Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Behind

Given modern distractions, the need to understand Islam better has never been more urgent. Through this forum we can share ideas and hopefully promote the true spirit of Islam which calls for peace, justice, tolerance, inclusiveness and diversity.
ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Behind

#1

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed May 18, 2011 5:14 pm

Dominic Lawson: An 'eye for an eye' is proper justice

Ameneh Bahrami has been waiting a long time for the justice she seeks. In 2004, while she was returning home from work, a man named Majid Movahedi threw a bucketful of acid into her face, leaving her blinded and also horribly disfigured. Bahrami had repeatedly turned down Movahedi's proposals of marriage, which included promises to kill her unless she consented; but instead of carrying out that threat, Movahedi decided that if he couldn't have her, then he would make sure that no other man would desire her.


The Iranian courts determined on a fine and prison sentence for Movahedi, but his victim insisted that she was entitled by law to qisas (retribution) because, in her words, "only this way will he understand my pain". In 2008 she won her case, after which Movahedi's lawyers launched a number of appeals, all of which were unsuccessful.

Thus it was decided that on 14 May 2011 – that is, last Saturday – Bahrami's wish would be carried out. Movahedi was to be taken to Tehran's Judiciary Hospital and there, under full anaesthetic, have a few drops of acid put into each of his eyes, rendering him blind.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 85055.html#

porus
Posts: 3594
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2001 5:01 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#2

Unread post by porus » Wed May 18, 2011 5:44 pm

The article by Dominic Lawson is lucidly argued and presents a case where societies that do not have current Western notions of justice may well be forgiven if they applied medieval punishments of 'eye for an eye'. In any case, qisas is in accordance with Shariat.

I take issue with the subject title that you have given to your post. Extremist Wahhabis have as their article of faith indiscriminate mass murder of Muslims who do not share their take on Islam. That is not an article of faith for the Shia. While I concede there may be extremist Shia among Iranians, I would not lump all Iranian Shia with extremist Wahhabis.

By the way, contrary to the impression from the snippet that GM has posted, Iranian authorities have intervened so that the punishment is not carried out. Let us wait and see what happens next.

anajmi
Posts: 13506
Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2001 5:01 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#3

Unread post by anajmi » Wed May 18, 2011 5:55 pm

Extremist Wahhabis have as their article of faith indiscriminate mass murder of Muslims who do not share their take on Islam.
That is incorrect. Even a person who considers idol worshipping shias as idol worshippers is deemed an extremist wahhabi even if he is against murdering or even inflicting harm on an innocent person whether muslim or not. An extremist wahhabi is one who doesn't agree to the secular version of Islam where everything goes, sunnah and shariat be damned!!

By the way, I agree with the justice provided to the woman in the above article and believe the guy deserves it.

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#4

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed May 18, 2011 6:57 pm

Bro porus,

In no way do I condone the wahabi system of justice, they are barbaric but there is a strong perception that everything is OK in islamic countries outside saudi arabia and this article is just to show that the wahabi bashers too are not clean as percieved. Its true that the iranian govt has intervened but that is more due to the global outburst.

porus
Posts: 3594
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2001 5:01 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#5

Unread post by porus » Wed May 18, 2011 7:37 pm

ghulam muhammed wrote:Bro porus,

...there is a strong perception that everything is OK in islamic countries outside saudi arabia..
Really, brother GM? I think the impression is that things are not OK in most Islamic countries with people stirring everywhere from Magharib to Syria; Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in one hell of a mess etc.

labbaikyaHussain
Posts: 351
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:22 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#6

Unread post by labbaikyaHussain » Thu May 19, 2011 3:05 am

this incident have nothing to do with shia sunni or wahabi....its just about a psyco who was a looser.

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#7

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu May 19, 2011 5:26 pm

porus wrote:Really, brother GM? I think the impression is that things are not OK in most Islamic countries with people stirring everywhere from Magharib to Syria; Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in one hell of a mess etc.
Bro porus,

The subject matter is the interpretation of sharia law by various factions of the islamic world and yes there is unrest in other parts of the islamic world but that unrest is more political whereas here we are talking about the manner in which sharia laws are interpretated by various schools of thought and people always blame the wahabis for that whereas their rivals, the shias are projected as holier then thou.

sixfeetunder
Posts: 433
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:48 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#8

Unread post by sixfeetunder » Sun May 22, 2011 4:05 am

If this was to happen In Saudi Arabia, in most probability, the man would have been acquitted and the woman would have been blamed for not covering her face with Niqab!

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#9

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:37 pm

Necklace ban for men as Tehran's 'moral police' enforce dress code. More than 70,000 trained forces sent out to streets as part of effort to combat 'western cultural invasion'

Iranian men have been banned from wearing necklaces in the latest crackdown by the Islamic regime on "un-Islamic" clothing and haircuts.

Thousands of special forces have been deployed in Tehran's streets, participating in the regime's "moral security plan" in which loose-fitting headscarves, tight overcoats and shortened trousers that expose skin will not be tolerated for women, while men are warned against glamorous hairstyles and wearing a necklace.

The new plan comes shortly after the Iranian parliament proposed a bill to criminalise dog ownership, on the grounds that it "poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the west".

The Irna state news agency said the trend was aimed at combating "the western cultural invasion" with help from more than 70,000 trained forces, known as "moral police", who are sent out to the streets in the capital and other cities.

With the summer heat sweeping across the country, many people, especially the young, push the boundaries and run the risk of being fined, or even arrested, for wearing "bad hijab" clothing.

Women in particular are under more pressure because of the restriction on them to cover themselves from head to toe. Men are allowed to wear short-sleeved shirts, but not shorts.

"The enforcement of the moral security plan was requested by the nation and it will be continued until people's concerns are properly addressed," said Ahmadreza Radan, the deputy commander of the Iranian police.

Iran's moral police usually function under a body whose head is appointed directly by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a live television programme last year, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he did not approve of the crackdown.

Speaking by phone, a Tehran resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "It's not only about clamping down on clothing, but they are spreading panic and fear by sending out this much of police into the streets under the name of this plan, to control the society. It's unbelievable to see a regime that is not only concerned about its own survival but it goes into your personal life and interferes in that."

