In Iran, images speak
Civil resistance against the regime grows stronger.
Funeral procession of Ayatollah Montazeri: Photo by Nima Fatemi.
T he pro-democracy
during
Aashura commemorates the death of
protest
movement in Iran was violently
attacked Aashura
commemorations on December 27, 2009.
Mohammad’s grandson and many of his
followers in battle.
According to official sources, eight
people were killed, but other sources
claim that the number is much higher.
Since then, more than a thousand people
have been arrested across Iran. On the
morning of December 28 and 29, many
prominent political and civil rights
activists, student activists, and women
rights activists were arrested.
Concerns about the expansion of
22 January/February 2010
By Parvin Ardalan
repression, and the implementation of a
military state grow daily. The news pours
in. It does not matter where you are
located. On the verge of the new year, Iran
has transformed into one of the hottest
news stories, not only for the news media,
but for governments, policymakers and
analysts alike.
After thirty years of the Islamic
Republic, marked with two supreme
leaders, six presidents, thousands of
deaths, executions and the imprisonment
of political and social activists and
systematic repression, hope has fled the
hearts of many, while scores have been
forcibly exiled. Despite this, the actions of
the Islamic Republic have unintentionally
Independent World report
led to a large informal, diasporic
network that exposes the regime, acts
as a mediator for contacts, and forwards
news about Iran to the outside world, on
a daily basis. Today, the world watches
the developments in Iran in disbelief, but
hope has found its place in the hearts of
the Iranian people. These people are even
their own media.
One day before the winter solstice
– the longest night of the year – and
a few days before Christmas and the
start of 2010, security forces from the
intelligence ministry went to the home
of Somayeh Rashidi, a twenty-four-year
old women’s rights and student activist.
After responding to a summons to appear
Photo by Hamed Saber.

Independent World report January/February 2010 23

“Fascist president: Polytechnical University is not your place” - Mohammad Yousef Rashidi: Photo via Change for Equality.

