Akram Mahdavi waiting for her execution and a "Discount" from a hosting company  --  The Iranian Connection

By Arash Kamangir 

 

12 April 2008 (Arabisto.com):

There are moments of pure joy in the blogosphere. There are times you wish you could touch the hands of people you have had the privilege to know through blogging but have never met in person. When these moments come, you are proud of being a citizen of the blogosphere.

A while back, Bluehost, the company which hosts kamangir.net, announced a partner program. In short, they allowed customers to find new customers and be paid $65 for each sign-up. So I posted  an announcement on Persian Kamangir and invited fellow bloggers to take advantage of this opportunity. I offered to pay them back what Bluehost was going to pay me, as a mean to encourage Persian bloggers to move into their personal domains (we also worked out the legalities and let Bluehost administration know about the arrangement).

Soon, four Persian bloggers used the opportunity and set up their blogs in their new domains. That was a few months ago. I promised them that I'll contact them as soon as I get the check from Bluehost.

 

Finally, the first check came in a few days ago. It was a $130-check, so I contacted the first two subscribers and asked them for their bank information. Their response is what I would like to call a "pure moment".

 

Since a short while ago, we have been involved in collecting $60,000 for releasing a mother from prison. The convicted murderer of her 74-year-old husband, the 32-year-old Akram Mah... [Read More]

A large group of Iranian bloggers have decided to show their solidarity with tens of Iranian students who are imprisoned by the administration. More information, in Persian, is given in this blog.

This is the statement issued by the organizers (revised by me for grammatical mistakes in the original text),

Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students

"There is no doubt winter will have an end

And, the post of spring will come to our land

With thousands of flowers in his hand

Certainty it will come,

That other should be passed"

The spring is coming while many Iranian students are still behind the bars. Here is the names of some of them,

• Arash Paknejad (m), Mozandaran University
• Saeid Habibi (m), as member of student’s human rights reporters
• Anoshe Azadbar (f), Tehran University
• Elinaz Jamshidi (f), Azad University of central Tehran student of communication
• Mehdi Gerilo (m), Tehran geophysics center
• Nader Ahseni (m), Mazandaran University
• Behroz karimizade (m), Tehran University
• Nasim Soltan-beigi (f), Alame Communication University
• Ali Sa`lem (m), Polytechnic University, student of Master degree in polymer
• Mohsen Qanim (m), Polytechnic University
• Rozbeh Saf-Shekan (m), Tehran University
• ... [Read More]

Islamic militia and Basij members attacked the office of a reformist newspaper in Shiraz, Iran. The attackers destroyed the equipments and injured the staff. The incident followed a clash between the Sharia Police and people in front of the office of Today's Analysis (Persian: ????? ???), because its staff came to their windows and watched the scene and the offenders thought they had taken pictures. Thus, they attacked the office to destroy the evidence. It was later known that the photographers of the newspaper were not in the office at the moment.

During the attack, the four male staff members present in the scene tried to defend their female colleagues. One of the men was injured on his cheek and was transfered to hospital [Persian Source].

The women's rights' activist Jelveh Javaheri (???? ??????) was arrested today by the Revolutionary Courts. She was summoned to the court today and was arrested on charges of disrupting the public opinion, anti-regime propaganda, and spreading false news. Javaheri is a sociology graduate student and has been active in women rights' groups for a long time. Her activities included writing articles as well as translation of related material.

Javaheri was amongst the activists who were arrested last March after their calm protest was disrupted by the Police (see: Police Violence in Iran against Activist Women). She will join Maryam Hosseinkhah, another activist who has been in the infamous Evin Prison for about two weeks now (see: Activist Woman Arrested) [Persian].

Persian blogger Reza Valizadeh (??? ??? ????) was arrested for his report about expensive German dogs being used in Ahmadinejad's guard team.

On November 16th he wrote about the four dogs which are recently added to Ahmadinejad’s security team, after they were purchased form Germany for $150,000 each [Persian]. Read the complete translation of his post at Expensive German Dogs for Ahmadinejad. Also read an independent report in Guardian, probably based on Reza's post.

