You are an enemy of the regime, if you are...

I would like to add a few names to the enemies list the Iranian government gave out. Of course this is far from complete, but you are definately an enemy of this regime if you are:

a woman
a journalist
a christian
a filmmaker
a baha'i
a student
a university professor
a Kurd

By the way, Khamenei gave a call last night. He was pissed off that I had posted Ahmadinejad's rap song and not his own. I'm sorry dear leader, we'll rectify the situation immediately:

Human rights news links.

- A few days ago the office of the Iranian nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi was closed by the government. Read the full story here:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-iran-human-rights,0,3937225.story

- Greece is burning, but luckily it makes for great pictures. Click away:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html

- Here's a link to a PBS documentary episode about former Jihadis in Rehab. Quite surreal, very interesting and extremely important in the years to come. Have a look:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/from-jihad-to-rehab/introduction-from-jihad-to-rehab/3834/

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And not quite human rights news, but here's a link to the pictures of last weekend's performance of my former band Caspian Hat Dance:

http://picasaweb.google.nl/simonvanrooijen/BalkanGypsyNight20December?feat=email#

All for now kiddies

The Blogging Revolution

When you live in the free world and have unlimited access to quality newspapers, internet-articles, radio and tv channels, andsoforth, you might not always be aware of how precious free press is. It's not always easy to genuinely feel the importance of blogging in a country like Iran. Even I sometimes forget it, but the reality is, when you've lost faith in your country's papers and journalists (as most of the good ones have been closed down, imprisoned or left the country) the voice of the people becomes even more precious than it already is.

In Iran the medium is now fully embraced (with 700.000 blogs of which about 100.000 or updated regularly). It is also fully respected by the government: bloggers have been arrested and jailed, blogs appear on the internet filter lists and members of parliament like Ahmadinejad have their own blogs.

Here's an animation that sums the situation up quite beautifully.



Another ally in the struggle for free speech is Radio Zamaneh, the Amsterdam based radio and internet station I work for. For 2.5 years Zamaneh has been tireless in reporting the unreported for it's Iranian audience. I'll add a banner to the blog shortly for easy linkage.

Human Rights

Today 60 years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. The cynical view is that not much has changed in the world; there's still a terrific amount of war going on, terrorism, exploitation, etcetera. However, look at all the things that have changed: In 1948 the US had racial segregation laws, South Africa with its apartheid was a friendly nation, many european countries still were colonial powers and/or fascist dictatorships, the rest were communist lackey states.

Things have changed indeed, and call me an optimist, but I believe more things can change if we put effort into it. Today I had the honour to meet with Justine Masika Bihamba a couragious woman who for 20 years has been fighting for human rights in Congo. In this memorable day Justine Masika was awarded the Tulip (Dutch annual human rights award).

Tomorrow I will interview Ibrahim al-Muqaiteeb, a human rights activist from Saudi Arabia.

These are the people who show us the way, all we have to do is follow. It's not that hard.