#the ayatollah has no clothes

[al-kol-eleh]

Bernard-Henri Levy

[beardedmrbean]

As the world's attention focuses on the prospect of a regional war in the Middle East, 31-year-old mother of two, Arezou Badri, lays in a hospital bed in Tehran, seriously wounded. 

Iran's authorities said police opened fire on Badri's car on July 22, as she was driving in northern Iran's Mazandaran province, because she ignored orders to stop.

But human rights activists say the authorities targeted her because she refused to wear the hijab.

She has undergone two surgeries. It's unclear whether she has her mobility back, or ever will fully regain it.

Badri is, according to human rights groups, another example of the Iranian government's escalating violence against women over their defiance of the compulsory head covering, the hijab.

"Since April, we have had a very serious crackdown on women who are unveiled," says Roya Boroumand, the executive director of the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which works to promote human rights and democracy in Iran.

On April 4, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described unveiling as "a religious and political sin". It set the stage for more stringent laws and powers allowing Iran's authorities to target women who defy the state's orders.

Shortly after the speech, the country's general police chief announced the use of city cameras and face-recognition technology to identify women who violate the hijab law.

Iran's government, Boroumand argues, feels "more comfortable" cracking down on women who unveil while attention is focused on the war in Gaza.

"[The regime use] facial recognition, multiple summons, confiscation of cars, detentions and repeated fines, but also we have a crackdown against posting on the Internet, whether it is people posting photos of themselves unveiled or posting anything that bothers the state," Baroumand says. 

But she believes the 2022 uprising, sparked two years ago by the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, fundamentally changed how young Iranians view the regime.

Amini died on September 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the country's morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Her death sparked nationwide, and global protests, known as the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

It had spurred talk of another revolution – both on the streets of Tehran and major cities around the world where the Iranian diaspora who fled after the 1979 revolution reside: what if Iran's people had the freedom to choose? To choose if they cover their hair or not, what they wear, what music they listen to, what political views they hold and who they go out with?

Two years on, the protests may have died down, but many Iranians continue to defy their Islamist rules, and continue to ask, what if?

'Women assaulted for not veiling'

For those who argue that the election of a new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, could result in more reformist policies, human rights groups point to what's happening on the ground.

Amnesty International campaigner Nikita White also says they have gathered widespread reports of a continued assault on women and girls by Iranian authorities.

She says the authorities use surveillance cameras and reports from plain clothes agents patrolling the streets and using police apps to report licence plates of vehicles with non-compliant female drivers or passengers.

Continued

[justforbooks]

Ebrahim Raisi

Ruthless prosecutor linked to thousands of executions who rose through the theocratic ranks to become the president of Iran

The career of Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, who has been killed in a helicopter crash aged 63, was defined by violent events. His initiation into politics was triggered by the 1979 Iranian revolution, one of the most cataclysmic and epoch-shaping events of the late 20th century, which unfolded with headline-grabbing drama as Raisi was just turning 18.

Given the heady fervour of that revolutionary period, with daily mass street demonstrations eventually leading to the toppling of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country’s once seemingly invincible western-allied monarch, followed by the return from exile of the messianic cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to ecstatic acclaim, it is perhaps no surprise that a militant, impressionable young activist was sucked into the political system that took shape in the aftermath, was moulded by it - and later participated in some of its more unsavoury actions.

With the theocratic Islamic regime in its infancy, tottering in the face of often violent internal opposition and military attack from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which invaded Iran in September 1980, the young Raisi cut his political teeth in the fledgling system’s judiciary, administering revolutionary justice to political opponents.

He apparently did so with precocious aplomb and a ruthlessness that some say bordered on cruelty. In 1981, aged only 20, he was appointed prosecutor of Karaj, a large town near Tehran; within four months, he was combining that role with prosecutor of Hamadan province, more than 300km away. Political executions during this period were commonplace, although the young Raisi’s direct role in those were unclear.

By 1985, his ideological commitment and judicial zeal earned him a significant promotion to the post of deputy prosecutor of Tehran, Iran’s sprawling capital. He was now well and truly part of the newly formed establishment, so much so that he eventually came to the direct attention of Khomeini, by now undisputed leader of the revolution, who reportedly gave him extrajudicial responsibilities.

It was this relationship that led to a baleful episode that cast an enduring shadow over Raisi’s career and which, critics say, should be the legacy for which he should be remembered.

In 1988, he was among at least four judicial and intelligence ministry-linked figures later revealed to have been members of a shadowy “death committee” established on Khomeini’s orders to oversee the execution of thousands of political prisoners.

According to varying estimates, between 1,700 and 4,400 prisoners – mostly members of the dissident Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), but also leftists, and many of them reportedly in their teens – were summarily put to death. Amnesty International said many had been subject to torture and inhumane treatment. To this day, the executions represent arguably the worst violation of human rights in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic.

A surviving political prisoner, Iraj Mesdaghi – a writer and activist now exiled in Sweden – recalls seeing Raisi, dressed in plain clothes rather than clerical robes, arriving at Gohardasht prison in Karaj for the purpose of making sure executions were carried out and personally witnessing them. One photograph of Raisi from the period depicts a very different persona from the austere, turbaned figure of his presidential years.

How Raisi acquired such pitiless zeal is open to question. Born into a clerical family, near the religious shrine city of Mashhad, he had begun seminary studies in Qom – seat of Iran’s Shia Islamic establishment – at the age of 15, studying at the Ayatollah Borujerdi school at a time when the city began to be plunged into a state of pre-revolutionary ferment, with cassettes of the exiled Khomeini’s sermons being distributed among devout opponents to the shah’s rule.

Whatever the antecedents, there can be no doubt that Raisi’s commitment to Khomeini’s puritanical vision of Velayat-e-Faqih (rule by Islamic jurisprudence) was unambiguous and lasting.

Under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini as supreme leader after the latter’s death in 1989, Raisi ascended to a series of senior judicial positions that kept him close to the heart of the theocracy, including the role of special clerical court prosecutor from 2012 until 2021 and head of the judiciary. During his two years in the latter post, he oversaw more than 400 executions, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organisation.

At the same time, as the regime under Khamenei – who has the last word on all state matters – turned its face against liberalising reform, Raisi’s political stock rose. With the supreme leader’s apparent approval, he stood in the 2017 presidential election as a conservative candidate but was beaten soundly by the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, a centrist who had taken on the mantle of a reformist in a climate that had become steadily more intolerant of a loosening of Islamic strictures on social behaviour.

In 2021, once more with Khamenei’s backing, Raisi tried again and this time prevailed, on a historically low turnout of 48.8% and with 3.7m ballots not counted – either because they were deliberately left blank or voters had written in protest choices, in anger over the mass disqualification of other candidates.

As a president he seemed a markedly greyer figure than previous incumbents, such as the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Mohammad Khatami, the popular cleric who had become a champion of reformism by trying to relax the social impact of Iran’s rigid religious rules.

But the political – and contrasting – effect of having Raisi in office became clear in September 2022 following the mass protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who had been arrested for alleged improper observance of Islamic hijab. Her death spawned a wave of rebellion and the launch of a self-styled movement calling itself “Woman, Life, Freedom”, with women openly flouting strict rules on wearing head covering.

In response, Raisi presided over a brutal clampdown resulting in the deaths, so far, of at least 500 protesters. Repression in the Islamic Republic was not new, but critics detected in the severity of the response an ideological zeal greater even than the crackdown on the 2009 protests that had greeted Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

Raisi’s reward for such orthodoxy was to be spoken of as a possible supreme leader-in-waiting, in succession to Khamenei, who is 85. The abrupt ending to his life in a downed presidential helicopter terminates a controversial political career and renders such speculation moot.

Raisi is survived by his wife, Jamileh Alamolhoda, a writer and scholar, whom he married in 1983, and their two daughters.

🔔 Ebrahim Raisi, politician, born 14 December 1960; died 19 May 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[sa7abnews]

Iran's morality police violently arrest two girls without hijabs

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/11/irans-morality-police-violently-arrest-two-girls-without-hijabs-2/

Iran's morality police violently arrest two girls without hijabs

A video of two teenage girls being beaten by female members of Iran’s morality police on a Tehran street for allegedly not wearing hijabs has gone viral, in what activists say is the latest example of state-led violence against women.

The video, which was a CCTV footage released on Tuesday on social media sites and Iranian news outlets, showed two girls on a street in north Tehran being confronted by three “female agents” of the morality police wearing black niqabs who were seen jumping out of a white van and grabbing the girls.

