Empire Empress Walk
5095 Yonge Street
North York, Ontario
Dear Sir/Madam,
It has come to our attention through Iranian Arts in Exile Committee that you are hosting a festival of short films at the Empire Theatres on 5095 Yonge Street on November 6th to November 12th 2009. As you may be aware this festival is funded and organized by the Iranian Young Cinema Society (attaché of cinema department of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Iran.)
This festival is named in honour of “Seifollah Daad”, who was closely linked with the Islamic Regimes’ Cultural Ministry for years before his death. He was also the Director of the “Anti Semitic” film, the “Survivor” and the writer of screenplay of the film “the Son of Morning” about the life of “Khomeini” directed by Behrooz Afkhami. (Afkhami is the Iranian filmmaker who even became a member of the Islamic Regime Parliament and presently is running classes/seminars on screenplay writing at two locations in Toronto.)
We are very concerned about the fact that your theatre has agreed to host such a festival, given the fact that Iranian Artists inside Iran must receive the approval of the Ministry of Culture in order to publish their films, records, books and other forms of art. This is extremely difficult given the state of censorship in Iran which has led to the creation of “Underground Cinema/Arts” in Iran.
The fact that the organizers of this festival are closely related to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Iran and are funding such an event is nothing short of hypocrisy. While restricting and censoring artists inside the country, the Islamic Regime is using these types of cultural events as propaganda and trying to convince the International Community that it respects freedom of expression and the rights of Iranian Artists.
In light of the great restrictions and censorship put on Iranian independent artists inside Iran by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and the lack of freedom of speech and expression imposed on artists and the Iranian Society in general by the Regime we urge you to show your support and solidarity with the Iranian People and independent artists living in a jail called Islamic Republic of Iran, rather than with the Islamic Regime, by not hosting festivals that are backed and supported by the Islamic Regime of Iran.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Yours truly,
Sayeh Hassan, Criminal Defense Lawyer and Pro-Democracy Activist
Lila Ghobady, Journalist & Human Rights Activist in Exile
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
" The Final Word; legendary late Ahmad Shamlou's film in Vancouver"
"The Final Word", a recent documentary film on the legendary Ahmad Shamlou directed by Moslem Mansouri, will be screened in Vancouver, Canada for the first time on Thursday Sept 3th Following by screenings in Seattle (Sept 6th) Portland (Sept 7th), United State.
After successful recent screenings at the San Fransisco-Tibroun International Film Festival, Art in Exile France, Sweden and Toronto , The Final Word, a recent documentary film on the legendary Ahmad Shamlou directed by Moslem Mansouri, will be screened in Vancouver, Canada for the first time.
The Final Word is the second documentary film about the legendary late Ahmad Shamlou, one of the most prominent and influential contemporary Iranian poets. In his poetry, Mr. Shamlou, spoke consciously of human suffering, injustice and love. Through his distinctive expression of language, he skillfully sided with the oppressed and opposed cruel regimes and their inhumane institutions.
Time; Thursday Sept 3th at 6pm
Place; UBC Norm Theather at SUB (6138 Student Union Blvd.)
فیلم کلام آخر جدیدترین ساخته مسلم منصوری درباره بزرگترین و تاثیر گذارترین شاعر معاصر ایران، احمد شاملو، پس از نمایش در فستیوالهای
بین المللی تیبرون در آمریکا، هنر در تبعید فرانسه و خانه هنر سوئد، برای اولین بار در
ونکوور
کانادا به نمایش در میآید
After successful recent screenings at the San Fransisco-Tibroun International Film Festival, Art in Exile France, Sweden and Toronto , The Final Word, a recent documentary film on the legendary Ahmad Shamlou directed by Moslem Mansouri, will be screened in Vancouver, Canada for the first time.
The Final Word is the second documentary film about the legendary late Ahmad Shamlou, one of the most prominent and influential contemporary Iranian poets. In his poetry, Mr. Shamlou, spoke consciously of human suffering, injustice and love. Through his distinctive expression of language, he skillfully sided with the oppressed and opposed cruel regimes and their inhumane institutions.
Time; Thursday Sept 3th at 6pm
Place; UBC Norm Theather at SUB (6138 Student Union Blvd.)
فیلم کلام آخر جدیدترین ساخته مسلم منصوری درباره بزرگترین و تاثیر گذارترین شاعر معاصر ایران، احمد شاملو، پس از نمایش در فستیوالهای
بین المللی تیبرون در آمریکا، هنر در تبعید فرانسه و خانه هنر سوئد، برای اولین بار در
ونکوور
کانادا به نمایش در میآید
Friday, August 28, 2009
Exchanging Puppets: Why the International Left Should Not Support the So-Called Iranian Reformist Leaders
www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/07-8
Thursday, July 23, 2009
An Open Letter to Noam Chomsky
Please think twice before going on a hunger strike!
Dear Mr. Chomsky,
As a human rights activist and a filmmaker who has made films documenting human rights violations of the oppressive Islamic dictatorship in Iran, I implore you to reconsider your support for, and participation in, the hunger strike which lead to support of Mousavi and the Reformist in Iran. Joining the hunger strike basically means supporting one part of an Iranian murderous regime against the other part. The so-called reformers are not committed to the human rights slogans they espouse. Instead, they are committed to obtaining for themselves the spoils of power that the hardliners now enjoy. Their goal is only limited to removing the Khamenei/Ahmdainejad band and installing the Rafsanjani mafia band in their stead.
The fact is that Rafsanjani/Mousavi and all other leaders of today’s so called reformist movement are yesterday’s killers. They are not fit to lead. Rather, they must first be brought to justice and go on trial for their involvement in the killing, torture and disappearance of thousands of innocent Iranian citizens who wanted nothing more than freedom and their basic civil rights. The imprisonment of reformists, such as Ganji, over the last few years and recent imprisonment of Hajarian does not lend any credibility to their movement. These detainments simply reflect a corrupt power struggle within a corrupt regime and have nothing to do for the fight for democracy. Hardliners and reformists are two sides of the same coin. They are like foxes in the henhouse, fighting over who will get to steal the eggs and eat the hens. It is ridiculous to suggest that either of them have the interests of Iranian citizens at heart.
