Category: Articles

Voices in the Middle: Iranian Protesters Between Ayatollahs and Airstrikes

“Both Russia and China have been using up resources in Iran. They don’t care what is happening to the people in the country. They don’t care what will happen to the regime, as long as they secure their profits. The only help they would give to the regime will be open doors for fleeing regime members when they have to run from angry Iranian citizens. There they can drink tea and wine with Asad, who once ruled Syria”, says Nasrin Parvaz in a written interview with Farooq Sulehria which is produced verbatim.

In 1979, following the rise of the Islamic regime, a series of misogynistic laws were introduced. Like many young people of her generation, Nasrin Parvaz became a civil rights activist, actively opposing the regime. However, in 1982, she was arrested and subsequently incarcerated, enduring eight years of torture in prison.

After her release from prison, she resumed her political activism in Iran. However, three years later, she was compelled to flee the country and sought refuge in the UK in 1993. In the UK, she continued her activism, voicing her opposition to various forms of oppression both in Iran and in other countries, including the UK itself. Most recently, she shared her experiences at a TEDx event in April 2025.

She acquired the skills to write about her life and create fiction at the Freedom from Torture writing workshop. Her publications include ‘One Woman’s Struggle in Iran: A Prison Memoir,’ which won the Women’s Issues category at the 2019 International Book Awards, and ‘The Secret Letters from X to A’ (Victorina Press, 2018). Her prison memoir has been published in Spanish and German, with forthcoming translations into Turkish and Kurdish by Aram Yayinevi in 2025. The translator for these editions, Mahmut Yamalak, has been imprisoned in Turkey for 31 years, serving a life sentence. Additionally, her novel ‘The Secret Letters from X to A’ is set to be published in Turkish by Aram Yayinevi in 2025. Her latest novel, ‘Coffee,’ received a long-list nomination for The Bath Novel Award in 2023. Furthermore, her poems and short stories have been featured in several anthologies, such as ‘Songs of Freedom—A Poetry Anthology by Ten Iranian and Afghan Women Poets’ (Afsana Press, 2024). Her works have also appeared in prominent publications, including The Guardian, The Morning Star, LBC, and Huck magazine, among others.

She has also translated poems from Farsi into English, which have been published in ‘Modern Poetry in Translation’ and various other anthologies. Additionally, she published a novel in Farsi about the 1988 massacre of prisoners in Iran, of which she was an eyewitness. Furthermore, her paintings have been accepted for inclusion in exhibitions at numerous galleries, including Sotheby’s and OXO Tower Wharf.

She pursued a degree in psychology and later obtained a master’s degree in international relations. Following this, she completed a postgraduate diploma in applied systemic theory at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, where she collaborated with a team of family therapists. She is a member of Exiled Writers Ink (EWI) and the Society of Authors (SOA). For further information, please visit Official Website of Nasrin Parvaz.

President Trump said on July 23 that the USA might attack Iran yet again. Do you think Washington is likely to repeat attacks?

Nasrin Parvaz – It depends on what they want from the regime, and if the regime will accept it or not. For example if the regime resists a request for them to step down and reform their leadership then yes America may once again attack. In January 1979, America asked the Shah to leave the country and in February they escorted Khomeini into Iran. Of course, as in 1979, western governments decided this in their meeting in Guadeloupe and didn’t let any journalists into their meeting. So the people of the world didn’t know what the west had decided for Iran. Once again it is the same, we don’t know what the plans of the western governments are. In fifty years time the west will release their papers and evidence of what they decided in 2025 for Iran, and why they started illegally bombing the country.

Israel and America have not been ignorant of the regime chanting ‘Death to Israel, Death to America’ for the past 46 years and are not hearing it for the first time only now. One of the reasons that the west needs to change the regime in this particular moment is that they are afraid of people rising up in Iran as much as the regime is. Any change through the people in Iran would inspire others in the region to stand up for their rights against the western installed and backed regimes in their countries too.

Israeli-American bombings are designed to kill people’s revolutionary spirit as much as they are to destabilise the regime. This is done through assassination of the regime’s personnel, so people can’t find any reason to rise against a new regime. It’s like how the west asked Asad to leave Syria and replaced him with another criminal who was on America’s wanted list.

Those on the left, though not all, both inside and outside of Iran, opposed regime change without supporting the Ayatollahs. This was our position.