As one of them resists, she is dragged across the street, with some onlookers filming as the girls are taken into a van.

The New Arab could not independently verify the video.

The surveillance footage was released after the mother of one of the girls issued a complaint with the military police over the treatment of her daughter, according to reports.

The girl’s mother told Iranian news site Ensaf News that her 14-year-old daughter had scratches and bruises on her face and neck from the arrest.

Tehran’s Police Force Information Center said that the girls had been warned about their “inappropriate clothing”, according to Iranwire.

But the police also acknowledged that the female officers’ conduct was “not within the framework of its standards”.

Women who do not wear a headscarf face arrest in Iran for defying the mandatory hijab law, one of many restrictions on women’s rights in Iran rooted in a strict Islamic dress code.

The issue has posed a challenge for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ uprising spread across the country in November 2022.

The protest movement was sparked by the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini who was arrested and reportedly beaten by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for not adhering to the hijab code.

The Shia-majority state has strict dress code laws and customs which curtail women’s rights and have seen hundreds arrested non-compliance. Those often targeted are from ethnic minorities, like the Kurds, activists say.

The violent incident against the teenage girls prompted many to call on new President Masoud Pezeshkian to heed his pledge to end the violent enforcement of the mandatory hijab rule on women and girls.

Described as a reformist, Pezeshkian criticised the morality police and called for an end to its violence against women during his election campaign in July.

Such incidents have been on the rise since the April introduction of the “Noor Plan” unit of the morality police, designed to target women who don’t adhere to the state’s Islamic dress code.

Rights group Amnesty International has documented numerous ordeals of brutal tactics against women and girls by morality police and described the measure as “draconian”.

Iranian officials Ahmadreza Radan and Hassan Hassanzadeh, who announced the measures, have been previously sanctioned by several Western nations for human rights violations related to the nationwide protest movement in 2022 and 2009.

Amnesty International said in May that “security forces have intensified their enforcement of compulsory veiling in public spaces through subjecting women and girls to constant surveillance, beatings, sexual violence, electric shocks, arbitrary arrest and detention and other harassment”.

Thousands of Iranians took part in the nationwide uprising which saw an aggressive crackdown led by the fierce IRGC. Hundreds of people were arrested and the regime faced global condemnation for executing individuals for their alleged role.

Earlier this week, a 34-year-old Iranian-Kurd was executed for allegedly killing a Revolutionary Guard agent during the 2022 protests. Amnesty has condemned the verdict, saying it was based on a confession obtained under torture.

[iraniraqcrisiscommittee]

Shifting Sands

The League of the Dragon formally offered an invitation to an Iran led by Khameini. They hope that if they succeed then they can honor Hussein's message to work together with both the Kurdish and Iranian Heads of State to establish peace.

However, there have been recent rumors about the Ayatollah's last actions, especially about if should Khameini have really been the successor... did this affect the results of the election?

Iran Election

Although an election was held, the computer system crashed as workers for the electrical plants have been too afraid to leave their homes to report for work. The votes were lost and the chaos was utilized to create strongholds of power.

In response, Iran has been split into East and West Iran (picture below) as before the elections Khameini sent troops to secure the ports. For now, the factions have their own spheres of influence.

Khameini has been trying to secure the nuclear reactors so that a new election may be held and prove once and for all who is the true leader of Iran.

Rafsanjani has used this newfound peace to establish his Liver Land and invites all Iranians who tire of conflict to live peacefully and increase their gainz. As this region tires of world, maybe the other leaders of Iran can be inspired by his peaceful wishes. He asks that leaders respect the peace of this small land.

The Prophecy vs The Usurper

Al-Assad, in an effort to revive a Mesopotamian Empire, manuevered to invade Iraq. At the same time, Khaillarah had been secretly positioning his troops on the border as well. This move is surprising as it weakens the Kurdish Front.

The Central Asian States

They have banded together, weakening the Soviet Union, and acting as a threat to the newly declared League of the Dragon. They have expressed interest in cooperating with western states but decline to join NATO at this time.

A Sea Empire

Lenin Land has established a presence in the sea of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, and the end of the Red Sea.

Tragedy in The Arab Empire

During a televised speech, Al-Saud was assassinated through the unified efforts of LOVEMUFFIN and House of the Dragon who were identified via the symbols are their clothing.

His heir will now rule the nation.

But There is Hope

Saddam Hussein has come out of hiding to salvage Iraq from the advancing Kurdistan and other tensions in the region.

An Explosion of Immense Caliber

Due to unknown properties regarding Helium-3, a new element discovered by Great Britain, imploded upon re-entry into the Atmosphere. There is still hope on the isle that British citizens will get to vitas the moon and potentially live there despite this setback.

[loverandservantoftheahlulbayt]

🍃🕊🍃 A Month of Bounties and Blessings (Alhamdulillah) 🍃

🕌 The first week of Sha’ban is home to the birth anniversaries of some of the most important figures in Islamic history.

🕌 By Masooma Beatty 🕌

3rd Sha’ban: Imam Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him), born 4 AH

4th Sha’ban: Abbas ibn Ali (peace be upon him), born 26 AH

5th Sha’ban: Ali Akbar ibn Husain (peace be upon him)

5th Sha’ban: Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him), born 38 AH

6th Sha’ban: Bibi Zainab bint Ali (peace be upon her), born 6 AH

7th Sha’ban: Qasim ibn Hasan ibn Ali (peace be upon him)

For these occasions, it is recommended to perform Ghusl (ablution), wear clean clothes, give Sadaqah (charity), recite Ziyarat (salutations) and Salat (prayers) associated with the personality, learn about the person, and join together in praising and learning about him/her with other believers if possible. Fasting is also recommended in general in this month but in particular on some of these dates.

Sha’ban is a month for seeking nearness to Allah and preparing for the height of opportunity in the month of Ramadhan. It is full of opportunity in itself, and this first week of many birth dates is a string of opportunities to begin to renew ourselves spiritually. Commemorating birth dates and other historical occasions is a means to an end – it is a method mentioned by the Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) in sayings such as, “May Allah have mercy on those who remember us”, to seek spiritual growth and nearness to Allah.

In Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini’s famous work Self Building, a famous supplication for the month of Sha’ban, the Munajat-e-Shabaniyah as taught by Imam Ali (peace be upon him), is mentioned. About it he states, “Imam Khomeini, the most perfect Gnostic of our times, in his repeated speeches has emphasized the special spiritual importance of this precious supplication. Those who are blessed with Divine grace of keeping themselves continuously engaged in supplications and God’s remembrance love this supplication a lot, and because of this supplication eagerly await for the arrival of the Holy Month of Sha’ban.

“This supplication contains vast sublime themes, especially the etiquettes and manners of servanthood, the manners of how to face God Almighty, how to beseech Him, how to tell him about heart’s secrets, how to open the tongue for offering apologies, and how to remain hopeful. Also, in these supplications, the meanings of interpretation of God’s Countenance (Laqa), God’s Witnessing (Shahud), and God’s Nearness (Qurb) have been described in a delicate manner, which do not leave any doubt or confusion for those wayfarers, who are still double-minded, and who do not want to believe. Regarding self-awareness, which is preliminary for God’s learning (Ma’rifah), this supplication contains most meaningful and surprising points.”

The text of this supplication and the English translation are available online.

A narration from the Sixth Imam (peace be upon him) states, “Whoever has a wish he wants Allah to fulfill, let him begin with blessings on Muhammad and his Family, then let him ask his wish, and end by sending blessings on Muhammad and his Family. Allah is nobler than to accept the first and the last (the blessings) and reject the middle (the prayer).”

We mention the Munajaat and Salawat because they seem to encapsulate the ideals of the month, which in turn encapsulate the faith: drawing nearer to Allah and learning from and honoring the best examples of how to draw near Him through the Ahlul Bayt.

Shaikh Abbas al-Qummi narrates in Mafatih al-Jinan that Imam Ali once saw a group of Muslims arguing about fate and destiny on the first day of Sha’ban. He guided them away from their debate and instead led them to ponder the merits of the month. He said, Allah called this month Sha’ban because he scattered (Sha’aba) His favors and bounties all through it. He made the bounties great and easy to achieve, with the acts of worship and abstaining from sin having multiple and generous benefits.

The birth anniversaries in the first week are the first beads in a precious string of pearls for our benefit. If we begin with remembering the Ahlul Bayt and an open heart, then here is a month of hope and a month of optimism, a chance for forgiveness and enlightenment.