The power struggle following the recent presidential [s]election has only one goal, to prevent and control a real grass-roots democratic movement by not letting it develop and by dissipating its energy in the illusion of reform. It is hard for Westerners, who take their freedoms for granted, to understand that the current reformist movement is a conspiracy in service of continued oppression; a tool of the Islamist regime designed to protect itself from a hungry and oppressed Iranian people, who might otherwise be able to develop a real reform movement that would replace the current corrupt regime.
Those who have planned the hunger strike at the UN have the blood of Iranians on their hands. They have been part of the current regime for years, including Ganji and Sazgara. Their only desire is to regain power for themselves, by deposing the Khamenei/Ahmdainejad thugs and replacing them with the Rafsanjani/Mousavi mafia. The hunger strike has nothing to do with the Iranian people’s fight for freedom. Rafsanjani, his family, and his mouthpiece Mousavi are inseparable from the appalling human rights abuses and economic corruption that stain Iran’s recent history. What were people like Ganji doing during the 80s to protect Iranian political prisoners? They controlled Iranian prisons and it would not have made sense for them to go on a hunger strike to protect prisoners while torturing prisoners as part of their day job!
We may live in an allegedly “reformist” era, but nothing has changed. Today people like Ganji still exist only to serve themselves and not the tortured and abused Iranian people.
Mr. Chomsky, before attending the hunger strike, please do your research. Don’t just take my word about the backgrounds of Mr. Ganji and his followers and their role in keeping the murderous Islamic regime in power and in killing thousands of innocent people over last 30 years – do your research. You might respond “yes, but people change”. To this I would say, “perhaps, but that is rarely the case with murderers, torturers and rapists”. Indeed, reformists in Iran do change tactics and they do give lip service to secularism and democracy. But they do these things without belief or conviction; they do it to increase their chances of obtaining and maintaining power. Of all people, you should know what crocodile tears are. Take Mr. Ganji as an example and read his manifesto where he still has claimed that Ayatollah Khomeini as his Imam (Ideal leader)! Yes Khomeini; a man known above all else for extremist despotism and murder.
In 1979, the Iranian people supported the revolution against the Shah dictatorship. Supporters of the revolution later hoped that an Islamist government would usher in respect for basic civil and democratic rights along with independence from foreign influences within Iran.
As history has proven, their hope that Islam and religion leaders could answer their cry for freedom, independence and basic rights was a disastrous illusion. When Ayatollah Khomeini obtained power, Iranians were cruelly deceived. A part of Iranian society tried to claim back their stolen revolution, in 1981, there was an uprising against the new self-proclaimed Islamic regime Thousands of students, political activists and ordinary Iranians demonstrated in the streets and chanted: “Down with Khomeini!”
What was their reward for claiming back what was rightfully theirs? The demonstrations were savagely put down. Thousands were massacred by the Revolutionary Guard and the Islamic regime militia, jailed, tortured in the most horrific ways. In one of Iran’s darkest summer of 1998 those who were jailed were executed on Khomeini’s direct order even though most had been jailed for years and were required by law to be freed after their terms had been served.
These thousands of Iran’s best sons and daughters where are they now? They lie forgotten in mostly unknown, mass graves.
Today’s “Reformists”: Mr. Ganji, and Hajarian were at the top of the Islamic regime and headed up the secret police in Iran. They worked hard to maintain the new Islamic dictatorship that gave them so much power, and their hard work, massacring and torturing their own people, succeeded in securing for them the power they wanted.
In the West, most people have never heard about the 1981 uprising and subsequent crackdown because news rarely made it out of Iran to the mainstream media, except through horror stories recounted by the millions of refugees who had managed to escape the murderous prison that Iran had become.
Even while they called the Iranian Islamic dictatorship a threat the world, Western governments supported the new regime because it was exactly what they needed to control the Iranian people and to have access to Iran’s oil wealth. It was a deal with the devil: Western governments supported the regime by supplying it with weapons and other means of oppression. In return, the Islamic regime ensured Western access to Iranian resources. Real democracy in Iran would not have served Western governments nearly so well. A free, secular society would put the West at risk of losing easy access to one of the largest supplies of oil in the world. In 1954, Americans supported a coup to prevent democracy in Iran from taking root. What is different now? A puppet, Islamic regime that guarantees access to Iranian resources is what Western governments wanted. It is what they continue to want.
No Western government has ever supported a true democratic uprising in Iran. They simply closed their eyes to human rights concerns, purchased the oil, sold the weapons and enjoyed the ride. Western leftists and intellectuals have been equally blind and complicit in human rights violations in Iran. They supported Khomeini’s regime simplistically, because they had the illusion it was anti-Imperialist!
Despite all that, over the last 30 years, many Iranians continued to fight against the Islamic regime and basic human rights, while the regime fought to prevent real change through a people’s movement that could have developed organically from within. After the regime had killed or suppressed all real opposition inside and outside Iran, it created a false opposition movement from within to create the impression that there was a real political discourse within the country, as a means to keep itself in power. Iranians suffered and continue to suffer enormously. In a country of great wealth, 70 percent of the people live in poverty while those at the top of the corrupt regime enjoy great riches that they deposit in European banks while creating alliances with European governments who support their agenda of exploitation.
As the power struggles within Iran continued, the so-called reformist Khatami came to power as president of Iran in 1997. Mohammad Khatami became the favourite of the Western media, because he spoke beautifully about freedom of speech, civil rights and dialogue between cultures. But in 1999 there was a crackdown on a student uprising; the same students who voted for him. Many were killed, many disappeared, and many were tortured. Artists, authors and intellectuals disappeared and were found “mysteriously” murdered. The smooth-talking president Khatami, whom westerners loved, never tried to stop the violence and never showed sympathy to his supporters. Instead, he openly avowed that his responsibility was to respect the wishes of the supreme Islamic leader, Ayotollah Khamenehi, and to protect the security of the Islamic regime.
To get a sense of who Khatami the “reformist” really is, consider this: the Monster, Mohammad Lajevardi, who was in control of Evin prison was personally responsible for raping many teenage girls who were imprisoned in 1980. These rapes were carried out one night before their execution. Why? Because Islamic myth has it that virgins go to heaven. To prevent these innocent young women from going to heaven, Iranian religious leaders authorized the rapes! This man who carried out the rapes was eventually shot dead. Khatami (the “reformist”) publicly mourned the death of this monster rapist, whom he described as a “brave son of the revolution”!
