Dear Dr Ahmed Shaheed,
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,

I am Arash Hejazi, an Iranian physician, writer, publisher and journalist, and the Doctor who tried to save the young girl shot to death by the Iranian Basij or the pro-government militia, orchestrated by the Revolutiosnary Guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I then spoke up about the circumstances of hear death to the international media and for that I have lost my publishing house in Iran, I have been prosecuted and persecuted, and I have had to go on exile, leaving my family and my life behind.

I read your Special Report with interest, and while I appreciate your efforts on producing an accurate image on the dyre situation of human rights in Iran, I would like to bring to your attention that what you have presented in your report, is just the tip of an immense iceberg of years of undermining human and basic rights of the citizens of Iran.

You didn’t mention,

• The brutal crackdown of the Iranian pro-government militia, the police, and the Revolutionary Guards on the peaceful rallys of millions of people who were simply asking for the recount of the ballots of the presidential elections in June 2009;
• The brutal murder of hundreds of unarmed civilans on the days that followed the elections. One of them which was documented, was the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan by a member of the Basij. Mothers of those murdered have tried so hard to get their voices heard, and even they have been persecuted and beaten by the Basij;
• That the judiciary system of Iran has done absolutely nothing to bring the murderers of these innocent people to justice. Instead, it has done everything in its power to intimidate and threaten withnesses of these crimes;
• The torturing and murder of several protesters after being arrested by the police. Even the government of Iran has admited the murder of three detainees under torture;
• Hundreds of students that have been banned from continuing their studies, simply because the have been part of the Green Movement.
• The legistlation of capital punishment for bloggers;
• The fact that a muslim cleric, called Kazemeini Brujerdi has been imprisoned and tortured for years now, simply because he expressed his opinion that religion should be separated from the State;
• The widespread and illegal censorsip on books and other media. I have explained the situation in my article ‘Censorship in Iran’;
• The execution of prisoners of consciouns in Iran;
• Mistreating political prisoners leading to unexplained deaths;
• Undermining the rights of the minority groups in Iran, such as the Kurdish people;
• Undermining the rights of the workers and their unions;
• Undermining the children rights;
• Undermining the rights of the guilds and trade unions;
• Persecution and prosecution of the human rights activists.

Dear Dr Shaheed, this is a unique oportunity that destiny has placed on your path to make a difference. It might not be repeated. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of lives that have been destroyed in Iran in the past 30 years, I beseach you to do whatever in your power to reflect the truth, the whole truth, and nothing by the truth.

Kind regards,

Arash Hejazi

Sorry but I write with translator, my name is Romina, I am writing from Italy (ancona-marche). I read the book In the Eyes of the Gazelle (the Gaze of the Gazelle: Negli occhi della gazzella), it was so beautiful!
I tried to understand better what you meant, jihad, Basij, imams, mullahs, jinn, Shari’a, Tudeh and other terms … I have seen many pictures, women with hijab, your wonderful mountains, the lights of Tehran in the evening, the moon, the stars, Iran is really a beautiful world!
I found pictures of Neda when she died, and I have them saved on my PC, sometimes I look at those beautiful eyes that only the Iranian women have … Her smile is forever caught in the middle, then it’s your book, which hit my soul, I would like to thank you for the gift that you gave me, your story, your writing about your life, your emotions … I can never forget!
I thank you very much for what imprinted on my heart!
I’m talking to my friends about your work, I would like to share this excitement with them!
I hug you my friend!
with great affection
Romi

Thank you for making me appreciate my freedom…

Thank you Arash, I want to thank you for making me appreciate my freedom to be and do whatever I want and feel. Thank you for letting me know lot of things about your beautiful country. Thank you for letting me know about the story of your country, of its culture through the innocent but critic eyes of a little smart boy, of an adolescent and of a young man as you was and I am. Thank you for letting me knowing Neda, the Voice of freedom. Last but not least thank you for letting me cry, on a plane, reading the last page of your beautiful book “The Gaze of the Gazelle” just few hours ago, reading words of hope for the present.

