We are seriously concerned at the mistreatment of Mohammad Nourizad and his continued imprisonment for expressing his opinion,” the experts said. “Furthermore, his continued detention despite medical professionals finding he cannot stay in prison given his serious health condition, and the resulting denial of adequate medical care, may amount to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

“His case is emblematic of the situation many Iranian political activists face in detention. He must be immediately released.”

In February 2020, Nourizad received multiple sentences, including a seven-and-a-half-year prison term, after being convicted on charges relating to an open letter he and others signed calling for the Supreme Leader’s resignation and for constitutional changes.

While in detention, Nourizad has carried out hunger strikes and refused to take medications, most recently starting 10 March 2021, to protest against his imprisonment and his family’s mistreatment.