Please sign petition to stop stoning Laws in Iran

The following is a petition of many Iranains and the international community to stop the practice of stoning in Iran. Many have joined the campaign, including Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi. Stoning truly is a black mark on our history and really should be removed.

please sign the petition

read more about the campgaign on Gooya news

Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeni has been Freed from Prison

He was freed after enduring 130 days of being imprisoned in an Iranian jail yesterday. One less individual confined in an Iranian jail simply for excercising basic human rights that the Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to grant to its citizens.

read article

10 Million Signature Campaign has Online forms Available

If you would like to sign the petition to support gender equality and removal of discrimination against women in Iran, you can download the form, sign it and mail it to them.

form to sign the one million campaign

Russia Incapable of Learning Lessons from History

According to the Associated Press, Russia's Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov told a reporter that Moscow will not support punitive sanctions against Iran:

"We won't be able to support and will oppose any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran's program in order to promote the ideas of regime change there."

The reasons that Russia does not support sanctions is disturbing. It is not so much that it is worried about the Iranian people's plight that motivates it to not support sanctions, but the fact that they dislike a regime change. Why would Russia be worried about a regime change in Iran? Two reasons come to mind. The first is that Russia is making so much money off of selling weapons and nuclear technology to Iran. The second is that Russia fears of the influences of Human Rights and true Democracy to reach its own borders. Russia does not come across as a stellar model of a fair Democracy representing the will of its people, nor does it appear to look kindly to Human Rights. Their freedom of press is not much better than Iran's. The two country's are similar in dictatorial thought and that's why the current regimes in Iran and Russia support each other. This is not to imply that stating sanctions and war with Iran is the way to go for a regime change, rather analyzing the reasons behind various countries being for or against various actions is the point here.

However the current Russian government officials must have received failing grades in their History classes. If they want to keep their economic ties with Iran strong they should think long term. Looking back in time, there was a previous country that backed a previous Iranian dictatorship and tried to discourage a previous regime change. That country has zero business partnerships with Iran now, and in the opinion of this author, the Iranian people should keep close tabs as to which countries are enabling the current regime to stay in power.

read AP article

A petition of 81 Iranian Parliament members demanding the Freedom of Mousavi Khoeni

According to Gooya news, 81 Members of Iranian Parliament (I'm not clear wether it was past or present) demanded the freedom of Mr. Mousavi Khoeni. They stated that his arrest was illegal and he should be freed. In their letter to the Iranian Judicial and Security branches, the petitioners stated that Mousavi Khoeni's participation in a peaceful demonstration is legal under the Islamic Republic of Iran's constituion and that it is illegal for Iranian Government to hold Mousavi Khoeni without any reason.

It seems that the people in power in the Islamic Republic really don't have much of the people's support. With the emergence of so many different groups vying for change in the current social structure, the supreme leader's style of running the country does not seem to be representataive of the Iranians' wishes at all. You have Ayatollah Boroujerdi saying he wants to have religion taken out of government, you have the reformers trying to make change within the framework of the consitution, you have the democracy seekers wanted to redraft the constitution all together.

The groups may be different in approach, style, and backgrounds but in the end it all amounts to the same message: Iranians find the current situation in Iran unacceptable and they want change.

Another Demonstration in Iranian University

picture taken from Gooya news website

According to Gooya news, it looks like another demonstration was held today in Iran's Polytechnic University. As I understand it, the Basiji were supposed to have an event take place in the University Auditorium, but many students were protesting the arrest of Dr. Keyvan Ansari outside. The crowd chanted slogans of " The Basiji student council should be annulled", "We support our elected student council", "Basijis get lost!" and "Military personnel, get lost!" The crowd chanted so loudly that only one of the speakers was willing to give his speech for the Basiji gathering. Then the students took over the auditorium and had their elected student group meeting instead. Demands were that Dr. Keyvan Ansari should be freed, a referendum be held for settling the dispute amongst the real elected student council, whether they are the Basiji or not. Dissatisfaction with the refusal of registering students with "stars" was pointed out as well. (Students that have stars on their records are students that participated in anti-Islamic regime demonstrations previously.), closing educational files of about 70 students were mentioned as well as other demands.


It used to be where students were imprisoned and punished and then they would stop asking for more freedoms and rights. Looks like now the students and perhaps Iranian people in general have become immune to the Islamic Republic's harsh tactics. If anything, the harsh tactics seemed to have strengthened the students resolve. The arrest and punishment of students appear to spark even more protests, the government's tactics aren't working anymore.

read Gooya article

Demonstration in Iranian University

picture taken from Gooya News website

According to Gooya news another Demonstration took place today in Iran's Polytechnic University. They are demanding the release of Keyvan Ansari. The demonstration appears to be peaceful. Students have more demands such as the cessation of control and meddling of the "Herasat" in student's personal lives, etc. According to Gooya news, a photographer was chased after by plainclothes police screaming "thief, thief" and arrested. Later the photographer was released.

It does seem that the protests are here to stay, despite the governments strict penalties for students involved in previous demonstrations. The atmosphere in Iran seems to be changing where last year around this time almost no demonstrations occurred and now small to medium gatherings are now not uncommon.


read Gooya news article

No Money no matter what

Don't get me wrong, I do not believe in sanctions or war against Iran either. However, it seems that people in Iran would go hungry with or without these threats. As soon as the country is able to amass any money, it all gets sent to Hamas or helping Hezbollah build schools and hospitals elsewhere. What about schools and hospitals in Iran? The economy in Iran is not going very well. Factory workers aren't able to rely on their promised income, because the economy is so bad, sometimes they don't get their monthly pay.

Yes sanctions and war is bad, and so is the Islamic Republic. Succumbing to either of the three translates to an equal amount of hunger and misery. Another solution needs to be found.

Peyvand news article about Iran's funding schools and hospitals in Lebanon

Iranian Universities giving out stars to students as punishment

According to Peyvand news, the Iranian Universities are handing out starts to students as a punishment for participating in political criticism against the government. Many students have to sign pledges that they will not participate in future political activities to be able to continue their studies. This comes as a result of last spring's massive political rallies of students against the government.

I think that the general notion that the political activities will not be eliminated, only moved away from the Universities will become a reality. In the end, you cannot have a minority forcing an unrealistic lifestyle on a majority. read peyvand article

Islamic Republic of Iran even banns baby names

Azadeh Moaveni has written in her article about how one is not does not even have the
freedom to chose his/her own baby name. There is a list of banned names that one cannot choose their baby's names from, unless you can bribe the official with massive cash.

Is there a limit as to how disgusting this government can get?

read Azadeh Moaveni's article

Iran's social structure like a pendulum

Iran's social structure is like a pendulum. It was sitting stable in the middle, until the forces that be put the Shah in power, and in effect pulled the pendulum to one side. The Islamic Revolution in effect is the pendulum swung to another side. Through various repititions of swinging back and forth through time will Iran's pendulum return back to the middle. I believe a US invasion would be like a hand giving the pendulum another shove, and making the swinging keep on longer.

However, using the pendulum analogy, a hand could come and stop the pendulum. But what would that hand be in real life?