Nasrin Parvaz – Yes, fortunately many leftists opposed regime change because we know what it means. Iran has experienced two regime changes. First, in 1953 when the UK and the USA removed Mosaddegh and brought back the Shah who had originally fled from Iran in a coup. Secondly, then in 1979. Regime changes are only benefit the west and those at the top of the organisations, bringing nothing but misery for citizens.

The west has been propagandizing the monarchy in order to have an alternative to another governmental regime change in Iran. The Shah’s son praised the bombs landing in Iran and killing civilians. He has no interest in the wellbeing of innocent Iranians just like the Islamic Regime, the Israeli government and Trump.

Now that Washington and Tel Aviv have been unable to bring about a change, how do you evaluate the current situation? Can we consider the failure of the US-Israeli plan to be a positive development?

Nasrin Parvaz –
The plans of America and Israel are not finished. A coup is presently taking place at a brutally slow pace. This is a regime change. Israel hasn’t finished its attacks and it is still assassinating regime personnel. They use drones to explode apartments, houses and cars where regime members are present. With the death of each criminal, more innocent people who live in neighbouring buildings and streets are killed. Everyday people see fires and they know that it is Israel destroying the infrastructure of their society. The regime says there are gas faults or create other fictions to hide the truth. It doesn’t want to show weakness. The west looks the other way, not reporting any of the killing in Iran. The ceasefire never took place inside Iran. Only Iran stopped bombing Israel.

While mainstream media are not covering the issue, Iranian sources report daily on ongoing sabotage activities. Do you believe that Israel has altered its strategy and that the conflict is still ongoing?

Nasrin Parvaz – The Iran-Israel conflict isn’t new. Israel has been undertaking military activities in Iran and sabotaging the regime for many years. They had hit nuclear sights and other places before this year. To name just a few Israeli examples of sabotage before this round of attacks:

In 2024 they had a series of direct confrontations, and at one point in April 2024, the Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes targeting an air defence facility in Iran. They targeted an air defence radar site at an airbase near Isfahan, in central Iran.

On 14 February 2024, there was sabotage at nuclear facilities, natural gas pipelines and nuclear scientists were killed.

In April 2024, an Israeli airstrike demolished the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 16 people. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attack on Israel.

July 31, 2024, Hamas leader Haniyeh was assassinated by Israeli airstrikes during a visit to Tehran.

October, 26, 2024 Israel attacked Iran, striking air defence systems and sites associated with its missile program.

Israel is still launching drones into Iran every day.

To read more on Iranian People’s movement – ‘Iranian regime weakened by war but repression intensified post-ceasefire’

Do you think the Iranian regime is weaker after the war, or has it gained popularity by resisting the US and Israel?

Nasrin Parvaz – The regime is weak, because it has lost many top personnel. The regime hasn’t gained any popularity over the Israel-US attacks on Iran. It is not like the 1980s when people supported the regime during the Iran-Iraq war before returning from the battlefields in death shrouds.

People were already against the regime before the Israel-America attacks and there were many uprisings in Iran. This war didn’t make people support the regime.

Before the Israeli bombings another uprising was beginning to form in Iran. Truck drivers in more than 163 towns had been on strike for three weeks. More than 40 of them have been arrested. It was one of the biggest workers’ strikes in Iran to date. Their strike could have led to a national uprising because of a lack of food distribution, especially in bakeries essential to local people that had been affected.

During the last few days, despite Israeli operations inside Iran, people have come out of shock from the bombings and have started demonstrating and picketing against the regime.

Reports indicate heightened repression in Iran, where dissidents face imprisonment and severe punishments. What does such activity signify? Does it suggest that the regime has regained some legitimacy following the war and is now utilising its power to suppress dissent?

Nasrin Parvaz – During the bombings, prisoners who had been in prison for years were executed with the justification that they were Israeli spies. Arrests and executions are a part of life in Iran, and it shows that this struggle continues. There are prisoners who have been behind bars for 25 years. However, during the bombings the number of arrests was much higher than normal, thousands of people have been arrested.

War has always been an excuse to suppress people. More than five thousand prisoners were executed during the Iran- Iraq war in 1988. Fifty prisoners were taken from the wing I was in and they never came back.

Afghans have been expelled in their hundreds of thousands. While Iran claims to champion the cause of Ummah, how are people within the country responding to the expulsion of Afghans?

Nasrin Parvaz – It’s not only western governments like the UK that use immigrants as a scapegoat. The Islamic regime also blames poverty, lack of jobs, water shortages and electricity failures on refugees from Afghanistan. Just like in the UK, in Iran some people believed the lies of the government and have become racist, turning against innocent people from Afghanistan.

