The very idea that a mere verbal criticism of the president of this country could land the brightest youth of this country in prison and deprive them of a normal life is shocking. But it is true.According to a custom that had gradually taken roots in the Islamic republic of Iran, criticism of the leader of the country, of the highest clerical authorities, or anything that related to the realm of national security (i.e. the nuclear issue) would normally cause problems for individuals. But since Mahmud Ahmadinejad took the helms of the presidency in this country, this office took has pushed itself into the same sphere, and so any criticism of the person or his policies could earn the critic a ride to a security prison. Two days ago I had an interview with Ali Nikoonesbati, a well-known student activist in Tehran, which distressed me. Basically what he said was this: Criticism of Mahmud Ahmadinejad sent me to prison.
It is noteworthy that last year, Mahmud Ahmadinejad went to Columbia University in New York and boasted freedom of speech in Iran and invited professors and students and even the president of the United States to come to Tehran to see for themselves how free Iran really was. Some students who thought that the words of their president also applied to them decided to write a letter to him and raise some questions. Then security officials of Iran pronounce that raising such issues is contrary to national security and request the attorney general to arrest the student writers. He does, and what remains with us is that the president is even fearful of responding to the simplest questions raised by the youth of his country.
The contemplative point is that when confronted by the students’ questions about the reasons for their arrest, their interrogators and security agents of the state stress that their complaints had destroyed the image of the country! It is interesting that after hundreds of arrests, mistreatments, show-biz trials and tens of other human rights violations, some unknown soldiers and commanders of this land now talk of the country’s image. Still the fact that they acknowledge the existence of image is by itself commendable. The real question of course is who is playing with the image of this country?
How can one expect university students who practice freedom of speech and ideas on campuses and who are trained to be in positions of decision-making of this country in the future and therefore be equipped with critical thinking to remain silent when they observe that things around them in the spheres of economics, culture, public domain and others are in complete contradiction to what their text books and teachers prescribe?
Criticism of the president is simply criticism of a person who, based on the public votes that he has received (which we hope were real), is supposed to manage the cabinet and who enjoys no immunity against his errors or mistakes. I hope Mr. Ahmadinejad realizes that if it was possible 10 years ago to disseminate a single voice and message, through the huge government bureaucracy and propaganda machinery, to the public, today things have changed and because of numerous Internet channels, radios, satellite receivers, etc available to the people, such a feat is impossible.
This is the reason that the moment imprisoned students step out of prison, it becomes clear to every one why they were put behind bars: for simply criticizing the president. It becomes instantly clear why they were subjected to interrogations and what questions were asked of them. These are the events that portray the image of this country. Students, social activists and journalists are certainly not on the list of those that dent this image. The publication of the arrest of students because of their criticism of the president brings forth a caricature image of Mahmud Ahmadinejad which does not match the claims that he made at Columbia University or the image that the regime strives to present about its standing.
one must not forget that one aspect of “security” cases is the image that they carry for the groups that advance such issues. Therefore, before fake charges take to the news-media and become public, those who have had a hand in arresting the students must be weakened. Otherwise, after the severe charges are made public, repeated and are tied to the image of the actors, even the intervention of the head of the judiciary (as history demonstrates) cannot be of much help to the detainees.
How can we tell the judiciary officials of Iran that according to law juveniles can stay alive and continue to live with appropriate and suitable punishment? How must one make this request from the judiciary a public and wide-spread demand and point out that killing a juvenile who has not wholeheartedly committed an act does not solve any of the real problems facing the country?
it is easy to predict that the success of student activists in imposing their will and demands on government officials at academic institutions, such as the Teachers Training college and Zanjan University (where the students boldly took the initiative into their own hands), would result in a backlash by extreme right-wing officials who would plan an “instructive” counter-attack against the student movement.Hopefully such a reaction will not come. But from an analytic perspective, one must not negate it altogether.
This is the reason that the moment imprisoned students step out of prison, it becomes clear to every one why they were put behind bars: for simply criticizing the president. It becomes instantly clear why they were subjected to interrogations and what questions were asked of them. These are the events that portray the image of this country. Students, social activists and journalists are certainly not on the list of those that dent this image. The publication of the arrest of students because of their criticism of the president brings forth a caricature image of Mahmud Ahmadinejad which does not match the claims that he made at Columbia University or the image that the regime strives to present about its standing.
There are at least 70 young people on death row who at the time of their arrest were under the age of 16. In the past 12 months, Iranian organisations claim that 80 feminists have been arrested and 20 of them have been sentenced from three to five years in jail. A total of 54 journalists have ended up in prison, several were released without trial after serving jail time, while others remain behind bars. In the past 12 months, 34 newspapers and magazines, among them the feminist magazine Zanan, have been shut down.
