Syria & Iran

Overheard from a Syrian activist during the Egyptian revolts: "If they fail in Egypt, there is no hope for us in Syria". True words and they didn't fail, though what they achieved in Egypt remains fragile and is still in danger of being wiped out by the military council.

What was said about Egypt however, also applies to Syria and maybe to a larger scale. Because of its geo-political position, if Syria fails, there's no hope for the rest of the Middle-East. If people manage to get their basic human and political rights, this is a blow to both Iran and Hezbollah, who lose an important ally in the region. It also shows the people in other regional dictatorships that this type of protest cannot be silenced, even with the level of brutality show by the regime of Assad.

For Syrians especially Iranians have become the cartoonesque bad-guys to be feared and hated. Videos appeared on the internet of (alleged) Iranian forces being captured by demonstrators and questioned about their role in helping Syrian armed forces in squashing dissent. It is important to note that the Iranian post-election protests of 2009 where not shown in Syria. Many Syrians are unaware of Iranians showing their discontent with their government and the large amount of students, lawyers, journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens locked up to this day.

Friends told me of their visits to Paris this week, going to Syrian protests and being afraid to identify themselves as Iranians.

It is instrumental that in this time when our governments find ways of collaborating the Syrians and Iranian people do the same. We don't share a language, but we do share a common dream of democracy, freedom and dignity.

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An insightful article on the struggle in Syria here:

http://www.merip.org/mero/mero081011

Blogging?

Sometimes blogging gets slow when other things in life take over. The past days however I've been very busy with a (humorous) blog documenting the struggle of me and my brother to get back in shape. If you're interested here's the link to the blog:

http://pahlavanbrothers.blogspot.com

Confused? Go to the first blogpost on the blog, it'll clear a few things up.

Here's something else you might find interesting. A recently launched campaign for Assyrian rights:

http://www.assyrianrights.org/

Happy Birthday Zamaneh!

Five years ago a man with almond eyes, long hair in a pony tail and a Frank Zappa style moustache and goatee walked into our cultural center Mezrab. After sitting for a while and asking some questions about what we do in our center he introduced himself as Mehdi Jami, the director of an about to be launched media platform called Zamaneh. He was looking for young and interesting people with something to share with the world to join him in creating this station.

I had been a bit sad that summer. My band members had left for a tour of Eastern Europe, and I was alone, working in the cultural center. When the bandmembers returned I said I had a new job: creating a weekly show on world music for this station that broadcasts into Iran through satelite and internet.

In the years that have passed I was always its strongest supporter as well as its biggest critic. It's not hard to imagine why I supported Zamaneh. A young station operating independently and allowing for different voices to be heard and tell their stories. A platform in which both the new generation as well as the old guard was creating shows. How can you not be excited about this? I always defended Zamaneh when paranoid Iranians (and there are oh so many of them) accused Zamaneh of being a mouth-piece of the Mullahs, the CIA or in some cases both. Or when during the post election turmoil of 2009 some thought that Zamaneh should abandon independent journalism and clearly take sides with the Green Movement.

I have also been a critic, voicing my discontent with some programmes, suggesting improvements in other fields, but always out of respect for what was there: a station that, if it survived, would be instrumental in creating a template for journalism that Iran needs: uncensored, respectful, deep-digging, impartial, independent. I voiced criticism not just to be a grouch, but to help improve what I loved and respected.

I'm happy to say that Zamaneh is still around, and still improves on the old formula. There's an operational English site that on a daily basis gives us news about Iran in English:

http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/

It teaches aspiring journalists the basics of journalism, it is the only major Iranian news outlet with a page dedicated to Queer issues (homo-emancipation). These are only a few of the reasons I love Zamaneh. Others have their own parts they read and follow. Is Zamaneh today what it needs to be tomorrow? I feel it has a long way to go, but I see it's getting there and I enjoy opening it daily to read the new articles and analysis.

And it did show its fans that it's here to stay. Those who are not pleased with Zamaneh can choose to wish its death (something Iranians are very good at, how many projects did we see come and go while we only grumbled about how bad it was without doing anything ourselves?), or submit ideas, articles, comments and critique, and in this way help to build the platform we can all be proud of.

I look forward to the coming five years!