Under Islamic customs, dogs are deemed to be "unclean". Iranians, in general, avoid keeping them at home, but still a minority, especially in north Tehran's upper-class districts, enjoy keeping pets. Last year Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a prominent hardline cleric, issued a fatwa against keeping dogs and said the trend must stop.

Last summer authorities in Tehran also released a list of approved hairstyles in an attempt to offer Islamic substitutes to "decadent" western cuts, such as the ponytail and the mullet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... y-link-box

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#10

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:23 pm

Iranian sentenced to blinding for acid attack pardoned

An Iranian man who was ordered to be blinded for carrying out an acid attack on a woman has been pardoned by his victim, state television has said.

The Isna news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying: "Today in hospital the blinding of Majid Movahedi was to have been carried out in the presence of an eye specialist and judiciary representative, when Ameneh pardoned him."

Isna quoted Ms Bahrami as saying: "I struggled for seven years with this verdict to prove to people that the person who hurls acid should be punished through 'qisas', but today I pardoned him because it was my right.

"I did it for my country, since all other countries were looking to see what we would do."

Ms Bahrami was quoted on Iranian TV as saying: "I never wanted to have revenge on him. I just wanted the sentence to be issued for retribution. But I would not have carried it out. I had no intention of taking his eyes from him."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle- ... ontinues_1

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#11

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:06 pm

This brutality is not Islam

The self-styled Islamic Republic of Iran has sentenced to death by hanging a Christian pastor, born to Muslim parents, for apostasy. At the time of writing, Youcef Nadarkhani, head of a network of Christian house churches in Iran, is on death row for refusing to recant and convert back to Islam.

The irony is that I have yet to come across an ordinary Muslim who agrees that a fellow believer who loses, changes or abandons his or her faith should be hanged. Yet frustratingly few Muslims are willing to speak out against such medieval barbarism. We mumble excuses, avert our eyes.

The historical fact is that the prophet Muhammad never had anyone executed for apostasy alone. In one well-documented case, when a Bedouin man disowned his decision to convert to Islam and left the city of Medina, the prophet took no action against him, remarking only that, "Medina is like a pair of bellows: it expels its impurities and brightens and clears its good".

Nor does the Qur'an say that a Muslim who apostasises be given any penalty. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by Islam's holy book in the famous verse: "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256). Apostasy is deemed a sin, but the Qur'an repeatedly refers to punishment in the next world, not this one. Take the 137th verse of chapter 4: "Those who believe then disbelieve, again believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, God will never forgive them nor guide them to the Way" (4:137). This verse, which explicitly allows for disbelief, followed by belief, followed once again by disbelief, suggests any punishment is for God to deliver – not judges in Iran, Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... -not-islam

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#12

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:20 pm

Iranian actress punished by the government for making a controversial film

What’s the worst thing that can happen to you, if you make a movie that “some people” do not like? Well in Iran, you’ll get beaten, sentenced to death, or to lashes.

One Iranian court sentenced an Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr to 90 lashes, because of her role in a new Australian-made film portraying social alienation, drug use and political oppression in Iran.

And let me tell you this: these iranian laws and the reaction from other people to it, also spread to other muslim countries, as a result of which “all muslim, and middle east countries” are called barbaric, and other harsh words.

http://bzfilm.com/articles-notes/irania ... sial-film/

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#13

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:43 pm

Women, tie-sellers targeted in Iran clothing crackdown

TEHRAN: Female booth attendants at an international trade fair and shops selling men’s ties have become targets in a strict crackdown by Tehran police on clothing deemed un-Islamic, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

Women “not properly observing the hijab,” or the Islamic headscarf, as they staffed stands at an international food exhibition, prompted police to shut down 80 of the booths, Iranian deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan was quoted as saying in the Mardomsalari newspaper.

His boss, police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moqadam, said the female attendants had been warned, “but they did not take it seriously — that is why we shut them (the booths) down.” It was not known if the women were fined or arrested, as often happens for such offences, nor was it known if any foreigners were among them. The fair, which wrapped up on Wednesday, hosted exhibitions by companies from several countries, including Austria, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.

Full report at:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 012_pg14_6

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#14

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:20 pm

Iran wages war on campus women

IRAN'S woeful deception and hypocrisy on women's human rights is particularly prominent this week while Tehran hosts the 16th Non-Aligned Movement summit to "eliminate international problems", and assumes the NAM's presidency for the next three years.

The summit follows the recent announcement of a ban on female students in Iranian universities.

In the coming academic year, 36 universities will implement exclusion of women from 77 fields of study, including chemistry, computer science, nuclear physics, engineering, business management, education and English. Gholamrez Rashed, the head of the University of Petroleum Technology, declared: "We do not need female students at all."

Science Minister Kamran Daneshjoo claimed that sexual segregation was of the utmost priority in order to uphold moral standards and effect greater balance in gender enrolment. About 70 per cent of science graduates are female.

Full report at:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6459277514

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#15

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:13 pm

Iranian Lawmakers Seek to Lower Age of Marriage for Girls From 13 to 9

As Iranian lawmakers now seek to lower the legal age of marriage for girls to nine-years-old, the number of Iranian brides already under 10 years of age is sharply rising.

The Iranian decision to allow nine-year-old girls the legal opportunity to be married to fully grown men was announced by Mohammad Ali Isfenani, chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee.

Isfenani called Iran's current civil legislation, which sets the minimum legal age of marriage for girls at 13-years-old, "un-Islamic and illegal," saying, "We must regard nine as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married. To do otherwise would be to contradict and challenge Islamic Sharia law."

Isenfani's clarion call for prepubescent marriage comes at the same moment a new report from the Union for the Protection of Children's Rights (UPCR) found 75 Iranian girls less than 10-years-old were forced to marry in the past two months, part of a sharp rise in the overall number of Iranian child brides under the age of 10.

According to UPCR, of the 342,000 Iranian marriages among girls under 18-years-old registered in 2010, at least 713 marriages involved girls under 10-years-old, more than twice as many as were registered in the prior three years. Moreover, of these underage marriages, 42,000 involved girls between the ages of 10 to 14.

The Iranian appetite for child brides led Farshid Yezdani, an activist with UPCR, to note, "It is a worrying trend to see and something that we are all working hard to end. The best way to end this kind of practice is to give information on how to better one's life without infringing on a child's ability to have a childhood."