Today’s so-called “reformists” are part of the Islamic regime who had better deals with Western companies and who wanted to profit from the capitalist/liberal system, in opposition to the hardliners, who wanted to be in charge themselves and to maintain their power game in the region and throughout the world. But this entire power struggle between two corrupted sides of the same regime has nothing to do with the majority of hungry and oppressed Iranian people fight for freedom from the whole corrupted system of oppression inside Iran which is the Islamic regime.
Western supporters of the reformist movement deliberately refuse to acknowledge that the Islamic regime itself brought Khatami to power to create the illusion of change, in order to prevent real reform. But Khatami’s record is proof of who he really is. After eight years as president of Iran, there was no improvement at all in the civil rights and economic freedoms of Iranian citizens. The only success of Khatami’s presidency was to sabotage the grass roots movement for change and to keep the oppressive Islamic dictatorship in power for another 12 years.
Over last few weeks, we have seen another uprising of Iranian citizens. For whom that supported the bad that is Mousavi’s party against what they perceived to be a worse option – the current hard-line dictatorship headed by Ahmedinejad, [s]election day proved to be nothing more than a power struggle between hardliners and reformists, with the reformists seeking to get back in power to re-gain control of the country’s resources, especially for the Rafsanjani mafia family. The reformists’ agenda was supported by western governments and media, who, deliberately or through ignorance, misrepresented the reformists as supporters of an uprising toward real democracy and real change. However, Rafsanjani/Mousavi and their so called Reformist movement have no credibility as democrats and defenders of the Iranian people.
The fact is that both Western governments and the Iranian regime do not want real change, because it would jeopardize their cozy economic arrangements that serve their interests at the expense of the Iranian people. They are frightened that they might lose their ability to control Iran’s resources for their own benefit if a real movement for democracy and civil rights gains control of the country.
Reformist leaders make sure that western governments have every reason to support them. Recently released documents and information prove that the CIA and most European secret services supported the so-called reformist movement in one way or another. In fact bringing news out to mainstream media and capturing the world’s attention with evidence of the brutality of the Islamic regime for the first time in 30 years was part of their agenda to support the so-called reformists, and put them back in power, because they would be more western-friendly than the hardliners and that has nothing to do with the ongoing human rights violation in Iran, which was deliberately ignored by western governments/media over the past 30 years and specifically during 1981 and 1999 people and student uprising.
Mr. Chomsky,
As a well-known, independent thinker and promoter of human rights, your participation will effectively lend credence and legitimacy to those, such as Rafsanjani/Mousavi, who have participated directly in the arrest, torture, murder and disappearance of thousands of brave freedom loving Iranian and human rights activists over last 30 years.
I would have thought that of all people, you would support true independence for Iranians and freedom from continued western economic imperialism in the Middle East. I had always thought you would take the side of the people against puppet regimes, and that you would have recognized that the reformist movement in Iran is just a different mask on the same puppet.
Mr. Chomsky, I hope you will take some time to look clearly at the reality in Iran, a reality that is far more complex than what the western media reports. I hope you will learn to recognize that those reformists who shout about democracy and human rights do so for their own purposes and to ensure continued support from the international community they have duped. Verify for yourself the dark, bloody history of today’s reformist leaders and their link to the economic imperialism of American foreign policy in Iran.
Mr. Chomsky, please consider the fact that the current reformist movement began from the middle class urban city populations. It was not supported by a majority of Iranians, and especially by workers. By comparison, the 1979 revolution and the 1981 uprising were grass roots movements for freedom and independence. Why? Even though the Iranian people are fed up with the corrupt Islamic dictatorship, they know that the so-called reformist movement is in fact part of the current regime, inseparable from it. Workers, teachers and the poorest in society know that no matter who leads an Islamic government presided over by religious leaders, their country will be governed by the most corrupt and dangerous economic mafia in the Middle East, backed up by corrupt foreign policies of its western allies.
As one who has lived in Iran and seen the suffering that today so called “reformists” (formers hardliners) inflict on the Iranian people, I implore you;
Please support the poor, hungry people with no international voice who make up 70% of the population of Iran instead of taking part in a hunger strike, organized by well fed, rich, criminal and corrupt supporters of one part of the same regime, who are the real cause of poverty, hunger, brutality and human rights violations in my motherland.
Please support Iranian people independent fight for a free, secular independent democratic Iran and do not support those who would kill and oppress us.
Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker. She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalist in Iran at the age of 17 and continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee in 2002. She worked as a Producer and Associate Director of internationally-praised underground films alongside fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila received her Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please read her blog at: www.banoufilm.blogspot.com. Lila can be contacted by e-mail at: lilacforfreedom@gmail.com.
Dear Mr. Chomsky,
As a human rights activist and a filmmaker who has made films documenting human rights violations of the oppressive Islamic dictatorship in Iran, I implore you to reconsider your support for, and participation in, the hunger strike which lead to support of Mousavi and the Reformist in Iran. Joining the hunger strike basically means supporting one part of an Iranian murderous regime against the other part. The so-called reformers are not committed to the human rights slogans they espouse. Instead, they are committed to obtaining for themselves the spoils of power that the hardliners now enjoy. Their goal is only limited to removing the Khamenei/Ahmdainejad band and installing the Rafsanjani mafia band in their stead.
The fact is that Rafsanjani/Mousavi and all other leaders of today’s so called reformist movement are yesterday’s killers. They are not fit to lead. Rather, they must first be brought to justice and go on trial for their involvement in the killing, torture and disappearance of thousands of innocent Iranian citizens who wanted nothing more than freedom and their basic civil rights. The imprisonment of reformists, such as Ganji, over the last few years and recent imprisonment of Hajarian does not lend any credibility to their movement. These detainments simply reflect a corrupt power struggle within a corrupt regime and have nothing to do for the fight for democracy. Hardliners and reformists are two sides of the same coin. They are like foxes in the henhouse, fighting over who will get to steal the eggs and eat the hens. It is ridiculous to suggest that either of them have the interests of Iranian citizens at heart.
