Friday, September 04, 2009

Iran's dissenting students

Economist.com



Iran's dissenting students

Trying to pep up the opposition
Sep 3rd 2009 | TEHRAN

From The Economist print edition


Why the ruling ayatollahs want to keep Iran’s students under their thumb

IN THE autumn of 1978 the beleaguered shah postponed the autumnal return of Iran’s politically disgruntled students to their universities by several months. But when the institutes of learning eventually opened their doors, the students soon poured furiously into the streets in their tens of thousands, until, in the growing mayhem, the shah fled and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini replaced him. Could the same process occur all over again?

Today’s authorities are loth to take any risks. Iran’s students are still seething with discontent, following the disputed presidential election of June 12th. And the government sounds reluctant to reopen universities on their due date, September 23rd. But it also wants to show that everything is back to normal after the turmoil of the two months that followed the election.

The authorities are certainly preparing to take countermeasures in case students again revolt. At a recent Friday prayer, the quiet streets around Tehran University became rallying points for clusters of conservative worshippers, many of them wearing the characteristic untucked shirts of the vast paramilitary organisation known as the baseej, which has carried out much of the thuggery against opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was reinstalled as president last month. Many of Tehran’s students were prevented from taking their final examinations because of the disturbances in the election’s immediate aftermath. Now the baseejis are on alert in case, when the students do return later this month, they take their chance once more to express their disaffection in public.

In any event, the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, the government body that oversees education, stated at the end of August that universities may stay shut in the autumn because of swine flu, just as officials had cited high pollution levels as the reason for keeping students indoors after the summer election.

In some universities the authorities have delayed registration of students for the new academic year. In Shiraz, where campuses have already reopened, the security forces are tightly controlling them, with circulars telling students not to undertake unauthorised political activities. Elsewhere, even if universities do reopen, classrooms may be packed with loyal baseejis, who may get increased quotas.

Students who have gone back say they are afraid that masked baseejis may beat them up if they step out of line. This happened in mid-June when Tehran University’s dormitories were stormed at midnight in a raid now being investigated on the orders of Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the new head of the justice system, a tough disciplinarian. “[The regime] can’t control students easily,” says a Tehran graduate. “The only way to keep them calm is to threaten them with an attack by the baseej.”

Students played a big part in the summer protests in Tehran. They were at the forefront of demonstrations, helped organise strikes and lambasted the regime on their blogs. They also provided staff for the main opposition candidates, Mir Hosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, handing out leaflets, knocking on doors, and arranging campus meetings. Some helped shape the opposition manifestos through the influential Office for Strengthening Unity, Iran’s main student organisation, which has remained critical of the regime.

The students at the universities in Tehran who come from the provinces and were living in those dormitories were sent home when the post-election turmoil began and universities shut. Many of them, now poised to return, are keen to revive what they missed. “Since they have no parents around them,” says an engineering student at the Islamic Azad University of South Tehran who comes from the north-western town of Qazvin, “they are free to do anything. The atmosphere is highly radical. Students right now can continue the protests in a very good way.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seems rattled by the prospect of student unrest—and has hinted that the regime may purge universities of professors suspected of “unIslamic” tendencies. On August 30th he complained that the study of social science “promotes doubts and uncertainty”, telling a meeting of students and teachers that the study of liberal arts and other humanities had led to a “loss of belief in godly and Islamic knowledge.” Perhaps presaging a crackdown on teachers as well as students, Kamran Daneshjou, who ran the interior ministry’s election headquarters during the presidential poll, has been appointed minister in charge of universities.

Yet the regime is unlikely to close the universities altogether. This month it may become clearer whether the students can pep up an opposition that may, in the past month or so, have begun to flag. In any event, internecine skirmishing within the ruling establishment is still going on—ensuring that Iran’s crisis is far from over.