Tragically, a lost childhood is not just the providence of Iranian girls but rather for a distressingly large and ever-expanding number of little girls worldwide. To that end, there are now more than 50 million child brides, a number that is growing by 10 million each year and which is expected to reach 100 million young victims over the next decade.

These unfortunate children are married off for a bevy of cultural and religious reasons, ranging from ensuring familial alliances to economic necessities, such as settling debts or overcoming natural disasters to ensure a family's survival.

In that latter example, drought-stricken Africa has witnessed the emergence of so-called "drought brides" who are being sold for as little as $170. As one NGO worker explained, "Some households have 10 children and feeding those children is really hard," so marrying off one young girl ensures "that the rest of the family does not die from lack of food."

While the reasons behind these human transactions may vary, the one commonality is that the younger the girl, the better the deal. Specifically, it is important that these girls be sold off at a young enough age to better ensure their virginity, thus increasing their economic value and protecting the honor of their families.

Not surprisingly, once handed-off, these child brides are then consigned to a terrifyingly nasty, brutish and short-lived existence at the hands of men who ostensibly should be looking out for their well-being and not using them as sexual toys for their own perverse enjoyment.

For starters, these young brides rarely continue their education, denying them any hope of independence, the ability to earn a livelihood or of making an economic contribution to their households, thus condemning them to a grim life of ignorance and poverty.

Moreover, the life expectancy of their frightful existence is likely to be cut exceedingly short given the multitude of health risks inherent in being a child bride, not the least of which is the high mortality rate from childbirth injuries, where an estimated 70,000 girls under 15 die each year from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.

Yet, while the phenomenon of child marriage may have a global span, most of these child marriages take place in predominantly Islamic countries spread throughout the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

The deeply rooted Islamic attachment to prepubescent marriage finds religious justification in the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to a six-year-old child bride, a marriage consummated when she was nine-years-old, following her first menstruation.

In fact, determining when a girl reaches her first menstruation is the threshold by which Islamic religious leaders and scholars determine the basis for what age is proper for a girl to be married off; some believe this begins by or before age 10, while others think by the age of 15.

As such, the need to adhere to these Sharia-based marital guidelines has made governments in completely or even predominately Muslim countries reluctant to ban underage marriages.

In predominantly Muslim Malaysia, for example, the Minister of Legal Affairs has said girls below the age of 16 are allowed to marry as long as they obtain the permission of the religious courts, arguing, "If the religion allows it, then we can't legislate against it. Islam allows it as long as the girl is considered to have reached her pubescent stage, once she has her menstruation."

Yet, even in Muslim countries where child marriage is illegal, Islamists often simply ignore the law, allowing for religious leaders to approve "informal marriages" for underage girls, marriages which allow spouses to live in the same home and have children, but which is only legally registered once she turns 18.

While most would find it hard to believe that a 15-year-old-girl, let alone a nine-year-old girl, is physically or emotionally ready to start engaging in sexual activity and carrying a child, others think that girls barely removed from the womb are more than fully capable of handling those activities.

That enlightened attitude was on display in January when one of Saudi Arabia's most influential clerics, Sheik Saleh al-Fawzan, issued a fatwa allowing fathers to arrange marriages for their daughters "even if they are in the cradle."

However, lest anyone think a man would actually engage in sex with such a young infant, al-Fawzan was quick to add that it wasn't "permissible for their husbands to have sex with them unless they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men."

Given that, it's not surprising that many believe that underage marriage is little more than legally permissible and religiously sanctioned pedophilia. Yet, some defenders of the horrid practice argue that critics have no moral or ethical qualms about child marriage but are instead driven by less than pure concerns.

One such person is Yemeni Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an imam and official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party, Islaah. Hamzi had been asked his opinion in reaction to international complaints to the death of a 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to death after being tied down and forced to have sex with her 23-year-old husband.

Hamzi simply ascribed their dissatisfaction due to the fact that "No one wants to marry these women's-rights activists anyway. They're just depressed and jealous that they are not married."

Tragically, there's no such shortage of marital suitors for the ten million little girls set in the coming year to join the ranks of the world's burgeoning child bride community, a sisterhood that grows increasingly younger with each passing year.

http://www.aina.org/news/2012082993159.htm

ozmujaheed
Posts: 889
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:14 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#16

Unread post by ozmujaheed » Sun Sep 09, 2012 8:10 am

This articles are raising difficult discussions in the west. One does not read articles from orthodox Christian , Buddhist or other , countries that religious states become so intolerant? What is driving Muslims to such levels
Of extremism?

One Christian college explained that 21 st century islamic society is like medieval christian era, they hope that in the next 200 300 years there will be Islamic renaissance and a more tolerant society will evolve.

The west when they disposed of ottoman empire they unleashed grassroot uncivilized fragmented society that was unable to reconcile with western liberalism and secularism. Hence while capitalism and communism was busy looking for alliances Islamic intolerance, started being encouraged by priests, Moalims who suddenly had an audience . A Muslim colleague mentioned that until recently fami
It's would send their least successful child to become a Moalim , while their brightest to study to become a doctor or lawyer. Hence Ove time Maolims and amils were the worst of the intellectuals. Hence the mess .

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#17

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:48 pm

Iranian foundation ups price on Rushdie's head

DUBAI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - An Iranian religious foundation has increased its reward for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie, in response to a U.S.-made film that mocks the Prophet Mohammad, sparking protests across the Muslim world.

Khomeini's fatwa - religious edict - was condemned in the West as incitement to murder and an assault on freedom of speech, but a wealthy Iranian religious organisation has offered a large reward to anyone carrying it out and decided to increase the bounty amid the furore over the online film.

"I am adding another $500,000 to the reward for killing Salman Rushdie, and anyone who carries out this sentence will receive the whole amount immediately," said Hassan Sanei, the foundation's head, in a statement carried by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

The reward offered by the state-linked foundation now stands at $3.3 million, ISNA reported.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/ ... F920120916

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#18

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:54 pm

Praise in Iran for woman who beat up cleric over dress code

RIYADH: Iranian women are praising another woman who punched a cleric in the face after he criticized her attire, arguing it was in violation of the conservative country’s regulations.

A cleric in Iran’s northern Semnan province said he was beaten up by a woman after telling her to cover up, local reports in the country said.

Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti, a top religious figure in Shahrmirzad, told a passerby that she was wearing a “bad hijab.”

