Iran Election Guide

Donate to EAWV





Or, click to learn more

Search

Entries in Sarah Shourd (2)

Saturday
Jul312010

The Latest from Iran (31 July): Past and Present

1520 GMT: More War, No Facts, Blah. The deputy head of Iran's armed forces, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, says the US is escalating its "war of nerves" against Iran: "US Congress Bill 1553 which gives the hated Zionist regime a free hand to confront Iran is part of a psychological warfare scenario devised at the request of an American think tank to affect Iranian nuclear insiders."

Hmm...Resolution 1553, which backs Israeli miitary action against Tehran, has been sponsored by a minority of Republicans --- which is the minority party --- in the House of Representatives, the junior chamber of the US Congress. It is unlikely to be adopted by Congress, let alone be supported by the Obama Administration.

Still, I'm not sure Jayazeri needs to worry about such details....(http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136890§ionid=351020101)

NEW Iran Analysis: Looking Back on the 1980s (Verde)

Iran Music Video Special: The Award-Winning “Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone”

Iran’s Persecution of Rights: The Pursuit of Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei (Shahryar)

The Latest from Iran (30 July): Stepping Up the Criticism


1515 GMT: All Hail Rahim-Mashai. He may be widely disliked, even amongst conservatives, but the President's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai continues to pile up the posts.

Indeed, the latest may help Rahim-Mashai answer his critics: Fars News says he will manage the Islamic Republic News Agency. (http://is.gd/dUUoU)

1340 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A group of families of political prisoners have reportedly gathered in front of the office of the Tehran Prosecutor General to protest the detention of their relatives. (http://fb.me/ER74sOKd)

1330 GMT: Larijani Watch. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said that that he is ready to “confront the government through legal channels” if they refuse to send their legislation to the parliament for review: “According to the constitution, government legislation has to be relayed to the parliament to assure correspondence with the law. But it is a while now that this has not been done and this is a blatant breach of law.”

Asked if he will summon President Ahmadinejad to the Parliament, Larijani said that it is not yet time for such an action.

The President’s parliamentary deputy has denied the allegation and said the Government is delivering the new legislation to Parliament before execution. (http://bit.ly/ccwHpe)

1315 GMT: We have posted a separate analysis considering the establishment of War with Iran as part of "normal" discussion in the US media.

1300 GMT: Missing Lawyer Mostafaei Update. A follow-up to this week's story on EA by Josh Shahryar about prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who went into hiding after Iranian authorities tried to detain him, arresting his wife and brother-in-law....

Mostafaei has now written to the Tehran Prosecutor General, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi. An Iranian activist summarises the letter, "I'll give myself in if my wife and brother-in law are released, and I am guaranteed a fair trial and legal process. Otherwise, catch me if you can." (http://bit.ly/9e9TLz)

1100 GMT: Threat of the Day. The head of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, has become the go-to guy for Iranian state media for quotes challenging sanctions, and he does not disappoint today: “The European Union will receive an appropriate response should it put into practice [new] sanctions against the Iranian nation.” (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136860§ionid=351020104)

0600 GMT: We begin this morning with a feature from Mr Verde considering how the current political crisis is bringing out new information and debate on the Iran of the 1980s and the war with Iraq.


Meanwhile....


Getting (and Understanding) the News from Iran


Azadeh Moaveni has a sharp, incisive anlaysis on Foreign Policy, "What the West Isn't Hearing About":


With reporters on the ground so compromised by self-censorship, our ability to get a decent read of public opinion in Iran, let alone any smart, rigorously reported insight into domestic politics -- the opposition's strategy, the displeasure of the ayatollahs in Qom, the establishment's discomfiture at the prospect of sanctions -- is nonexistent. Even small, telling stories have become too sensitive to report, like the post-election defection of young journalists from Press TV (the government's English-language TV network) [Editor's Note: EA knows about this from personal correspondence with sources] or the distressing rise of so-called "experimental hires" as firms exploit young people's desperation for jobs to extract months of unpaid work under the false premise of a trial period....


It is perhaps understandable that Western readers are less interested in granular details from Iran than in the broad geopolitical sweep of the last year. But the loss of these stories is still a travesty, for it obscures the extent to which the spirit of the opposition still rules Iran. Certainly, the Islamic Republic knows better than to underestimate the scale and depth of people's disillusion and the swiftness with which inchoate grievances can be transformed into running street battles. A year after events so extraordinary that staid Tehran matrons found themselves setting fire to the barracks of Iran's feared Basij paramilitary, it would be unfortunate indeed if Western journalists, with whatever good intentions, faltered in their understanding of Iran, when it is so obvious that the regime itself acknowledges the power of its foes.


The Detained Americans


President Obama has made another appeal to Tehran to free three Americans --- Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal --- detained one year ago when they allegedly crossed the Iran-Iraq border on foot.


Sarah, Shane and Josh committed absolutely no crime. Yet for a full year, they have been held in prison, causing extraordinary grief and uncertainty for them, for their families, and for their loved ones. I want to be perfectly clear: Sarah, Shane and Josh have never worked for the United States government....