Let us give welcome to a wonderful month with so many ways for us to draw nearer to God, improve ourselves, and find peace. It invites us with a chain of birthdays of wonderful people that we can love and learn from – a chain of joyous days to excite and entice us with love of Ahlul Bayt to take advantage of the month and keep that joy growing on our path of self building during the month of Sha’ban.

[odinsblog]

Studying at Tehran University in 1977: While many women were already in higher education at the time of the revolution, the subsequent years saw a marked increase in the number attending university. This was in part because the authorities managed to convince conservative families living in rural areas to allow their daughters to study away from home.

"They tried to stop women from attending university, but there was such a backlash they had to allow them to return," says Baroness Haleh Afshar, a professor of women's studies at the University of York who grew up in Iran in the 1960s.

"Some educated people left Iran, and the authorities realised in order to run the country they needed to educate both men and women."

Window shopping in Tehran in 1976: Before the revolution, the hijab was already widely worn but many women also chose to don Western-style clothes, including tight-fitting jeans, miniskirts and short-sleeved tops. "The shoes haven't changed - and the passion for shoes is in all of us! Women in Iran are no different from women the world over, and going shopping is just a means for women to get away from every day stress," says Prof Afshar.

Friday picnic in Tehran in 1976: Families and friends tend to get together on Fridays, which are weekend days in Iran. "Picnics are an important part of Iranian culture and are very popular amongst the middle classes. This has not changed since the revolution. The difference is, nowadays, men and women sitting together are much more self-aware and show more restraint in their interactions," says Prof Afshar.

Hair salon in Tehran in 1977: "This is a scene you would no longer expect to see in Iran - but even after the Islamic Revolution, hairdressers continued to exist," says Prof Afshar. "Nowadays you wouldn't see a man inside the hairdressers - and women would know to cover up their hair as soon as they walked out the door. Some people may also operate secret salons in their own homes where men and women can mix."

Bodyguards surround the shah in 1971: A young woman approaches Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (far right) at a huge party marking the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy - the extravagance of the event was widely condemned by his left-wing and clerical opponents. "By this time, the shah was already very much disliked and some believe this image of excess and indulgence may have contributed to events leading up to the revolution eight years later," Prof Afshar explains.

Walking down a snowy street in Tehran in 1976: "You cannot stop women walking in the streets of Iran, but you wouldn't see this today - her earrings and make up so clearly on show," Prof Afshar says. "There is this concept of 'decency' in Iran - so nowadays women walking in the streets are likely to wear a coat down to her knees and a scarf."

Women rally against the hijab in 1979: Soon after taking power, Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed that all women had to wear the veil - regardless of religion or nationality. On 8 March - International Women's Day - thousands of women from all walks of life turned out to protest against the law.

Walking in Tehran in 2005: Not all women in Iran opt to wear the black chador, a cloak that covers the body from head to toe and only leaves the face exposed. Many prefer to wear loosely fitted headscarves and coats. "The real question is how far back do you push your scarf? Women have their own small acts of resistance and often try as far as possible to push their scarves back," says Prof Afshar.

Watching football from a Tehran shopping centre in 2008: Though women were never officially banned from watching men's football matches in Iran, they are often refused entry to stadiums and some of those who have tried have been detained. Before the revolution, women were allowed to attend sporting events.

SEPTEMBER 2022: Protests, after the Morality Police beat, arrested and then murdered Mahsa Amini — for the “crime” of improperly wearing her hijab (source) (source)

[queenlua]

pov: you are a journalist just tryin to interview Ayatollah Khomeini, but Iran’s already gone full-theocracy-mode and you are unfortunately a woman

Through the personal intervention of the prime minister of the provisional government, Mehdi Bazargan, [Italian journalist Oriana] Fallaci miraculously received permission to interview the imam.  Bazargan was universally respected even though he was a defender of secularism.  He dreamed of establishing Iran as a Western-style representative democracy.  He even had the courage to Fallaci’s hand.

She set out for Qom, a borrowed chador hidden away in her purse; for a woman to present herself in the holy city not draped hair to toe in black was inconceivable.  The only problem was where to put it on.  The desert highway was bereft of a single gas station.  She asked her handler if she might change in the car.  He answered, “In the name of Allah!  Are you joking!”

They approached the bustling city; Fallaci hid beneath window level until they found an inconspicuous spot on the sidewalk.  As she wrestled the thing over her clothes, her hair became momentarily visible; “I was cursed fearfully.”  They tried a hotel, were immediately hustled out.  The handler entered another establishment alone, and managed to secure a room key; Fallaci was ejected the moment she crossed the threshold.  At a third hotel she got twenty feet inside—but the only employee who would speak to her refused a bribe to allow her use of a bathroom.

They found their way to the mayor’s office.  A kindly officer allowed them access to a chamber that was empty except for a single ornate gold seat—the throne room, unused since the shah’s abdication.  Then someone happened into the room.  Her handler unleashed “the groan of a creature who has lost all hope.”  The intruder dutifully delivered them to a mullah, who ruled that a married man alone in a room with a woman was guilty of adultery.  The handler saved their skin in the only way he could think of: he fetched an official, and Oriana Fallaci became the man’s second wife.

[opedguy]

Ayatollah’s Predictable Response

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Oct. 3, 2022.--Over two weeks after the death at the hands of the Basij militia of 22-year-old Kurdish women Mahsa Amini for not wearing her hijab properly, 83-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei officially speaks out. Amini was allegedly beaten to death with a truncheon by the Basij “morality police,” for defying Iran’s strict women’s dress code.  Showing why its pure madness for the U.S. and EU to reinvent former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iranian Nuke Deal AKA the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], Khamenei blamed the nationwide protests over Amini’s death on the U.S. and Israel.  Like the old Nazi regime, the Jews were the cause of all Germany’s past defeats and economic woes, leading to the worst massacre in human history.  But Khamenei uses the same predicable playbook, blaming the U.S. and Israel for explosive rioting occurring in 80 cities and towns around Iran.

Iran has lingering regret over Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the progressive regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Palavi, who brought Iran out of the dark ages to incorporate U.S. and EU values into Iranian society.  Women during the Shah’s reign were not required to wear head-scarves, receiving comparable treatment in education and jobs in Iranian society.  Khomenei’s Islamic Revoution turned back the clock on 100 years of progress under the Shah and his father’s rule.  So, when it comes to nationwide protests, Amini was a catalyst for the population frustrated from the oppression of strict Shiite Islamic rule.  Khamenei approved the nationwide crack down on protesters, blaming the U.S. and Israel for trying to topple the Mullah regime.  But the aging-and-sick Khamenei knows that you can only oppress a population for so long.

Iran’s nationwide protests speak volumes about a population yearning for the good old days under the Shah when Tehran was a mini-Paris, a hub of haute couture, music, art and fashionable night life, letting Iranians work and live their lives without government oppression.  While the Shah had his “secret police” to prevent an Islamic takeover, the Basij militia were not tormenting Iran’s youth for wearing lipstick or listening to Western music.  “This rioting was planned,” Khamenei said.  “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees,” putting all the blame on imaginary foreign sources. Khameni and his Mullah regime knows that the protests are against oppressive Mullah rule, where the Basij and Revolutionary Gurards protect the regime at all costs, even massacring the population when it threatens the Mullah regime.

Students at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran announced that classes had been cancelled at the start of the new term, except for doctoral students.  Revolutionary Guards used tear gas to breakup crowds of students holed up in the university protesting the death of Amini, but, more importantly, demanding human rights.  Plain-clothed Revolutionary guards surrounded the university in a show of force.  State run IRNA downplayed the crackdown at Sharif University, saying that many students had been released from detention.  German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned “the regime’s brute force” at Sharif Universit, calling it “an expression of sheer fear and the power of education and freedom,  Baerbook knows her German history, the same kind of tactics used by the Nazi SS to coerce and brutalize the German people into full conformity with Hitler’s regime.

Khamenei condemned the scenes of women burning hijabs and cutting of their hair as “actions that are not normal, that are unnatural,” warning that “those that foment unrest to sabotage the Islamic Republic deserve harsh prosecution and punishment,” said Khamenei.  Iran’s spasm of nationwide rioting occurred in 1999, right before the last gasps of pro-Shah protesters were forced out of the country.  Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia tightened their grip on Iranian society, driving out residual malcontents with Mullah rule.  Over 41 deaths and at least 1,500 protesters have been arrested by plain-clothed Revolutionary Guards.  Alborz Mexami, an economic reporter, was arrested for subversive activities.  As the crack down proceeds, Iranian exiles in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles, gathered to wave Iranian flags and protest the Ayatollah’s brutal crack down.