She at first told Beheshti to look the other way, but he repeated his demand. Beheshti told the Iranian Mehr news agency that the woman then pushed him to the ground and began kicking him.

“From that point on, I don’t know what happened. I was just feeling the kicks of the woman who was beating me up and insulting me.”

He said he was hospitalized for three days after the incident, and the region’s prosecutor said he is “reviewing the case.”

But women inside and out of Iran are praising the woman’s actions, saying it is time “to show honor and praise when women stand up for themselves.”

One Iranian woman living in the Saudi capital Riyadh told Bikyamasr.com on Saturday that “this woman is a hero because we all live in this horrible situation and the Iranian government must know that we women are not to be controlled for much longer.”

She said that she and her Iranian female friends were excited when they heard the news and hoped the action “would be a wake-up call for all Islamic conservatives across the world who try to force women to wear something specific. We have our rights and will uphold them.”

http://www.bikyamasr.com/78115/praise-i ... ress-code/

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#19

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:55 pm

In the early years of the Iranian Revolution, an obscure cleric named Ayatollah Gilani became a sensation on state television by contemplating bizarre hypotheticals at the intersection of Islamic law and sexuality. One of his most outlandish scenarios -- still mocked by Iranians three decades later -- went like this:


Imagine you are a young man sleeping in your bedroom. In the bedroom directly below, your aunt lies asleep. Now imagine that an earthquake happens that collapses your floor, causing you to fall directly on top of her. For the sake of argument, let's assume that you're both nude, and you're erect, and you land with such perfect precision on top of her that you unintentionally achieve intercourse. Is the child of such an encounter halalzadeh (legitimate) or haramzadeh (a bastard)?

Gilani helped spawn what is now a virtual cottage industry of clerics and fundamentalists turned amateur sexologists offering incoherent advice on everything from quickies ("The man's goal should be to lighten his load as soon as possible without arousing his woman") to masturbation ("a grave, grave sin which causes scientific and medical harm").

Perhaps it's not entirely surprising that Iran's Shiite fundamentalists -- not unlike their evangelical Christian, Catholic, Orthodox Jewish, and Sunni Muslim counterparts -- spend an inordinate amount of time pondering sexuality. They are human, after all. But the sexual manias of Iran's religious fundamentalists are worthy of greater scrutiny, all the more so because they control a state with nuclear ambitions, vast oil wealth, and a young, dynamic, stifled population. Yet for a variety of reasons -- fear of becoming Salman Rushdie, of being labeled an Orientalist, of upsetting religious sensibilities -- the remarkable hypocrisy of the Iranian regime is often studiously avoided.

To paraphrase the late U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill, in the Islamic Republic of Iran all politics may not be sexual, but all sex is political. Exhibit A is the revolution's father, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Like all Shiite clerics aspiring to become a "source of emulation" (marja'-e taqlid), Khomeini spent the first part of his career meticulously examining and dispensing religious guidance on personal behavior and ritual purity that ranged from the mundane ("It is recommended not to hold back the need to urinate or defecate, especially if it hurts") to the surprisingly lewd.

In his 1961 religious treatise A Clarification of Questions (Towzih al-Masael), Khomeini issued detailed pronouncements on issues ranging from sodomy ("If a man sodomizes the son, brother, or father of his wife after their marriage, the marriage remains valid") to bestiality ("If a person has intercourse with a cow, a sheep, or a camel, their urine and dung become impure and drinking their milk will be unlawful"). As a young boy growing up in the American Midwest, I remember being both horrified and bewildered after coming across these precise passages in a translated volume of Khomeini's sayings I found in our Persian émigré home.

Indeed, Khomeini's religious prescriptions are often the butt of jokes among Iran's post-revolutionary generations. "I've never even seen a camel in Tehran," prominent Iranian cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar told me, "let alone been tempted to have sex with one."

The brutal reality is that Iranians had entrusted their national destiny to a man, Khomeini, who had spent far more time thinking about the religious penalties for fornicating with animals than how to run a modern economy.

to help accommodate the apparently incorrigibly wandering libido of the Iranian male, the country's parliament -- composed of Khamenei loyalists -- has supported sharia-sanctioned "temporary marriages" (known in Persian as sigheh) allowing men as many sexual partners as they want. The marriage contract can last as little as a few minutes, and it doesn't need to be officially registered. The man can abruptly end the sigheh when he likes, but initiating divorce is far more difficult for women. Indeed, women who stray from the sanctity of their marriages do so at grave risk -- dozens have been stoned to death in Iran for adultery.

In a well-publicized national scandal in 2008, the Tehran police commander responsible for enforcing Iran's strict anti-vice laws, Reza Zarei, was caught nude in a brothel with six women (one of the women claimed he had asked them to pray naked in front of him). While American politicians might bounce back from such transgressions with their own television show (see: Spitzer, Eliot), the revelation of the incident reportedly led Zarei to attempt suicide while in prison.

The shame of sexual malfeasance has been routinely used by the regime as a form of political coercion and intimidation. When the famously jocular reformist cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former vice president to Mohammad Khatami, was imprisoned after Iran's contested 2009 presidential election, he surprised his supporters by confessing with great gusto to being part of a Western-backed conspiracy to foment a velvet revolution. Although his confession was undoubtedly forced, his close associates claim that what compelled him to confess was not physical or psychological torture but hidden photos of him -- in flagrante delicto -- at a secret Tehran love nest that was long being monitored.

In a WikiLeaked U.S. State Department cable, for example, senior Iraqi tribal chief Abu Cheffat confided in a U.S. diplomat in Baghdad that Tehran effectively wielded influence over Iraqi politicians -- ostensibly visiting Iran for "medical treatment" -- by offering inducements including "temporary marriages" with Iranian women. Not that Cheffat was complaining, mind you: The perks were surely better than when he visited President George W. Bush at the White House in 2008. It was not without reason, he explained, that Iranian soft power was trumping American hard power in Iraq.

In essence, the Iranian regime's approach toward sex, like its philosophy of governance, is marked by maslahat, or expediency, and used alternately as a tool of suppression, inducement, and incitement.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... _bedsheets

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#20

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:21 pm

Iran's 'morality police' target cafe culture

Iranian police have shut down dozens of restaurants and coffee shops over the weekend, Iranian media reported, in a renewed crackdown on what the state sees as immoral and un-Islamic behaviour.

