Today at last Amir went to the judge and judge ruled that he has to be moved to the Evin prison. Her sister asked the judge "What is Amir's crime?! Is talking with people and gathering signatures illegal?". He asnwered "Being Legal or Illegal is not the issue. The issue for me is the reason of doing this. He is man, so WHY he is active in these women's issues? He has to study and nothing more". And this man is our JUDGE! He has to learn that being a feminist or believing the equality of men and women is not dependent on being MAN or WOMAN. It depends on having a functioning mind.



Oh ! And one important point to mention. In Iran Hijab is obligatory but we have two kind of Hijab; Manto and Chador. Chador is a big black scarf which reaches to the floor and Muslims wears it. But the Manto is a more moderated hijab just like a long shirt plus a scarf. This one is easier to wear and most of the Iranians wears that (or forced to wear that). I've just learned that if you do not wear Chador (the long black scarf) you DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO ENTER ANY COURT! It means if you do not wear chador, you do not have the right to justice! Same thing applies to many hospitals and official offices. This is a shame: If you do not act as I say, you do not have any right in this regime.

Yesterday we again went to the gathes of the "court" and the "prison". Amir will spend one more night there without any written/said reason and have to go the court the day after (saturday).

I've got "leftists announcement about imprisoned students" containing known students who are in prisons:

1- Morteza Eslahchi
2- Abdollah Momeni
3- Bahare Hedayat
4- Ali Vafghi
5- Hanif Yazdani
6- Mehdi Arabshahi
7- Mohammad Hashemi
8- Ali Nikoonesbati
9- Abbah Hakimzadeh
10- Keyvan Ansari
11- Ali saberi
12- Pooya Mahmoodiyan
13- Ehsan Mansoori
14- Ahmad Ghasaban
15- Majid Tavakkoli
16- Majid Sheykhpoor
17- Meghdad Khalilpoor
18- Bahram Fayazi
19- Mojtaba Bayat
20- Masood Habibi
21- Arash Khandal
22- Ashkan Ghiyasvand
23- Saeed Hosseinnia
24- Amirhossein Mehrzad
25- Habib Haj heydari
26- Amir Yagoubali

Pooof... 26 students in prison just for being political dissidents. We are in summer and the universities are closed. It seems authorities are using this opportunity to raid civil groups.
Look at this cartoon (Rooz/Nikahang Kosar)




(The statue is the entrance of the Tehran University). Obviously Nikahang lives abroad.

P.S. Osanloo (the head of Bus drivers syndicate) was kidnapped three days ago by unknown people. Today -after all of the worldwide efforts- the authorities announced: "He is is Evin Prison".

We went to the police station in the morning. When we arrived, there were some other friends there, say 5. They were standing in the street in front of the police station and told us they have met Amir Yahgoubali for a couple mintues. He was arrested yesterday around 21 in park while talking with people about the 1'000'000 million campaign which is a campaign for equal rights for women and men.

Now he is at the police station and not a actual prison. He has spent there the last night and this morning they brought him to the drugs judge. I mean the judge who is specialized in drug cases! He ordered him to spend one more night in the prison and return back tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday and the official holiday in Iran. There is no much hope for his release or even meeting the judge tomorrow buy we will be there 8am because if they will bring him to the judge, we can see him (and he can see us) at the police station's gate.

They did not gave him proper / enough food but the young policeman who was in charge of his transportation, agreed to wait some minutes so his father can buy something from a nearby shop and give it him. Tomorrow morning we will go there again so we might be able to see him if they will bring him to the judge.

The SMS was short: "Amir-Y is arrested, while collection signatures for the 1 million campaign". Around 22:00 last night.

After some calling I've found out that he was collecting signatures in a part, when police have arrested him. He is also one of my close friends and we spend last week with each other, designing two websites for Iranian NGOs. Right now I am going to the police station to see what is happening there. I had a SMS which said "Some friends are gathering in front of the police station". Leila (my wife) and I are going to join them :) bye. I hope this would be "short bye" and will try to return back and update my site in a few hours.

He is young (20 I think) and very talented. He studies journalism at the university and have helped many groups to start their websites, start their twitters weblogs and he is a podcasting professional.

in the Comments of the previous post I Kaveh writes:

hey u useless basterd...what made u betray ? western fu**ng ISM s ? liberalism ? fredom ? twisty fuck ! i wish i could be back to iran. jpost has linked u ! u were filtered in ur OWN country huh ? u piece of shit betraying ur own nation and claiming freedom . what kind of bastards u are . do i need to tell em chase u and behead u right by ur door ? im not a muslim , im zoroastrian but sick of u mindless peaple who think they are the ones who want the best for iran . everyone betraying iran should be killed , at least till we are in a war ( cold or HOT war ! dont care ). improve ur english befor shiting around!