The power struggle following the recent presidential [s]election has only one goal, to prevent and control a real grass-roots democratic movement by not letting it develop and by dissipating its energy in the illusion of reform. It is hard for Westerners, who take their freedoms for granted, to understand that the current reformist movement is a conspiracy in service of continued oppression; a tool of the Islamist regime designed to protect itself from a hungry and oppressed Iranian people, who might otherwise be able to develop a real reform movement that would replace the current corrupt regime.
Those who have planned the hunger strike at the UN have the blood of Iranians on their hands. They have been part of the current regime for years, including Ganji and Sazgara. Their only desire is to regain power for themselves, by deposing the Khamenei/Ahmdainejad thugs and replacing them with the Rafsanjani/Mousavi mafia. The hunger strike has nothing to do with the Iranian people’s fight for freedom. Rafsanjani, his family, and his mouthpiece Mousavi are inseparable from the appalling human rights abuses and economic corruption that stain Iran’s recent history. What were people like Ganji doing during the 80s to protect Iranian political prisoners? They controlled Iranian prisons and it would not have made sense for them to go on a hunger strike to protect prisoners while torturing prisoners as part of their day job!
We may live in an allegedly “reformist” era, but nothing has changed. Today people like Ganji still exist only to serve themselves and not the tortured and abused Iranian people.
Mr. Chomsky, before attending the hunger strike, please do your research. Don’t just take my word about the backgrounds of Mr. Ganji and his followers and their role in keeping the murderous Islamic regime in power and in killing thousands of innocent people over last 30 years – do your research. You might respond “yes, but people change”. To this I would say, “perhaps, but that is rarely the case with murderers, torturers and rapists”. Indeed, reformists in Iran do change tactics and they do give lip service to secularism and democracy. But they do these things without belief or conviction; they do it to increase their chances of obtaining and maintaining power. Of all people, you should know what crocodile tears are. Take Mr. Ganji as an example and read his manifesto where he still has claimed that Ayatollah Khomeini as his Imam (Ideal leader)! Yes Khomeini; a man known above all else for extremist despotism and murder.
In 1979, the Iranian people supported the revolution against the Shah dictatorship. Supporters of the revolution later hoped that an Islamist government would usher in respect for basic civil and democratic rights along with independence from foreign influences within Iran.
As history has proven, their hope that Islam and religion leaders could answer their cry for freedom, independence and basic rights was a disastrous illusion. When Ayatollah Khomeini obtained power, Iranians were cruelly deceived. A part of Iranian society tried to claim back their stolen revolution, in 1981, there was an uprising against the new self-proclaimed Islamic regime Thousands of students, political activists and ordinary Iranians demonstrated in the streets and chanted: “Down with Khomeini!”
What was their reward for claiming back what was rightfully theirs? The demonstrations were savagely put down. Thousands were massacred by the Revolutionary Guard and the Islamic regime militia, jailed, tortured in the most horrific ways. In one of Iran’s darkest summer of 1998 those who were jailed were executed on Khomeini’s direct order even though most had been jailed for years and were required by law to be freed after their terms had been served.
These thousands of Iran’s best sons and daughters where are they now? They lie forgotten in mostly unknown, mass graves.
Today’s “Reformists”: Mr. Ganji, and Hajarian were at the top of the Islamic regime and headed up the secret police in Iran. They worked hard to maintain the new Islamic dictatorship that gave them so much power, and their hard work, massacring and torturing their own people, succeeded in securing for them the power they wanted.
In the West, most people have never heard about the 1981 uprising and subsequent crackdown because news rarely made it out of Iran to the mainstream media, except through horror stories recounted by the millions of refugees who had managed to escape the murderous prison that Iran had become.
Even while they called the Iranian Islamic dictatorship a threat the world, Western governments supported the new regime because it was exactly what they needed to control the Iranian people and to have access to Iran’s oil wealth. It was a deal with the devil: Western governments supported the regime by supplying it with weapons and other means of oppression. In return, the Islamic regime ensured Western access to Iranian resources. Real democracy in Iran would not have served Western governments nearly so well. A free, secular society would put the West at risk of losing easy access to one of the largest supplies of oil in the world. In 1954, Americans supported a coup to prevent democracy in Iran from taking root. What is different now? A puppet, Islamic regime that guarantees access to Iranian resources is what Western governments wanted. It is what they continue to want.
No Western government has ever supported a true democratic uprising in Iran. They simply closed their eyes to human rights concerns, purchased the oil, sold the weapons and enjoyed the ride. Western leftists and intellectuals have been equally blind and complicit in human rights violations in Iran. They supported Khomeini’s regime simplistically, because they had the illusion it was anti-Imperialist!
Despite all that, over the last 30 years, many Iranians continued to fight against the Islamic regime and basic human rights, while the regime fought to prevent real change through a people’s movement that could have developed organically from within. After the regime had killed or suppressed all real opposition inside and outside Iran, it created a false opposition movement from within to create the impression that there was a real political discourse within the country, as a means to keep itself in power. Iranians suffered and continue to suffer enormously. In a country of great wealth, 70 percent of the people live in poverty while those at the top of the corrupt regime enjoy great riches that they deposit in European banks while creating alliances with European governments who support their agenda of exploitation.
As the power struggles within Iran continued, the so-called reformist Khatami came to power as president of Iran in 1997. Mohammad Khatami became the favourite of the Western media, because he spoke beautifully about freedom of speech, civil rights and dialogue between cultures. But in 1999 there was a crackdown on a student uprising; the same students who voted for him. Many were killed, many disappeared, and many were tortured. Artists, authors and intellectuals disappeared and were found “mysteriously” murdered. The smooth-talking president Khatami, whom westerners loved, never tried to stop the violence and never showed sympathy to his supporters. Instead, he openly avowed that his responsibility was to respect the wishes of the supreme Islamic leader, Ayotollah Khamenehi, and to protect the security of the Islamic regime.
To get a sense of who Khatami the “reformist” really is, consider this: the Monster, Mohammad Lajevardi, who was in control of Evin prison was personally responsible for raping many teenage girls who were imprisoned in 1980. These rapes were carried out one night before their execution. Why? Because Islamic myth has it that virgins go to heaven. To prevent these innocent young women from going to heaven, Iranian religious leaders authorized the rapes! This man who carried out the rapes was eventually shot dead. Khatami (the “reformist”) publicly mourned the death of this monster rapist, whom he described as a “brave son of the revolution”!