Before Israel attacked Iran, the regime had already created an anti-immigrant climate in the country where Afghans faced regular police violence and discrimination.

In 2024 the regime ordered all undocumented Afghans return to their country. In May 2025 the regime ordered mass deportations of more than 4 million immigrants. They gathered and deported them like slaves. Afghans born in Iran with valid visas have been deported. More than one million refugees were deported in 2025. Many of them were born and raised in Iran during the past four decades. Many of these people are totally integrated into Iran society. They have been ripped away from their lives and friends. The Iranian regime is uprooting Afghan people from their homes and communities. Children who were born in Iran are taken out of their schools and the only environment they grew up in to be deported to Afghanistan. People have had their homes raided simply for being of Afghan origin. They have been arrested and forcibly returned to Afghanistan.

Some Afghans, who were searched and were arrested in the street, were not allowed to go to their homes to pack their things. Some could not receive their rental deposits back after leaving their homes. They were just put on a bus and taken to the border. Many arrived in Afghanistan with no money, no food and no shelter.

Women, girls, activists and journalists who have been deported face high risk of human rights violations at the hands of the Taliban. Severe restrictions on women and girls await. Girls are very upset about not having the right to continue their studies.

Afghans have the lowest class status in Iran. The regime justifies its attack on Afghans by accusing them of ‘collaborating with Mossad to carry out internal terrorist attacks in Iran. Israel assassinated top officials whose addresses would have been inaccessible to Afghans.

Afghans are paid less than Iranian workers. Most of the recently built buildings in Iran, especially in Tehran, are made by Afghans. Yet some people have been brainwashed by the regime and blame Afghans for their own financial woes and treat them badly. For years Afghans have had no right to go to certain towns or areas. They have experienced terrifying discrimination, humiliation, ill-treatment and injustice from the regime and some of its citizens. Many have been facing violence, detention, and abuse.

It is not only Israel that displaces Palestinians from their homes. The Iranian regime is doing the same with Afghans but the difference is that unlike Israel, the Islamic regime doesn’t drop bombs on the Afghans. After the Israeli attacks the regime was like a wounded animal that struck out in anger and deported more than half a million Afghans in mere weeks.

This is the largest forced return in recent memory. Israel’s bombings increased anti-Afghan xenophobia in Iran. Poverty and the current anti-immigrant policies kill empathy in some people. Unfortunately, not many people support Afghans. They’ve believed the regime propaganda that Afghans are Israeli spies. I have seen clips on social media showing Afghans detained in prisons without water and food while waiting to be deported. They have to care for babies without essentials such as baby food. Some local people brought baby milk, nappies, bread and water for them. They tried to pass these things to the locked up Afghans underneath the door of their cages.

Many of these people will end up in Afghanistan carrying painful memories of state racism and an uncertain future. They have left behind everything they built and must start over with nothing but courage and hope. Afghan women are being sent back to a system that hates women for being women. Single women are denied shelter as they lack a male guardian. They are being deported to hell.

Everyone deserves safety and dignity, no matter where they are from. Collective expulsion is illegal. Iran is a signatory. It’s deliberate state policy. No access to asylum. No due process.

If a European regime like Israel can treat people in Palestine as it does today, why can’t the Islamic regime create this terror without condemnation?

Western governments handing power to the Taliban in 2021 caused more Afghans to seek asylum in surrounding countries. Thousands of women and children fled to Iran as refugees escaping from the Taliban.

Europe has said in the past that Afghans will be safe in Iran, and that they should seek protection regionally. Here we go. They’re very safe in the hands of the Islamic regime and Taliban as all can see.

Thank you to the western governments that replaced the Taliban in Afghanistan to put half the population, i.e. women, in prisons. Afghan women have to have the right of refuge based on gender apartheid. But gender-based apartheid is not recognised anywhere, especially in Iran, a country that also practises gender apartheid. Women are at risk in Afghanistan and shouldn’t be deported to it, but no one cares.

Women in western countries have to open their eyes to what their governments have done to women in Afghanistan. They should outstretch their hands towards the women in Afghanistan and try to guarantee women’s refugee rights for women who are living under gender apartheid in countries like Afghanistan.

The western governments that installed the Taliban into power owe the Afghan people. They should give them humanitarian visas and safe pathways for female Afghans and their families out of Iran in order to save them from the Taliban.

How come, the Iranian regime is worried for Palestinian brethren in the name of Islam but not Afghans. Do people in Iran point out these double standards?

