Nasrin Parvaz

 

February 2008

 

 

 


An open letter to Friends of Islamic Republic of Iran,

Cuban and Venezuela’s governments

 

Iran’s Che Guevaras are under torture

 

 

 

 

Dear Castro and Chavez,

 

You claim that you defend freedom and for this reason I thought to ask you to look at the freedom-seeking students in prison in Iran. Before explaining the students’ situation, I would like to introduce myself.

I became a civil rights activist after the toppling of Shah by the people’s uprising in 1979. I thought, after all, people died for having freedom of expression and the rights of union, etc. and I had to defend it too. As a result of engaging in civil rights activities I was arrested and sentenced to death, which was commuted to imprisonment by my father’s intervention. However, I was tortured as same as many other prisoners to appear in a TV confession to say that I was Iraq’s spy. At that time, for the regime, Iran’s enemy was Iraq, because there was a war between the two countries. Prisoners underwent severe torture to appear on a TV confession show. More than thirty prisoners complied with this, when they could not bear torture any longer.

Now, twenty five years later, the same thing is happening in Iranian prisons. Students of a new movement are under torture to agree to do a TV confession; to say they are America’s agents or are members of political groups. One of the students (Peyman Piran) has had his shoulder and leg broken to force him to do the public confession. The news is familiar to me, because of my experience. But I cannot remain silent, and after a week sit-in in front of Amnesty International in London, I am writing to you as friends of the Islamic regime that at the same time claim to care for freedom. 

  

Over two months have elapsed since the arrest of tens of student activists and their leaders from universities across the country. All the information and news reaching us point to a systematic and brutal torture of the detainees at the hands of the security forces and the interrogators. These students were participants and organisers of peaceful demonstrations, that have been accused of fabricated charges of undermining state security and links with opposition political forces. This is a blatant and dangerous conspiracy against the arrested students.

 

These students have been arrested for participating in a peaceful demonstration to commemorate December 7 (16th Azar Solar calendar), the National Students' Day in Iran. Students in Iran have been commemorating this day since 1953 when three students were killed at the hands of the previous monarchist regime.

 

Apart from calling for freedom and equality, this year with the looming threat of US war against Iran, the student activists had opted for a call to end the threat of the war and the war-mongering of the US. However, you might hear from the Islamic regime that the arrested students and other political prisoners are pro-America. I have to say that these students are against America’s intervention in Iran or any other country. At the same time they call for freedom of expression in Iran.

 

The heavy-handed approach of the security forces in dealing with the students defies every international law and protocol on individual and civil rights. The arbitrary nature of their arrests and the fact that no formal charges have been lodged against the students and the fact that the families and the lawyers of the students have been prevented from any contacts with them are all serious causes for concern.

 

I call on you as the head of Cuban and Venezuelan governments to intervene and act to put pressure on the Iranian authorities to release the detained students. I call on you as friends of the Islamic regime to take on the case of these students, as they are clearly prisoners of conscience.

 

The number of jailed students imprisoned since December 2, 2007 has risen to 50; and arrests continue in different towns. Some of the arrested students whose well-being in prison I am concerned for, due to their being under torture to agree to TV confessions, are:

Behrooz Karimizadeh, Peyman Piran, Amin Ghaziee, Soroushe Shabestani, Nader Ahsani, Bizhan Sabagh, Sdra Haidari, Majid Ashrafnezhad, Anoosheh Azaadbar.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information regarding students please check below links:

http://freeirstudent.blogspot.com/

http://azady-barabary.com/