Regular officers and members of the "morality police" raided 87 cafes and restaurants in a single district of the capital Tehran on Saturday and arrested women for flouting the Islamic dress code, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) on Sunday.

Coffee shop culture has flourished in Iran in recent years, offering wireless Internet, snacks, hot drinks, and a place to
hang out for Iranian youth in a country where there are no bars or Western chain restaurants or cafes.

The trend has been criticised by conservative Iranians who consider it a cultural imposition from the West and incompatible with Islamic values.

The government periodically cracks down on behaviour it considers un-Islamic, including mingling between the sexes outside of marriage.

In 2007, Tehran police closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops in as many hours, detaining 23 people.


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 99247.html

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#21

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:00 pm

Sunni Muslims banned from holding own Eid prayers in Tehran

Sunni Muslims in Tehran have been banned from congregating at prayers marking the end of Ramadan.

Iran, a Shia country, ordered its Sunni minority not to hold separate prayers in Tehran for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that brings the month of fasting to an end. They were instead asked to have a Shia imam leading their prayers – something that is against their religious beliefs.

Hundreds of security police were deployed in the capital to prevent Sunni worshippers from entering houses they rent for religious ceremonies.

In recent decades, Iranian authorities have refused Sunnis permission to build their own mosques in Tehran. There is currently no Sunni mosque in the capital, despite there being several churches and synagogues for much smaller Christian and Jewish populations. .

“Tehran’s security police prevented Sunni worshippers from performing Eid prayers in various parts of the capital,” the official website of the Sunni community in Iran said. “They surrounded the houses where Sunnis perform prayers and have prevented worshippers from going inside.”

Thousands of Shia worshipers on Wednesday stood in rows behind Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the crowd at prayers held in Tehran University. The Iranian regime uses Eid prayers to demonstrate that the country’s political figures are united behind its leader. Politicians from different groups are supposed to attend the prayers and their absence can be interpreted as a sign of dissent.

Under the Iranian constitution, religious minorities should be respected and should have representatives in parliament. Two days ago, several Sunni MPs wrote a letter to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking for their communities in Tehran to be allowed to hold separate Eid prayers.

Sunnis in Tehran have complained in recent weeks of being told by officials to provide written assurances guaranteeing not to hold Eid prayers in houses in the capital.

Shaikh Abdul-Hameed Esmail Zehi, a Sunni prayer imam in Zahedan, a city in south-east Iran, criticised the regime in a recent sermon for imposing restrictions on Sunnis.

“I would like to request the supreme leader to stop discriminative and illegal steps of some officials, as they have been forbidding Sunni minorities in mega cities of Iran to offer prayers in congregation specially Eidain [the Eids] and Friday prayers. This is the demand of all Sunnis in Iran,” he said, in quotes carried by the Sunni community’s website, Sunnionline.us.

Iran boasts that its Shia and Sunni populations get along, but Sunnis have complained of a crackdown by the Islamic regime in recent years. The regime, which has blamed Sunnis for recent bombings in south Iran, is at odds with most of the Sunni-ruled countries in the Middle East.

Other religious minorities in Iran have been facing restrictions. Seven leaders of the Bahá’í community are serving 20-year jail sentences. Bahá’ís in Iran are deprived of rights such as education or owning businesses and are often persecuted for their beliefs.

Last week, the Bahá’í community’s United Nations office wrote to Iran’s minister of science and technology, Kamran Daneshjoo, calling on the regime to end discrimination against Bahá’í students who recently had their universities closed.

http://muslimvillage.com/2011/09/01/142 ... in-tehran/

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#22

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Feb 10, 2014 6:26 pm

Iranian poet executed for 'waging war on God'

An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist, Hashem Shaabani, has been executed for being an "enemy of God" and threatening national security, according to local human rights groups.

Shaabani and a man named Hadi Rashedi were hanged in unidentified prison on January 27, rights groups have said.

Shaabani, who spoke out against the treatment of ethnic Arabs in the province of Khuzestan, had been in prison since February or March 2011 after being arrested for being a Mohareb, or "enemy of God".

Last July, the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal found Shaabani and 13 other people guilty of "waging war on God" and spreading "corruption on earth".

The 32-year-old was the founder of Dialogue Institute and was popular for his Arabic and Persian poems. In 2012, he appeared on Iran's state-owned Press TV, where human rights groups say he was forced to confess to "separatist terrorism".

According to BBC Persian, officials from the Ministry of Information informed the condemned men's families that they had been hanged, and they would be subsequently informed on the location of the men's burial site.

Shaabani was moved from the area to an unspecified prison before his death, it was reported.

Iran executed 40 people over two weeks of that month, according to Amnesty International. According to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre (IHRDC) more than 300 people have been executed since Hasan Rouhani became president in August.

In the past, Tehran has said the death penalty was essential to maintain law and order, and that it was applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Most of the executions in January were for drug related offences, according to Amnesty.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 59262.html

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#23

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Jun 20, 2014 5:14 pm

Iranian child bride faces execution for killing the man she was forced to marry

Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to marry at the age of 14, became a mother at 15, and killed her husband at 17. Now at 21, she is on Iran's death row.

Ebrahimi, who shot dead her husband while he was sleeping, faces imminent execution, despite international laws prohibiting execution for crimes committed by juveniles.

"I married our neighbour's son when I was only 14 because my dad insisted," Ebrahimi was quoted as telling officials working on her case, according to Mehr. "My dad insisted I should marry him because he was educated and was working as a teacher. I was 15 when I gave birth to my child." Her child is believed to be now six years old.

"I didn't know who I am or what is life all about," she said soon after being arrested. "My husband mistreated me. He used any excuse to insult me, even attacking me physically."

Ebrahimi is said to have admitted to killing her husband with his own gun before burying him in the garden. Ebrahimi initially told the police her husband was missing but her own father found the dead body and gave her in to the police.

Iran is signatory to the international convenant of civil and political rights (ICCPR) which prohibits death penalty for convicts if their act of crime is committed while they were under the age of 18.

Iran's judicial authorities have previously denied accusations of juvenile executions, but according to HRW, the country has executed at least 10 juvenile offenders since 2009.

The dispute appears to arise from Iran's own definition of a juvenile. The country does not provide a clear distinction between the age of majority – when minors cease to legally be considered children – and the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 for boys and nine for girls under Iranian law. Under the current civil code, girls can marry at 13 and boys at 15, HRW said.