How ironic that most the protesters are under 25-years-of-age, never knowing in their lifetimes life before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Tehran-based university teacher Shaindokht Kharazimi said the new generation knows how to fight back against the Mullah regime.  “The [young protesters] have learned the strategy from video games and play to win,” said Kharazimi told the pro-reform Etemad newspapers.  “There is no such thing as defeat for them,” not knowing that periodic regime protests have gone on for over 40 years.  Kharazimi recalls the 1999 student protests when reformist President Mohammad Khatami backed the most violent street demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.   “Don’t’ call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” students showed at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.  Those students don’t know the Revolutionary Guard crack down currently underway.

About the Author    

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.    

[z-007]

A Journey of Sadism (mental and physical)

I was born in the 21st of April 1992, in Jableh-Latakia. But, since my father was an employee for Total French company in Syria, I grew up in Damascus. At the age of 4, I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 1. It was very hard for me at the beginning when I was a child, and my mother suffered a lot, giving me insulin injections, which I found painful at that time, and analyzing my blood sugar to inspect what did I eat if the result was soaring sky high. I hated her at the beginning, simply because as a child, I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. At 8 years old I went to a school that is Sunni Islamic Pre-Historic School in Dummar called -Young Scientists- something that I discovered later on to be ironic. In Syria, If you weren’t good at school, you were cursed, you became like a Boxing Heavybag. They also used Falakas, the art of whipping feet. It didn’t stop at that, simply because parents became part of this process too, using any tool at their disposal in beating their child, chair, water hose, hammer, clothes hanger, electric cables, let alone being slapped on the face in a way that I started feeling my bones were shaking, and my eyes will throw fire, or kicked in your head and started bleeding. All of this, was because my marks in Arabic, mathematics, history and geography were not good except in English. It was the best language to understand for me, and the subject in which I saw myself to be a good student. As a consequence of that, I started losing control and cause trouble to my so-called teachers at that time. Luckily in 2001, I found my sanctuary that took to a completely different world. It was the first time I saw James Bond in GoldenEye. I was so thrilled by the action sequence, the theme of betrayal and everything about it was cool. This was a turning point in my life to become a Bond fan. I also learnt how to sing rap songs like Faint for Linkin Park, and Bleed It Out. And all of my father’s friends who were French, British and Americans were impressed. It was something that I remember with a loving memory to those people. Later I watched the rest of the Bond films and the happiest moment in my life was when I found the complete DVD set in Tartus. Simply because no DVD store in Damascus had the complete set except one who was also our neighbor. The curse of buying films in Syria was that they were badly used CDs at the bloody beginning. It was very rare to have a CD converted from an original DVD. This greatest franchise in the whole world has sealed my internal wounds for not being a good student. Ironically, the mental case of mine came back to me when I was at High School, especially it was a time that determined who I am, luckily it passed with no harm to me, because a single mark changed future to some students .I forgot to mention, that the school principle when I was at the ninth grade, didn’t stop calling my parents and telling them not to spend a single penny on me, because he thought I will never be successful. But I brought a mark that was better than his children’s. In 2010, I became a student of English Literature in Damascus University, I remembered that I was not a bad student at that time with an average of 80 percent. But the Syrian Crisis began in 2011, the press was already screaming for blood and the political unrest escalated to the extent that we had to change residence. This was the bane of my existence to open my eyes and find myself in Latakia. I was simply cursed and hostile, because I didn’t speak like Alawaits, their accent felt like starving dogs, in other words, they bark. They are trivial, shallow minded wankers who had nothing inside their heads except clothes, mobile phones and narrating a fairytale about themselves having sex with girls and a horny 40-year-old women they come across and imagining penetrating their vaginas and sucking their nipples. I registered in Tishreen University at third year, I managed to transfer my documents to that platonic place. The professors didn’t like me, simply for participating in their lectures, and the fact that I spoke French, Spanish and a little bit Russian. As a consequence, I kept failing at University over and over. Moreover, I had different ideas, and University Professors are bigots and snobbish. Their opinion was the only one that matters. The impact of the mentioned earlier, had made my pain started with breakdowns, screaming my head off and security gathering around me like” what happened to you?”. Added to that, emotionally speaking, I had a horse sex drive in that Mohammadian society. Girls dressed in a way that said to male students, “come to me.”. The majority of women at that city showed their breasts, waist, legs, and what attracts me most their feet, especially, high heels, that gave them a very elegant look. For my good fortune, all I had in front of me was Pornographic DVDs and websites, so I kept masturbating from 11:30 pm until 10:00 am from night to daylight. Still wondering, how men attracted them, I didn’t have any idea, and the question kept circulating. I also hated the idea of marriage, especially that I always loved to live my life the way I fathomed. I didn’t like the idea of getting buried alive by being a bloody father and spend the rest of my life with only one Angry Factory, aka, one woman. The psychological problem kept increasing and started with depression; taking anti-depressants for a while and go back to my normal life when soothed down. I kept taking them every now and then. Students were not allowed to know about their mistakes at any cost, this was a University rule. Self-doubt has caused me to go to a neurologist who started doing me brain scans, simply, I just wanted to know why am I that stupid, for failing continuously and still I didn’t get an answer. I was always deprived of sleep, studying my arse off and my professors didn’t care seeing their students DIE and SUFFER in front of them. Everybody panicked from me, always avoided seeing me, treated as unusual man. At that time, due to the fact that I kept taking anti-depressants, they became ineffective and stopped giving me relief. Part of what killed me thousands of time when I’m still alive was realizing that I cannot become an MI6 agent at any cost. I simply wanted to do 1 % of what James Bond did, take notice, that I was not pursuing women, I was looking for action and suspense. I wanted to be stationed in the heart of ISIS or Spectre and operate in the shadows to protect Queen and Country. I didn’t like Hasan Nasrullah, Vladimir Putin who looked like a Bond villain or Ayatollah bloody Khomeini, even Ali Bin Abi Talib himself, and that’s why I was also crucified for being a James Bond fan. Family and friends made a laughing stock out of me. I started dinking excessively, and suicidal thoughts kept recurring to me. They didn’t stop driving me to bring a razor and wound myself to death, it wasn’t the MI6 job that destroyed me the most. It was self-doubt. Doubting my brain efficiency and abilities, and especially that I saw students whom I thought less capable to express themselves in English than I am. My family tried to see the professors in Tishreen University-Latakia, unsuccessfully. I simply couldn’t have any idea what is the main reason I kept failing over and over. How could I develop myself without knowing my mistakes?!!, I later told some people that I wanted to be an MI6 operative, I thought that might sooth my tension, however, it got things worse. I started attacking the professors while giving their lectures orally and physically. I also broke the classroom washbasin, and the entire classroom windows, then security staff gathered around me after 3 minutes, they were about to send me to an unknown destiny, later, everything stopped after the head of the English department told them not to take any action. The last problem I did was with World Literature professor, whose name is Noor AL Araby, she was a real bitch, I remembered studying her syllabus for a month, she told us that Virginia is not required for the exam, and she brought it. As a result of that, I wrote her three pornographic stories on the exam paper. Stories people see in Brazzers and Naughty America (Porn films companies). Everybody got pissed off, the story was about to be dragged from my house to a security branch for torture. Luckily, my uncle who was a Colonel in the Republican Guard he had connection to the President of the University, told the professor to drop out the case, but she was persistent to have my balls for Christmas decoration. She spread what I wrote her on the internet and about to send them to newspapers. My parents begged her not to and we had medical reports that proved that I had neurological and mental case. Then I was suspended from the University for years, from 2016, till now. She did all she could to destroy me to the utmost level. I was happy when I realized she got very agitated. Especially, there were students confirming that exam questions were paradoxical to the things she lectures about.