Happy Music

This is why I have hope for Iran. No matter how bad things get, there's always some young people enjoying themselves, and in doing so creating stuff for us to smile and shake our hips at:

1. the new clip of Eendo:

2. Here's a little home-made track by Naeim Meschian, our resident funkmeister and sound-technician.

Middle-East Linkage

I have lots to write about, but for now a summary of interesting links:

Iran -

Tehran Review has a two part article about the famous film director Makhmalbaf's evolving political life, as written by Ian Buruma:

http://tehranreview.net/articles/9535

Iranian Dervishes get sentenced to jail and flogging after peaceful protests:

http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iranian-dervishes-get-jail-flogging

Often in the West we focus on the persecution of Jews and Christians in Iran. While the discrimination they face is real, there is a much stricter persecution of Islamic sects who are considered to be heretical. Examples are Sunni (depending on the political climate), Baha'i and various Sufi orders.

Egypt -

Egypt tries to appease the protest movements by firing a large amount of police officers:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011713151838644663.html

The revolution inspires poetry:

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2036/kareem-abdulsalam_teargas-poems

Enjoy...

Power play and Women's rights in Iran.

It's no secret there's an ordinary power grabbing game going on in Iran. Not only are individuals fighting for a share of the power pie, they're fighting for a share of power for their faction as well as their position. In Iran's complicated power structure all begins and ends with the Supreme Leader (Khamenei), but how it trickles down to ministries, committees, councils, (secret) police, military factions, etc. is a constant fight that's been heating up in the last months.

Notably there's the Revolutionary Guard, a military force with considerable economic clout since it's a major share holder in many companies and has its own airstrips, ports, etc, that has decide to tell what candidates or even what number of people from a certain faction are allowed to run. It's not clear what they will do when candidates they don't want on the ballots run (other than the usual talk of blood in the streets), but that the organisation permits themselves such statements is indicative of the position they have or believe they should have:

http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/former-prime-minister-accused-sedition

http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/revolutionary-guards-commander-sets-conditions-return-reformists

It should be noted that Ahmadinejad's rise to power went hand in hand with the rise of the Guards, a partnership that's been abandoned since, with the Guards siding for Khamenei, and Ahmadinejad covertly accusing them of power abuse: http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/ahmadinejad-decries-reporting-illegal-ports-statement)

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Sadly in this power game the chips are often issues that have a deep impact on regular Iranians. For instance women will face a lot of harsh regulations when it comes to what they're allowed to watch, or how they're allowed to dress. An excellent write up about this is provided by Tehran Bureau:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/07/the-hejab-hype-and-the-force-of-fear.html

But apart from the impact these social and political policies have it's important to realize the discussion is had in the Iranian political landscape between staunch orthodox principalists and politicians who advocate a more liberal view when it benefits their political agenda. If there are politicians and clerics with a principally more liberal view they are sidelined and marginalized.

Case in point is Ahmadinejad's opposition to gender separation in Universities and his opposition to the amount of power the Supreme Ruler. Even in the pseudo-democratic system of Iran the agreement was that the Ayatollah should remain impartial in the election process. When Khamenei obviously sided with Ahmadinejad after the 2009 elections there was not a peep from his camp about abuse of power. In that particular election struggle the sly Rafsanjani sided with the reformist candidates. Today we see reformist Rafsanjani claiming it's a shame that Ahmadinejad opposes the gender separation.

In the crazy political arena of Iran, some Iranians might well decide that Ahmadinejad is the candidate of modernity and reform (only a short while ago he promised each Iranian family a plot of land of 1000 square ft. to build their own villas in addition to opposing the power of both Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards, the stricter rules for women) forgetting that in previous struggles he was a champion for the issues he currently (seemingly) opposes.

The sad reality is that with this struggle and the players involved, all outcomes will be a continuation of a desperate situation for Iranians, or things getting worse.

Reform in Islam

I am one of those atheists who believes the various Islamic currents can be reformed. In fact I already see a lot of the reform happening. One of the leading figures in this movement is Irshad Manji, an activist for moral reform in the Muslim world. In her site she offers for free translations into various languages (including Persian) of her book "The Trouble with Islam Today":

https://www.irshadmanji.com/Translations

She also makes mention of an inspiring figure in the Muslim world who passed away only a decade ago, Ghaffar Khan, the muslim Ghandi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Abdul_Ghaffar_Khan

Ghaffar Khan was a pious Muslim, but vehemently opposed to the partition of Pakistan, the oppression of women, and many other ills that plague the Muslim world today. He was a staunch pacifist and suffered both under the Brits as well as the Pakistani Muslims.

How great would it be if the youth of today would walk with pictures of Ghandi and Ghaffar Khan side to side.