I don’t believe that the Islamic regime is worried for Palestinians. When they say Palestine what they really mean is Hamas. While they only support Hamas, they say they support Palestinians. Some people in Iran don’t know the truth and believe what the regime says. They think the regime is supporting Palestinians. Since people in Iran have been kept poor, some accuse the regime of giving their money to Palestinians and they hold a grudge towards Palestinian people.

Some people don’t see the regime violating their rights and instead blame other people as directed by the regime.

Asad regime is gone. Hezbollah is weak. Tehran’s influence is declining in Iraq, according to some analysts. How will the changed regional situation determine regime’s future?

For so long the west has been trying to re-shape the Middle East. Western governments have been preparing to attack Iran for many years. Just as the lies told to justify the Iraq war were exposed, the same will be the case with this unlawful attack on Iran.

Israel has been telling the world that Iran will have a nuclear bomb in a few months since 2012 yet for some reason now was the right time to attack Iran. We can’t ignore people and their desires in 2025. We’re not living in 1953, when the west changed Iran’s history with a coup. The Iranian population, especially women, are educated and trying to change the country for good, rather than for what the west wants. People deserve a better life rather than seeing child labour or homeless children every time they leave their home. People want to get rid of unemployment and gain the right to have unemployment benefits and more rights that improve their lives.

I hope the west won’t be successful in replacing the regime with a puppet. I hope people determine the future of their own country.

China and Russia did not lend any meaningful support to Tehran during the war with Israel-USA. Not even diplomatic support of any consequence. Why?

These governments are exploiting other countries as much as they exploit their own people. Both Russia and China have been using up resources in Iran. They don’t care what is happening to the people in the country. They don’t care what will happen to the regime, as long as they secure their profits. The only help they would give to the regime will be open doors for fleeing regime members when they have to run from angry Iranian citizens. There they can drink tea and wine with Asad, who once ruled Syria.

There was a section of the left which declared the Ayatollah regimes as the last bastion of anti-imperialism during the US-Israeli invasion of Iran. How would you respond to the leftist efforts branding theocratic regime of Iran as anti-imperial?

It doesn’t matter how a person sees itself. The thing that matters is what they will do rather than what they say. They are pro-regime, like the Tudeh party that acted against people and sided with the regime for its slogans, ‘Death to America, death to Israel.’ The regime had another slogan, that was against Russia, but as time passed they realised that it’s profitable to lean on Russia. These parties too see themselves leftists, but they always act like right wing organisations. For me a leftist party would stand by people, not by any power. Unfortunately some European parties which call themselves leftist, support the Islamic regime for its slogans against America and Israel. They can’t stand by the Iranians who were oppressed by the regime for the last 46 years. They’re used to standing by institutional power.

During the 2022 Woman Life Freedom movement, some of these leftist parties didn’t support people’s struggle against the regime. Some of them were so disillusioned that they said this movement must be organised by America. They stood by the regime while school girls were arrested, raped and their bodies were dumped in the street.

Source: Alternative Viewpoint

I was a political prisoner in Iran — Tehran will use this moment to execute dissidents

In November 1982, Nasrin Parvaz planned to meet a friend and fellow activist in the Iranian capital, Tehran. She was shocked when her friend showed up at the meeting with an interrogator.

“I didn’t know he’d been arrested the day before,” Ms Parvaz, now 67 and based in Britain, told The i Paper. “He couldn’t take the torture, and named me. I was arrested.”

Ms Parvaz had been involved in demonstrations against the Iranian regime that had come to power following the revolution in 1979, bringing with it a fundamentalist and repressive interpretation of Shia Islam.

“The regime introduced misogynistic laws,” she said. “They said women had to cover their heads. Women did not have the right to divorce. Women had to have their husband’s permission to leave the country. Custody of children was the husband’s right. The law permitted men to kill their daughters and wives, and they went free.”

Ms Parvaz was taken to an interrogation centre for six months. “I was tortured because they wanted my contacts, and I wouldn’t give it to them,” she said. “My feet were lashed, so much so that I was paralysed for three weeks. The guards had to take me to the loo, and I couldn’t shower.”

She was transferred to Evin prison in Tehran, a notorious site holding thousands of prisoners, including hundreds of political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and dual nationals. The prison, sitting on a hilltop surrounded by electrified barbed-wire fences, would become her home for most of the next seven years.

“Evin has a reputation of being a site of torture and oppression,” Nader Hashemi, director of the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, told The i Paper. “Every major political dissident that has been arrested by the Islamic Republic of Iran has found themselves at Evin.”

