Free Republic

Secularism According to the Chambers dictionary secularism is defined as; the belief that the state, morals, education, etc. should be independent of religion; G J Holyoak’s (1817-1907) system of social ethics. Have those of us who have defended democracy for a long time but been more vocal about secularism in recent years asked ourselves how secular are we prepared to be in a future democratic Iran? Majority of the democratic governments are secular in one shape or another. From the French and the Turkish forms of republics where principles of secularism is strictly observed and defended, to those European monarchies...

LONDON - Late last night, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, an Iranian democratic activist who was tortured and jailed by Iran's religious dictatorship for four years prior to his release last year, was tipped off that the secret police were coming for him again. He slipped out of his house and tried to disappear in the streets of Tehran. He found an open Internet cafe, or perhaps a friend with network access, and composed an e-mail message that reached me through an intermediary. "I'm fine for now, but they have arrested some of our friends and the homes of our colleagues are...

I don't compare myself with ten years ago. I compare myself to what I could have and don't". So spoke Tannaz, a 20-year-old university student to a New York Times reporter touring Iran. "There's no joy here," she said, summarizing the feeling of the first generation of Iranians to grow up exclusively in the Islamic Republic. Iranians of Tannaz's generation and mine speak of their hopes "melting" as Iran's leaders replaced reform with a renewed revolutionary trance. Iran's youth represent 70 percent of Iran's population of 70 million. It is the only pro-American generation in the Middle East. And, it...

Kerry's main Iranian fund raiser sues the Movement " To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men. The human race has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised against injustice, ignorance and lust, the inquisition yet would serve the law, and guillotines decide our least disputes. The few who dare, must speak and speak again, to right the wrongs of many..." - ( Ella Wheeler Wilcox ) The primary Iranian supporter of Senator John Kerry and a subject of many controversies, Hassan Nemazee, has sued the "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran...

TEHRAN, Iran -- A university professor has decided not to appeal a reinstated death sentence, effectively challenging Iran's hard-line judges to execute him for criticizing clerical rule, his lawyer said Tuesday. The original sentence handed down to Hashem Aghajari in 2002 provoked massive student demonstrations and street battles with hard-line vigilantes. The uproar highlighted the power struggle between reformists and conservatives in Iran. The Supreme Court overturned the death penalty last year. But the original court in the western province of Hamedan province has reinstated it, a provincial judicial official disclosed Monday. "Professor Aghajari told me Monday evening that his...

Iranian Judiciary Allows Seven Jailed Dissidents to go on Leave May 02, 2004 Agence France Presse afp.com TEHRAN -- Iranian hardline judiciary authorities in a rare move have allowed seven prominent dissidents jailed for speaking out against the regime and students jailed during unrest in 1999 to go on leave, the Iranian daily Shargh reported on Sunday. According to the paper, Akbar Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 after he alleged top regime officials were behind a spate of grisly serial murders of dissidents, was given seven days of leave starting Saturday. Ahmad Batebi, Nasser Zarafshan and Akbar Mohammadi were...

Summary of Iran Stories in Today's Broadcasts Judiciary Arrests Students and Political Activists •After the New Year holidays, the wave of summons, arrests and convictions of student and political activists continued. The Hamedan Islamic revolutionary court sentenced Hamedan University's physics student Mohammad Majdzadeh-Qaemi to three years in jail for his role in last June's pro-democracy demonstrations. The Urumieh revolutionary court summoned Hadi Soudbar, member of the central council of Urumieh university's Islamic student council. Next week, the Tabriz Islamic revolutionary court will try independent journalist Ensafali Hedayat, who was arrested three months ago, a day after he returned from Berlin...

Kidnapped, jailed, beaten ... over a bloodied T-shirt Sunday April 4, 2004 The Observer Repression goes on while Iran seeks friendship with the West. Dan De Luce reports from Tehran His handsome face was seen around the world. The photograph, used on the front of the Economist magazine, showed Ahmad Batebi, his hands holding the bloodstained T-shirt of a fellow student beaten by paramilitaries. His look of indignation captured the mood of young Iranians demonstrating for democracy in the summer of 1999. Just holding that shirt earned Batebi a 15-year prison sentence for endangering national security, served in the notorious...

Regime deploys thousands of forces in the streets SMCCDI (information Service) Mar 16, 2004 The Islamic regime has deployed, at this time 18:00 Local time, thousands of its forces in the streets and avenues of main Iranian cities in order to avoid any popular riot from taking place at the occasion of the banned "Tchahr Shanbe Soori" (Fire Fiest). Special forces of the Pasdaran brigades, Bassij force, Law Enforcement Forces, Anti-Riot units and even Islamic brigades are in a wait mode watching, for right now, the crowd which is becoming bigger and bigger. Traffic jams in main cities, such as,...

The Last Public Call to European Union's leaders SMCCDI (Public Statement) Mar 8, 2004 Mr. Blair, Mr. Chirac, Mr. Schroeder, Mr. Berlusconi and Mr.Klestil, Twenty-Five years of oppression, mass killing, barbarism, and mismanagement of our country by the Islamic republic and its indoctrinated technocrats have now brought Iran to the edge of collapse and civil war. As an increasing number of young Iranians are starting to shift towards armed struggle, the masses tired of 7 years of empty promises of reforms from within the theocratic system boycotted the sham elections of Feb. 20th in the greatest yet act of Civil...