Nothing personal just wanted you to know how much you impressed me with your words. Again thank you

Damiano

s

‘Read the rest of the article in PDF here: ‘You Don’t Deserve to Be Published: Censorship in Iran’

Censorship is as old as human intellect. It has been practised in almost every country at some level throughout history: from 399 BC, when Socrates was forced to drink poison, to the horrors of the Inquisition, and the oficial coining of the concept with the publication of Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Roman Catholic Church; from the obligation of English publishers to register their books with the Stationers’ Company in the 16th century until the case of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover; and the Nazi book-burning campaign and the absolute offfijicial control of the governments of the USSR, China, and Eastern European countries over published material.
It has always been a highly controversial issue as well, especially since Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) requested the member states of the UN to enforce freedom of speech in their countries. The concept of censorship has been defijined by various authors and organizations, but no agreed defijinition has yet been given; therefore the term covers a wide range of activities which sometimes overlap with other concepts, such as moderation, regulation, sensitivity, and intervention. However, for the purpose of this research, the term censorship only refers to restrictions imposed by an authority or authoritative body on a creative work, which impedes the availability of the original work to its potential audience prior to or after its publication, or forces the creator to modify or omit parts or all of the work against their free will. Therefore,
editorial intervention does not fijit the criteria, as it can be prevented by the free will of the author. The only exception is self-censorship which can be categorized under censorship by fear; one of the most powerful restrictive tools which may have the power to act as an authoritative body, inflicted by conditions outside the author’s control.
The importance of addressing censorship as an issue becomes more evident when considering that, despite the abolition of most of the traditional and historical tools for imposing restrictions on freedom of speech by the coming of information technology and the internet revolution, it is still being practised, and controls a wide range of the mind’s expressions, including books.
Therefore, it seems that raising awareness towards the consequences of censorship has never been more important since the Enlightenment, and the censorship practised in Iran today is a good example…

‘Read the rest of the article in PDF here: ‘You Don’t Deserve to Be Published: Censorship in Iran’

This article is being republished on the author’s official website according to the rights retained by the author for self-archiving. Republishing or reusing this article without prior consent from the Publisher is strictly forbidden.

I am having a very sincere and straightforward interview with my shadow, or he is interviewing me; the excuse being the imminent release of my memoirs, the Gaze of the Gazelle. This is neither stunt or satire; but an attempt to organize my never-ending internal monologue and controversies. I’m trying to gain the courage to ask myself the questions I have always had in the back of my mind, but never dared to answer. No interviewer in the world could find out about these darkest corners of my mind and ask the relevant questions, so the task is up to me. Why made it public, I want witnesses, so I can’t deceive myself. This is going to be a very long interview, in my attempt to rediscover myself.

The background and the book
The Gaze of the Gazelle: The Story of a Generation
By Arash Hejazi
408 pages,  5 x 8
ISBN: 9781906497903
Seagull Books, April 2011

On 20 June 2009, during demonstrations to protest the fraudulent presidential election in Iran, a young girl called Neda was shot to death in the streets of Tehran. Within hours, the video footage of her death, fortuitously captured on a roving camera-phone, had circled the globe. Outside the country, the incident was a nine-day wonder; in Iran it changed the course of politics for a new generation.
It was also the moment of choice for the young doctor who had tried and failed to save her. Within days he had left Iran to tell the world the story the government was denying: Neda had died at the hands of the pro-government militia. After this, any chance of returning home was gone; Arash Hejazi, author and publisher himself became a target.

But as Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, writes in the introduction to his friend’s book: ‘Arash’s story is not summarised in that moment; now he has to tell the story of that generation.’ The Gaze of the Gazelle is that story.