Today’s so-called “reformists” are part of the Islamic regime who had better deals with Western companies and who wanted to profit from the capitalist/liberal system, in opposition to the hardliners, who wanted to be in charge themselves and to maintain their power game in the region and throughout the world. But this entire power struggle between two corrupted sides of the same regime has nothing to do with the majority of hungry and oppressed Iranian people fight for freedom from the whole corrupted system of oppression inside Iran which is the Islamic regime.
Western supporters of the reformist movement deliberately refuse to acknowledge that the Islamic regime itself brought Khatami to power to create the illusion of change, in order to prevent real reform. But Khatami’s record is proof of who he really is. After eight years as president of Iran, there was no improvement at all in the civil rights and economic freedoms of Iranian citizens. The only success of Khatami’s presidency was to sabotage the grass roots movement for change and to keep the oppressive Islamic dictatorship in power for another 12 years.
Over last few weeks, we have seen another uprising of Iranian citizens. For whom that supported the bad that is Mousavi’s party against what they perceived to be a worse option – the current hard-line dictatorship headed by Ahmedinejad, [s]election day proved to be nothing more than a power struggle between hardliners and reformists, with the reformists seeking to get back in power to re-gain control of the country’s resources, especially for the Rafsanjani mafia family. The reformists’ agenda was supported by western governments and media, who, deliberately or through ignorance, misrepresented the reformists as supporters of an uprising toward real democracy and real change. However, Rafsanjani/Mousavi and their so called Reformist movement have no credibility as democrats and defenders of the Iranian people.
The fact is that both Western governments and the Iranian regime do not want real change, because it would jeopardize their cozy economic arrangements that serve their interests at the expense of the Iranian people. They are frightened that they might lose their ability to control Iran’s resources for their own benefit if a real movement for democracy and civil rights gains control of the country.
Reformist leaders make sure that western governments have every reason to support them. Recently released documents and information prove that the CIA and most European secret services supported the so-called reformist movement in one way or another. In fact bringing news out to mainstream media and capturing the world’s attention with evidence of the brutality of the Islamic regime for the first time in 30 years was part of their agenda to support the so-called reformists, and put them back in power, because they would be more western-friendly than the hardliners and that has nothing to do with the ongoing human rights violation in Iran, which was deliberately ignored by western governments/media over the past 30 years and specifically during 1981 and 1999 people and student uprising.
Mr. Chomsky,
As a well-known, independent thinker and promoter of human rights, your participation will effectively lend credence and legitimacy to those, such as Rafsanjani/Mousavi, who have participated directly in the arrest, torture, murder and disappearance of thousands of brave freedom loving Iranian and human rights activists over last 30 years.
I would have thought that of all people, you would support true independence for Iranians and freedom from continued western economic imperialism in the Middle East. I had always thought you would take the side of the people against puppet regimes, and that you would have recognized that the reformist movement in Iran is just a different mask on the same puppet.
Mr. Chomsky, I hope you will take some time to look clearly at the reality in Iran, a reality that is far more complex than what the western media reports. I hope you will learn to recognize that those reformists who shout about democracy and human rights do so for their own purposes and to ensure continued support from the international community they have duped. Verify for yourself the dark, bloody history of today’s reformist leaders and their link to the economic imperialism of American foreign policy in Iran.
Mr. Chomsky, please consider the fact that the current reformist movement began from the middle class urban city populations. It was not supported by a majority of Iranians, and especially by workers. By comparison, the 1979 revolution and the 1981 uprising were grass roots movements for freedom and independence. Why? Even though the Iranian people are fed up with the corrupt Islamic dictatorship, they know that the so-called reformist movement is in fact part of the current regime, inseparable from it. Workers, teachers and the poorest in society know that no matter who leads an Islamic government presided over by religious leaders, their country will be governed by the most corrupt and dangerous economic mafia in the Middle East, backed up by corrupt foreign policies of its western allies.
As one who has lived in Iran and seen the suffering that today so called “reformists” (formers hardliners) inflict on the Iranian people, I implore you;
Please support the poor, hungry people with no international voice who make up 70% of the population of Iran instead of taking part in a hunger strike, organized by well fed, rich, criminal and corrupt supporters of one part of the same regime, who are the real cause of poverty, hunger, brutality and human rights violations in my motherland.
Please support Iranian people independent fight for a free, secular independent democratic Iran and do not support those who would kill and oppress us.
Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker. She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalist in Iran at the age of 17 and continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee in 2002. She worked as a Producer and Associate Director of internationally-praised underground films alongside fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila received her Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please read her blog at: www.banoufilm.blogspot.com. Lila can be contacted by e-mail at: lilacforfreedom@gmail.com.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me
By Lila Ghobady
Iranian Artist-in-Exile (Writer/Director/ Journalist)
www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/19-11
Why didn’t I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth, Iran? Because no matter who is the president of Iran, they would stone me!
As an Iranian woman, I require big changes in order to convince myself that a change in president would mean an improvement of my basic rights as human being inside Iran.
I was among many Iranians who decided not to vote in the recent [s]election. We boycotted the sham election in my motherland and have not been surprised by the results. This puppet regime has never considered the people’s wishes and has always acted in the interests of the few who are in charge of the prison called Iran. Cheating, lying and hypocrisy are the specialties of the religious demagogues that maintain the farce that Iran is a democratic state.
Having said that, I strongly support my sisters’ and brothers’ uprising back home, but believe that choosing Mousavi over Ahmadinejad would not help Iranians except to add four more years to the life of the regime of terror and oppression that is now called Islamic republic of Iran. The massive support that Mousavi seems to enjoy is attributable only to the fact that Iranians have had no real choice and no real democracy for more than 30 years. All they have been offered is a choice between bad and worse.
