Standing up to the Mullahs

The US Alliance for Democratic Iran:

Alas, it had to be Zahra Kazemi’s life to again bring the world’s attention to the barbaric treatment Iranians, particularly women, get from Iran’s ruling regime. Still, it is very quiet out there. There was no condemnation and no serious international response to hold Tehran to account for its murderous conduct in light of new appalling revelations. READ MORE

The 54-year-old Iranian-Canadian photojournalist was murdered in prison in June 2003. She was arrested outside of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison while taking photographs of the families of young Iranians arrested during student protests against the ruling theocracy.

According to a former Iranian army doctor who examined her before she died in a military hospital emergency room, Kazemi was beaten, tortured and raped. Dr. Shahram Azam, who recently received political asylum in Canada, has told Canadian media that Kazemi was brought from Evin prison unconscious with bruises all over her body. She had a skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe and a smashed nose, deep scratches on the neck and evidence of flogging on the legs and back.

Still Western capitals from Washington to London, were intentionally silent in condemnation of Tehran’s barbaric murder of Kazemi. The EU’s faltering nuclear negotiations with Tehran, it seems, has left them speechless in denouncing the mullahs’ blatant murder of Kazemi. Washington, eager not to appear hindering the EU-Tehran meaningless nuclear talks, has kept a low profile on this and other rights violations in Iran. Canadian government’s statements in light of new revelations amounted to nothing more than a rehash of its previous positions. Human rights organizations have not faired any better.

Kazemi’s case opens a window into the role Iranian women are playing against the tyranny of mullahs. Make no mistake, as an Iranian woman who in her capacity as a journalist defied the mullahs, her gender was the main reason to arouse the barbaric wrath of the theocratic establishment. Her tragic murder made Kazemi the face of thousands of Iranian women who have died or have been tortured in the hands of mullahs for daring to make a stand for freedom and resisted their tyranny.

Kazemi’s brave defiance of the mullahs by no means was an isolated case. From the 1906 Constitutional movement to the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution to the nationwide resistance to the ruling theocracy, women have always been a key component of anti-dictatorial movements in Iran.

Misogyny is the lynch pin of the fundamentalist ideology ruling Iran. Institutionalized violence is carried out in the name of God. No other government in the world has executed as many women as the Iranian regime has since the 1979 revolution. A common method of punishing women in public is by stoning them to death. At least 14 women have been sentenced to stoning or stoned to death since 1997 when Mohammad Khatami came to office. Iran has had the highest number of female prisoners in the world.

The women in Iran, of course, have persevered. When they rise against oppression, they shake the regime to its foundations. Just last month, an anti-government riot erupted in Tehran following a soccer match between Iran and Japan. Women who are banned from attending soccer matches actively took part in this riot calling for the overthrow of the mullahs.

It is outright unconscionable that as the new revelations about Kazemi’s murder made it through international media, the mullahs’ president Mohammad Khatami received a red-carpet welcome in Austria and France. Eager to strike new lucrative deals with Tehran, the EU has made of a mockery of its long-held claim to be the land of upholding human rights. When it comes to choosing between commerce and Zahra Kazemis of Iran, the EU capitals made their choice a long time ago: Euro over human rights.

The most meaningful comment about Kazemi’s case was probably made last week by her son, Stephan Hashemi. "I'm continuing what my mother has started by standing up to the Iranian regime," he said. And that is exactly what men and women of Iran will do to bring the ruling tyrants down.