Category: Articles

‘Blank Contracts’: Extreme Exploitation in Iran

We live in a universal economic system, called capitalism, yet depth of workers’ exploitation differs hugely in countries like UK from Iran. In Iran the Islamic regime makes sure the workers do not have any rights, so that the capital makes the most profit. Workers situation in Iran is a good example to understand why capital moves from countries like UK to countries such as Iran with cheap labour; and why the Western governments need to support despotism in Iran to guaranty the extreme exploitation of workers. Continue reading ‘Blank Contracts’: Extreme Exploitation in Iran

Clare Short

On 22 August I was invited to the Edinburgh Book Festival for a reading of my writing at Amnesty’s annual ‘Imprisoned Writers’ events. Clare Short was among the readers. I felt uneasy at the thought of Clare Short reading my work, because when she went to Iran she wore a headscarf at a time when women there were being harassed, imprisoned and tortured for not observing hejab properly. I felt she could not possibly represent me and my point of view. She is too conservative and my piece is part of a story about the confrontation of an ex-prisoner with his torturer. How could she understand such a piece while she is in power, power that justifies prison and torture, if not at home, then in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay? Continue reading Clare Short

Speech in 20th Anniversary of Women Against Pit Closures

In Solidarity with women against pit closures
Struggle against Islamic regime in Iran

In 1984, I was in an Islamic prison in Iran when I saw on TV miners fighting with police and their horses in the UK. The Islamic regime broadcasted the brutality of Thatcher’s regime in suppressing the miners’ movement so that people would see that it is not only the Islamic regime that crushes working class movements. Continue reading Speech in 20th Anniversary of Women Against Pit Closures