In a tale that mingles politics and the personal, mythology and history, he tries to answer the question ‘How did it come to this?’ His quest for an answer tells the story of the years since the Iranian Revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini back from exile to drive the Shah from his peacock throne and set up the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Against the background of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran and the prolonged and dirty war that followed, the author interweaves his own story and that of his family and friends with the machinations of mullahs and the manoeuvres of politicians who seek to control their lives. The joy of revolution turns to the sorrow of loss: of friends and family at the front and in the prisons of the regime, of hope in the future. And of the determination of a new generation to recover that hope in the name of Neda, who gave her life in pursuit of a freer and better world.

An interview with my shadow, or my shadow’s interview with me

29/03/2011

Q: You are only forty. Isn’t it too early to write your memoirs?
A: A phase in my life is over. Yes, it might be too early, or not. I’m one of those people who, unlike many others, wish they could live forever. I have never had a death wish. But on 25 June 2009, five days after Neda’s murdrer, when I finally spoke up about her death and how she was shot by an Iranian government’s militiaman, I realized that I may never be able to go back to Iran. That part of my life was over. I was an exile. Two things might happen to exiles: They might cling on to the past and never move on, never get engaged in their new society, and are trapped in a purgatory for the rest of their lives, or they are brave enough to move on, learn the new language, get used to the costumes and the nature of the new society, in which case their memories from their previous life will gradually fade away. They try to remember, but their minds betray them, as a mind cannot bear two lives. One has to be no more than snapshots, pictures on the wall, not a living thing. You are only allowed to live one life and you have to mummify the other one. You are not authorized to ‘live’ it. The first group of exiles choose their previous lives and become mummies themselves. The second group choose the new life and decide to live with the fact that their previous lives are gone.
But I couldn’t live in the purgatory, nor could I give up my past. A man without a past is a man without feet, and without feet, how can you walk towards your future? You can crawl, maybe, as the mind, this brutal sponsor of the journey, will not equip you with wheelchairs.
I wrote my memoirs, so I could always remember, and even if my memories started to fade, there would be people who would read my memoirs, and there could be a few, who would keep my memories, which are the memories of a generation, alive. Then I could move on. I could start living again, without the fear of losing the past. I could enjoy my surroundings, the new way of life, the new language, traditions, or the modernity.

Q: But REALLY? Is this the only reason you wrote them?
A: I was sad. I was extremely sad. I had to do something. I thought if I went through everything again, I might find something that would help me keep going on. I was lost. I had to go back to the beginning, to see where I could find my Ariadne’s thread again.

Q: And did you find it?
A: I definitely did.

Q: And what was it that helped you?
A: Rocky Balboa.

Q: Rocky, Silvester Stallone?
A: Yes.

Q: How?!
A: It was the first smuggled film I saw on the video-player we bought from the black market. I was 15, and I had lost my way then, too.

Q: And how did Rocky help you?
A: It might sound ridiculous. After reading tons of high-bro literature and pearls of wisdom, Rocky was the only one who really helped me. I watched and watched, I don’t know how many times. I became angry that Apollo won the match on points, although Rocky had fought so hard, until I discovered the truth. It wasn’t the winning itself that Rocky was after. Not being knocked out for one more round was his ambition. That was what I had to do. I had to make sure that I wasn’t going to be knocked out. What happened after wasn’t important.

Q: Ok, so you dug into your past on a self-rediscovery journey. But why do you think the world needed to know about your journey?
A: It wasn’t only my story. It was the story of my generation.

Q: And who made you the representative of your generation?
A: No one. But I had the means to tell the story. I could write, I could get it published. When the my current agent approached me, I was half way through the book, and then I thought, ok, the world had seen the videos, the news headlines, and photos coming out of Iran during the protests, they had been shocked by the eyes of Neda staring into the camera just before she died, but they never had the chance to really understand what was happening there. What was it that took those young men and women into the streets, ready to give up their lives. It wasn’t just because of the rigged election. There was a story behind those eyes, and I felt compelled to write about it, and I felt that I owed Neda to tell the story of our generation.