I call on the Iranian government to immediately release Sarah, Shane and Josh. Their unjust detention has nothing to do with the issues that continue to divide the United States and the international community from the Iranian government.


On a related matter, Iranian-American academic Kian Tajbakhsh, sentenced last autumn to 15 years in prison (later reduced to 5 years on appeal), remains on temporary release.


Friday
Jul232010

Iran Interview: Detained US Hiker's Mother "I Wish I Could Hear Her Voice""

In Rah-e-Sabz, Masih Alinejad interviews Nora Shourd, whose daughter Sarah was one of three US citizens detained by Iranian authorities last summer when they allegedly hiked across the Iraq-Iran border. Translation by Farzaneh Abdavinejad:

Q- Mrs. Shourd, who told you about Sarah and her friends' arrest, and how did you feel when you heard that Iran had arrested your daughter?

A- I went for a walk next to Oakland River [in California] when I heard the news. I was too shocked to understand what I needed to do at that moment. When I heard she was arrested in Iran, the only thing I could think about, was to go to the first travel agency and get a ticket to Iran. I had to go and rescue my child. Each mother knows how shocking this news can be, especially when another country is keeping your child under arrest.

I had a terrible day that I will never forget. The only thought I had on my mind, was going to Iran, yet it was not possible. I was worried.

Q- In Iran they usually do not tell the families where the prisoner is kept and what the charge is. When did you understand what Sarah and her friends' charge was and where they were being kept?

A- After we called everywhere, we realised that they were kept in Tehran, yet it was not really clear what crime they had committed. When we met the children in Tehran, Shane [Bauer], who is Sarah's boyfriend and my future son-inlaw, told us that when the Iranians arrested them, they were not in Iranian territory at all.

Q- Before I ask you about your trip to Iran, would you please describe your feelings before you were allowed to go and meet your daughter?

A- I thought it would be natural that they would allow me at least to speak to my daughter, but they did not for ten months. After ten months I had a very short phone conversation with Sara. That was tough, so tough. I had decided to write to her everyday, I mean there was not even one day when I did not write to her.

Q- But the prisoners in Iran are not permitted access to the internet.

A- That is why I sent all the e-mails to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran and asked them to send my letters to my daughter.

Q- Can I ask you what you wrote about to your daughter, and if they ever gave her your letters?

A- Out of 351 letters I had written, only 60 of them were given to her. I, as a mother, wrote to her about anything that happened to me. I wrote to her so many times that people and her friends had not forgotten her. I even wrote that many of the Iranians we met in the US showed their sympathy and sadness about our daughter's imprisonment.

I was so bored of writing the "You will be free soon" sentence. I was really tired of saying that "soon" word, and I gradually tried to write to my daughter about daily matters. I told her that every time when I go to take a walk next to the river, my mind is full of her memories. That was her right to know that her mother had not forgotten her, all the time she was being kept in a cell.

Q- Was she ever able to reply to any of your letters?

A- Sarah told she replied to my letters, but nobody sent them to me. Then the other children [fellow detainees Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal] also told me that they write a lot to their families, but we just got nothing.

Q- Now, if you wish to tell us about your trip in last April to Iran, I would like to ask you how it developed and if you got the chance to meet any of the Iranian authorities?

A- All of the visits were organised by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, and we did want to meet Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Larijani, the head of the judiciary in Iran, but they did not give us this opportunity. The only ones we were allowed to meet, were two of the interrogators.

Q- Why did you want to meet Ahmadinejad?

A- I think he is the only one who has the power to release our children at the moment. Ahmadinejad had said that he would give the greatest possible mitigation for our children. Mr. Ahmadinejad surely has children and he definitely knows how we are suffering. He had promised that our children would have the Islamic mercy in the Islamic Republic of Iran's prisons, but it has been a year and we have not seen any mercy yet.

Q- You mentioned that everything for your trip was organised by the Iranian foreign ministry. Did you get to see [Foreign Minister] Mottaki who had described the American hikers' situation as a very good one?

A- Both Mr. Mottaki and Mr. Larjani told us that our children's condition is very good in prison, but the reality is something else that what they claimed. After all, we did not succeed in telling them in person how our children's situation was different....I mean since they were arrested, not even one of them has been interrogated and they have had no trials.

Q- During all this year that your daughter is in solitary confinement, have you followed her case, asking her lawyer?

A- Yes, we asked Mr. Shafiee, the lawyer that is chosen by Iranian authorities, but we never got any responses. My daughter has begged them to let her have at least one cellmate in order not to feel so lonely. It is very difficult to be in a cell for one year and, depending on [the reading of the] Convention of Human Rights, solitary confinement can be torture. The only excuse they give is that nobody knows how to speak in English, so they can not be Sarah's companions, but everybody knows that there are many Iranian students in prison at the moment who are able to speak in English. My daughter, told them that if they let her out of the cell, it would be possible to talk to the others using body language and gestures.