24 January/February 2010 Independent World report

Photo by Hamed Saber.
in court, she was arrested.
Somayeh’s image sits next to the news
we have published on her arrest, and it
is transmitted throughout the world by
the media and by women’s networks.
Somayeh was accepted for masters level
study, but because of her activities she
has been barred from further study. She
has become a starred student, the term
used to refer to students who are barred
from the university.
Students who are starred, receive a star
next to their name on the entrance exam
forms. They are marked in this manner
and prevented from continuing their
studies. Perhaps this strategy is modelled
after Nazi Germany, where political
opponents – such as Jews, Romani people,
and homosexuals – were identified in a
similar fashion.
Somayeh belongs to the generation of
Iranian youth born after the Revolution.
She was born in a religious city and to
a religious family, and belongs to that
which among Iranians is familiarly called
the revolution’s generation – a product of
a country governed by Islamic laws.
One day, along with other female
students, Somayeh pushed aside the
fabric curtain that separated the eating
areas of male and female students in the
university cafeteria and proceeded to
eat her lunch in the men’s section. Her
action resulted in a one-term suspension
from university studies, as well as an
aluminium partition between men and
women in the cafeteria, in place of the
fabric curtain.
But, this did not stop her. Somayeh is
the fifty-fifth person who has been arrested
for activism on behalf of women’s rights
with the intent of ending discrimination
against women. One day after her arrest,
the minister of intelligence explained in
an interview that they have identified the
leaders of the disturbances.
He proceeded to identify women’s
rights activists, student activists and
political activists as those leading the
disturbances. A few days later, the state
run Iranian television broadcast staged
confessions by student activists. Having
relations with an Iranian opposition
group, which is listed as a terrorist
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group, is not a new accusation, but more
recently we see that these accusations are
being launched against younger social
activists.
The accusation of cooperating with
foreign governments and spying on their
behalf increases pressure by foreign
governments on the government of Iran,
but relations with an opposition group
that is Iranian, becomes a national issue
and reduces international pressures.
Moving on from Somayeh’s picture,
my gaze rests on the image of Mohammad
Yousef Rashidi, suspended student from
Amir Kabir University. He holds a sign
in his hands during a conference held by
the Iranian president that reads: “Fascist
president; Polytechnical University is
not your place.” He was arrested. It is
evident from this image that this brave
student does not want to be portrayed as
a victim, nor is he asking for any help. He
is determined and urges all to join him in
his belief.
Mohammad is only slightly older
than Sohrab Arabi, one of those who was
killed in the public protests, following
January/February 2010 25
Sometime before his death, Sohrab Arabi with his mother Parvin Fahimi: Photo via Change for Equality.
the disputed June 2009 election in Iran.
Parvin Fahimi, Sohrab’s mother, searched
desperately for her son in various prisons
and government offices, for twenty days.
Finally, they gave Parvin her son’s corpse.
Now, she is one of the mothers who, along
with other mothers who mourn the loss
of the children of Iran, gather in parks on
Saturdays around the same time that Neda
Agha Soltan, who has been transformed
into the symbol of the movement for
democracy in Iran, was shot.
Images speak. This time, it is the image
of veiled men, wearing women’s Islamic
headdress, or the hijab. After the arrest
of Majid Tavakoli, a student activist, an
image of him wearing the hijab is widely
published by government news outlets
with the intent to humiliate him, women
and all that is feminine.
But in response, the images of Iranian
men also adorned with scarves and the
chador (a black full length covering)
appear in the virtual realm. These men
proclaim that they too are Majid Tavakoli.
Shortly following this action, non-Iranian
men follow suit, and these images also
reach the world. The protest action
continues and women’s rights activists
announce their support of the protest
26 January/February 2010
initiated by men, by issuing an analytical
statement criticising the concept of forced
veiling and a call for freedom of dress
for women. They announce that being a
woman is not humiliating, and that men
who dress in women’s clothes should not
feel humiliated. The statement receives
support from both men and women.
The frozen image of Grand Ayatollah
Montazeri after his death is yet another
image which appeared unexpectedly.
Montazeri, who is one of the theorists
behind the concept of supreme leadership,
is also one of the oldest religious leaders
who criticised both the supreme leaders
of the Islamic Republic, along with its six
presidents.
Montazeri was instrumental in laying
the foundation for the coming to power
of Ayatollah Khomeini. His critical stance
with respect to the mass executions of
political activists in the first decade of
the revolution and after that, and his
criticism of those in power, at a time when
he too was a part of the power structure,
separates his line of thinking and his
position from the establishment.
An Iranian saying that could describe
this situation goes “the knife does not cut
its own handle.” The knife of the regime
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has committed many atrocities thus far,
without cutting its handle, including
attack against political dissidents,
flogging, imprisonment, execution, and
stoning. But presently, the attack against
the regime from within has started.
Now, we have to say that the knife has
cut its own handle. The prominent role
of Montazeri was the exposed symbol
of this internal attack. Currently, the
attack is not only directed toward the
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenie, but has
also targeted the role of Khomeni as the
founder of the Islamic Republic and has
grown even broader to take aim at the
structure of an Islamic state.
The news from Iran, and the images
that accompany it, are examples of
a variety of generations and groups
who have one thing in common – the
undermining of an authoritative and
religious structure, through distancing
themselves from hopelessness and
cynicism, and by working towards
increasing society’s resistance.
This is the strategy that women are
very familiar with. One of the issues
addressed through headdress trainings
about violence, is awareness of the cycle
of violence. In other words, silence,
Photo by Hamed Saber.
more than any other factor, promotes
the continuation of violence, whether it
be domestic violence, sexual violence,
political violence or social violence.
For this reason, we as women learn
how to resist violence. Perhaps this
is a good analogy for the civil rights
movements in Iran, which more than
anything are working to resist political,
social, gender-based, ethnic and religious
violence. In essence, the civil resistance
in Iran has expanded in scope and size.
This resistance has brought back hope
to all our hearts. Six months ago, these
protests began in response to election
fraud. Today, these protests have not died
down, nor have their demands remained
static. Slowly, with the expression of
each new demand, a new group joins the
struggle and the power of civil resistance
expands.
The Iranian regime’s increasing use of
violence during the last few weeks is an
obvious sign of its desperation. Besides
the physical violence, the most worrisome
is how the regime is splitting the Iranian
people. After every demonstration, the
regime mobilises all of its resources in
order to bring real people out on the streets
to show its strength in relation to others
who, according to them, are imposters
and foreign agents. By placing Iranians in
opposition to one another, the regime
has tried over a long period to increase
the mental and psychological suspicion
among the people.
The news of the democratic movement
of Iran portrays a secular image, which
has come from the last thirty years of
history in Iran, with both its religious and
non-religious citizens. It is varied and
colourful like a canvas which includes
diverse colours representing a multiplicity
of ideas, religions and traditions.
No longer can we give this protest
movement a religious hue – not even
with the creation of mythological
characteristics attributed to its leaders,
not even with the death of the revered
Ayatollah Montazeri. This movement
is coupled with a constant and critical
examination from within, by some of
those who have served as the regime’s
leaders, some who have served as
spectators and some who have been the
regime’s victims.
For years, the international press only
heard and presented the official views and
images from Iran. The justification that
“Iranians do not have a problem,” was a
Independent World report
good excuse for minimising the struggle
spearheaded by social movements and
the Iranian public. The excuse also
served as the basis for increasing and
expanding political and economic ties,
as well as cooperation with the Iranian
government.
Now, the images speak for themselves.
They speak of a people who are rejecting
the status quo. Even biased media can no
longer disregard the Iranian public. We
must wait and see what the governments
that claim to be democratic choose as
their strategy. What will be the image of
themselves that these governments will
choose to project in the year 2010, to the
world? �
Parvin Ardalan – Iranian women’s
rights activist and journalist – is the
cover person of this issue of Independent
World Report. She is one of the architects
of the One Million Signatures campaign:
we-change.org/english. A version of this
article, in Swedish, was earlier published
by Dagens Nyheter.
January/February 2010 27

