The Latest from Iran (11 November): Revelations & Connections

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Lawyer, journalist, and human rights activist Shadi Sadr accepting the 2009 Human Rights Defenders Tulip at The Hague:

Jury of the Human Rights Tulip Award,
Your Excellency Foreign Minister of Holland
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am greatly honoured that the jury of the Human Rights Tulip Award has found me worth of receiving this year’s award and given me the opportunity to speak about the situation of women’s rights in Iran, the dire needs of people in Iran and also their expectations from the international community. You have all seen pictures and videos of people’s protests in the aftermath of this year’s presidential elections. You have seen how women, particularly young girls, have been at the forefront of all protests. They challenged the stereotype image of Iranian woman which was often imagined in veil or passive around the world. Neda, the young girl who was shot and murdered in demonstrations, quickly became a symbol for the struggles of Iranian people for freedom and democracy. To me, however, the active and determining role of women was not shaped only through images and videos. I had seen the leadership of women on the streets and the most lasting images I have in mind go back to the 9th of July this year.
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Tags: Human Rights Defenders Tulip, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Shadi Sadr, United Nations Security Council, Vahideh Mowlavi

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2030 GMT: We’re still waiting for an English translation of today’s Mir Hossein Mousavi newspaper with Jamaran, the newspaper of the Khomeini family (see 1015 GMT). The headline is Mousavi’s declaration that Iran is “vulnerable” in the current political situation: “People who entered the scene of the Revolution did not do it to suffer such difficulties. They came to secure their freedom and welfare, and if the system fails to deliver, it will lose its legitimacy for certain.”

2020 GMT: An EA reader has sent us the petition, printed in full in the comments below, to the head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to commute the death sentence of Ehsan Fatahian, a 28-year-old Kurd who is scheduled for execution on Wednesday. Fatahian was initially given a 10-year prison term for “plotting against national security” but this was changed to a death sentence by an appeal court when the charge “waging war against God” was added.

2000 GMT: Back from a break to find excellent material from readers. With university demonstrations continuing today, we’ve posted four clips from a rally at Azad University, Khomeini Shahr, outside Isfahan.

An EA reader describes, in a comment below, today’s  ceremony awarding the Human Rights Defenders Tulip to Iranian lawyer and human/women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr in The Hague.

Tomorrow (10 November) at 12:00 CET she will present a film, Women in Shrouds, and hold a Q&A about human rights in Iran. If anyone here would like to ask her a question through me, please post it here in these comments.

1645 GMT: Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat, the main reformist student and alumni organisation, has issued a statement announcing that it will withstand the oppression of “coup agents” with all of its organisational power, even as almost half of its key members are imprisoned or sought by the security forces.

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Tags: 13 Aban, Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi, Abdullah Gul, Ali Larijani, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat, Ehsan Fatahian, Etemd Mobin Development, Hemayat, Human Rights Defenders Tulip, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Iranian Labor News Agency, Jamaran, Jomhouri Eslami, Kahrizak Prison, Kalemeh, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mehdi Karroubi, Mehdi Oghadaei, Mehr News, Mohammad Khatami, Mohammad Khiabani, Mohammad Sadegh Larijani, Mohsen Sazegara, Mojtaba Shakeri, Organization of the Islamic Conference, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sadegh Larijani, Saeed Mortazavi, Shadi Sadr, Shiraz University, Telecommunication Company of Iran, Turkey