Talking like this and send hate letters is normal and understandable but I want to write about the betraying which means revealing secrets to the Enemy.

Enemy is a VERY famous concept in my country. Have you read Orwells 1984? They also have to have an Enemy because they have to have someone to tolerate(?) bear the burden of all the problems. Here, we also have an Enemy. It used to be "East and West" 27 years ago but know it is limited to USA and Israel and from a few months ago we started to talk with the USA too. But our regime needs an Enemy to survive. We are a rich country with a rich history. The commenter calls himself a Zoroastrian. A religion in which you have to have good thoughts, good words and good deeds. But read his comment again, he talks about killing, beheading and killing everyone! You see, this is why you need an ENEMY to be able to remain a fundamentalist, what ever belief you may have.

An ENEMY also helps authorities as an every-where-working answer. It is because of the Enemy that we are hungry. It is because of the Enemy that we are the first consumer of the opium in the world and it is because of the Enemy that we have to be the second worst country in filtering the Internet in the world.

The concept of Enemy is changing during the decades. As I said, it was merely "all the world" in the first years of the revolution but after a few years we excluded Africa, then Asia, then the communist(!) China, then North Korea, then the south Korea, And after a decade the Imperialists like France, Germany and then England and at last talked with the USA, the big satan. So who is the Enemy who does not lets us to promote? THE INTERNAL ENEMY! Check the authorities speaks in these years and you will hear about the Internal Enemy. Some of them are in the Universities, some of them even wear Bad Hijab and walk in the streets to pervert(?) the youngsters. Some of them are in the newspapers. Some are teachers, some are workers and even some are some of the Mullas who are under home arrest or in the prisons. Undoubtedly most of them are in the Internet and Weblogs.

This is the new enemy: The Internal Enemy. And they are betraying the country. Yesterday the police arrested 12 people. Twelve former students who were asking for justice for their friends. Police raided to their office and shut some bullets and told to the people "We are anti-drug police". The were also Internal Enemies.

Let me return back to the betraying concept. You accuse me of betraying and the punishment of the betraying is dying. No problem. But I want to ask you what is the Betray? Is it asking for justice? Is it asking for peace? I am seeing the problem, the torture and the injustice which is happening in my own country. I am reacting to it. I am proud of this although it might be dangerous. Betraying is seeing this and remaining calm. the TRUE betraying is being part of this unjust system and earning your living from it.

At the end, I have to add that I am against USA Bush and all war lords too. When I say I am an incident, it does not mean I am with it's "enemies". It means I hope peace, wealth and health for my country. And I have to tank Kaveh because he made me to write these ideas and also helped me to write my longest English post in my life :) I was looking to write some more in depth posts, but was not brave enough to start.

Remember the 12 June demonstrations last year ? The one in which police attacked the women in the 7tir square. I wrote about it those days (Photo essay of police attack to womens peaceful gathering and 12June demonstrations and Police attacked women's rights demonstrators). OK? It was a brutal attack to the women who were gathered there to say "We want equal rights with the men, we don't want to be half of a man in front of the law. We are HUMAN too".

And police attacked them with baton, kicks and cuffs. Here is the famous picture of my very close friend, Delaram Ali.



She was also there. When police attacked, she did not ran. She waited there maybe to "TALK" with the police. And yesterday was her "court". In Islamic Republic of Irans courts, two people may face two totally different punishes because of the same "crime" and this happened again. Delaram Ali, condemned to:

• 6 months in prison for Propaganda against the system.


• 2 years in prison for participating in an "illegal" gathering. I have to mention that our Constitution says "Article 27 [Freedom of Assembly]: Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.". Therefor saying the 12 June gathering was illegal means that the equality between men and women is against the fundamental principles of Islam!


• 4 months jail term and 10 lashes on the back: for disturbing people and the social order

This is not silliness, this is not making order. This is BRUTALITY, pure brutality. I know Delaram VERY closely.



She is a volunteer teacher for Afghan children who do not have the right of going to school in Iran. She is going to spend three years of his life in prison and be tied to somewhere and be whipped lashed for 10 times in her back just for believing in "women should be equal to men". This tyranny is Unbelievable. I hope she asks for the "repeat" of the court (they can do it once) and something changes.