LGBT people in Uganda live under threat and fear.
T he Kampala night club seems like
your typical bar – a DJ blasting
raucous dance music, drinking,
laughing and even some furtive flirting
are the order of the night. However, this
remains one of Uganda’s few gay friendly
bars. On a recent visit, as the debate rages
over the controversial Anti-Homosexuality
Bill 2009, a current of fear and anxiety is
felt beneath the veneer of another night
out. One man notes wearily, “Why is that
so shocking to you? This is the country
that wants to kill and imprison us.”
While life has never been easy for
Uganda’s marginalised gay community, it
could get a whole lot harder should the
bill pass. Amos, an eloquent man in his
early thirties committed in a relationship
for many years notes, “Do some people
know? Yes. Do some people suspect? Yes.
Can they prove it in court? No. The new
bill changes that.”
As a group of seventeen human rights
organisations notes in a recent statement,
the bill “includes a provision that could
lead to the imprisonment for up to three
years of anyone, including heterosexual
people, who fails to report within twenty-
four hours the identities of everyone
they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual,
or transgender, or who supports human
rights for people who are... The draft bill
seeks to imprison anyone convicted of
the offence of homosexuality for life.”
The bill – known as the Bahati Bill, after
David Bahati, the member of parliament
who privately tabled it in October 2009
– comes out of an environment that is
already deeply inimical to alternative
lifestyles and any perceived threat to
the traditional family. 94% of Ugandans
consider themselves religious and 95%
strongly oppose the legalisation of same-
sex relations.
As one of Pastor Rick Warren’s
purpose-driven nations, Uganda has become
a test-tube for Western evangelicals. The
coalescence of the church and the state
is the norm in this profoundly religious
28 January/February 2010
Report
Outcast
By Ariel Rubin
country that received millions of dollars
for its abstinence programs from the
Bush Administration.
Warren, the highly influential US
evangelical holds immense sway in
Uganda. While finally condemning the
bill after a great deal of recent pressure,
Warren remains the same man who,
in an April 2008 visit to Kampala, told
religious leaders that homosexuality is
not a natural way of life and, thus, not a
human right, “We shall not tolerate this
aspect at all.”
As Anglican priest Kapya Kaoma notes
in a recent article, the religious orthodoxy
of many African churches provided the US
religious right with a golden opportunity
to extend the church’s influence into
the government. According to Kaoma,
“Africans resonate with the denunciation
of homosexuality as a post-colonial plot.”
Ugandan homophobia, thus, ironically
doubles as an expression of resistance to
the West while being stoked and funded
by conservative leaders and church clergy
from the very same West. A recent news
item in the Vision newspaper, about Ethics
and Integrity Minister James Buturo’s
refusal to capitulate to donor country
demands to scrap the bill, sums up the
sentiment perfectly: We will not bend over
for aid, Butoro tells donors.
In a country where the notion of
atheism is scoffed at as a joke, and a
deep-seated fear pervades over the
undue influence of Western decadence
and liberalism, political elites have
managed to introduce the perfect bill to
distract much of the country from the
entrenched problems like corruption and
unaccountability.
This is a country whose tabloid daily
– The Red Pepper – routinely publishes
articles with titles like Homo terror and List
of tycoons who bankroll homos, in addition
to notorious dossiers of first names,
professions and physical descriptions of
alleged homosexuals.
As the campaigning season for the 2011
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Ugandan elections is set to commence, the
Anti-Homosexuality Bill further presents
the opportunity for the ruling National
Resistance Movement government to
shore up popular support by vilifying an
already marginalised minority.
With the violence of the September
2009 riots still fresh and murmurs of
deep-seated unrest in this tribally-
divided country, the fervour over the
inflammatory bill has played directly into
the hands of those who introduced it.
As Sylvia Tamale – Dean, Makerere
Law School – warns in a recent debate
over the issue, “Anyone who cares to read
history books knows very well that in
times of crisis, when people at the locus
of power are feeling vulnerable and their
power is threatened, they will turn against
the weaker groups in the society.”
When discussing the bill, Tamale still
can hardly believe it came into fruition.
Clearly, the bill’s author is no lawyer, she
notes, as it violates tenets of the 1995
constitution while legally the parliament
lacks the power to nullify inconsistent
treaties or constitutional provisions.
“You cannot put this in a bill if you know
your international law.”
Indeed, one of the key consultants
and writers of the bill is not a lawyer
at all, but the controversial Ugandan
pro-family pastor, Martin Ssempa. This
is the pastor, who, over recent years,
burned condoms in the name of Jesus and
arranged for the publication of prominent
homosexuals’ names in local newspapers.
His abstinence-based HIV/AIDS work
was supported by the Bush White House
and he has close ties with the born again
Ugandan first lady, Janet Museveni.
“As Africans, we find the
whole subject of sodomy and
lesbianism an
unacceptable lifestyle.”
A Red Pepper dossier on homosexuals: Scan by Gay Uganda via Box Turtle Bulletin.

Independent World report January/February 2010 29