Q: And you thought you were the right person to do it?
A: Yes. I believe in myself. I love writing and no one can stop me from writing. After speaking up about Neda, the government of Iran seized my assets, shot down my publishing house in Iran, banned my books, prosecuted me, and tried to accuse me of treason. But they couldn’t stop me from speaking up. They couldn’t stop me from writing. And I had to make sure that I wasn’t going to be knocked out in this round. The rest was up to the publishers. If they liked my book, they would go for it. If not, at least I hadn’t been knocked out and I was ready for the next round.

ًQ: But tell me the real reason.
A: Why don’t you stop repeating the same question over and over again?! I told you the reason.

Q: Yes you did. But what’s the real reason for someone at forty, sitting down and writing about his past.
A: OK, I was bleeding. I was wounded. The bullet that pierced Neda’s chest took her life away, but ripped my life apart. She stared into my eyes and died. She couldn’t say anything. But it was as if she was telling me: ‘Do something!’ and I couldn’t do anything. Those eyes are following me wherever I go. Those eyes keep my heart bleeding. I lied when I said that memories fade away. Some don’t. A few years ago I saw the film Memento by Christopher Nolan. There, Guy Pearce has lost his short-term memory after a blow to his head, during an attack on himself and his wife, during which his wife is killed. The last thing he remembers is the look on her wife’s face, while life is slipping away from her body. From then on, his brain cannot keep short-term memories, so time does not pass from the horrible moment. The memory doesn’t fade away, so he can’t heal.
I couldn’t heal. The memory of those eyes did not leave me. They haunted me, asking me to ‘do something’. I spoke up about her, thinking that she will leave me. I talked to BBC, The Times and other media, when I realised that the Iranian government was trying to conceal her death and then blame it on foreign service. But she still didn’t leave me. I had to do something else, or else I would have bled to death myself. So I wrote, and when I wrote, I felt better, and the eyes became kinder, and the bleeding stopped whenever I resumed writing. She wanted me to tell her story, the story of the generation, she wanted me to tell how it came to that moment… I wrote, because I was in pain, and telling the story eased the pain.

30/03/2011

Q: What do you miss most about your homeland?

A lot of things. The desert for one thing. I miss the burning sun and the yellow sands, I miss watching the horizon and spotless blue sky, where I felt I was part of a magic. Where at nights you felt that you could reach the stars just by lifting your hand. An the mountain as well. There are not mountains in England. The view of the mountains reaching the heavens, with all the mystical and mythical lore surrounding the Mountains Alborz, I felt that I was a mythical hero myself. The mountain alborz is the home of the legend of Arash the Archer, the abode of Mithra, the Iranian God of light and promises, and wher the prophet-king Kay Khusro disappeared. Paradoxically, it is also where the embodiment of evil on Earth in Iranian myths, King Zahak, is chained, waiting for his time to be released and devour the world. I miss Alborz a lot.

There other things that I miss, the feeling that I belonged to a society. Here in exile, I am living with the society, but I don’t feel I belong to it. It is like watching a fascinating 3D movie, but no matter how hard you and the producers try to give you a real-life experience, you are not part of the cast or crew, you are a visitor. I miss the feeling of being one of the living cells in a society.

I miss the Iranian jokes as well, I must say. The darkest humour in the world.

Q: This is too cliche. Isn’t there an original thing you miss?

Well, that’s how I fee. the family and friends?

Q: You don’t need to be an exile to miss your family and friends.

I suppose you are right.  Let me see… To be fair, I was a successful author in Iran. I miss my readers, although they still write to me all the time. I miss the Tehran Book Fair, but the government destroyed  the spirit of it a couple of years before I was forced into exile. I think the most important think I miss, is the joy of living in Iran. It’s a fascinating country, and most importantly, you can never know what to expect from your tomorrow. It’s quite different here; everything is predicted, everything is planned for. In the West you live in a democracy, but are ruled by the norms of the society. In Iran you live under a tyranny, but you have all the freedom to push the boundries. You become much more courageous in Iran, and therefore you experience the true essence of human feelings: fear, joy, hope. I have yet to rediscover these feelings here in exile.

TO BE CONTINUED. CHECK THE SAME SPACE

The reports claim that live bullets were used to control the prisoners which led to 80-150 casualties.