In 2013, Iran and Iraq were responsible for more than two-thirds of the executions that happened worldwide, according to Amnesty. Iran says most of its executions are related to drug-offences.

"Forced girl marriage in Iran is a hidden social and legal issue," she said. "However, it should be noted that Maryam Ebrahimi's case is not a unique case at all. This March, for instance, Farzaneh Moradi, 28, was executed for murdering her husband. She was forced to marriage at 15, gave birth at 16, fell in love with another man at 19 and was accused of murdering her husband at 20."

"Women such as Maryam or Farzaneh, who are forced to marriage at childhood, are actually being raped constantly under the name of marriage. While they should go to school at that age, they are instead experiencing a life full of violence with no legal support. They eventually kill themselves or their husbands to end this vicious circle."

Justice for Iran's research shows in 2012 alone, 1,537 girls under the age of of 10 and 29,827 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were registered for marriage in Iran.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... -execution

Qureshi
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:27 am

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#24

Unread post by Qureshi » Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:38 pm

none of your head lines are against islam or humanity, so truly there is no comparison of Shia with wahabias.

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#25

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:29 pm

Qureshi wrote:none of your head lines are against islam or humanity, so truly there is no comparison of Shia with wahabias.
I fail to understand your statement, could you be more specific ?

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#26

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:31 pm

Canada mosque teaches 4-year-olds how to behead

'Somebody needs to talk to them. Celebrating death is a bizarre experience'

An Ontario mosque is coming under fire for using young Muslim children to conduct mock beheadings in a school play.

Video footage of the Islamic Jaffari Center in Thornhill, Ontario, shows children as young as 4 years old watching and learning to conduct beheadings in a play that reportedly took place two years ago.

The video was featured on the Canada’s Sun News Network television program, “Byline with Brian Lilley.”

A young boy can be seen sitting on the floor as another boy approaches him from behind with a machete.

At the end of the play, the boy playing the part of the executioner announces, “Here are the heads.”


Lilly said the mosque also made news headlines when it planned to build a “massive, Muslim only condo complex in a very Jewish neighborhood” and again when schools associated with the mosque were teaching from textbooks that included propaganda about “crafty Jews being compared to Nazis in disturbing passages on jihad.”

“The people at this mosque are not integrating into Canadian society,” Lilley said. “They segregate themselves, be it with their clothing or in trying to build a Muslim-only complex. Given what we know about what was already being taught in the school associated with the mosque, more questions need to be asked and answered.”

Toronto Sun columnist and liberal activist Tarek Fatah, author of “The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism,” explained that the play depicts the martyrdom of Muhammad’s grandson and brother.

“It’s a Shiite school, and it’s commemorating one of the great tragedies in Islamic history, which is the slaughter of the Prophet Muhammad’s family by the caliphate of the time,” said Fatah, who added that he watched these plays when he was a boy growing up in Pakistan.

“The children really go out to participate,” he explained. “Looking at it from a Canadian context, I was deeply disturbed because it means that the indoctrination of 3, 4-year-olds that has been going on for centuries – and which even I as a child in Pakistan thought it to be perfectly normal – how much damage it would do in desensitizing me or my friends or buddies who are now in their 60s as to what is ‘martyrdom’ and why would anyone wish death was a good thing.”

Fatah, who is also founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said the play depicts “an immense tragedy that turned the events of Islamic history.”

“Mind you, this happened in the same area that ISIS is conducting the Islamic beheadings, the tragedy which these kids are talking about,” he said. “The grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was slaughtered. His brother was killed and beheaded. The heads of Muhammad’s family were paraded in the city of Damascus and Karbala. So it has a deep emotional value.”

Fatah said he doesn’t believe the parents and teachers at the Islamic Jaffari Center were “trying to make the kids into radicals.”

“After all, these are the victims of radicals,” he said. “Most Shiite Muslims today are being slaughtered by fellow Muslims. So that context has to be there. This was not some ISIS or al-Qaida or Taliban type of people.”

Lilly interrupted, “They are acting out history. But you can see from Canadian eyes, though, why you look at this and go, this is strange, especially considering the history of this mosque.”

Fatah replied, “I know. I think – how do I put it most kindly? – I think somebody needs to talk to them and try to make them understand that celebrating death, no matter of whom [sic], is a bizarre experience. It desensitizes bloodshed among kids.”

He added, “The same Shiite sect also enacts beating themselves up. It’s a bloody scene that every Muslim knows about … and it is disturbing. But somebody has to talk to the leadership of this community and say, ‘For heaven’s sake, you cannot celebrate death [and do it in] front of 3 to 4 to 5-year-old children.’ It goes against the grain of about a thousand years of bereavement by this community who used to do this in secret because nobody in the Arab world was allowed to grieve for who they consider their leaders.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/canada-mosqu ... l54vDCk.99

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#27

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:01 pm

Iran's hanging of Reyhaneh Jabbari condemned

Iran has gone ahead with an execution of a woman despite an international campaign urging a reprieve.

Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged in a Tehran prison on Saturday morning. She had been convicted of killing a man she said was trying to sexually abuse her.

Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence ministry worker.

Human rights group Amnesty International said her execution was "deeply disappointing in the extreme".

Both the US State Department and British Foreign Office condemned the execution.

UK Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood MP called on Iran to abolish the use of the death penalty.

"The UN noted that her conviction was allegedly based on confessions made while under threat. I urge Iran to put a moratorium on all executions," he said in a statement.

A campaign calling for a halt to the execution was launched on Facebook and Twitter last month and appeared to have brought a temporary stay in execution.

However, government news agency Tasnim said on Saturday that Jabbari had been executed after her relatives failed to gain consent from the victim's family for a reprieve.

It said her claims of self-defence had not been proved in court.

A Facebook page set up to campaign for a stay now says simply: "Rest in peace".

After her arrest, Jabbari had been placed in solitary confinement for two months, where she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer or her family.

She was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009.

Amnesty International said she was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme said: "This is another bloody stain on Iran's human rights record."

"Tragically, this case is far from uncommon. Once again Iran has insisted on applying the death penalty despite serious concerns over the fairness of the trial."

Amnesty said that although Jabbari admitted to stabbing Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back, she alleged that there was someone else in the house who actually killed him.