Article in Persian click here


Iran’s president in trouble Ructions at the top

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being buffeted on all sides in Iran Jul 30th 2009

Iran's holiest city Qom all ye faithful

Muted dissent in Iran’s holiest city Jul 23rd 2009

Iran's political fissures Taking sides

A former president's speech shows the widening splits between Iran's rulers Jul 18th 2009

Iran's Mir Hosein Mousavi Out of his shell

The thwarted presidential challenger is refusing to give up Jul 16th 2009

Britain-baiting in Iran My Uncle Albion

The current ill will between the two countries has deep roots Jul 9th 2009

Iran's rebellious students Go underground

On the surface, normality is returning. Underground, things may be different Jul 9th 2009

The crisis in Iran Is the dream already over?

The authorities may succeed in quelling the street demonstrations. But the crisis is far from over, especially as the ruling clergy quarrel among themselves Jun 25th 2009

Iran's debate over theocracy Why the turbans are at odds

A debate rages about the nature of clerical rule Jun 25th 2009

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Iranian regime rapes people for Allah

From August 22, 2009,

Iranian boy who defied Tehran hardliners tells of prison rape ordeal

The 15-year-old boy sits weeping in a safehouse in central Iran, broken in body and spirit. Reza will not go outside — he is terrified of being left alone. He says he wants to end his life and it is not hard to understand why: for daring to wear the green wristband of Iran’s opposition he was locked up for 20 days, beaten, raped repeatedly and subjected to the Abu Ghraib-style sexual humiliations and abuse for which the Iranian regime denounced the United States.

“My life is over. I don’t think I can ever recover,” he said, as he recounted his experiences to The Times — on condition that his identity not be revealed. A doctor who is treating him, at great risk to herself, confirmed that he is suicidal, and bears the appalling injuries consistent with his story. The family is desperate, and is exploring ways of fleeing Iran.

Reza is living proof of the charges levelled by Mehdi Karoubi, one of the opposition’s leaders, that prison officials are systematically raping both male and female detainees to break their wills. The regime has accused Mr Karoubi of helping Iran’s enemies by spreading lies and has threatened to arrest him.

The boy’s treatment also shows just how far a regime that claims to champion Islamic values is prepared to go to suppress millions of its own citizens who claim that President Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

Reza’s ordeal began in mid-July when he was arrested with about 40 other teenagers during an opposition demonstration in a large provincial city. Most were too young even to have voted. They were taken to what he believes was a Basiji militia base where they were blindfolded, stripped to their underwear, whipped with cables and then locked in a steel shipping container. That first night Reza was singled out by three men in plain clothes who had masqueraded as prisoners. As the other boys watched, they pushed him to the ground. One held his head down, another sat on his back and the third urinated on him before raping him.

“They were telling us they were doing this for God, and who did we think we were that we could demonstrate,” Reza said. The men told the other boys they would receive the same treatment if they did not co-operate when interrogated the next day.

Reza was then taken outside, tied to a metal pole and left there all night. The next morning one of the men returned. He asked whether Reza had learnt his lesson. “I was angry. I spat in his face and began cursing him. He elbowed me in the face a couple of times and slapped me.” Twenty minutes later, he says, the man returned with a bag full of excrement, shoved it in Reza’s face and threatened to make him eat it.

Reza was later taken to an interrogation room where he told his questioner he had been raped. “I made a mistake. He sounded kind, but my eyes were blindfolded. He said he would go look into it and I was hopeful,” Reza said.

Instead, the interrogator ordered Reza to be tied up and raped him again, saying: “This time I’ll do it, so you’ll learn not to tell these tales anywhere else. You deserve what’s coming to you. You guys should be raped until you die.”

He was subjected to further brutal sexual abuse — and locked up for three days of solitary confinement.

Reza was then forced to sign a “confession” in which he said that foreign forces had told him and his friends to burn banks and state media buildings. He was told to identify as the ringleader a 16-year-old friend who had been so badly beaten that he was in hospital.

