On the 30th of March 1947 the President of the Kurdistan Republic, Qazi Muhammed, was hanged in public in the capital of the Republic. To pay tribute to Qazi Muhammed and the countless martyrs that followed in his path, the 30th of March has become the official Martyrs Day in Iranian Kurdistan.
To commemorate this day a ceremony was held in one of our party’s bases in Kurdistan, pictures:
It is quite interesting to hear how the Afghan official (end of the clip) is trying to pressure the border guard not to reveal that it is Iran supplying the Taliban with weapons. It is also strange that the International forces and the Afghan government have been reluctant to talk about this reality. Iran is waging a very effective proxy war against the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the U.S. is, due to its desperate effort to get headway on Iran’s nuclear program, sidelining Iran’s military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read related post.
Also watch:
Link to pictures from Newroz, Kurdish new year, celebration in the city of Mehabad.Link to article
Last week the United Kingdom launched its annual report on Human Rights. Five pages of the report (P. 113-118) are dedicated to the human rights situation in Iran. On the issue of minorities the report says:
Members of Iran’s ethnic minority groups from the Ahwaz, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Baluchistan and Turkmenistan regions also face increasing intimidation. Large numbers have been detained on charges of endangering national security. The days after the election result saw a series of mass executions in Iran’s border regions, viewed by many as a warning sign to the local populations. On 11 November, Ehsan Fattahian was executed after a ten-year sentence to be served in exile was increased to a death sentence by a higher court. We expressed concern at reports that Fattahian was tortured during detention, as well as irregularities during his trial. Many members of minority groups remain on death row accused of terrorism, treason, or acting against national security.
I came across this video showing how members of Iran’s Basij militia tortures Arab youths in Ahwaz:
This is an older video showing how Revolutionary Guard soldiers abuse a young man detained for having long hair:
The Middle East Institute hosted Carol Prunhuber, my colleague Sharif Behruz who works as the PDKI’s U.S. representative and my brother Idris Ahmedi to speak about the political, social and human rights status of Iran’s Kurds Below you can watch videos from the discussion.
VOA-Persian visited one of our bases and spoke to a couple of our female Peshmergas, Audio in Persian.
I want to introduce Hiwa Abdelzadeh, who will as of tomorrow begin to work as a Political Aide to myself. You can follow his work by visiting his blog, in which he will:
write about the coverage of Iran and Kurdistan in the United Kingdom […]. I will more specifically write about the United Kingdoms foreign policy towards Iran and I will also follow politicians, journalists and different organizations statements, articles and work that is related to Iran and Kurdistan.
You can get in touch with him by sending an email to hiwa.abdelzadeh@pdki.org
In memory of our dear friend Yousef Faghihi who was killed together with three other brave Peshmergas by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on the 21 of August last year. Today would have been Yousefs birthday. We all miss him very much.
Some pictures of Yousef:
At the same time as the Islamic Republic of Iran sends millions of dollars to extremist Arab organizations in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq the Arab population of Ahwaz in Iran suffers extreme poverty and discrimination.
The Islamic Republic of Iran portrays its self as the champion of Arab rights in all of the above-mentioned countries, but the Arab population of Iran faces discrimination and violence in all spheres of life. Every year hundreds of Arab-rights activists are imprisoned, tortured, raped and executed in Iran just because they raise their voices about the gross living conditions of Arabs in Iran.
The province of Khuzestan, which has an Arab majority, produces the majority of Iran’s oil, but none of the benefits of the oil reach the people living in the region. The Islamic Republic of Iran drains Khuzestan of its riches and systematically oppresses the Arab population, only to send its oil profits to Arab-extremists in other parts of the region.
This kind of policy is expected from the regime in Tehran, but what strikes Arabs in Iran as strange is that no Arab country or organization raises their plight or objects to Iran’s treatment of their kinsmen.
Pictures showing the living conditions of Arabs in Iran:
According to Iran’s penal code an individual that is convicted of conducting “Mohareb”, (which means waging war) against God should be executed. The regime in Iran has used this notion of “Enemy of God” to crack down on all forms of dissident since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
It began when Ayatollah Khomeini labelled the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan the “party of Satan” and declared “Jihad” holy war against the Kurdish on the 17th of August 1979. Since then thousands of Kurdish political activists have been executed after being charged with being an enemy of God.
Kurdish political activists have since 1979 been charged with being enemies of God for everything from handing out leaflets to carrying a message for the Kurdish opposition.
Article 186 of Islamic Penal Code states that when any group or organization attempts confrontation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, so long as its leadership is intact, all its members and supporters who are aware of the organization’s positions and take steps to further its objectives, are “enemies of God”.
Article 190 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Penal Code states that there are four possible punishments for “war against God or corruption on earth”: death, death by hanging; amputation of the right hand and then the left foot; or permanent internal exile. Article 191 of the Islamic Penal Code gives the judge the discretion to choose the punishment.
After the June 2009 election fraud and the demonstrations that followed the regime also targets people and groups that were loyal to the Islamic Republic with charges of Mohareb. The Associated Press has an interesting article on the subject, read:
A traditional Islamic concept about protecting the faith and its followers has become a judicial weapon for Iran’s rulers: charging opponents as so-called enemies of God with the threat of possible death sentences.
Iran’s accusations of “moharebeh” — literally “waging war” in Arabic — have opened deep rifts between ruling clerics and Islamic scholars questioning how an idea about safeguarding Muslims can be transformed into a tool to punish political protesters.