Jalal Sarbandi, the victim's eldest son, said Jabbari had refused to identify the man.

He told Iranian media in April: "Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy,"

The United Nations says Iran has executed about 250 people this year.

Global executions for 2013

China: 1,000+
Iran: 369+
Iraq: 169+
Saudi Arabia: 79+
United States: 39
Somalia: 34+
Sudan: 21+
Yemen: 13+
Japan: 8
Others: 42+ (in 12 countries)
Source: Amnesty International

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29769468

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Be

#28

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:51 pm

Heartbreaking Final Letter Of Hanged Young Iranian Woman Reyhaneh Jabbari

The young interior designer hanged yesterday in Iran for killing the man she claimed was trying to rape her sent a moving final letter to her mother, asking her to make sure she had her organs donated after her death.

The heartbreaking letter, written in April but circulated today by Iranian peace activists, was from 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari to her mother Sholeh Pakravan, who had called on the judges to hang her instead of her daughter, for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence agent.

Activists said that Pakravan was only allowed one final hour with her daughter earlier in the week, and had only been informed of her imminent death with a few hours notice.

Amnesty said the verdict was legally flawed, with Jabbari claiming Sarbandi had tried to rape her, and that she had stabbed him, but another man in the house had actually killed him.

The full letter reads:

Dear Sholeh, today I learned that it is now my turn to face Qisas [the law of retribution in the Iranian legal system]. I am hurt as to why you did not let me know yourself that I have reached the last page of the book of my life. Don’t you think that I should know? You know how ashamed I am that you are sad. Why did you not take the chance for me to kiss your hand and that of dad?

The world allowed me to live for 19 years. That ominous night it was I that should have been killed. My body would have been thrown in some corner of the city, and after a few days, the police would have taken you to the coroner’s office to identify my body and there you would also learn that I had been raped as well. The murderer would have never been found since we don’t have their wealth and their power. Then you would have continued your life suffering and ashamed, and a few years later you would have died of this suffering and that would have been that.

However, with that cursed blow the story changed. My body was not thrown aside, but into the grave of Evin Prison and its solitary wards, and now the grave-like prison of Shahr-e Ray. But give in to the fate and don’t complain. You know better that death is not the end of life.

You taught me that one comes to this world to gain an experience and learn a lesson and with each birth a responsibility is put on one’s shoulder. I learned that sometimes one has to fight. I do remember when you told me that the carriage man protested the man who was flogging me, but the flogger hit the lash on his head and face that ultimately led to his death. You told me that for creating a value one should persevere even if one dies.

You taught us that as we go to school one should be a lady in face of the quarrels and complaints. Do you remember how much you underlined the way we behave? Your experience was incorrect. When this incident happened, my teachings did not help me. Being presented in court made me appear as a cold-blooded murderer and a ruthless criminal. I shed no tears. I did not beg. I did not cry my head off since I trusted the law.

But I was charged with being indifferent in face of a crime. You see, I didn’t even kill the mosquitoes and I threw away the cockroaches by taking them by their antennas. Now I have become a premeditated murderer. My treatment of the animals was interpreted as being inclined to be a boy and the judge didn’t even trouble himself to look at the fact that at the time of the incident I had long and polished nails.

How optimistic was he who expected justice from the judges! He never questioned the fact that my hands are not coarse like those of a sportswoman, especially a boxer. And this country that you planted its love in me never wanted me and no one supported me when under the blows of the interrogator I was crying out and I was hearing the most vulgar terms. When I shed the last sign of beauty from myself by shaving my hair I was rewarded: 11 days in solitary.

Dear Sholeh, don’t cry for what you are hearing. On the first day that in the police office an old unmarried agent hurt me for my nails I understood that beauty is not looked for in this era. The beauty of looks, beauty of thoughts and wishes, a beautiful handwriting, beauty of the eyes and vision, and even beauty of a nice voice.

My dear mother, my ideology has changed and you are not responsible for it. My words are unending and I gave it all to someone so that when I am executed without your presence and knowledge, it would be given to you. I left you much handwritten material as my heritage.

However, before my death I want something from you, that you have to provide for me with all your might and in any way that you can. In fact this is the only thing I want from this world, this country and you. I know you need time for this.

Therefore, I am telling you part of my will sooner. Please don’t cry and listen. I want you to go to the court and tell them my request. I cannot write such a letter from inside the prison that would be approved by the head of prison; so once again you have to suffer because of me. It is the only thing that if even you beg for it I would not become upset although I have told you many times not to beg to save me from being executed.

My kind mother, dear Sholeh, the one more dear to me than my life, I don’t want to rot under the soil. I don’t want my eye or my young heart to turn into dust. Beg so that it is arranged that as soon as I am hanged my heart, kidney, eye, bones and anything that can be transplanted be taken away from my body and given to someone who needs them as a gift. I don’t want the recipient know my name, buy me a bouquet, or even pray for me.

I am telling you from the bottom of my heart that I don’t want to have a grave for you to come and mourn there and suffer. I don’t want you to wear black clothing for me. Do your best to forget my difficult days. Give me to the wind to take away.

The world did not love us. It did not want my fate. And now I am giving in to it and embrace the death. Because in the court of God I will charge the inspectors, I will charge inspector Shamlou, I will charge judge, and the judges of country’s Supreme Court that beat me up when I was awake and did not refrain from harassing me.

In the court of the creator I will charge Dr. Farvandi, I will charge Qassem Shabani and all those that out of ignorance or with their lies wronged me and trampled on my rights and didn’t pay heed to the fact that sometimes what appears as reality is different from it.

Dear soft-hearted Sholeh, in the other world it is you and me who are the accusers and others who are the accused. Let’s see what God wants. I wanted to embrace you until I die. I love you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10 ... 49846.html

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Behind

#29

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:44 pm

Iran aims to ban vasectomies and cut access to contraceptives to boost births

Amnesty International says bills to reverse progressive family planning laws would reduce Iranian women to ‘baby-making machines’

Iran is seeking to reverse progressive laws on family planning by outlawing voluntary sterilisation and restricting access to contraceptives, in a move human rights groups say would set Iranian women back decades and reduce them to “baby-making machines”.

