IRANIANS WILL NOT GO BACK TO THE CAGE AS REFORMS WOULD GO ON
By Parviz Mardani
BONN 24 Jan. (IPS) Iran and Germany are working for the settlement of 250.000 young Iranians in various European Union countries, with probably half of them in Italy and Spain, according to the German magazine "Focus".
In a long article centering on the appalling situation of young Iranians looking desperately for job and a better life elsewhere than in their own countries plagues with wide-spread unemployment, the magazine says Italy has announced its readiness to accept ten thousands Iranians during the present year.
Reminding that the per head income of Iranians has been slashed by 40 per cent compared the former Royal regime, the magazine writes, under the title of ""Back To The Cage" that battled at home and losing popularity, Iranian President Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami has had more success in getting his nation closer to the Europeans.
"Iranian women, students and the young ones have all reached the conclusion that their president does not possess enough power and for that reason, Mr. Khatami’s popularity among Iranians is decreasing", Focus says, observing that the political and social situation in Iran is degrading.
Touching on the sensitive problem of Iranian illegal immigrations, the magazine say in country with 30 per cent of unemployment, every day 250 Iranians try to escape Iran via Pakistan and Turkey illegally in the hope to reach a European shore where they can afford a work and a better life.
"Negar", a 20 years-old girl who has just received 40 lashes of the whip for participation to a dancing party, something that is forbidden in the Islamic Republic, tells Focus that if the condemnation is light, the whipper puts a Koran (Muslims holly book) under his arm in order to give lighter lashes, but if the offence is very serious, then the victim is beaten very strongly and in such cases, some girls have lost their virginity.
"Rulers have turned Iran into a cage", says a teacher and a political analyst believe that many Iranians have still hope in Khatami and would vote for him in the next presidential elections due in June. "But, the analysts warns, Mr. Khatami must also realize that transforming an arbitrary theocracy into a democracy in four years only is not possible. That may explain why Mr. Khatami had been more successful in his foreign policy, his visits to Italy, France and Germany paving the way for Iran’s return to the international community".
Meanwhile, a leading Iranian journalist warns the clerical rulers of his country that if they "continued their strategy of obtaining power by force, violence would be the only means for ending their monopoly".
In an interview published Tuesday by the Paris-based "International Herald Tribune" (IHT), Mr. Akbar Ganji, the most famous investigative journalist and writer says "slowly and step by step, fascist interpretations of religion will lead to terrorist acts and other crimes which take place for the sole aim of shedding blood and demanding bloodshed in revenge".
Condemned to ten years imprisonment and five years of exile to a remote southern Iranian town by an Islamic revolution court for taking part to a conference on the future of Iran’s reforms held in Berlin last April tells IHT’s Genevieve Abdo that had "smuggled" some questions into the Evin prison in Tehran that he consider himself as an "ideological prisoner and I’m proud of that".
"It is a great honnour for a man to defend his ideas against dictators. Perhaps this sentence will satisfy their appetite for revenge. But in this case, one must show sorrow and regret nopt for me but for the whole of Iran’s Judicial apparatus", he said.
Four other co-participants at the same meeting, including Mrs. Mehranguiz Kaar, a lawyer and human rights activist, Ms. Shahla Lahiji, an independent publisher, Mr. Ezzatollah Sahhabi, a veteran politician and Mr. Ali Afshari, an outspoken students leader were condemned to respectively five, four and half and fours years jail.
Mrs. Karr is suffering from breast cancer and need urgent treatment in the West.
Mr. Sahabi and Mr. Afshari have been transferred to unknown prisons two weeks ago and no one, including their families and lawyers have no information about their whereabouts.
Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yusefi-Eshkevari, a respected Islamist reformer who also attended the conference was accused of apostasy, fighting God and atheism by the Clergymen’s Special Tribunal. All these charges carry death penalty.
Mr. Sa’id Sadr, an official translator at the German Embassy in Tehran and Mr. Khalil Rostamkhani, an independent translator were also given ten and nine years each even though they were not present in Berlin.
The condemnations brought sharp reactions from Iranians, both inside and outside, as well international human rights agencies and some Western nations, including Germany, Canada and the US.
Mr. Masha’allah Shamsolva’ezin, one of Iran’s leading newspapers editors, says the Berlin case was used to "derail moves towards political development and free expression".
Branding the Berlin meeting as a "plot by the US and international Zionism" to overthrow the theocratic regime of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the fundamentalist leader of the Islamic Republic ordered the Judiciary he controls to shut all independent and reformist publications and imprison influential journalist.
Not a participant at the Berlin Conference, Mr. Shamsolva’ezin, Editor of four popular newspapers that were all banned is serving a 30-months term jail for insult against the leader and questioning Islam’s basic laws, chiefly that of hanging.
Asked by Mrs. Abdo if their imprisonment was a sign that Iran’s reform movement was effectively dead, both Mr. Ganji and Mr. Shamsolva’ezin, who are cellmate, say they believe the movement could not be halted despite a series of setbacks, including the banning of 30 reformist newspapers and journaloists and the ousting last month of Mr. Ata’ollah Mohajerani, the popular Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance.
"The loss of momentum for the reform movement can only take place when the people turn their backs on their demands, which are gaining freedom and liberty and participation in their political power structure. And the people of Iran are not turning their backs on these demands", Mr. Shamsolva’ezin observed.
And in another development, it was reported Tuesday from Shiraz that the Supreme Court has rejected a plea presented by the ten Iranian Jews sentenced to 10 to 3 years of jail for espionage for Israel. PRESS BERLINI SENTENCES 24101