“I was shaking so much I couldn’t even hear what they were saying,” said Reza. “I just signed whatever they put in front of me without looking at it. I was scared they would rape me again.”

The next day Reza and other detainees were transferred to a police detention centre, where he was held for a further week.

On the third day, police officers entered the cell in the middle of the night, blindfolded him and led him to the toilet, where he was again raped. “My hands began shaking, my legs were weak and I couldn’t stand up properly. I fell down and smashed my head hard on the ground to try and kill myself. I started screaming and shouting for them to kill me. I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I hated myself,” he said, weeping at the memory.

The following morning he was summoned by a police commander, who asked why he had been screaming the previous night. When he explained, he was asked to identify his rapist. The boy said he had been blindfolded, so the chief commander hit him and accused him of lying. He was forced to sign a letter admitting he had made baseless accusations against the security forces.

Reza’s ordeal was far from over. He was taken with about 130 other prisoners to the city’s Revolutionary Court, where they were herded into a yard. The judge told them that he would hang those who had violently resisted the Islamic revolution and read out the names of ten teenagers, including Reza. The message was clear: if they continued to say they had been raped they would be executed.

The judge sent them to the city’s central prison, where Reza was handcuffed and held in a small cell with six other boys for ten more days. In the evenings officers beat the boys and taunted them with the words: “You want to cause a revolution?.

Periodically, the most senior officer would take the boys away, three at a time. “When they returned they would be very quiet and uneasy,” Reza said. When his turn came he and the others were led into a small room and ordered to strip and have sex with each other. “He told us that with this we would be cleansed — we would be so shattered that we would no longer be able to look at each other. This would help calm us down.”

After 20 days Reza’s family finally secured his release on bail of about £45,000 — and with a final warning that he should say nothing about his treatment. His brother said: “A friend of mine who is a guard in the prison where Reza was being held had told me he was ill. The night he was released he was crying uncontrollably; then he broke down and told my mother everything.”

The family persuaded a hospital doctor they knew to treat him, despite the danger to herself. She has treated his physical injuries and given him antibiotics and sedatives but cannot perform an internal examination. Reza is deeply traumatised, terrified of being returned to prison and barely sleeps.

The doctor told The Times that other detainees had suffered a similiar fate. “We have many cases in the hospital but we can’t report on them. They won’t let us open a file. They don’t want any paperwork,” she said.

Drewery Dyke, an Amnesty International Iran researcher, said that Reza’s case was “consistent with other reports we have received in terms of the severity of disregard for human dignity, the unrestricted abuse without any recourse to justice, the involvement even of judicial persons in rape abuse and the denial of the basic right to healthcare”.

Reza, at least, survived to tell the world his story. The 16-year-old friend he had to name as the ringleader has since died in hospital from his injuries.

The identities of all people mentioned in the article have been withheld.

NATION IN TURMOIL

June 12 Presidential elections held after a campaign marked by huge rallies in support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi

June 13 Mr Mousavi calls for vote counting to stop, saying there are “blatant violations”. Government says Mr Ahmadinejad won with 62.63 per cent of the vote. Angry crowds assemble in Tehran

June 14 Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his blessing to the disputed results

June 15 He agrees to investigate the election as tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters take to the streets in the largest protest since the 1979 revolution. At least eight are killed and 368 detained, says Amnesty International

June 16 Mass rallies continue while foreign media are banned from reporting on the streets of Tehran

June 19 State television says more than 450 are detained during clashes in Tehran. At least ten are killed, including Neda Saledi Agha Soltan, apparently shot by a militia sniper. Her murder is seen around the world on the internet

June 21 Mr Ahmadinejad accuses US and Britain of fuelling protests

June 23 Britain expels two Iranian diplomats after two of its diplomats are thrown out of Iran. Britain and US condemn beatings and arrests of demonstrators

July 22 Amnesty International says it has received the names of at least 30 killed during the demonstrations

August 1 Thirty people put on trial for alleged opposition “conspiracy”. Amnesty denounces the trials as “grossly unfair”