Here are some simple facts that demonstrate that irrespective of who is president, I would be stoned to death in Iran:
1. As a woman whose husband refused to divorce her when she escaped the country and came to Canada as a refugee, I am considered this man’s wife as long as I am alive. It does not matter if I lived separate from him for years, have divorced him in my new country and am in a relationship with a new man. Under Iranian laws and the Iranian constitution, which are based on strict interpretation of Islamic laws, I am considered his wife and am at risk of being stoned for “adultery” if I ever go back to Iran. In fact as a woman, I have no right to divorce my husband under the country’s laws while he has the privilege of marrying three more times without divorcing me. This is the case no matter who is the president of Iran: Ahamdinejad or Mousavi.
2. As a journalist and filmmaker, I am called upon by the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect the red lines. These “red lines” include belief and respect for the Supreme Leader and the savagely unjust rules of traditional Islamic law in my country. I am expected not to write or demand equal rights. I am not allowed to make the underground films I have made about the plight of sex trade workers and other social diseases rampant within Iran, as I did secretly 12 years ago. In fact, I am not allowed to make any film without the permission and without censorship by Iran’s Minister of Culture. If I did openly do all these things in Iran, I would be disappeared, tortured and raped. I would be killed as have so many women journalists, filmmakers and activists in Iran. Among those killed include Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, who was brutally tortured and murdered for attempting to photograph and publicize brutalities committed by the Iranian regime.
3. I would be considered an infidel if I was born into a Muslim family and later converted to another religion or had I considered myself a non-believer who does not follow strict Islamic morality. My branding as an infidel would result in my public murder, probably by stoning, no matter who is the president of Iran.
4. I would be lashed in public, raped in jail or even executed or stoned to death for selling my body in order to bring food to my family, as so many unfortunate Iranian women have been forced to do secretly including many single mothers who have no access to social assistance in a rich but deeply corrupted country like Iran. Even the simple crime of being in love, engaged in a relationship outside of marriage, or worse yet, giving birth to a human being out of Islamic wedlock is considered a crime against humanity! The product of such a union would be considered a bastard and would be taken away from me and I would receive 100 lashes immediately after giving birth to my baby, no matter who is the president of Iran.
5. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be denied a university education, a government job and a say in politics and it would be as if I basically did not exist if I was a Baha’i. I would be considered half a Shia Muslim if I was Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian or even a Sunni Muslim(Kurd, baluch, Torkaman) by all levels of society, no matter who is the president of Iran.
6. I would disappear and might be found dead if I were to keep writing and demanding my basic rights as a woman and an intellectual who has no say in politics (there was not even one female minister in the so-called “reformist cabinet” of Mohamad Khatami). This would be my fate had I continued to argue against and challenge the authorities about the fact that although Iran is one of the richest countries in the planet when it comes to resources, 70% of my people live in poverty. This is caused by corruption among the leaders and their generous contributions to external causes, from fanatic Muslim Hezbollah in Lebanon to the communist government of Venezuela through which they build alliances around the world. Huge numbers of children go to sleep on empty stomachs. Little girls are forced to sell their bodies in the streets of Tehran, Dubai and even China just to survive. No matter who is president of Iran, I would be jailed or disappeared for expressing myself as a dissenting woman.
7. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would not be able to be a judge or even a witness in court as a woman. This is because according to Islamic Courts, two women are equal to one man. No matter how educated and aware, I still would be considered half of a man who might be at a demonstrably much lower level of education and qualification, no matter who is the president of Iran.
8. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be lashed if I did not cover my head and body in public in compliance with the mandatory Islamic dress code. If I was caught uncovered at a private family/friend/party or wedding taking place in mixed company, I would be harshly punished. If I was caught drinking, my punishment would be much worse. It would not matter if I considered myself a non-believer of Islam who simply does not want to follow Islamic rules. I would be cruelly punished, lashed, and raped while in custody before even getting the chance going on trial, no matter who is the president of Iran.
9. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be killed if I was openly a homosexual. I would be denied all rights as a human being since homosexuality is considered one of the greatest possible sins under the Iranian Islamic regime. I would be considered a criminal to be killed because “there are no homosexuals in Iran!’ That’s odd, because some of my closest friends in Iran say they are gay, but stay “in the closet” (and will continue to do so) for fear of execution, no matter who is the president of Iran.
10. No matter who is the president of Iran, Iranian activists living in exile, including myself and many others who are openly opposed to the regime for its cruel human rights violations, will not be able to enter the country. We would be caught at the airport by the regime’s police forces and forced to sign an apology letter for our actions against the regime. If we refused, we would be jailed without trial for wanting freedom for our fellow people. I would be denied of my basic rights as an opposition to the regime and would be called a “spy”, jailed, tortured, raped and executed. This would happen regardless of who was the president of Iran.
This is Iran. This is what it means to live under Ayotollah Khameini and his goons. No change is possible while Iran is controlled by autocratic, fundamentalist religious despots who determine the laws of the land. There has been no real election. Candidates are all hand-picked and cleared by a central religious committee. It is a farcical imitation of the free nomination/ election process that we have pictured in the free world. There is no possibility that a secular, pluralistic, freedom-loving democratic person who loves his or her country can become a candidate to run for president (or any other office) in Iran.
Twelve years ago, we went through the same process. Mohamad Khatami became the favorite of the western media, which called him a “reformist” who spoke beautifully about freedom of speech, civil rights and dialogue between cultures. But when he became president there was a crackdown on a student uprising – a crackdown against the same students who voted for him. Many were disappeared, tortured and killed. Artists, authors and intellectuals disappeared and were found “mysteriously” murdered. The smooth-talking president Khatami, whom westerners loved, never tried to stop the violence and never showed sympathy to his supporters. Instead, he openly avowed that his responsibility was to respect the wishes of the supreme leader, Ayotollah Khameni, and to protect the security of the Islamic regime.
Now, the passionate and oppressed young generation of Iranians are going through the exact same situation. They are supporting Khatami’s friend, Mousavi. It is sad that history repeats itself so quickly in my beloved country of birth. The people of Iran were fed up with the poverty, injustice, corruption and international embarrassment that is the the knuckle-dragging, anti-Semitic, war-mongering cretin who was President Ahmadinejad. They chose to support a bad choice – Mousavi – rather than the worse choice, Ahmadinejad. However, when an election is really a selection, choice is an illusion. Mousavi is from the Islamic regime; he is inseparable from it and all its abuses and cruelties.