Suspension Time

At the time I was suspended it was a slow killer for me. Literary, I realized that I was the worst student in the history of the planet. I decided to follow Boxing, I remembered that I was fit enough for the game. I found out that I did well at round bouts on the ring. I could do sparring sessions, shadowboxing…etc. I was able to run at least 10kms per day, 300 sit-ups, 80 press ups and 20 pull-ups. I tried to be a champion but every time I kept persevering, in addition to that my left palm was broken and my right eye was wounded. I got cold and sick, and I realized that I had to spend at least 2 months with vaporizers, fertilizers and strong meds. I kept striving in Boxing with no success. I lost confidence in myself and felt humiliated. I said to myself, why didn’t I choose to work for the Syrian Secret Service, I went to the branches, and when they saw that I was discharged from the military because of diabetes type 1, they asked me to get lost. I was surprised when I found out that my dentist was an officer in the Ariel Intelligence in Syria, I told him the story, he said “this is not your fight, you might think that you can do well in the field, but your enemies are smarter than you, they know how they can take you down and destroy you once and for all. Second, we had people who kill targets, who can do silent killings, detonate and sabotage, whether male, or female, but they have nothing to lose, their parents are killed and very poor, working to make money, and you are a discharged, rich bastard and you want to join us. I’m surprised when you told me that. I was a James Bond fan like you, but believe me my friend, that the real intelligence work will never come up to your expectations. Once the film you watch finishes and the novel ends, go back to reality, what you look for does not exist. I realized that I couldn’t become an asset for MI6, or any spy agency in this world, I felt that I was under surveillance by my country. I knew that they could look at my messages, trace my location any time they wanted. That was not the real problem, suicidal thoughts and self-punishment ideas didn’t leave me. So, I talked to my uncle to send me to the Special Forces, or any Military Barracks to become a martyr, to take the bullets to my chest. I remembered when I drank wine bottle on my own, I told my parents that I wanted to wear a C4 charge belt and blow myself up inside ISIS. They were horrified, then I was unconscious and within minutes, I found myself inside the clinic, after I told my problem to the psychiatrist, about MI6 dream and the doubt that I’m under surveillance. He told my mother that I’m a Psychotic. I was injected with needles and medications that made me feel like cutting my head off. He also sent me to Damascus for electro-therapy (to take electricity directly to my brain). I also became a field of therapy by my Doctor, he was testing medications on me like Invega that made me shake while standing up. Hence, he decided to give me Zeldox 60 mg, second generation anti-psychotic. My only comfort was when I slept. Waking up to life while taking those meds was a curse. I lost my sexual drive (libido), I remember feeling dizzy all the time, I remember calling the doctor every time when I tell him about the side-effects concerning dizziness and loss of sexual drive, he kept telling me that what you say is incorrect and that it didn’t have any symptoms. By miracle, my father brought me lower dosage medication, life changed for me. I knew cat-houses in my city, every money woman I went to for an intercourse, they took a lot of money. They were abusing me. The sluts didn’t make me enjoy the intercourse the way I wanted. They were controlling me as well, and this is why I left them. After I told my psychiatrist that I reduced the dosage, he said that my condition will deteriorate. He confirmed to me that Chemistry in my brain was not right, then I told him to screw himself. Reducing the dosage had an effect as well. I remembered at a certain time that painkillers were like a bag of peanuts for me. And when night came I felt incredible fever in my head. I felt like being boiled alive. And I kept seeing nightmare afterwards, voices telling me that I will pay the price of reducing the medication dosage. Complete terror and horror kept chasing me for a very long time. After recovery, I logged into the James Bond groups on Facebook, they made me trivia to answer, did me a test about the James Bond 24 films from Dr.No 1962 to Spectre 2015. After I answered them all correctly, they called me Agent 00Zein. Made me an admin, and I had many friends from all around the world. In the 5th of October the global James Bond day , I celebrated with millions of the franchise fans. My great father, brought me a modern computer and IPhone X to follow up with these groups.

Nowadays, I’m not looking for immigration, nor women or anything else in this world. I have chosen to help my parents when they grow old, and help them. This is the best way I can pay them back. I decided to watch films about espionage world, read books, imagining the events and enjoy it fully and get my arse back to reality.

This is the only way; I cannot be punished.

I can imagine myself a soldier of 30 Assault Unit in Ian Fleming’s room 39 in WW2, or talking with Sir Alex Younger about my mission in VX or Whitehall. If not Sir Alex Younger, it could be Admiral Miles Messervy, Admiral Hargreaves, Madame Olivia Mansfield, or Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory. And realize that” It was a matter of pride that the 00 Section has been chosen for this test. This painful experience kept coming back sometimes, notwithstanding, I have chosen to take with a pinch of salt, lol.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, May 1, 2021

Student loan debts (WSJ) U.S. taxpayers could ultimately be on the hook for roughly a third of the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio. This could amount to more than $500 billion, exceeding what taxpayers lost on the saving-and-loan crisis 30 years ago. While defaulted student loans can’t cause the federal government to go bankrupt the way bad mortgage lending upended banks during the financial crisis, they expose a similar problem: Billions of dollars lent based on flawed assumptions about whether the money can be repaid.

Costa Rica to close non-essential businesses next week over COVID-19 (Reuters) Costa Rica will for the next week close non-essential businesses, including restaurants and bars, across the center of the country due to a sharp increase in new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations, the government said on Thursday. From May 3-9, restaurants, bars, department stores, beauty salons, gyms and churches must close in 45 municipalities in central Costa Rica, where almost half the population lives and over two-thirds of new cases have been registered. The government will also impose travel restrictions during the week.

After a Year of Loss, South America Suffers Worst Death Tolls Yet (NYT) In the capital of Colombia, Bogotá, the mayor is warning residents to brace for “the worst two weeks of our lives.” Uruguay, once lauded as a model for keeping the coronavirus under control, now has one of the highest death rates in the world, while the grim daily tallies of the dead have hit records in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru in recent days. Even Venezuela, where the authoritarian government is notorious for hiding health statistics and any suggestion of disarray, says that coronavirus deaths are up 86 percent since January. As vaccinations mount in some of the world’s wealthiest countries and people cautiously envision life after the pandemic, the crisis in Latin America—and in South America in particular—is taking an alarming turn for the worse, potentially threatening the progress made well beyond its borders. Last week, Latin America accounted for 35 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the world, despite having just 8 percent of the global population, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

France Proposes More Surveillance to Hunt for Potential Terrorists (NYT) The French government, responding to several attacks over the past seven months, presented a new anti-terrorism bill on Wednesday that would allow intense algorithmic surveillance of phone and internet communications and tighten restrictions on convicted terrorists emerging from prison. “There have been nine attacks in a row that we could not detect through current means,” Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, told France Inter radio. “We continue to be blind, doing surveillance on normal phone lines that nobody uses any longer.” The draft bill, prepared by Mr. Darmanin, came in a political and social climate envenomed by Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, who applauded a letter published this month by 20 retired generals that described France as being in a state of “disintegration” and warned of a possible coup in thinly veiled terms. Published in a right-wing magazine, Valeurs Actuelles, the generals’ letter portrayed a country ravaged by violence, swept by hatred and prey to subversive ideologies bent on stirring a racial war. “If nothing is done,” they said, “laxity will spread inexorably across society, provoking in the end an explosion and the intervention of our active-service comrades in the perilous protection of our civilization’s values.”

Toll of Afghan ‘forever war’ (AP) After 20 years, America is ending its “forever war” in Afghanistan. Announcing a firm withdrawal deadline, President Joe Biden cut through the long debate, even within the U.S. military, over whether the time was right. Starting Saturday, the last remaining 2,500 to 3,500 American troops will begin leaving, to be fully out by Sept. 11 at the latest. Another debate will likely go on far longer: Was it worth it? Since 2001, tens of thousands of Afghans and 2,442 American soldiers have been killed, millions of Afghans driven from their homes, and billions of dollars spent on war and reconstruction. The U.S. and NATO leave behind an Afghanistan that is at least half run directly or indirectly by the Taliban—despite billions poured into training and arming Afghan forces to fight them. Riddled with corruption and tied to regional warlords, the U.S.-backed government is widely distrusted by many Afghans.

In India’s devastating coronavirus surge, anger at Modi grows (Washington Post) As he surveyed the thousands of people gathered at an election rally in eastern India on April 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared jubilant. “Everywhere I look, as far as I can see, there are crowds,” he said, his arms spread wide. “You have done an extraordinary thing.” At the time, India was recording more than 200,000 coronavirus cases a day. In the western state of Maharashtra, oxygen was running short, and people were dying at home because of a shortage of hospital beds. In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, crematoriums were being overwhelmed by the dead. For Modi, the most powerful Indian prime minister in five decades, it is a moment of reckoning. He is facing what appears to be the country’s biggest crisis since independence. Modi’s own lapses and missteps are an increasing source of anger. As coronavirus cases skyrocketed, Modi continued to hold huge election rallies and declined to cancel a Hindu religious festival that drew millions to the banks of the Ganges River. Modi swept to a landslide reelection victory in 2019, offering Indians a muscular brand of nationalism that views India as a fundamentally Hindu country rather than the secular republic envisioned by its founders. He has cultivated an image as a singular leader capable of bold decisions to protect and transform the country. Now that image is “in tatters,” said Vinay Sitapati, a political scientist at Ashoka University in the northern Indian state of Haryana. Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) built a formidable machine for winning elections, Sitapati said, but their mind-set of continuous campaigning has come “at the cost of governance.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia Edge Toward Détente (Foreign Policy) Iran’s relationship with Saudi Arabia could be entering “a new chapter of interaction and cooperation,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Thursday, as the two countries signal a rapid mending of diplomatic ties. Khatibzadeh’s comments came in response to an interview Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave to state television this week, when he said that problems between the regional rivals could be overcome and “good relations” could soon prevail. His recent comments offer a stark contrast with ones he made in 2018 when he compared Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler and described Iran as part of a “triangle of evil.” Behind the scenes, the two countries have also been busy. Earlier this month, the Financial Times broke news of direct talks, held in Baghdad, with a primary focus on ending the war in Yemen.