August 5 Mr Ahmadinejad is sworn in for second term

August 10 “Confessions” from defendants on trial, including a British Embassy employee and a French student, are said to prove a Western plot to topple the Iranian government

August 11 Former opposition candidate Mehdi Karoubi says detainees have been systematically raped and tortured in jails

August 14 Reformist MPs denounce government brutality and call for Ayatollah Khamenei’s qualifications for position of Supreme Leader to be investigated

August 20 Mr Karoubi says he is ready to present evidence of rape

Sources: Amnesty International, Reuters, Times database

Iranian Cleric Predicts Opposition Will Topple Ahmadinejad


Iran reformer says he wants to present rape evidence

Iran's Mousavi says government agents raped detainees


Is this the man who killed Neda Soltan?

Iran defies condemnation, expands opposition trial

Friday, June 26, 2009

Letter of Iranian Scholars to the UN Secretary General



Friday June 26th 2009

Secretary General of the United Nations,
H. E. Ban Ki-moon

We are writing to express our thanks for your recent statements about the current human rights crisis in Iran. Over the past several days hundreds of demonstrators have been savagely beaten and wantonly shot by police and paramilitary forces. Many have died and hundreds are imprisoned. Dissenting voices who have protested the outcome of the recent presidential elections face brutal retribution by the state. Close to three hundred activists, journalists, previous state officials and opposition leaders have been illegally detained in undisclosed locations. The detainees are deprived of legal representation and, judging by previous experience and based on credible reports, many may be under pressure to confess to acts of treason. A partial list of prominent detainees include:

Mohammad Ali Abtahi (former Vice President)
Reza Alijani (Journalist)
Ardeshir Amirarjomand (Professor of Law)
Mohsen Aminzadeh (Former Deputy Foreign Minister)
Mohammad Reza Atrianfar (Opposition politician)
Ms. Zhyla Baniyaghoub (Journalist)
Qurban Behzadian-nejad (Professor)
Mohammad Ghouchani: (Journalist)
Saeed Hajjarian: (Former City Councilor and Presidential Advisor. Critically wounded in a botched assassination by paramilitary forces, Mr. Hajjarian has been semi-paralyzed since 2000 and is in need of urgent medical care.)
Saeed Leilaz (Journalist)
Mohsen Mirdamadi (former Member of Parliament)
Abdollah Momeni (Student activist)
Behzad Nabavi (former Member of Parliament)
Abdollah Ramazanzadeh (former Government Spokesperson)
Hoda Saber (journalist)
Mohsen Safaie-Farahani (former Member of Parliament)
Saeed Shirakvand (former Deputy Minister of Treasury)
Shahaboddin Tabatabaie (Journalist)
Abdolfattah Soltani (Lawyer)
Ali Tajernia (former Member of the Parliament)
Muhammad Tavassoli (former Mayor of Tehran)
Mostafa Tajzadeh (former Deputy Minister of Interior)
Golamreza Zarifian (Professor)
Ahmad Zaydabadi (Journalist)

We respectfully urge you to call on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect the international conventions on human rights to which it is a signatory. The Iranian government must be reminded that false imprisonment and the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators, extra-judicial detentions, and extracting confessions under torture are gross violations of international law, as well as the Constitution of the Islamic Republic.
Complaints regarding massive irregularities in the recent presidential poll in the country must be peacefully settled through appropriate judicial procedures by neutral arbitrators.
We call on you, specifically, to appoint a special envoy to monitor the ongoing developments in Iran and, if possible, to travel to Tehran to convey the grave concerns of the international community to the Iranian authorities.

We are deeply grateful for your statement of June 23, 2009, on the Iranian crisis and look forward to your continued leadership in preventing further violence and bloodshed in Iran.