Ms Parvaz was shown to a room meant to sleep five prisoners – instead, it housed 80 women and two children.

A prisoner walks in the Evin prison yard in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY
An inmate in the Evin prison yard in Tehran in 2022 (Photo: Majid Asgaripour/Wana)

“I was beaten, but not like when I was at the interrogation centre,” she said. “I was put in solitary confinement, sometimes for months.”

She remembers becoming very ill in Evin with an unbearable pain in her stomach.

“I was at the point of dying,” she said. “I couldn’t eat anything and lost a dramatic amount of weight. They didn’t want to give me any treatment or medication, and said they would take me to hospital if I wrote my first confession – that I had made a mistake to struggle against the regime. I said I would not.”

Read more on The iPaper

Iranian Political Prisoners Are in Danger

News has emerged from Iran that the regime has removed all non-political inmates from Evin prison. Historically this separation of prisoners has always meant that something dreadful is likely to happen.

A number of political prisoners have also been removed from their wings in several prisons across the rest of Iran. This usually happens to prisoners before execution.

During this time of war and aggression from Israel, the regime is busy arresting activists. The rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested again today – Thursday 19th June. Toomaj has been a vocal supporter of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests and is known for using his lyrics to criticize the regime. He has been arrested and tortured several times. In 2022 he was arrested and kept in prison for more than one year, of which he spent 252 days in solitary confinement.

As an ex-prisoner myself, I worry that the regime is planning to harm or kill these political prisoners while Iranian citizens are distracted by war and trying to reach safety. The regime has also made the internet inaccessible, meaning that it is difficult to spread news both inside and outside of the country.

During the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s, thousands of prisoners were falsely charged as spies and executed.

More than five thousand prisoners were executed when the Mujaheddin attacked Iran with the help of Iraq in 1988. Fifty prisoners were taken from the wing I was in and they never came back.

The regime announced a few days ago that everyone with connections to Israel will be punished. I am worried that the regime will kill more prisoners again.

War has many consequences. If the regime harms these prisoners, their blood will be on the hands of both the Iranian and Israeli regimes. Without Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, the regime would not be able to get away with such a crime.

Nasrin Parvaz
19/06/2025

My Torturers Tried to Silence Me, But Art Gave Me Back My Voice

More than thirty years ago, I suffered terribly at the hands of the Iranian government. I was imprisoned for eight years, and they tried to silence me with torture. All I’d done was take to the streets to demand my freedom and liberty from an oppressive and authoritarian regime.

The torturers tried to take my voice away. And therapy, writing and art played a vital role in helping me to express myself again. When I first came to the UK, after leaving my friends and family behind, I felt lost. But I was given support by organisations like Freedom from Torture that had a transformative impact on my life. I joined Write to Life, a creative writing group for survivors of torture. Through writing I regained my voice.

For many years writing was a means of escape for me. But art opened my eyes and I realised that it could be a way of fighting back, as well as a means of change. It can provide a counterpoint to what those in power and their media are showing to people. Art can change people’s minds. That’s why art is seen as a threat to power. Look how many artists are imprisoned in Iran from rappers, like Toomaj Salehi, to film makers and other artists.

Sharing my story through writing, and now through my art, is such a powerful way to tell difficult stories. It can give such an important insight into the very painful realities faced by those of us who’ve experienced torture. Today, I’m a member of Survivors Speak OUT (the UK’s torture survivor-led activist network) and I can raise awareness of the horrors happening in Iran. Being able to do this has helped give my life meaning since I had to leave my home.

I’ve listened and watched in terror at the violence that has swept across my country, since the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of the abusive “morality police” in September 2022. Although media interest is disappearing, the wave of protests sparked by Amini’s death haven’t died away, they’ve just changed. Instead of thousands taking to the streets, young people gather to dance, and women risk their lives and liberty just to sing.

Now, things like street dancing, singing, paintings and music are such an important way for people in Iran to protest. Many forms of art – like songs, digital art, videos, graffiti – have been created during the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution. Each of them emphasises protest actions, resistance, and different forms of activities against the regime’s repressive system. My own work explores personal and political journeys based on both my life and collective experiences that I have witnessed and heard about.

At first, I only wanted to show what had happened in prison, but now I have so many other ideas, I don’t have enough time to paint them all. My work explores the vulnerabilities of humans, of issues like refugee and women’s rights. I try and capture this in my work, regardless of the media I use, through drawing, painting, sculpture or print making.