Chloe Zhao's challenge to Chinese Beauty standards (Quartz) Although Chloé Zhao’s Oscars win has largely been censored in China, her chill, no-makeup look at the awards ceremony has become a hit among many Chinese women, who say Zhao made them feel they can also ditch cosmetics and stop appealing to mainstream beauty standards in the country. China has a set of rigid standards for women’s appearance, prompting online slimming challenges that encourage young girls to pursue body shapes that allow them to wear children’s clothes, or have waists with a width similar to the shorter side of a piece of A4 paper (around 21 cm). As such, Zhao’s no-makeup look is a much-needed endorsement for women in China, where few public figures dare to break away from traditional beauty requirements.

Hong Kong’s latest star TV host? City leader Carrie Lam. (Washington Post) In a city known for producing action-packed martial arts movies, there’s a gripping new TV show on the block. The title promises to captivate viewers: “Get to Know the Election Committee Subsectors.” The star? Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, not as a guest but as the host. The show, which premiered Wednesday on public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, gives Lam a platform to promote electoral changes introduced by Beijing that further tilt the system against pro-democracy voices, add weight to industry-sector representatives and ensure only “patriots” loyal to the Communist Party can govern Hong Kong. People in mainland China have long been accustomed to state propaganda broadcasts. Hong Kong, however, traditionally had a freewheeling media environment. But almost a year after China imposed a security law that curtailed freedom of speech there, the public broadcaster has become a vital instrument of Beijing’s efforts to control the narrative. Wednesday night’s double-episode premiere featured furious agreement on the merit of Beijing’s electoral changes. The episodes scored only a few thousand views and mostly “thumbs-down” responses on YouTube. One user drew comparisons to George Orwell’s “1984.” If you missed the show, there’s plenty of opportunity to catch it again; episodes will air four times a day, every day.

Cambodians complain of lockdown hunger as outbreak takes toll on poor (Reuters) Residents in Cambodia’s capital gathered on Friday to demand food from the government, outraged at what they called inadequate aid distribution during a tough COVID-19 lockdown that bars people from leaving their homes. Authorities put Phnom Penh and a nearby town under a hard lockdown on April 19 to quell a surge in coronavirus infections that has seen Cambodia’s case total balloon from about 500 to 12,641 since late February, including all 91 of its deaths. Though private food deliveries are operating, markets and street food services are closed, making it difficult for poorer families to get supplies, with many without income because of the stay-home order. Amnesty International on Friday called Cambodia’s lockdown an emerging humanitarian and human rights crisis, with nearly 294,000 people in Phnom Penh at risk of going hungry.

Palestinian election delay (Reuters) It could have marked a political turning point. Palestinians were slated to go to the polls starting next month for the first time in 15 years—but on Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he will indefinitely postpone the elections. He blamed Israel, accusing authorities of stonewalling efforts to let Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem cast their ballots. But Israeli officials suggested Abbas was using Israel as a pretext to cancel a vote his faction might lose. Hamas, his party’s rival, has rejected the move, and some Palestinians took to the streets to protest.

The real threat to Chad’s military rulers: unemployed youth (Reuters) When Neldjibaye Madjissem graduated with a mathematics degree in 2015, he began searching for work as a school teacher. Six years on, he is still looking—and is angry. The 31-year-old blames Chad's government for lack of work, mismanagement of oil revenues and corruption. No wonder people are protesting on the streets in their thousands, he says. The battlefield death of President Idriss Deby last week, after 30 years of autocratic rule, sent the Central African country into a tailspin. But perhaps the greater threat for Chad’s rulers comes from the mass of unemployed young people tired of the Deby family and its international allies, particularly former colonial ruler France. At least six people died in violent protests this week. "The lack of jobs risks creating a great problem. The people are angry," said Madjissem, as he prepared a private lesson to a high school student in the living room of a tiny house in N'Djamena. His infrequent wage: $3 an hour.

Famine looms in southern Madagascar, U.N.’s food agency says (Reuters) Famine is looming in southern Madagascar, where children are “starving” after drought and sandstorms ruined harvests, the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. Amer Daoudi, senior director of WFP operations globally, speaking from Antananarivo, Madagascar, said he had visited villages where people had resorted to eating locusts and leaves. “I witnessed horrific images of starving children, malnourished, and not only the children—mothers, parents and the populations in villages we visited,” Daoudi told a United Nations briefing in Geneva. Malnutrition has almost doubled to 16% from 9% in March 2020 following five consecutive years of drought, exacerbated this year by sandstorms and late rains, he said.

[beardedmrbean]

The UN has expressed alarm at Iranian authorities' response to protests sparked by the death in custody of a woman detained for breaking hijab laws.

Human rights groups said three people were killed on Monday as security forces opened fire at men, women and children who took to the streets of Kurdistan province for a fourth day.

Protests also took place in Tehran.

The UN urged Iran's leaders to allow peaceful demonstrations and launch an impartial probe into the woman's death.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from the western city of Saqez, who was from Iran's Kurdish minority, died in hospital on Friday after spending three days in a coma.

She was with her brother in Tehran on Tuesday when she was arrested by Iran's morality police, who accused her of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre.

Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif said there were reports that Ms Amini was beaten on the head with a baton by morality police officers and that her head was banged against one of their vehicles.

The police have denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered "sudden heart failure". But her family has said she was fit and healthy.

"Mahsa Amini's tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority, that ensures, in particular, that her family has access to justice and truth," Ms Nashif said.

She noted that the UN had received "numerous, and verified, videos of violent treatment of women" as morality police expanded their street patrols in recent months to crack down on those perceived to be wearing "loose hijab".

"The authorities must stop targeting, harassing, and detaining women who do not abide by the hijab rules," she added, calling for their repeal.

An aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei paid a visit to Ms Amini's family on Monday and told them that "all institutions will take action to defend the rights that were violated", state media reported.

Senior MP Jalal Rashidi Koochi publicly criticised the morality police, saying the force was a "mistake" as it had only produced "loss and damage" for Iran.

What are Iran's hijab laws?

Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, authorities in Iran imposed a mandatory dress code requiring all women to wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothing that disguises their figures in public.

Morality police - known formally as "Gasht-e Ershad" (Guidance Patrols) - are tasked, among other things, with ensuring women conform with the authorities' interpretation of "proper" clothing. Officers have the power to stop women and assess whether they are showing too much hair; their trousers and overcoats are too short or close-fitting; or they are wearing too much make-up. Punishments for violating the rules include a fine, prison or flogging.

In 2014, Iranian women began sharing photos and videos of themselves publicly flouting the hijab laws as part of an online protest campaign called "My Stealthy Freedom". It has since inspired other movements, including "White Wednesdays" and "Girls of Revolution Street".

Ms Nashif also condemned "the reported unnecessary or disproportionate use of force" against the thousands of people who have taken in part in protests against the morality police and the hijab since Mahsa Amini's death.

Hengaw, a Norway-based organisation that monitors human rights in predominantly Kurdish areas, said 38 people were injured on Saturday and Sunday when riot police fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas at protests in Saqez and Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province.

The group reported that three male protesters were shot and killed in clashes with security forces on Monday - one in Saqez and two others in the towns of Divandarreh and Dehgolan - as the unrest escalated. It had previously reported the death of a second man in Divandarreh, but relatives said he was in a critical condition in hospital.

In Tehran, videos posted online showed protests on Monday outside several universities and on Keshavarz Boulevard, a major road in the city centre.

Women were filmed taking off their headscarves and shouting "death to the dictator" - a chant often used in reference to the Supreme Leader. Others shouted "justice, liberty, no to mandatory hijab".