Ervand Abrahamian, Professor of History, Borough College, New York
Touraj Atabaki, Profesor of Social History, Leiden University
Said Amir Arjomand, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, New York University at Stonybrook
Ali Banuazizi, Professor of Political Science, Boston College
Asef Bayat, Professor of Sociology and Middle East Studies, Leiden University
Abdolali Bazargan, Political activist & former political prisoner
Maziar Behrooz, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University
Mansour Bonakdarian, Assistant Professor of History, University of Toronto, Mississauga
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Professor, Political Science, Syracuse University
Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies & Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Kaveh Ehsani, Assistant Professor of International Relations, De Paul University
Reza Farahani, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, City College of New York
Farideh Farhi, Faculty of Political Science, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Akbar Ganji, Human Rights Activist, Investigative Journalist, former political prisoner
Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Resident Scholar, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Mohsen Kadivar, Visiting Professor of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Duke University
Hossein Kamaly, Assistant Professor of Perso-Islamic Studies, Columbia University
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Professor of Persian Language, Literature, and Culture, University of Maryland
Mehrangiz Kar, Visiting scholar-Harvard Law School, Lawyer, former political prisoner
Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor, Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University
Azadeh Kian, Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies, University of Paris 7-Paris-Diderot
Farhad Khosrokhavar, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Visiting Professor Harvard University
Ataollah Mohajerani, Former vice-president, and Minister of Islamic Culture (1996-1999)
Arash Naraghi, Assistant professor of Philosophy and Religion, Moravian College
Nasrin Rahimieh, Professor of History, University of California at Irvine
Rouhi Ramazani, Edward R. Stettinius Emeritus Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs University of Virginia."
Mostafa Rokhsefat, Former Founding Editor of Kayhan Farhangi
Ahmad Sadri, Professor of Sociology & Chair of Islamic World Studies, Lake Forest College
Mahmoud Sadri, Professor of Sociology, Texas Woman?s University
Abdolkarim Soroush, Member of the Iranian Academy of Sciences
Nayereh Tohidi, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, California State University, Northridge
Hossein Ziai, Professor and Chair in Iranian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Neda – the tragic face of Iran's uprising

The Independent, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, By Peter Popham

Her name is Neda Agha-Soltan and when a sniper shot her dead on Saturday the uprising got its martyr

Her name is Neda Agha-Soltan and when a sniper shot her dead on Saturday the uprising got its martyr

Joan of Arc she was not, nor the Unknown Protester who stopped the tanks in Tiananmen Square, because that young man, 20 years ago, chose his fate and his prominence, deliberately stepping out of the crowd into the tank's and the cameras' sights.

Not so Neda: the young Iranian woman whose quick, brutal death from a Basiji militia man's bullet during a demonstration on Saturday created the Iranian uprising's first figurehead chose nothing except to be there.

Having found the courage to come out on to the street, she may have quailed: video shot moments before her death show her and her companion looking on from the sidelines as demonstrators surge back and forth. Should they go back? Had they made a mistake coming? She was in jeans and headscarf, the uniform of the city's young women, aged 26 or 27, we understand, therefore under 30, like 60 per cent of Iran's population: a modern Iranian Everywoman. She worked at a travel agency, so she was connected with the great world every day. ... ... ... ... ...

Riot police use tear gas to halt protest in Iran

The Associated Press - ‎1 hour ago‎
CAIRO (AP) - Riot police cracked down anew on demonstrators in Iran's capital on Monday hours after the feared Revolutionary Guard threatened to crush any further post-election protests.
Denmark summons Iran ambassador over violence Reuters

Web Video Makes an Iranian Woman's Death a Symbol of Iran's Crisis

New York Times - Nazila Fathi - ‎2 hours ago‎
TEHRAN, June 22 - It was hot in the car, so the young woman and her singing instructor got out for a breath of fresh air on a quiet side street not far from the anti-government protests they had ventured out to attend.
Amateur video turns woman into icon of Iran unrest The Associated Press