The reality is that Iran has not had a democratic, free election for the past 30 years. Mr Mousavi if elected will not make any changes, not because he is powerless to do so (as Khatami’s supporters claimed during his presidency), but because he doesn’t believe in a democratic state. His background shows that he belongs to the fanatic dictatorial era of Ayotollah Khameni and he believes in the same command-and-control system of government. One should not forget Khameni’s statement in one of his speeches after the revolution about democracy. He said, “If all people of Iran say ‘yes’ I would say no to something that I would believe is not right for the Islamic Nation”.
Let us not forget that Mousavi was Prime Minister of Iran in the 1980s when more than ten thousand political prisoners were executed after three-minute sham trials. He has been a part of the Iranian dictatorship system for the past 30 years. If he had not been, he would not be allowed to be a candidate in the first place. In fact, in a free democratic state someone like Mousavi would have gone on trial before becoming a presidential candidate for his crimes against thousands of freedom-loving political prisoners who were killed during the time he was Iran's Prime Minister.
A quick look at Mousavi’s political biography reveals him to be a fanatic Khameni supporter and a fanatic hard-liner similar to Ahmadinejad and others in control of the Islamic regime. His reign as Prime Minister was one of the darkest times in the history of Iran’s Islamic regime in terms of censorship and human rights violations. He is also backed up by the Rafsanjani mafia family, who have stolen oil money for their own family interests while 70% of the population lives in poverty. So ingrained as he is in a system of corruption and exploitation, how can anyone believe that Mousavi genuinely wants reform?
For these and many other reasons, I chose not to vote and instead boycotted the election, along with many other Iranians. But this time, many Iranians who boycotted the vote in the last election voted in this one because of their profound disgust with Ahmadinejad. I sympathize with them, but I believe that there exists no better option for the people of Iran than to entirely overthrow the Islamic regime that oppresses the country of my birth. I strongly support my people’s movement against the ever-present dictatorship and violence infecting my country. I will scream, along with my compatriots, ”Down with dictators!”, “Down with murderers!”, “Down with the brutal oppression that is the Islamic regime and all of its toxic, self-serving alliances!”
Long live freedom in Iran!
Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker living in Canada . She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalist in Iran at the age of 17 and continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee in 2002. She worked as a Producer and Associate Director of internationally-praised underground films alongside fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. Her recent film, Forbidden Sun Dance, has been well-received in several countries is a story of Iranian profecinal dancer who was forced to leave the country when dancing was banned by Islamic regime right after 1979 reveloution. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila received her Master’s Degree in Canadian/Women’s Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Iranian Artist-in-Exile (Writer/Director/ Journalist)
www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/19-11
Why didn’t I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth, Iran? Because no matter who is the president of Iran, they would stone me!
As an Iranian woman, I require big changes in order to convince myself that a change in president would mean an improvement of my basic rights as human being inside Iran.
I was among many Iranians who decided not to vote in the recent [s]election. We boycotted the sham election in my motherland and have not been surprised by the results. This puppet regime has never considered the people’s wishes and has always acted in the interests of the few who are in charge of the prison called Iran. Cheating, lying and hypocrisy are the specialties of the religious demagogues that maintain the farce that Iran is a democratic state.
Having said that, I strongly support my sisters’ and brothers’ uprising back home, but believe that choosing Mousavi over Ahmadinejad would not help Iranians except to add four more years to the life of the regime of terror and oppression that is now called Islamic republic of Iran. The massive support that Mousavi seems to enjoy is attributable only to the fact that Iranians have had no real choice and no real democracy for more than 30 years. All they have been offered is a choice between bad and worse.
Here are some simple facts that demonstrate that irrespective of who is president, I would be stoned to death in Iran:
1. As a woman whose husband refused to divorce her when she escaped the country and came to Canada as a refugee, I am considered this man’s wife as long as I am alive. It does not matter if I lived separate from him for years, have divorced him in my new country and am in a relationship with a new man. Under Iranian laws and the Iranian constitution, which are based on strict interpretation of Islamic laws, I am considered his wife and am at risk of being stoned for “adultery” if I ever go back to Iran. In fact as a woman, I have no right to divorce my husband under the country’s laws while he has the privilege of marrying three more times without divorcing me. This is the case no matter who is the president of Iran: Ahamdinejad or Mousavi.
2. As a journalist and filmmaker, I am called upon by the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect the red lines. These “red lines” include belief and respect for the Supreme Leader and the savagely unjust rules of traditional Islamic law in my country. I am expected not to write or demand equal rights. I am not allowed to make the underground films I have made about the plight of sex trade workers and other social diseases rampant within Iran, as I did secretly 12 years ago. In fact, I am not allowed to make any film without the permission and without censorship by Iran’s Minister of Culture. If I did openly do all these things in Iran, I would be disappeared, tortured and raped. I would be killed as have so many women journalists, filmmakers and activists in Iran. Among those killed include Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, who was brutally tortured and murdered for attempting to photograph and publicize brutalities committed by the Iranian regime.
3. I would be considered an infidel if I was born into a Muslim family and later converted to another religion or had I considered myself a non-believer who does not follow strict Islamic morality. My branding as an infidel would result in my public murder, probably by stoning, no matter who is the president of Iran.
4. I would be lashed in public, raped in jail or even executed or stoned to death for selling my body in order to bring food to my family, as so many unfortunate Iranian women have been forced to do secretly including many single mothers who have no access to social assistance in a rich but deeply corrupted country like Iran. Even the simple crime of being in love, engaged in a relationship outside of marriage, or worse yet, giving birth to a human being out of Islamic wedlock is considered a crime against humanity! The product of such a union would be considered a bastard and would be taken away from me and I would receive 100 lashes immediately after giving birth to my baby, no matter who is the president of Iran.
5. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be denied a university education, a government job and a say in politics and it would be as if I basically did not exist if I was a Baha’i. I would be considered half a Shia Muslim if I was Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian or even a Sunni Muslim(Kurd, baluch, Torkaman) by all levels of society, no matter who is the president of Iran.