The Iranian parliament is considering two separate bills aimed at boosting the population. But Amnesty International warned in a report published on Wednesday that the proposals are misguided and, if approved, would “entrench discriminatory practices” and expose women to health risks.

Iran has pursued an effective birth control programme for over two decades. It included subsidised vasectomies, free condoms and affordable contraceptives, as well as countrywide education on sexual health and family planning.

The new legislation would effectively put an end to the country’s famous slogan “two children is enough”. The U-turn has come after the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, slammed family planning as an imitation of western lifestyle and asked Iran’s population to be doubled. Given his support, the bills are likely to be approved.

Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said: “The authorities are promoting a dangerous culture in which women are stripped of key rights and viewed as baby-making machines rather than human beings with fundamental rights to make choices about their own bodies and lives..

“The bills reinforce discriminatory stereotypes of women and mark an unprecedented move by the state to interfere in people’s personal lives,” she continued. “In their zealous quest to project an image of military might and geopolitical strength by attempting to increase birth rates, Iran’s authorities are trampling all over the fundamental rights of women – even the marital bed is not out of bounds.”

Last year, Khamenei said that Iran would face an ageing population in the not-too-distant future if couples refuse to have more children. Critics say his concerns are unfounded as about 70% of the country’s 77 million people are under the age of 35.

“Why do some [couples] prefer to have one … or two children? Why do men or women avoid having children through different means?” Khamenei asked in October. “The reasons need to be studied. We are not a country of 75 million, we have [the capacity] to become at least 150 million people, if not more.”

The bill to increase fertility rates and prevent population decline will ban all surgeries intended for permanent contraception, except in cases in which there are threats to physical health. Harsh punishments are designed for doctors involved in such surgeries. The legislation will also slash state funding for birth control programmes which provided subsidies for modern contraceptives.


Amnesty warned this would increase the number of unwanted pregnancies and force women to seek illegal abortions. It would also lead to a spike in sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, the organisation warned.

The second proposed legislation, the comprehensive population and exaltation of family bill, “instructs all private and public entities to prioritise, in sequence, men with children, married men without children and married women with children when hiring for certain jobs,” Amnesty said. The bill will also tighten the divorce laws, which are already heavily in favour of men.

Hadj Sahraoui said the bill would have “devastating consequences for women trapped in abusive relationships”. She added: “The bills send a message that women are good for nothing more than being obedient housewives and creating babies, and suggests they do not have the right to work or pursue a career until they have fulfilled that primary role and duty.”

Amnesty said the proposals are also in stark contrast with promises by President Hassan Rouhani for gender equality and warned they would add to “the catalogue of discriminations” against women.


Iran has an active female population. Until recently most university graduates were women and many, especially in bigger cities, work alongside men. Although women can vote and drive, discriminatory laws are persistent. Women are required to wear mandatory hijab and, in courts, their testimony is worth only half that of a man. They also face inequality with regard to inheritance rights.

“The age of criminal responsibility for girls is just under nine years old but just under 15 years for a boy,” said Amnesty. “Rape within marriage and domestic violence are not recognised as criminal offences. Engaging in lesbian sex is punishable by 100 lashes with a fourth conviction resulting in the death penalty.”

According to official figures for 2013-2014, 41,226 girls were subject to early or forced marriages while between the ages of 10 and 14. At least 201 girls had married while under the age of 10.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... population

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Why Blame Only the Wahabis? Iranian Shias are Not Far Behind

#30

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun May 24, 2015 5:03 pm

Painter Atena Farghadani faces prison for drawing a cartoon in Iran

Atena Farghadani is a prisoner of conscience, detained and facing years in prison for her peaceful activism.

28-year-old Atena will be tried on 19 May on charges including ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ and ‘insulting members of parliament through paintings’.

We've been calling on Iran's Supreme Leader and Head of the Judiciary to release Atenda immediately - she has committed no crime.

More than 33,000 of you signed our petition to the Iranian authorities calling for Atena's release. We are monitoring her case and hope her trial sees Atena released. If not, we'll continue to fight for her freedom.

Arrested for her art

Last August, 12 members of the Revolutionary Guards came to Atena’s house. They confiscated her personal belongings, blindfolded her and took her to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. She was to be punished for her peaceful acts of political defiance, including meeting the families of political prisoners and for posting on Facebook a cartoon she’d drawn that was critical of members of the Iranian parliament.

Iran is currently creating a law that will roll back women’s rights in the country by restricting access to contraception and criminalising voluntary sterilisation. Atena’s cartoon, which depicted politicians in favour of this Bill, is now being held against her – one of the charges she faces at her trial on Tuesday 19 May is ‘insulting members of parliament through paintings’.

While in prison last year, Atena flattened paper cups to use them as a surface to paint on. When the prison guards realised what she had been doing, they confiscated her paintings and stopped giving her paper cups. When Atena found some cups in the bathroom, she smuggled them into her cell. Soon after, she was beaten by prison guards, when she refused to strip naked for a full body search. Atenasays that they knew about her taking the cups because they had installed cameras in the toilet and bathroom facilities – cameras detainees had been told were not operating.

Beaten in detention, punished for speaking out

Atena was released in November last year, but rearrested just six weeks later. In the time that she was released, she gave media interviews and posted a video on youtube describing how the prison guards had interrogated her for 9 hours every day for six weeks. She said that female prison guards had beaten her and subjected her to degrading body searches.

Just weeks after posting her youtube video, Atena was once again arrested – possibly as reprisal for speaking out.

She now faces charges including
• Spreading propaganda against the system
• Insulting members of parliament through paintings
• Insulting the Supreme Leader

Atena is a prisoner of conscience – she has committed no real crime. She is being unfairly punished simply for exercising her right to free speech, association and assembly.

Hunger strike in protest at prison conditions

Atena was kept in solitary confinement for over two weeks when she was detained last year in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. During that time she was denied access to her lawyer or family. After her release from detention, she said that she’d been beaten by prison guards.

Three weeks after she was rearrested in January this year, Atena went on hunger strike to protest that she was being held in extremely poor prison conditions, in a jail that does not have a section for political prisoners. Atena’s health suffered considerably as a result; her lawyer told us that the 28-year-old had suffered a heart attack and briefly lost consciousness in late February as a result of her hunger strike.

Atena has since been moved to another detention centre and stopped her hunger strike, but we remain worried about her health.

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/iran-atena-fa ... WI7VWcw9LN