Obama Administration Defends Stance on Iran Election Crisis

Voice of America - David Gollust - ‎1 hour ago‎
Senior Obama administration officials on Monday defended US handling of the Iranian election crisis amid criticism that President Barack Obama has not been forceful enough on the issue.
Analysis: Barack Obama's call for change rings hollow in Iran Telegraph.co.uk

BBC Persian works round restrictions

BBC News - Aidan Lewis - ‎33 minutes ago‎
Just five months after bbc's Persian TV service went on air came the disputed June presidential elections in Iran, followed by mass protests, violence, and a clampdown on foreign media.
BBC is backing election riots, claims Iran guardian.co.uk

Family of UK embassy staff to leave Iran

Daily Mail - ‎2 hours ago‎
Family members of British diplomatic staff in Iran are to be evacuated amid increasing tensions over the disputed presidential election.
Russia urges 'constitutional' solution in Iran PRESS TV

Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened to crack down on any new street protests against the results of the country's presidential election.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
President Obama was accused yesterday of being "timid and passive" in his response towards the turmoil in Iran where, Republicans claim, protesters are crying out for America to show moral leadership.


Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Three weeks ago Mir Hossein Mousavi was chastising women for appearing at his rallies with “bad hijab” — wearing their headscarves too far back.


ندا خواهان آزادی بود


نیکی محجوب بی بی سی فارسی دوشنبه 22 ژوئن 2009 - 01 تیر 1388


ندا آقا سلطان، در درگیری های روز شنبه ۳۰ خرداد در تهران در اثر اصابت گلوله به قلبش کشته شد.

تصاویر ارسالی از لحظه مرگ ندا آقا سلطانی و عکس های مخابره شده از این دختر جوان بلافاصله در سایت ها و رسانه های خبری مختلف در سراسر جهان به عنوان نمادی از کشته شدگان درگيری های پس از انتخابات رياست جمهوری در ايران منتشر شد.

کاسپین ماکان، نامزد ندا آقا سلطان روز دوشنبه ۱ تير در گفت و گو با بخش فارسی بی بی سی با اشاره به اینکه ندا بهمن ماه امسال ۲۷ ساله می شد، گفت:"هدف ندا آقای موسوی یا احمدی نژاد نبود، هدفش وطنش بود و برايش اهمیت داشت که در این راه قدم بردارد. بارها اشاره کرده بود که حتی اگر جانش را از دست بدهد و گلوله به قلبش بخورد،که اتفاقا گلوله به قلبش خورد، در همين راه قدم برخواهد داشت. ندا با سن کمش درس بزرگی به خیلی ها داد."

آقای ماکان در باره روز حادثه گفت:"وقتی که این اتفاق افتاد، ندا از درگیری ها دور بود، یعنی در خیابان های فرعی نزدیک امیرآباد بود. حدود یک ساعتی با استاد موسیقی اش در ماشین پشت ترافیک نشسته بود، از گرما و خستگی کلافه و از ماشین پیاده می شود. اما براساس تصاویری که مردم ارسال کرده اند،احتمالا نیروهای لباس شخصی و بسیجی در تیراندازی با نشانه گیری به قلبش می زنند."

کاسپین ماکان نامزد ندا آقا سلطان گفت:"چند دقیقه بیشتر طول نکشید، بیمارستان شریعتی نزدیک بود، حاضران سعی می کنند ندا را با اتومبیل به اورژانس ببرند اما قبل از انتقال به بیمارستان، او در دست استاد موسیقی اش جان می دهد."

آقای ماکان در گفت و گو با بخش فارسی بی بی سی افزود:"جسدش را دیروز با زحمت زیاد توانستیم تحویل بگیریم. البته جسد ندا در پزشکی قانونی تهران نبود، در پزشکی قانونی خارج از تهران بود. مسئولان پزشک قانونی خواستند که بخش هایی از بدنش از جمله قسمتی از استخوان رانش را بگیرند، پزشکی قانونی نگفت برای چه کسی اعضا را می خواهد استفاده کند، هیچ توضیحی در این زمینه داده نشد. خانواده موافقت کرد برای اینکه زودتر جسد را تحویل بگیرند، چون ممکن بود همین موضوع باعث تعویق تحویل جسد بشود. جسد را در قطعه ای از بهشت زهرا یک شنبه 31 خرداد هنگام عصر دفن کردیم، البته کسان دیگری هم که در درگیری ها کشته شده بودند را هم آنجا آورده بودند، انگار منطقه از پیش برای این افراد تعیین شده بود."