Protest Wave Rocks More Provincial Cities SMCCDI (Information Service) Feb 25, 2004 The increasing wave of protest rocked more of Iran's provincial cities, such as Ardel, Kiar and Farsan, where hundreds of demonstrators were came attacked by the Islamic regime forces after they came in the streets. Plastic bullets, Tear Gas and clubs were used against peaceful demonstrators who were shouted slogans against the regime and its leaders and have resulted in tens of injured and arrested among the demonstrators. The brutal attacks resulted also in the popular anger and the protesting crowd took against several public buildings and security...

Protest Actions Spread to Several Cities SMCCDI (Information Service) Feb 21, 2004 Protest demonstrations spread to several Iranian cities and erupted in various parts of Tehran today. Sporadic demonstrations reportedly rocked Abadan, Marivan, Arak, Eshfahan, Malekan and Hamadan. Anti-regime demonstrations in Izeh turned deadly with, apparently, loss of life. The regime's reaction to the demonstrators expressing their legal right to protest yesterday's sham election has been predictably brutal. In every instance, the regime's security forces have conducted themselves as though they are foreign oppressors intent upon occupying Iran. Tehran has been placed under strict martial law with regime security forces...

Deadly Clashes Rock Southern Iran SMCCDI (Information Service) Feb 21, 2004 Deadly clashes rocked, today, Izeh located in southern Iran, as the regime's security forces entered in action in order to smash the local popular rally against the evident fraud in the sham elections. Special heliported troops were sent from Ahwaz to back the local Bassij force which was unable to block the protesters from occupying several official buildings. Noise of heavy shoutings were heard in several areas as especially fire was open from sky against the demonstrators. Several demonstrators, including Abbas Moossavi a local banned candidate who had contested...

Angry Militiamen Take on Drivers SMCCDI (Information Service) Feb 20, 2004 Angry militiamen have been reported as taking on drivers who are passing in the streets of the Iranian capital and are showing signs of joy following the massive boycott of the sham elections. Windshields of several cars have been broken in the Madar (former Mohseni) and in Shahrak Gharb as the drivers were using their horn and their Windshield whippers covered with gloves to express their hapiness and to say "goodbye" to the Islamic regime. Several drivers were thrown out of their cars and beaten up in the early...

The Student Uprising - The clerics crack down and student protest explodes A student protestor on the streets of Tehran in July 1999, following a police attack against university students. Student demonstrations against the clerical regime laid the groundwork for the popular opposition movement. July 9, 1999, marked a turning point in the evolution of Iran's opposition movement. That evening the clerical regime dispatched its police forces to attack the dormitories of Tehran University, which was becoming the center of agitation for reform. By morning three students were dead, and many more had been beaten and arrested. The regime's attack,...

INTERVIEW WITH THE REPORTER: (Forbidden Iran) FRONTLINE/World reporter Jane Kokan enters Iran on a group bus tour. Reporter Jane Kokan, a Canadian journalist based in England, is an independent news and documentary director, producer, reporter and cameraperson. She works in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan and Africa for a variety of international broadcasters. She spoke by telephone with FRONTLINE/World editor Sara Miles about working undercover in Iran. You have a background in international news, but you were in northern England working on an observational police series for BBC One right before you went to Iran. What drew you...

The regime's plainclothes men and security agents have arrested in several cities, such as in Tehran and Esfahan, Iranians who angered by the situation had shouted publicly unprecedented slogans considered almost as a blasphemy by the ruling theocracy. These unprecedented slogans were nothing else than "Long Live Israel!" and "Long Live America!" shouted during tens of popular Blood collect gatherings by Iranians welcoming the Israeli and American support of the quake's victims. The popular anger has been boosted as the Islamic regime has banned any Israeli support of the quake's victims by rejecting this country's offer of aid. Many Iranians...

Ahmad Batebi, a student activist, ran so afoul of the government that he received a death sentence in 1997. It was never carried out, but he languished in jail until on one recent day he was given the luxury of a 20-day leave. Things went well until, two days before he was to return to the Evin Prison to serve out his 15-year sentence, he was rearrested in November. He had met that day with the United Nations human rights envoy, Ambeyi Ligabo. Advertisement A few days later, Mr. Batebi "had a weak voice and said that he could not...

As the seventh legislative elections of the Islamic Republic approach, it appears that the leaders of the reformist bloc express certainty that the conservative-controlled monitoring mechanisms would reject most of the reformist candidates and this despite the majority of the reformist bloc shows more interest in taking an active part in the elections, scheduled for next February. The announcement by the Office for the Consolidation of Unity (OCU), Iranian students largest organisation calling for changes in the present system that it would not support the reformists and has withdrawn from the front that backs the lamed President Mohammad Khatami in...

Hundreds of Iranian students celebrated the national Student Day on Sunday, calling for freedom of speech and the release of political prisoners. Because the authorities had refused authorisation to organise demonstrations outside the universities and even in the open campuses, the students held their meetings inside auditoriums, preventing basiji students, the islamist vigilante who are on the payroll of the ruling conservatives from disturbing them, as they had done previously with Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace laureate for 2003. The annual Student Day marks the death of three students during a protest at Tehran University against former U.S. President...