His post was an indicator that Ahmadinejad's repeated claims of "living a simple life" are more of a propaganda issue than anything else. Reza's post irritated the state to the extent that the state-run news agency Fars News talked to "a person in the security teams" who "emphasized that Dogs are used all over the world for security purposes" [Persian]. While dismissing Reza's report about the price paid for the dogs, the official admitted that Dogs are of indeed of a German breed, but that "they are trained by Iranians". The official then went on by saying, "Th... [Read More]

Delaram Ali was arrested in June 2006, after she attended a peaceful protest against inequality of men and women in the Iranian law. Subsequently, she was sentenced to prison and lashes. Read the rest from the official website of the Iranian women's rights movement.

Delaram Ali, woman’s rights defender, ... was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months prison term (which must be served in full) and 10 lashes, for her participation in a peaceful protest.

The sentence, issued by Judge Salavati, ... relied on ... finding Delaram guilty of propaganda against the state, sentencing her to a six month prison term, participation in the June 12th protest, sentencing her to a two-year prison term, and disruption of public order sentencing her to a 4 month prison term and 10 lashes (sources).

In the latest development, her sentence was approved today [Persian]. This is the latest press release from the group she is a member of,

In an unprecedented and unexpected development Delaram Ali was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months and 10 lashing in appeals court.... Delaram was beaten severely during this protest, dragged on the ground by several police officers and subsequently arrested (see picture above). She suffered a broken arm as a result of t... [Read More]

The news was circulating the Persian media [Persian] and now has been announced by Amnesty International as a call for urgent action. Please link to the story and inform others. This has to be stopped.

Child offender Makwan Moloudzadeh, an Iranian Kurd, is believed to be at risk of imminent execution. He has reportedly been convicted of anal sex for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old boy. Makwan Moloudzadeh was aged 13 at the time of the alleged offence. His death sentence has been passed to the Office for the Implementation of Sentences and he is due to be executed in public, near his home.

...The witnesses and the two people who had pressed charges against him withdrew their claims after the trial. Under Iranian law, children (boys of up to 14.7 years) are to be flogged for homosexual acts.

... However, the judge relied on the "knowledge of the judge" to determine that penetration had taken place and that Makwan Moloudzadeh could be sentenced to death.

... During his trial, Makwan Moloudzadeh reportedly maintained his innocence. ... He is reported to have gone on hunger strike for 10 days to
protest against his ill-treatment in detention. Prior to his trial and conviction, on or around 7 October 2006 Makwan Moloudzadeh was reportedly paraded through the streets of Paveh riding on a donkey, with his head shaved. People in the street shouted abuse and threw things at him. (source: Amnesty International)

As of ... [Read More]

Alef, a web site which represents a major group of conservatives in the Parliament, mentioned to be run by a top-ranking MP, published a piece about Kamangir yesterday [Persian]. In the report, the author writes,

A blogger claims that Fars News and Press TV have assigned false sentences to the Norwegian Foreign Minister [referring to: Did IRNA change Norwegian Foreign Minister’s Words?]. He [the website mentions my real name] claimed that the sentence "West must be more concerned with their own arsenal, rather than pointing at Iran and North Korea" is made up. The blogger mentions that he will follow the story with the Foreign Ministry of Norway. Fars News and Press TV have not reacted to these accusations yet. This is not the first time this blogger makes similar claims.

Then, Alef publishes a pictures of the author of this blog, accompanied by my real name, and follows,

Who is he [real name]? He [real name] is a resident of Canada whose blog is frequently referred to by the media and warmonger neo-con blogs (including Pajamas Media and Gateway Pundit). His blog is the number one source for anti-Iran news from the Iranian blogosphere, for the neo-con media. The content translated by him, regarding President's speeches, Iranian missiles, stonings, executions, the social security project [Police raid against "immodesty&... [Read More]