Iran Feature: Who Will See the Invisible Iranians? (Boroumand)

Nahal SahabiTo those of us who are familiar with repressive regimes, the equation is simple. Every time a dissident's mother or lawyer is arrested, scores of others' mothers and lawyers are deterred and will remain silent or refuse to follow-up on political cases. We are still getting new names of young people who were killed in 2009, but whose parents had not dared to publicize the news. International support and media interest provide a safe space for people who resist and encourages others to join them. Nothing is as demobilizing for those who fight with tyranny as being invisible or forgotten. What determines political developments in a closed country does not necessarily happen in front of the cameras with tanks rolling over protesters. The most important struggle is a long term fight to be heard and the psychological warfare between the persecuted and the persecutors. The latter's strength lies in their ability to convince those they persecute that the world doesn't hear them and that they are irrelevant.

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Iran Video: An Interview with Roya Boroumand about Activism

Roya Boroumand is the co-founder and executive director of the Boroumand Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights in Iran, as well as a former consultant with the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. In this two-part video, she talks to Tavaana about activism and the experience over three decades of campaigns for rights in Iran:

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The Latest from Iran (25 December): Awaiting a Hanging

2250 GMT: All-is-Well Alert (Overseas Edition). Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has assured a conference, "All Iranians who live outside of the country are not in the opposition. The number of Iranian expatriates who are opponents of the system is limited."

Moslehi said, however, that there is still work to be done: "Foreign intelligence agencies have provided facilities and equipment to [the opponents] to help them make their voices widely heard."

2240 GMT: Execution Watch. Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani has commented on the imminent hanging of Kurdish prisoner Habibollah Latifi: "Even illicit Arabs stopped war and killing in [the religious month of] Moharram."

2225 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. The Deputy Minister of Commerce, Mohammad-Hossein Nekoui-Mehr, has said that the Government has taken special measures for decreasing food prices amidst subsidy cuts.

Nekoui-Mehr added that about 7,000 products are currently being monitored by the Ministry to stop any increase in the prices of general commodities.

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The Latest from Iran (28 September): Rumbling On

2010 GMT: Rumour of Day. We have listened for days as chatter spread about the killings last week of two Tehran doctors,  Abdolreza Sudbakhsh and Gholamreza Sarabi, by gunmen on motorcycles. 

Iran officials said Dr. Sarabi was killed in revenge over a botched medical case while there were no comments about the case of Dr. Sudbakhsh.

Now Rah-e-Sabz has offered a political link in the case of Dr. Sudbakhsh, who was one of the physicians responsible for inmate health at the Kahrizak detention center, where post-election protesters were abused and killed.

The website claimed that Dr. Sudbakhsh had been ordered by Iranian security officials to give false diagnoses regarding Kahrizak detainees. For example, Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of the campaign manager of conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, was initially said to have died from meningitis. Later it was established --- and confirmed in a parliamentary report --- that he died from beatings at Kahrizak.

We're still cautious but the story has now spread to the pages of The New York Times.

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