When I first got to the UK, my head was full of the scenes of prison. All I could think about were the faces of my friends who’d been executed, the noise of the firing squad and the crying of hungry children in the prison, the torture that we experienced, and the face of my father when I told him I’d been sentenced to death. Therapy helped me to slowly clear these images from my head, and over time, I was able to feel safe and strong again.

Still so many people in Iran have been imprisoned, they’ve been tortured and are languishing in prisons. I was lucky, I was able to get out. I’ve had the chance to recover and rebuild my life here in the UK. But my heart aches for the women who are still being subjected to the same kind of torture that I was. It’s horrific and depressing that this is still happening.

 

Iran is one of the top countries of origin of Freedom from Torture’s clients. There are many people like me who have fled their homes and reached the UK hoping just to live in safety. The therapists, lawyers and welfare advisors offer a lifeline to people who crucially need compassion, support and rehabilitation to recover.

Those in power in Iran now will do anything to try and suppress any opposition. Ex-prisoners, families of those still imprisoned, or anyone remotely politically active are being threatened and intimidated by security forces. It’s just more abuse carried out by an authoritarian regime that will stop at nothing to eradicate any form of defiance.

We need to continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the women and young people demanding the basic rights that we, in other parts of the world, take for granted and enjoy every single day. I’m calling on the international community and media to keep shining a spotlight on my country to demand that the regime stop using torture immediately.

Nasrin Parvaz became a civil rights activist when the Islamic regime took power in 1979. She was arrested in 1982, tortured and imprisoned for eight years. Parvaz is the author of One Woman’s Struggle in Iran: A Prison Memoir and The Secret Letters from X to A.

Article originally appeared on Huckmag.

It’s time for Britain to show it really cares about Iranians

I feel more hope for Iran than at any time in the past 40 years — and more fear too. The regime assumed that brute force would crush the protests that have multiplied since the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September, but instead of backing down, people from all walks of life have joined Iranian women in the streets.

As the regime’s hold on the country slips, its barbarism has increased. Tens of thousands have been detained. Hundreds have been killed, including at least 60 children. After the gruesome public hanging of Majidreza Rahnavard this month, scores more demonstrators could face imminent execution.

The families of those who have disappeared into Iran’s prisons fear the worst. Many know first-hand how the regime treats its prisoners. When I was arrested for protesting against Iran’s gender apartheid in 1982, I was tortured so badly I was left paralysed for three weeks. Eventually, I escaped Iran and found sanctuary in the UK. Thousands of those I was imprisoned with were not so lucky.

In the face of such brutality, the solidarity shown by Iranians is humbling. In the city of Javanrud, bakeries are distributing free bread to protesters. Across western Iran, an underground network has developed, smuggling blood and medical supplies to wounded protesters. In the diaspora, hundreds of thousands have flooded the streets in cities from London to Los Angeles, showing their support.

Last month, the British government told the UN that “the UK stands with the people of Iran”. But those who have been forced to flee for their lives are yet to witness this solidarity in action. Newly released government statistics show Iranians to be among the top three nationalities seeking asylum in Britain. Like me, many have experienced torture; Iranians are also among the nationalities most frequently referred for treatment to Freedom from Torture, the charity that helped me when I arrived in this country. But rather than being welcomed with kindness, they are threatened with instant deportation for daring to ask for asylum.

At the same time, the Iranian embassy in London remains open and regime acolytes continue to operate in the UK. Last month, The Times revealed that over £100,000 was paid by the UK to Ayatollah Khamenei’s personal representative through the taxpayer-funded coronavirus furlough scheme.

If the government is serious about supporting Iran’s uprising, it should crack down on the regime’s activities in Britain and send Iranian diplomats home. But most importantly it should treat Iranians fleeing for their lives with compassion and support them to rebuild their lives in this country.

Nasrin Parvaz is an Iranian women’s rights activist and torture survivor

 

Source: The Times

I was tortured for 8 years in an Iran prison

It’s the smell of blood I remember most vividly.

When I heard about the recent fire at Iran’s Evin Prison, I was taken back to the time I was imprisoned there for eight years during the 1980s for opposing the Iranian regime’s gender apartheid.

During that time, I was tortured so badly I was temporarily paralysed, and developed a brain tumour that was not removed until 2012.

As protests continue across the country, and the authorities crack down on those fighting for their rights, it seems little has changed for detainees.

But when I look at what’s happening now, I feel a mixture of anger and pride, fear and hope.

Saman Yasin held his head in his hands as the judge read out his death sentence.

