The U.S. Pressures Iran on Human Rights
Huffington Post, Posted May 20, 2011- Many may be critical of America’s human rights policies, particularly its double standards when it comes to the records of its allies in the Middle East and beyond, not to mention in Bahrain. But human rights activists and organizations have welcomed the Obama administration’s presence at the Human Rights Council in Geneva since 2009. Like it or not, “without a strong U.S. counterweight, non-democratic states such as Cuba, Algeria, China and Pakistan joined forces to blunt the Council’s work and bully other states.”
The UN will appoint a special rapporteur for Iran in the weeks to come.
In Geneva, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the Council is a superstar. She is the face of U.S. human rights in town, a master of building coalitions and cooperation with different partners to make things happen. In an interview with me in Geneva, she responded to questions about the urgency and significance of establishing a monitoring mechanism for Iran, the role of politics in U.S. human rights policy, the perception of U.S. hypocrisy towards its friends and foes, her opinion about the Iranian officials’ allegations on the politicization of UN human rights mechanisms, and finally, why the U.S. is going aggressively after Iran’s human rights record. Excerpts from the interview follow: Read more
May 20, 2011 Leave a Comment
Reading the Shah, and Ayatollahs in Tehran and What the U.S. Should Learn from the History
Huffington Post- What has been the root of the U.S’. inability to develop a sustainable policy or strategy on Iran for the last 30 years? What was not learnt from the Shah’s fall in 1979 and the nature of the revolutionaries who hijacked a pro-democracy freedom movement? And what are the parallels between the Shah’s regime and the current Islamic government in Tehran?
These are the types of questions that have been raised in my extensive interview with Dr. Abbas Milani, author of the recent book, The Shah, and the Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University in California.
While the Iranian government continues to curb social and political freedom in Iran, particularly after the post-presidential unrests which resulted in killing of dozens and arresting thousands of people, the author of a recent book, The Shah, provides a comprehensive image of parallels that contributed to the fall of the Shah and is now being perpetuated by the Islamists in Tehran.
January 24, 2011 Leave a Comment
Q&A: “There Is No War on Terrorism”
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Nov 10, 2010 (IPS) - “The U.S. intentionally confuses al Qaeda with other groups around the world fighting for their independence or liberation, but it’s [just] a convenient way to whip up support and get people very afraid,” says author and journalist and Reese Erlich.
“There is no war on terrorism,” he tells IPS.
Based on original research and firsthand interviews, Erlich’s new book “Conversations with Terrorists” draws fresh portraits of six controversial leaders: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Hamas top leader Khaled Meshal, Israeli politician Geula Cohen, Iranian Revolutionary Guard founder Mohsen Sazargara, Hezbollah spiritual advisor Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fadlallah, and former Afghan Radio and Television Ministry head Malamo Nazamy. Read more
November 10, 2010 72 Comments
Green Light, an Interview With Faezeh Hashemi
FOREIGN POLICY, Sep 8, 2010- Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, daughter of Iran’s powerful Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a prominent advocate of the Green Movement, speaks to Foreign Policy about the future of Iran’s opposition and her (low) opinion of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, 48, was one of Iran’s leading members of parliament from 1992 to 1996 and the founder and editor of Zan, Iran’s first-ever daily women’s newspaper. She is also the daughter of Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country’s most influential men and strongest opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During the widespread protests that followed Iran’s contested presidential election last year, Hashemi was a vocal supporter of the Green Movement and was briefly imprisoned by the Iranian government for her activism. She spoke to Omid Memarian about how Iran has changed since that election and the future of the Green Movement. Read more
September 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
Q&A: Mousavi’s Revelations Would Destroy the Govt’s Legitimacy
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Aug 24, 2010 (IPS) - Responding to pro-government critics, Iran’s defiant opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has said several times in recent months that he would reveal “untold secrets” from his tenure.
Mousavi served as prime minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, until constitutional changes abolished the post. He was a leading opposition candidate in Iran’s contested presidential elections last year.
Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first president after the Islamic Revolution, who now lives in France, told IPS that he believes Mousavi’s life is danger. “Many people who have had access to the regime’s secrets or who have tried to reveal them have been murdered,” he said.
Last month, Banisadr published what he says is Mousavi’s 1988 letter of resignation on his website, Enghelab-e Eslami. The letter was addressed to then-President Seyed Ali Khamenei, now Iran’s Supreme Leader. Neither Mousavi nor any of the Iranian government authorities, including the Office of the Supreme Leader, has reacted to the letter’s contents. Read more
August 24, 2010 14 Comments
Q&A: “The Government Took My Sister Hostage”
BERKELEY, California, Dec 31 (IPS) - The Iranian government has intensified its pressure on political and human rights activists since the harsh crackdown on protesters on the holy day of Ashura, arresting major political figures and even their family members, including Noushin Ebadi, the sister of Noble Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Even the Shah, before the 1979 Revolution, was hesitant to use violence against demonstrators during the religious ceremonies on Ashura, the day that the grandson of the seventh-century Prophet Muhammad and the third Imam of Shiite Muslims was killed. Read more
December 29, 2009 Leave a Comment
Q and A: Omid Memarian on Human Rights
insideIran.org- Omid Memarian, an Iranian journalist, has helped Human Rights Watch document the post-election violence in Iran. In an interview with insideIRAN.org. Memarian shared his thoughts on the current situation of human rights in Iran and the international community’s responsibility to shed light on the matter.
Q: Iran’s lack of cooperation in the nuclear negotiations, coupled with the increasing human rights violations in Iran, are placing more pressure on the Obama administration to speak out against the torture and repression in Iran. What is your view? Do you believe that if President Obama publicly criticizes Iran this would provide the leadership with evidence that the United States is interfering in Iran’s internal affairs?