All the communication between the prisoners and outside has been cut off.

In all these countries, the ruler controls all the media outlets, there is no freedom of speech, elections are controlled by the same people who are eventually elected, and any kind of opposition is suppressed. How else, the people can show their contempt for the rulers and their desire for freedom and democracy? Their only way is to protest in the streets, which is usually brutally suppressed by the rulers and the free countries just frown upon the brutality. What is going to happen to these people? Who is going to support them? How are they supposed to achieve their freedom, when even by sacrificing their lives, nothing changes?

Iran

In June 2009, after the widespread fraud in Iran’s presidential election during which the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was re-selected (not elected) as the president of Iran, large street protests started and lasted for several months. He claimed that he had received 63% of the votes, whereas the people believed that his main rival, Mir Hussein Mousavi was actually the person who had received 63% of the votes.

Iran has been ruled by the totalitarian Islamic regime since 1979. At the beginning of the protests, people only wanted the ballots to be recounted, as almost all were sure that their votes had been rigged. The regime ignored all the complaints from the competing presidential candidates and on June 19, the Supreme Leader publicly announce that those who continue the protests, would be responsible for the consequences, which turned out to be murder, torture, rape and imprisonment. The protests continued, during which, hundreds were shot by the plainclothes police and militia, several were ran over by the police cars, and tens died afterward from the injuries caused by the anti-riot police and the Basij’s batons. More than four thousand dissidents and protesters were arrested, tens of which died in detention centres under torture, and there were documented reports of prisoners being raped during interrogations. The government started blaming all the turmoil on the West and Israel, and did not acknowledge the fact that by their latest activities, they had turned the demand for recounting the votes into a widespread hatred towards the whole regime. Now people were not looking for their votes anymore and were targeting the Supreme Leader, as the unifying symbol of the regime. The Islamic Republic did not back off. They crushed the protests with all their might and ignored all the pledges from various international bodies for observing human rights.

Tunisia

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became the President of Tunisia on 7 November, 1987, and was in power for 23 years, until 2011. In October 2009, the latest presidential elections in Tunisia were held and a Human Rights Watch report called it “an atmosphere of repression”. Ben Ali faced three candidates, two of whom said they actually supported the incumbent. No independent observer was allowed to monitor the vote, and Ben Ali won a landslide victory, with 89.62%. His opponent, Mohamed Bouchiha, received 5.01%. The candidate who was most critical of the regime, Ahmed Ibrahim, of the Ettajdid party, received only 1.57% after a campaign in which he was not allowed to put posters up or hold any kind of meeting.

In January 2011, though, the people’s protests showed that Ben Ali did not enjoy the support of nearly 90% of the voters. The demonstrations and riots were reported to have started over unemployment, food inflation, corruption, freedom of speech and poor living conditions. The protests led to the ousting of Ben Ali, who stepped down from the presidency and fled Tunisia on 14 January 2011 after 23 years in power.

Egypt

Following the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, Hosni Mubarak became the President of the Arabic Republic of Egypt, and the Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP). He has now been in power for 29 consecutive years.Mubarak has been re-elected by majority votes in a referendum for successive terms on four occasions: in 1987, 1993, 1999. No one could run against the President due to a restriction in the Egyptian constitution in which the People’s Assembly played the main role in electing the President of the Republic. After increased domestic and international pressure for democratic reform in Egypt, in 2005 the constitution was amended and it allowed multi-candidate presidential elections.  Previously, Mubarak secured his position by having himself nominated by parliament, then confirmed without opposition in a referendum. However, in the September 2005 elections, the electoral institutions, and security apparatus remain under the control of the President. The official state media, including the three government newspapers and state television also express views identical to the official line taken by Mubarak. On 28 July 2005, Mubarak announced his candidacy, as he had been widely expected to do. The election which was scheduled for 7 September 2005 involved mass rigging activities, according to civil organizations that observed the elections. Reports have shown that Mubarak’s party used government vehicles to take public employees to vote for him. Votes were bought for Mubarak in poor suburbs and rural areas. It was also reported that thousands of illegal votes were allowed for Mubarak from citizens who were not registered to vote. On 8 September 2005, Dr. Ayman Nour, a dissident and candidate for the Al-Ghad party – Tomorrow party, contested the election results, and demanded a repeat of the election. In a move widely seen as political persecution, Nour was convicted of forgery and sentenced to five years at hard labor on 24 December 2005.