A woman who took part in a protest on Monday night in the northern city of Rasht sent BBC Persian photographs of what she said were bruises she suffered as a result of being beaten by riot police with batons and hoses.

"When we took to the streets to show our solidarity and anger the only thing they [the police] did was beat us," she said.

"They kept firing tear gas. Our eyes were burning," she added. "We were running away, [but] they cornered me and beat me. They were calling me a prostitute and saying I was out in the street to sell myself!"

Another woman who protested in the central city of Isfahan told the BBC's Ali Hamedani: "While we were waving our headscarves in the sky I felt so emotional to be surrounded and protected by other men. It feels great to see this unity. I hope the world supports us."

Tehran Governor Mohsen Mansouri tweeted on Tuesday that the protests were "fully organised with the agenda to create unrest", while state TV alleged that Ms Amini's death was being used as an "excuse" by Kurdish separatists and critics of the establishment.

[sa7abnews]

Iran's morality police violently arrest two girls without hijabs

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/11/irans-morality-police-violently-arrest-two-girls-without-hijabs/

Iran's morality police violently arrest two girls without hijabs

A video of two teenage girls being beaten by female members of Iran’s morality police on a Tehran street for allegedly not wearing hijabs has gone viral, in what activists say is the latest example of state-led violence against women.

The video, which was a CCTV footage released on Tuesday on social media sites and Iranian news outlets, showed two girls on a street in north Tehran being confronted by three “female agents” of the morality police wearing black niqabs who were seen jumping out of a white van and grabbing the girls.

As one of them resists, she is dragged across the street, with some onlookers filming as the girls are taken into a van.

The New Arab could not independently verify the video.

The surveillance footage was released after the mother of one of the girls issued a complaint with the military police over the treatment of her daughter, according to reports.

The girl’s mother told Iranian news site Ensaf News that her 14-year-old daughter had scratches and bruises on her face and neck from the arrest.

Tehran’s Police Force Information Center said that the girls had been warned about their “inappropriate clothing”, according to Iranwire.

But the police also acknowledged that the female officers’ conduct was “not within the framework of its standards”.

Women who do not wear a headscarf face arrest in Iran for defying the mandatory hijab law, one of many restrictions on women’s rights in Iran rooted in a strict Islamic dress code.

The issue has posed a challenge for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ uprising spread across the country in November 2022.

The protest movement was sparked by the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini who was arrested and reportedly beaten by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for not adhering to the hijab code.

The Shia-majority state has strict dress code laws and customs which curtail women’s rights and have seen hundreds arrested non-compliance. Those often targeted are from ethnic minorities, like the Kurds, activists say.

The violent incident against the teenage girls prompted many to call on new President Masoud Pezeshkian to heed his pledge to end the violent enforcement of the mandatory hijab rule on women and girls.

Described as a reformist, Pezeshkian criticised the morality police and called for an end to its violence against women during his election campaign in July.

Such incidents have been on the rise since the April introduction of the “Noor Plan” unit of the morality police, designed to target women who don’t adhere to the state’s Islamic dress code.

Rights group Amnesty International has documented numerous ordeals of brutal tactics against women and girls by morality police and described the measure as “draconian”.

Iranian officials Ahmadreza Radan and Hassan Hassanzadeh, who announced the measures, have been previously sanctioned by several Western nations for human rights violations related to the nationwide protest movement in 2022 and 2009.

Amnesty International said in May that “security forces have intensified their enforcement of compulsory veiling in public spaces through subjecting women and girls to constant surveillance, beatings, sexual violence, electric shocks, arbitrary arrest and detention and other harassment”.

Thousands of Iranians took part in the nationwide uprising which saw an aggressive crackdown led by the fierce IRGC. Hundreds of people were arrested and the regime faced global condemnation for executing individuals for their alleged role.

Earlier this week, a 34-year-old Iranian-Kurd was executed for allegedly killing a Revolutionary Guard agent during the 2022 protests. Amnesty has condemned the verdict, saying it was based on a confession obtained under torture.

[littlebignothings]

You can do it!

After a day spent rafting over the ice-cold Zanskar river, others chose to have an early dinner and sleep, while I took the rented scooter and headed towards the market. The hotel manager told us that Leh was going to shut down in a few weeks due to winter. I could feel it. It was very cold and windy, even with the sun up and if given a choice, I would have walked the market street with the helmet on. 

The market was mostly closed, except for few cafes, a clothes store, a couple of cyber cafes, a restaurant, a Shia mosque, a mobile store, a handicraft place that looked expensive, a medical shop, a store with trekking goods, a pashmina shawl store, which again I wasn’t sure I could afford and a lodge for backpackers. I made a mental note to get a t-shirt I saw at the clothes store - one with an illustration of “Tintin in Ladakh” in the style of “Tintin in Tibet”. 

The stone-paved road was quite broad. There was a huge banner hanging from poles on either side of the road - a semi-transparent black cloth with white text saying “Islam is the only way to save mankind that has been wounded by various incidents over the centuries”, a quote by Ayatollah Khamenei. It was put up in a way that no one entering the street can miss or ignore it. It was constantly in your face. Everything in the banner was in All-caps. 

I sat on a bench and took out the paper to check the things I wanted to get. When I got up, the Khamenei quote was staring at me. It amused me when religious leaders say “This is the only way..” as if they had tried every way and then came to that conclusion. I had read so many nicer quotes on Islam, I was curious why they chose this one by Khamenei. 

The biggest reason I came to the market was to get a small statuette of a monk. I first saw it in the car we rented to get to Nubra valley. It was a monk pumping his first as if to say “You can do it”. I thought it would fit in great with the cheerful Ganesha on my work desk. I asked the kind-looking old man outside the mosque if he knew the place where they sell such small souvenirs. I didn’t have a problem locating the place following his directions.

On one side of that alley, in a line were roadside shops selling souvenirs. I walked along the street looking from a distance what each shop had for sale. I spotted a German lady bargaining with the shop owner for a sleeping Buddha statue. I admired her. I learned a long time ago that I was incapable of bargaining. So I made a simple rule for myself. I’ll fix a price based on how much I wanted it. If the asking price is around that, I’ll buy it. I was told by our driver that it would cost around 100-250, depending on the place. Since I really wanted it and accounting for my lack of bargaining skills, I was ready to pay up to 250-300 for it. 

I went and looked at the shop of a young lady who was working on a prayer bead. There were prayer beads, rudrakshas, singing bowls, prayer flags, bells, keychains and Buddha faces of various sizes. It didn’t have the one I wanted and I was about to leave when she asked me in Hindi what I was looking for. She had a heavy accent but her voice was soft and calm. I answered I was looking for a monk/lama statuette. She nodded, asked me to wait a minute and brought a box. It had six little statuettes of lamas playing various instruments. But the one I wanted wasn’t there. She was staring at me.  “Lama. you wanted”.

I didn’t have the heart to just walk away. I thought I’d buy a small keychain or something. 

I told her “I am looking for a particular one. A motivating one. Lama saying ‘You can do it’”.

“Lama saying?”, she asked surprised.

“With its pose” I replied and showed her how it looked by imitating the pose. 

“No. No such lama” she said and pointed at the Lamas in the box “These are nice. cute”

I thought of googling an image but my Vodafone didn’t have coverage there. In fact, only BSNL postpaid was working in Leh. I asked her if there were any with Lamas sitting.  

“Yes. I have. Don’t go. I’ll come fast” She ran to a shop similar to hers and brought another box. She opened it and said “all sitting”. The lama I was looking for was there.

“That’s the one” I said

“So this Lama is saying ‘you can do it’?” she asked laughing.

“Maybe he’s saying ‘Best of Luck’ or ‘Be positive’ or something like that” I replied and she started laughing louder. The lady from the shop where she got the box from, who I guessed was her aunt or mother scolded her and apologized to me. I told her it was okay and that it was totally my fault. 

Taking out the Lama, she controlled her laughter and said “He’s praying and chanting mantras. Look at his hands closely.”. 

Yes. He was holding something - a bell or a writing stick. I had also missed the bowl-like thing near his feet.

“Not wishing luck, then?” I asked smiling.

She held it out to me and said “You have to take him. You gave a meaning. This would bring you luck”

“Sure. How much does it cost?” I asked

I remembered some simple bargaining tips my friends taught me. I had kept 300 rupees in my right pocket and I was going to say that’s all I had. The other tips like countering whatever she said with half of it were out of the question. I am not that skilled.  