6. I would disappear and might be found dead if I were to keep writing and demanding my basic rights as a woman and an intellectual who has no say in politics (there was not even one female minister in the so-called “reformist cabinet” of Mohamad Khatami). This would be my fate had I continued to argue against and challenge the authorities about the fact that although Iran is one of the richest countries in the planet when it comes to resources, 70% of my people live in poverty. This is caused by corruption among the leaders and their generous contributions to external causes, from fanatic Muslim Hezbollah in Lebanon to the communist government of Venezuela through which they build alliances around the world. Huge numbers of children go to sleep on empty stomachs. Little girls are forced to sell their bodies in the streets of Tehran, Dubai and even China just to survive. No matter who is president of Iran, I would be jailed or disappeared for expressing myself as a dissenting woman.
7. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would not be able to be a judge or even a witness in court as a woman. This is because according to Islamic Courts, two women are equal to one man. No matter how educated and aware, I still would be considered half of a man who might be at a demonstrably much lower level of education and qualification, no matter who is the president of Iran.
8. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be lashed if I did not cover my head and body in public in compliance with the mandatory Islamic dress code. If I was caught uncovered at a private family/friend/party or wedding taking place in mixed company, I would be harshly punished. If I was caught drinking, my punishment would be much worse. It would not matter if I considered myself a non-believer of Islam who simply does not want to follow Islamic rules. I would be cruelly punished, lashed, and raped while in custody before even getting the chance going on trial, no matter who is the president of Iran.
9. No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be killed if I was openly a homosexual. I would be denied all rights as a human being since homosexuality is considered one of the greatest possible sins under the Iranian Islamic regime. I would be considered a criminal to be killed because “there are no homosexuals in Iran!’ That’s odd, because some of my closest friends in Iran say they are gay, but stay “in the closet” (and will continue to do so) for fear of execution, no matter who is the president of Iran.
10. No matter who is the president of Iran, Iranian activists living in exile, including myself and many others who are openly opposed to the regime for its cruel human rights violations, will not be able to enter the country. We would be caught at the airport by the regime’s police forces and forced to sign an apology letter for our actions against the regime. If we refused, we would be jailed without trial for wanting freedom for our fellow people. I would be denied of my basic rights as an opposition to the regime and would be called a “spy”, jailed, tortured, raped and executed. This would happen regardless of who was the president of Iran.
This is Iran. This is what it means to live under Ayotollah Khameini and his goons. No change is possible while Iran is controlled by autocratic, fundamentalist religious despots who determine the laws of the land. There has been no real election. Candidates are all hand-picked and cleared by a central religious committee. It is a farcical imitation of the free nomination/ election process that we have pictured in the free world. There is no possibility that a secular, pluralistic, freedom-loving democratic person who loves his or her country can become a candidate to run for president (or any other office) in Iran.
Twelve years ago, we went through the same process. Mohamad Khatami became the favorite of the western media, which called him a “reformist” who spoke beautifully about freedom of speech, civil rights and dialogue between cultures. But when he became president there was a crackdown on a student uprising – a crackdown against the same students who voted for him. Many were disappeared, tortured and killed. Artists, authors and intellectuals disappeared and were found “mysteriously” murdered. The smooth-talking president Khatami, whom westerners loved, never tried to stop the violence and never showed sympathy to his supporters. Instead, he openly avowed that his responsibility was to respect the wishes of the supreme leader, Ayotollah Khameni, and to protect the security of the Islamic regime.
Now, the passionate and oppressed young generation of Iranians are going through the exact same situation. They are supporting Khatami’s friend, Mousavi. It is sad that history repeats itself so quickly in my beloved country of birth. The people of Iran were fed up with the poverty, injustice, corruption and international embarrassment that is the the knuckle-dragging, anti-Semitic, war-mongering cretin who was President Ahmadinejad. They chose to support a bad choice – Mousavi – rather than the worse choice, Ahmadinejad. However, when an election is really a selection, choice is an illusion. Mousavi is from the Islamic regime; he is inseparable from it and all its abuses and cruelties.
The reality is that Iran has not had a democratic, free election for the past 30 years. Mr Mousavi if elected will not make any changes, not because he is powerless to do so (as Khatami’s supporters claimed during his presidency), but because he doesn’t believe in a democratic state. His background shows that he belongs to the fanatic dictatorial era of Ayotollah Khameni and he believes in the same command-and-control system of government. One should not forget Khameni’s statement in one of his speeches after the revolution about democracy. He said, “If all people of Iran say ‘yes’ I would say no to something that I would believe is not right for the Islamic Nation”.
Let us not forget that Mousavi was Prime Minister of Iran in the 1980s when more than ten thousand political prisoners were executed after three-minute sham trials. He has been a part of the Iranian dictatorship system for the past 30 years. If he had not been, he would not be allowed to be a candidate in the first place. In fact, in a free democratic state someone like Mousavi would have gone on trial before becoming a presidential candidate for his crimes against thousands of freedom-loving political prisoners who were killed during the time he was Iran's Prime Minister.
A quick look at Mousavi’s political biography reveals him to be a fanatic Khameni supporter and a fanatic hard-liner similar to Ahmadinejad and others in control of the Islamic regime. His reign as Prime Minister was one of the darkest times in the history of Iran’s Islamic regime in terms of censorship and human rights violations. He is also backed up by the Rafsanjani mafia family, who have stolen oil money for their own family interests while 70% of the population lives in poverty. So ingrained as he is in a system of corruption and exploitation, how can anyone believe that Mousavi genuinely wants reform?
For these and many other reasons, I chose not to vote and instead boycotted the election, along with many other Iranians. But this time, many Iranians who boycotted the vote in the last election voted in this one because of their profound disgust with Ahmadinejad. I sympathize with them, but I believe that there exists no better option for the people of Iran than to entirely overthrow the Islamic regime that oppresses the country of my birth. I strongly support my people’s movement against the ever-present dictatorship and violence infecting my country. I will scream, along with my compatriots, ”Down with dictators!”, “Down with murderers!”, “Down with the brutal oppression that is the Islamic regime and all of its toxic, self-serving alliances!”
Long live freedom in Iran!
Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker living in Canada . She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalist in Iran at the age of 17 and continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee in 2002. She worked as a Producer and Associate Director of internationally-praised underground films alongside fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. Her recent film, Forbidden Sun Dance, has been well-received in several countries is a story of Iranian profecinal dancer who was forced to leave the country when dancing was banned by Islamic regime right after 1979 reveloution. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila received her Master’s Degree in Canadian/Women’s Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
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