Then, shortly after the uprising in Tunisia, the street protests started in Egypt. Thousands of people poured into streets, demanding Mubarak to abandon his position as the president. As there protests are still ongoing, we will have to wait and see the outcome. But whatever the outcome, this does not change the fact that Mubarak is not as popular as he believed.

Yemen

Ali Abdullah Saleh became the first elected President in reunified Yemen in 1999 (though he had been President of unified Yemen since 1990 and President of North Yemen since 1978). He was re-elected to office in September 2006. Saleh’s victory was marked by an election that was accompanied by violence, violations of press freedoms and allegations of fraud.

In the past few days, after the Tunisia incidents, thousands of students and opposition activists demonstrated at Sana’a University, calling, very directly, for President Ali Abdullah Salih to go, alluding to events in Tunisia.

Jordan

Jordan’s most executive power is the King. The King traditionally has held substantial power, and although the parliament can control his decisions, but it has rarely happened. The Hashemite dynasty has ruled over Transjordan and Jordan for 90 years.

King Abdullah II, witnessed the uprising of his people in January 2011. Bread and freedom” was one of the slogans, along with calls for the government to resign. Complaining about the king is still taboo in Jordan, so the protests focused on his ministers, even though it is the king who actually pulls the strings.

Kyrgyzstan

President Kurmanbek Saliyevich Bakiyev came to power in 2005, as the acting President after the downfall of President Akayev. Despite initial hopes, Bakiyev’s term in office was marred by the murder of several prominent politicians, prison riots, economic ills and battles for control of lucrative businesses. In 2006, Bakiyev faced a political crisis as thousands of people participated in a series of protests in Bishkek. He was accused of not following through with his promises to limit presidential power, give more authority to parliament and the prime minister, and eradicate corruption and crime.

Finally, in April 2010,  after bloody riots in the capital overturned the government, Bakiyev reportedly fled to the southern city of Osh.

Niger

President Mamadou Tandja held the power in Nigeria since 1990.  Following a constitutional crisis in 2009, which was caused by Tandja’s efforts to remain in office beyond the originally scheduled end of his term, he was ousted by the military in a coup d’etat in February 2010.

Thailand
The country is a kingdom, a constitutional monarchy with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the ninth king of the House of Chakri, who has reigned since 1946, making him the world’s longest-serving current head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.[7] The king is officially titled Head of State, the Head of the Armed Forces, an Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.
As of April 2010, a set of new violent protests by the Red Shirt opposition movement, possibly backed financially by fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have resulted in 87 deaths (mostly civilian and some military) and 1,378 injured.

Sudan

The Darfur Conflict is an ongoing civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing or committing genocide against non-arab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs. One side of the conflict is composed mainly of the official Sudanese military and police, and the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group recruited mostly from the Arab Abbala tribes of the northern Rizeigat region in Sudan; these tribes are mainly camel-herding nomads. The other combatants are made up of rebel groups, notably the SLM/A and the JEM, recruited primarily from the non-Arab Muslim Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups. Although the Sudanese government publicly denies that it supports the Janjaweed, it has been providing financial assistance and weapons to the militia and has been organizing joint attacks targeting civilians.

Under international pressure, a referendum took place in Southern Sudan from 9 January to 15 January 2011, on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or become independent. The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).

As of 23 January 2011, preliminary results indicated a landslide of 98.8% voting in favor of independence.

The Queen’s College venerates the memory of Neda Agha Soltan; the Iranian Government blames it on Arash Hejazi!

I have to live with this sore. But I am going to tell the story soon.