A: I agree that the Obama administration is in a tricky position. On one side, Iran’s nuclear program is a matter of international security and aims to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or moving toward any program that is easily convertible to a nuclear weapons program. This seems urgent in order to avert an arms race in the Middle East. Read more
December 2, 2009 1 Comment
Q&A: Notes From Iran’s Underground Music Scene
BERKELEY, California, Jun 4 (IPS) - As Iran’s conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fights for his political future against two reformist challengers in the June elections, Arash Sobhani, a lead figure in the country’s underground music scene, says it’s a very tough time to be an artist in Iran.
“At the beginning of his [Ahmadinejad’s] first term [in 2005] there were still a few notable musicians who thought they should stay and try to work inside Iran and try to make things better little by little, like they had done for the past 26 years, but Ahmadinejad proved them wrong,” Sobhani told IPS.
Sobhani is the lead singer and songwriter of Kiosk, a band that is widely popular among Iranians inside and outside of the country. With its Mark Knopfler musical style and politically sharp and ironic lyrics, Kiosk is considered one of the most influential underground rock bands to emerge since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Read more
June 6, 2009 3 Comments
IREX VP: “Our Program Was Completely Consistent With Iran’s National Interest”
Huffington Post- “IREX never imagined that anyone could construe our program in Iran to be inconsistent with any interest of the Iranian government,” said Paige Alexander Vice President of the U.S.-based non-profit regarding the arrest and imprisonment of the organization’s employee, Silva Haratonian, last year in Iran.
Silva Harotonian, an Iranian citizen of Armenian descent, held a modest position with the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), which focuses on international education, academic research, professional training and technical assistance.
Her work and life were interrupted on June 26, 2008 when she was detained by Iranian authorities and charged with participating in an effort to overthrow the Iranian government through a ”velvet revolution.” On January 19, 2009, she was sentenced to three years in jail. Read more
May 31, 2009 3 Comments
Q&A: Islamophobia Alive and Well in the U.S.
BERKELEY, California, Apr 24 (IPS) - In an Apr. 6 address to the Turkish Parliament on the final day of his European trip, President Barack Obama praised Muslim Americans for “enriching the United States”.
However, according to Dr. Munir Jiwa, director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union of the University of California, Berkeley, “virulent Islamophobia” persists across the country.
Jiwa, who is also a professor of Islamic Studies, told IPS that among those who did not vote for Obama last November, there are even more anti-Muslims. “They think we have voted in someone who is, as they say, a ‘closet Muslim’, and they think that sometime, he will come out of the closet,” he said. Read more
April 24, 2009 1 Comment
My Interview With Roxana Saberi’s Lawyer: “She Was Shocked and Distraught”
HuffPost-After the announcement of her eight-year prison sentence, American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi’s attorney, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, told in a telephone interview from Tehran that Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Laureate will join the legal team of the case. Khorramshahi also said that he will appeal the sentence within the next 20 days. Roxana Saberi’s attorney believes that in order to prove such a serious charge, the case must clearly show intent in the crime, and his client’s case clearly lacks evidence of intent.
At what stage is your client’s case?
Both Ms. Saberi and myself have objected to the verdict. We have the right to request an appeal. We have 20 days in which to offer our reasoning for refuting the charges made against Ms. Saberi. After we have submitted our appeal, the case can be reviewed by a higher court. We are waiting to see what happens. Read more
April 22, 2009 1 Comment
Q&A: U.S.-Iran Détente Unsettles Persian Gulf States
BERKELEY, California, Mar 17 (IPS) - Dr. Kazem Jalali, an influential conservative member of Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, and rapporteur of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, sees possibilities for a thaw with Washington, but believes that many Arab states in the Gulf “see their interests in keeping the current state of continual conflict among the west, the U.S., and the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
In recent years, Tehran has experienced growing tensions with its Arab neighbours, particularly over the development of its nuclear programme. The latest diplomatic crisis came after former Majlis speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nori referred in a speech to Bahrain as a former province of Iran. His remarks caused a firestorm of angry protests from numerous Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and prompted Morocco to sever relations with Iran - although Bahrain itself has remained friendly. Read more
March 17, 2009 1 Comment
Robert Baer: “U.S. and Iran Share an Equal Monopoly on Violence”
BERKELEY, California, Jan 23 (IPS) - “Obama is going to have continuous pressure from Israel to attack Iran and, in some way, their nuclear facilities, and this is going to be tied up with Gaza and Lebanon,” according to Robert Baer, a former top Central Intelligence Agency operative and the author of “The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.”
In an interview with IPS, Baer discussed the regional implications of the Gaza conflict and his take on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hamas and Hezbollah, three major groups in the Middle East which have been called terrorist organisations. Read more
January 23, 2009 2 Comments
William Beeman: “No politician ever lost a vote by attacking Iran”
(My interview with William Beeman)-Barack Obama’s views on the Middle East are not very different from those of the Bush administration, according to Professor William Beeman, the Chair of Anthropology and specialist in Middle East Studies at the University of Minnesota, in an interview with Rooz.
However, Barack Obama’s promise of change during the presidential campaign has led many to expect his Middle East foreign policy approach to differ from that of President Bush. Read more
January 22, 2009 1 Comment
Shirin Ebadi:”I Feared I Could Be Killed in the Mayhem”
(My interviews Iranian Nobel Prize Laureate SHIRIN EBADI)- UNITED NATIONS, Jan 7 (IPS) - A few days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Iranian authorities to take immediate measures to ensure the safety of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, she told IPS in a telephone interview from Tehran that police stood by and watched as her house was attacked by a mob.
On Jan. 3, the U.N. chief expressed great concern a, accusing her of supporting the U.S. and Israel — which the government considers its two worst enemies. Read more
January 15, 2009 5 Comments