The 27-year-old Kurdish rapper, whose popular songs touched on topics of unemployment and oppression, was sentenced last week by an Islamic Revolutionary Court, with no family or lawyers present.

His crime? Moharebeh – enmity against God.

Saman is one of the latest victims of the Iranian regime’s bloodthirsty efforts to crush the protests that have swept the country since the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by Iran’s feared morality police.

Like so many young Iranians, Yasin was abducted from his home in early October, after posting his support for the protesters to his more than 200,000 social media followers. Human rights groups claim he was physically and psychologically tortured in custody.

A photo of Mahsa Amini, a young woman
Protests have swept the country since the death of Mahsa Amini (Picture: Reuters)

The rapper’s politicised lyrics may have placed him in the regime’s firing line, but he is far from the only cultural icon targeted in the recent crackdown. 

Fellow rapper Toomaj Salehi is facing similar charges, blogger Hossein Ronaghi has allegedly had his legs broken in detention, while prominent film directors, writers and journalists have all disappeared into Iran’s prison system.

Even athletes are being targeted, since Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi’s brave decision to compete at the Asian Championships without her hijab last month.

After Iranian beach football star Saeed Piramoon made a gesture of solidarity with protestors after scoring the winning goal in Iran’s thrilling victory over Brazil at the International Beach Soccer Tournament last week, authorities said they would be ‘dealt with’, amid reports they had been detained.

With so many athletes making clear their support for the protests, many Iranians are unimpressed with their national team’s more muted protest during their world cup loss to England, particularly after they were photographed smiling with Iran’s president Raeisi just days before flying out to Qatar.

Iran players line up for the national anthem
Iran players line up for the national anthem (Picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The arrest of so many prominent Iranians surely reveals the fear the imperilled regime feels at its failure to quell the protests.

While previous attempted uprisings, like 2019’s fuel price protests, were crushed into submission, each fresh outrage has only swelled the numbers taking to the streets across the country.

As many as 15,000 people have reportedly been arrested, and several hundred killed since the protests began, including at least 40 children.

Iran’s prisons are notorious hotbeds for human rights abuses.

Torture is often routine, as I myself has experienced. Sexual violence is rife. In October, 21-year-old Armita Abbasi was hospitalised after, it has been suspected, she was repeatedly raped by security forces.

Before her family could visit her, she was abducted again by the Revolutionary Guard and she is still being held.

At Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, multiple people were killed in a fire which was believed to have been started deliberately when prisoners were locked in their cells, with those caught up in the blaze reporting that guards attacked them with tear gas and live ammunition.

When I was imprisoned in Evin Prison in 1988, thousands of political prisoners were slaughtered at the whim of Ayatollah Khomeini, in a massacre orchestrated by current president Raeisi.

In the buildup to the killings, our family visits were cancelled.

Cut off from the outside world, we would have political debates in our cells to distract ourselves from the reality that we feared for our lives.

Then, the interrogations began. We were forced to wear our chadoors, then blindfolded and taken from our cells to the feared interrogation building and questioned incessantly.

‘Are you Muslim? Will you repent? Will you condemn moharebeh?’

More than 50 prisoners were taken from my wing and I never saw them again. It turns my stomach knowing that today’s activists in Evin are suffering as we suffered.

An artist's painting, four protesting naked women with fire shooting from their breasts
One of Nasrin’s artworks (Picture: Nasrin Parvaz)

Generations of Iranians have been suppressed under the regime’s reign of terror – but in its brutality, the regime has united Iranians from all social classes and every corner of the country.

To quote Toomaj Salehi’s protest anthem The Battlefield: ‘From athlete to artist, peddler to businessman, student and teacher, engineer and labourer, we deafen the dictator’s ear.’

For the first time, the regime appears to be fighting for its survival. Protests have only grown in recent days, and a report claims that officials are preparing to flee the country.

But if the sacrifices of Saman, Toomaj, Mahsa, Saeed and every Iranian who has risked their lives for the dream of freedom are not to be in vain, they need solidarity from the rest of the world.

 

Source: Metro

Iran’s protests are not an angry outburst, but the result of generations of trauma

Women, life, freedom. These words have become the rallying cry for protest that has erupted in the wake of the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s feared morality police. They are shaking the Iranian regime to its core.

Unlike past movements, this uprising cuts across generations and social classes. For young Iranian women, Amini’s death ignited an explosion of pent-up fury at the regime’s suppression of women’s rights. For older activists like me, it has reopened the scars from previous uprisings and breathed new life into the decades-long struggle for freedom.

