International Women's Day in Iran, 2010

The text below was written by Saba Sobhi, Iranian freedom-loving university student, and posted on the WIP site. I advise you to read it, no matter what opinion you have of March 8 in general.

"We were returning from university talking with my friends about International Women's Day in last year and in years before, we wondered what should we do this year. On our way before we reach Vali-e-Asr intersection we saw a young girl maybe a high school girl.
Three surly women wearing chador and two bearded men with guns were surrounding her like hyenas surrounding their bait. They were harassing her and the poor innocent girl was horrified; her eyes looking for help.
She was quiet at first but talking with her eyes she asked: what have I done? What have I said?
When we got closer we noticed that they have searched her back and had found some posters with the picture of a woman on it crying in protest.
These street searches are executed in any time of the day and anywhere.
On the posters one could read this poem:
I will strike on the roots of the henchman,
You miserable you are the hay I am a woman!
(Pointing to Ahmadinejad’s calling the brave youths of Iran as hays).
And then;
the Iranian women honor the universal Women’s Day.
One of the Pasdar women (Revolutionary Guards) repeated the sentences and said: what else you wanted to do? This is striking at the structure of the state. To whom are you taking these posters? Do you want to distribute them among the school girls so that they would take into the streets on Women’s Day? Don’t you think we know what you intend to do? People like you have sunk the country into chaos. Moreover this so-called Women’s Day belongs to Moharebs, to seculars, this is an Islamic country and we don’t have a Women’s Day. This is none of your business. Just study your lessons and watch your veil!
People gathered there and protested: let her go. What has she done? What’s your business with her?
But while people were shocked with the act the Pasdars threatened her with gun and made her to get into their car and drove away.
I and my friends, while choked even more with our everyday tears were very sad because we couldn’t do anything for that innocent girl.
The girl was shouting: what have I done? It is only written that I am not hay I am a woman, what’s wrong with that? But her cries and our protest didn’t help.
These scenes are seen a lot in the sad streets of the city. Of course by Women’s Day coming up, street arrests have increased too..."

Let's not take eyes off Iran

Left: photo of Neda Agha-Soltan, from Wikipedia. Right: photo of Taraneh Moussavi, from Azarmehr's blog.

Today, July 25, is global day for solidarity with the people of Iran (hattip: Azarmehr). I do not know what we can actually do to help them, but I am sure in one thing: we must not forget them, we must not let Iran step down from the news headlines. We must keep eyes on Iran, because when eyes and cameras are turned away, darkness falls and all imaginable and unimaginable outrages can be done under its cover.

The photos above show the faces of two beautiful young Iranian women who were recently murdered by the criminal Iranian regime. Neda Agha-Soltan was a 26-year-old philosophy student who went out to take part in the protests against the fake elections, although she wasn't a very political person. On June 20, she was shot by a sniper in the chest and died within minutes. She became a symbol of the protests after her death was recorded on amateur videos and uploaded in the Web by witnesses. Authorities did not allow Neda's parents to hold a proper funeral service for her and forced them to vacate their home.

Taraneh Moussavi (age unknown to me) was arrested when supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi (apparently no relation to her) gathered at a mosque to hear him speak. Then, she went missing. At one moment, she was hospitalized unconscious with injuries indicating rape. On July 16, Taraneh's burned body was found in the outskirts of Tehran.

These are just two of the many fallen freedom-loving Iranians.

Short overview of extant tyrannies

After two weeks of large-scale protests, events in Iran took a sad if predictable turn. The regime performed a crackdown against the demonstrators, arrested hundreds if not thousands of them and set up special courts to try them. Nevertheless, sporadic small-scale protests still continue, and it seems that things will never be quite the same again.
Meanwhile, in China, "The CCP distracted people’s anger under its tyrannical rule by provoking racial hatred between Han Chinese (the dominant ethnic group in China - M.M.) and Uighur (a Muslim minority - M.M.). The CCP produced another Massacre in Urumqi immediately after it incited bloody incident against Uighur in Guangdong" (quote from Shao Jiang's blog). The regime has admitted to 184 victims, mostly Han allegedly killed by the rioting Uighurs. In Western media, these events are largely neglected or reported with poorly disguised sympathy to official China - see this AP report for example.
Below, I am copying almost all of Azarmehr's July 7 post China Protests:

"More than 150 Uighur ethnic people have been killed by Chinese riot guards... The pictures of the Chinese riot guards in their uniforms wielding their batons are similar to their colleagues in the Islamic Republic, the indiscriminate shooting at the crowds, the widespread arrests and terror are all similar to what we see in Iran, but thats not where the similarities end. The Chinese government like their friends in Ahmadienjad's junta fear information. They too blocked all access to mobile phones and the internet.
In theory the atheist Chinese Communist Party should be the furthest possible from a Shiite theocracy junta but the truth is, ideology is always just an excuse and a tool with totalitarian regimes. None of them believe in the ideologies with which they justify all human rights abuses they carry out. In practice only one thing matters to them, survival in power and in this they behave the same, help each other, stand united and support each other despite their ideological differences.
And in the same way the 'useful idiots' behave the same, they care not about people, they have their own hidden agendas. Are the Muslims in UK marching in support of their Chinese brothers? Are they gathering outside the Chinese embassy? Did 'stop the war' activists care about 10% of the Chechen population killed by the Russians? Did they care about Chechnya being flattened by massive Russian bombing? No of course not. They pick and choose their issues according to their agendas which has nothing to do with human rights or people suffering."