آقای ماکان در خصوص هزینه تحویل جسد نیز گفت: "در حال حاضر هزینه ای به طور مشخص پرداخت نشده، مقامات امنیتی ایران طی حکم های مختلف به بیمارستان ها، کلینیک ها و جراحان و پزشکی قانونی عنوان کرده بودند که نباید گواهی فوت براثر شلیک گلوله باشد، مسلما به این دلیل که در آینده شکایت بین المللی توسط خانواده ها به عمل نیاید . البته من هنوز برگه ترخیص ندا را ندیده ام اما در چند روز آینده از پدرش برگه را می گیرم."

آقای ماکان با توضیح در مورد ممانعت از برگزاری مراسم برای ندا آق سلطان گفت:"دوشنبه یکم تیرماه ساعت دو ونیم قرار بود در مسجدی در خیابان شریعتی بالاتر از سید خندان مراسمی داشته باشیم، اما بسیجیان و مسئولان مسجد اجازه برگزاری ندادند، چون به نظرشان هرج و مرج می شود و نمی خواهند درگیری به وجود آید. چون می دانند که ندا مظلومانه رفت و می دانند که همه مردم در ایران و خارج از ایران متاسف شدند، و شاید پیش بینی می شد جمع کثیری از مردم حاضر شوند، به هر صورت فعلا اجازه برگزاری هیچ مراسم عمومی را نداده اند. "

در همين حال، شاهدان عينی به بخش فارسی بی بی سی گفتند که عده زيادی برای برگزاری مراسم در مقابل مسجد الرضا در ميدان نيلوفر تهران جمع شده بودند، اما نيروی انتظامی با بيرون کردن جمعيت از مسجد و متفرق کردن آنها، اجازه برگزاری مراسم را نداد.

آقای ماکان همچنين با اشاره به برخی تصاویر ویدئوهای جعلی که از ندا در سایت ها منتشر شده نیز گفت:" من توی بعضی از سایت ها می گشتم از جلمه" آی ریپورت"، عکسی از یک دختر خانمی با علامت های سبز در تظاهرات قبل از این درگیری در تظاهرات آرام گذاشته بودند و گفته بودند که عکس ندا قبل از درگیری است. در حالی که این تصاویر ربطی به ندا ندارد. آن دختر عکس آقای موسوی را در دست دارد، به نوعی به نظر می رسد طرفداران آقای موسوی ند ا را به او ربط داده اند. اما این طوری نیست. ندا فوق العاده به من نزدیک بود، ندا هرگز طرفدار هیچ یک از این دو گروه نبود، ندا خواهان آزادی بود، آزادی برای همه. "

بخش فارسی بی بی سی کوشيد که با ديگر اعضای خانواده ندا آقا سلطان نيز گفت و گو کند، اما يکی از بستگان او گفت که خانواده خانم آقا سلطان به دلايلی قادر به انجام مصاحبه نيستند.

وی در باره اين دلايل توضيحی نداد.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Preliminary Analysis of the Voting Figures in Iran’s 2009 Presidential Election
Chatham House Independent thinking on international affairs

Programme Paper
Ali Ansari, Daniel Berman and Thomas Rintoul, June 2009

Download Paper here

Working from the province by province breakdowns of the 2009 and 2005 results, released by the Iranian Ministry of Interior, and from the 2006 census as published by the official Statistical Centre of Iran, this paper offers some observations about the official data and the debates surrounding the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election.