Demonstrations began in Tehran on 16 September soon after news of Mahsa’s killing broke. Within hours, women appeared in the streets, burning their hijabs and calling for justice. Within days, the protests spread. In towns and cities across Iran, schoolchildren have abandoned their classrooms to join the masses thronging the junctions and blocking streets.

The regime’s violent response has been brutal. Killings of protesters began immediately and hundreds have already lost their lives. Last Friday in the south-east city of Zahedan, as many as 91 people were killed when state forces opened fire, including five children. Doctors certified that they had been shot from behind. Despite the regime shutting down the internet across the country, videos of police violence continue to leak out, further fuelling public rage.

Universities that have acted as staging posts for protests are now under attack from regime forces. Last Sunday, police fired on peaceful protesters at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology and at least 40 students were blindfolded and taken away in vans. Like so many parents in Iran, their families have no idea where they are. After 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami’s battered body was returned to her family by police after she disappeared at a protest, many fear the worst.

Painting by Nasrin Parvaz
‘The regime’s violent response has been brutal.’ Illustration: Nasrin Parvaz

The roots of this uprising that Iranians are already calling a revolution can be found in a collective anger that has been suppressed for half a century. I became politically active soon after the Islamic regime took power and introduced its sexual apartheid laws. In 1982, I was arrested and taken to Joint Committee Interrogation Centre where I was tortured.

After hours of beatings, I was left paralysed for weeks, leaving me unable to shower or use the bathroom alone. The prison was so crowded I slept in a corridor for a month with dozens of other prisoners. We were blindfolded 24 hours a day, even eating and sleeping in darkness. Later, a guard bashed my head against the wall so hard I developed a brain tumour, an injury that troubles me to this day.

While the regime sentenced me to death, my sentence was commuted and I was eventually released in 1990. Soon after, I realised I was no longer safe, and fled to the UK. Since settling here, painting and writing have provided much relief, as has therapy from the organisation Freedom from Torture. But I am not “cured”. I still see the faces of my friends who were executed.

Ten years after I fled Iran, the regime turned the centre where I was interrogated into the Ebrat Museum. The torture chambers were preserved, with the regime claiming that they were used only by the forces of the shah, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution. But as the protests across the country demonstrate, the people have not forgotten. This is not just a burst of anger from a young and idealistic generation, but the accumulated trauma of generations of Iranians struggling for freedom.

Today, the regime is not just fighting to maintain its power but its very survival. Facing such anger from every section of society, it will kill or jail anyone who opposes it. But the people have come too far to turn back. If they give in and go home, there will be another massacre. They are fighting for their lives.

A nationwide day of action has been called for Saturday 8 October. I fear for the safety of my people. But I remain hopeful that they will sweep away the Islamic regime and realise the dreams of generations of Iranians who came before them.

  • Nasrin Parvaz is a women’s rights activist and torture survivor from Iran. Her books include A Prison Memoir: One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, and the novel The Secret Letters from X to A

Source: The Guardian

You could lift the noose from the necks of these 11 young men by signing this petition

During the 2017 uprising in Iran a participant named Asghar Haron Alrashidi was killed by a bullet fired by a government guard.

His family complained against the government militias. Soon after a number of his friends were arrested. They were forced to falsely confess to the use of arms in what was a peaceful demonstration under torture by the hands of Islamic Guards. The regime used these confessions against them to condemn them to execution.

These five men are sentenced to ten executions for the crime of protesting against the regime – yes, each of them is sentenced to two executions each. Their death sentence has been issued by the Supreme Court.

One thing that the Iranian regime does not like is international publicity that shows them for what they are. Please sign this petition to stop the regime from carrying out these executions.

Hadi Kiani was born in 1990 and is married.

Abass Mohammadi was born in 1991 and has two children.

Mohammad Bastami was born in 1992 and is married.

Majid Nazari Kondori was born in 1994.

Mehdi Salehi Ghaleh Shahrokhi was born in 1983 and has a seven year old daughter.

During the last three years there have been bursts of peaceful demonstrations in Iran. What people want is their basic rights: freedom of expression, jobs and unemployment benefits, and the end of execution. The regime shot demonstrators and arrested thousands of them before killing them in prison. Please sign this petition to stop the execution of these young men.

 

Just to say a couple of sentences about myself: I was arrested three years after the Islamic regime took power in the early 80s for the same reasons that these young men revolting against the regime. I was tortured and sentenced to execution, but after a year and half my late father was able to change my fate. I was released from prison after eight years. Now I’m a refugee living in the UK.

Sign the petition here.