“It costs 250 rupees” she said “But you made me laugh so much. You give only 150” 

That was in the price range our driver mentioned but that wasn’t the point. I would have happily given 250 and thought I had saved 50. I paid and thanked her, wrapped it in a jacket and started walking towards the main bazaar road. 

Just before I took the turn, she came running, gave me something in a brown cover, said “More good luck”, and ran back laughing. The main street was empty. I sat on the stone bench and opened the cover. It was a small keychain with “All the Best!” written on it. 

Khamenei was still screaming but it was easy to ignore him then. I had nicer things on my mind.

[insideanairport]

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam’s Psycho-Nationalism

❍❍❍

Beyond the tremendous amount of media generated around Iran, and aside from Trump's maximum pressure policy, white America’s Muslim ban, and the Coronovirtus pandemic, Iran has been making headlines internationally more than most other nations in the Middle East in 2020. Amid one of the biggest modern pandemics, economists demand Trump to immediately lift the sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, so these countries are able to get Medical supplies to their peoples. (1) These are sanctions that some politicians describe as “economic terrorism”. While Iran is one of the major countries hit by COIVD19, the Trump administration seems to be weaponizing the Coronavirus against Iran. (2) 

Similar to every other nation-state on earth, Iran is also not bulletproof against nationalism. Yet, it is not only nationalism that Adib-Moghaddam is interested to talk about in this book, but its the type of state-generated nationalism that he is interested in. He introduces the term “Psycho-nationalism” in order to connect the Iranian identity to its complications in the global context. 

The language of the book is quite academic and neutral. The idea of Psycho-nationalism between the two periods of pre- and post- Islamic Revolution might sound very identical to an external reader not familiar with the culture and history of Iran. The external reader will most likely assume that currently there is an Iranian nationalism “continuing” from the nationalism that existed during the Shah era. However, to a person living in Iran, the comparison of nationalism in pre- and post- revolution Iran might seem like comparing apples and oranges. There is also a mild differentiation between the anti-colonialism of Mohammad Mosaddegh, with that of Ayatollah Khomeini’s. This comparison seems to be oppositional rather than a gradual continuation. 

Ayatollah Khomeini

Adib-Moghaddam emphasizes on the concept of Velayat-e-Faqih (ولایت فقیه) or Supreme Jurisprudence. Reading through the book you might find out that Velayat-e-Faqih is a big deal for the whole concept of Psycho-nationalism. It shows itself the best at the heart of the book in chapter 2 “International Hubris: Kings of Kings and Vicegerents of God”. Adib-Moghaddam has already worked on Khomeini’s intellectual and revolutionary work, on a previous book: A Critical Introduction to Khomeini.

(Page 50)

The trajectory of Iranian postcolonial Nationalism

Maybe It would have been much easier to read and understand the particular nationalism that Adib-Moghaddam is trying to elucidate regarding Iran if he would have articulated it from a subjective point. I would love to read an anti-imperialist work in this area, especially when it comes from a non-majority Persian (فارس) Iranian. Although there have been a few good works on Iranian Nationalism from different positionalities, such as Iranian-Afghanistani, Afro-Iranian, Kurdish-Iranian, transgender Iranian, etc.. However, Adib-Moghaddam’s academic task requires him to talk about the issue in a “universal” academic (objective) way. 

Part of the idea is that Iranian identity continues to exist even without the nation-state or outside of it. Regarding this, at least, by now we should have already learned from the indigenous peoples of the world, that peoples and nations exist even without the nation-state. In future, I would like to read more of his work especially if it analysis Iranian nationalism or “Iranian white supremacy complex” (’Iran = land of Aryans’, and ‘Iranian = Persian/فارس’)

The book seems to be written for the non-Iranian and maybe Western audiences. Exhibiting the notion of Psycho-nationalism before and after the Islamic revolution, Adib-Moghaddam is scratching the surface of nationality and religion from an Iranian perspective. He is also preoccupied with the “meaning of Iran” or “Iranian identity”, which is equivalently associated with the idea of Psycho-nationalism. Yet, from my personal experience of growing up in Iran until the end of my public education, I remember the absence of such questions in Iranian public discourse. It is a type of question, that is desired by numerous Persian-Iranian youths inside Iran. 

On page fifteen, he is talking about the Iranian superiority/racial purity complex common in pre-revolutionary politics, yet he seems to be a bit too pedagogical to bring in Western writers such as Freud and Hobsbawm to connect with his point.

(Page 15)

I am not sure if Adib-Moghaddam is bringing down the Islamic Republic to the level of Shah’s nationalism to disregard its revolutionary aspects, or if he is presenting post-revolution Iran as a new form of nationalist state? Hassan Taghizadeh is a good example here. Taqizadeh was the most influential person in Iran who supported the interests of the German Empire against Russia and Britain between the two World Wars. So he was part of the severe Westernization process that accrued in Iran during the time of Reza Shah. He identified Shahnameh as the source of purified national pride and consciousness. Adib-Moghaddam appoints Taghizadeh as a Psycho-nationalist.

(Iranian nomad women forced to wear Western clothes during the Westernization process under Reza Shah’a Kashf-e hijab, source chamedanmag) 

Adib-Moghaddam is also employing a series of academic vocabularies such as “Politics of Identity”, which doesn’t decenter the dominant canon. However, Adib-Moghaddam knows that talking about nationalism in a universalist (objective) way would result in further conversations about history in an analytic and nationalist way. 

What I have enjoyed the most about the book is the amazing articulations of Adib-Moghaddam regarding theories of sovereignty and what legitimizes a sovereign power. In my view, page 51-55 are the most important part of the book where it focuses on the history of Iranian Westernization during the Pahlavi era, which created a white-supremacist complex in the Iranian psyche and ultimately paved the way for the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This Iranian White Supremacist complex still carries on today in many different oppositional groups such as the monarchists, MEK, and Iranian Renaissance.  

There is another important point in this section, which I believe is central to Adib-Moghaddam’s theory of Psycho-nationalism. On page 51, he argues (in regard to the post-revolution Iran) that in order to legitimize your self-designation claim as the regional/global Islamic power, you need the international recognition through a series of events and campaigns. Current Iranian revolutionaries express solidarity with all anti-imperialist activism around the world. Adib-Moghaddam skillfully brings the example of street names in Tehran. If you live in Tehran, you might come across a few streets that are named after white anti-colonial activists such as Bobby Sands, or Rachel Aliene Corrie.

The only time the book mentions Edward Said is on page 74, where there is a vivid example of Orientalism by the liberal white English politician Thomas Babington Macaulay. Lord Macaulay was a racist academic and educator. There is a quote from Macaulay, in which he argues: “a single shelf of good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabic”.(1)

There is another clever comparison in the book where he compares two Iranian masculine icons: Rustam and Imam Hossein followed by a comparison of Giuseppe Mazzini and Garibaldi. Towards the end of the book, he mentions the right-wing and white supremacist Iranian nationalism, which is to some degree an Orientalist creation. As an example, Adib-Moghaddam uses Arthur de Gobineau and Ernest Renan. They both said at some point that Persians (Iran’s ethnic majority) are racially superior to Arabs and other Semitic people due to their Indo-European heritage. (2)

Shah’s royal family before the 1979 Revolution (Photo: AP, source: ynetnews)

Thomas Babington Macaulay (left) and Arthur de Gobineaut (right)

Bib. 1. Johnson, Jake. Economists Demand Trump Immediately Lift Iran, Cuba, Venezuela Sanctions. truthout. [Online] March 19, 2020. https://truthout.org/articles/economists-demand-trump-immediately-lift-iran-cuba-venezuela-sanctions/. 2. Conley, Julia. 'Literally Weaponizing Coronavirus': Despite One of World's Worst Outbreaks of Deadly Virus, US Hits Iran With 'Brutal' New Sanctions. Common Dreams. [Online] 3 18, 2020. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/literally-weaponizing-coronavirus-despite-one-worlds-worst-outbreaks-deadly-virus-us. 3. A minute to acknowledge the day when India was 'educated' by Macaulay. indiatoday.in. [Online] 2 2, 2018. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/a-minute-to-acknowledge-the-day-when-india-was-educated-by-macaulay-1160140-2018-02-02. 4. Renan, Ernest. What Is a Nation? and Other Political Writings. [ed.] M. F. N. Giglioli. s.l. : Columbia University Press, 2018. 9780231547147. 5. Bogen, Amir. 'In a future Iran, Israel will once again be an ally'. ynetnews. [Online] 2 12, 2019. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5462253,00.html.