Monday, November 16, 2009

Newsletter for Monday November 16th 2009

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 130 - Monday November 16th, 2009                                                                                                                                                              

Future Plans:
--Iranian-style protests, Thursday evening, go to parks and around in the city with family.
--Accompanying mothers of the green movement victims in Laleh Park – every Saturday afternoon.

--Attending Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar's memorial service on Sunday, November 22, 3-5 pm; No. 18, Moradzadeh St, Hedayat St, Tehran

--Spreading news about Dec 7 (Azar 16th) demonstrations on the anniversary of Student Day in private and public universities across the country; inviting people and students to attend these ceremonies in universities.


News:

--Jaras: Ramin Pourandarjani, the 26-year-old physician of Kahrizak detention was buried amidst security measures and his family was not allowed to conduct autopsy to discover the cause of death. A video of Dr Pourandarjani delivering his commencement speech is attached to this newsletter.
--BBC: Tehran Prosecutor's Office is a statement announced that the file of Kahrizak physician Dr Ramin Pourandarjani's death is under investigation at Criminal Prosecutor's office. This statement recalls that the body of this doctor was found on November 10 at his service department, and that the initial autopsy shows his death was not caused by poisoning.
--
Jaras: Tehran Revolutionary Court in a released statement announced that the closed trial of Engr. Shapour Kazemi, brother of Zahra Rahnavard was held on Sunday November 15. The Revolutionary Court also announced that the trial session of Saeed Leylaz, journalist and economic consultant will be held on Tuesday. According to this statement, Clotilde Reiss, the French citizen and teacher will also be tried at Tehran Revolutionary Court on Tuesday and that the prosecutor's representative and the lawyer of this French national will be present at the trial.

--Radio Zamaneh: Mehdi Karroubi called on the youth to not allow "troubled people" lead them towards harsh behaviors. While talking to a group of MPs from the minority fraction at his house last night, he advised the youth protesting to election results to abstain from "violent behaviors" at any condition.

--Radio Zamaneh: Over 100 independent human rights and civil society organizations across the world demanded UN representatives to support the UN General Assembly resolution condemning human rights violations in the Islamic Republic. These organization and institutes have expressed concerns regarding "deterioration" of human rights situation in Iran.

--Radio Zamaneh: Over 50 writers, critics and journalists in a letter to Sadeq Larijani, head of the Judiciary asked him to issue release command of Javad Mahzadeh, detained writer and journalist. Javad Mahzadeh was arrested at his house by prosecutor's officers about a month ago and has been detained since then. There has been no exact information reported about his fate and the judicial authorities have not declared his charges yet.

--In a meeting with members of University of Arts Islamic Association, Ayatollah Sanei said the increase and exacerbation of problems do not show domination of oppression but rather are signs of weakness. He also said: "Be sure that the nation's efforts especially dear academia will harvest." He added, "Although some people have become artistically successful in telling lies, some other are using all their art to struggle."

--Asr-e Iran: Mohammad Reza Shajarian's lawyer said this Master of Iranian music has been summoned to the Intelligence Ministry. He said last Saturday after Master Sharian returned to Iran, intelligence officers stationing at the airport invited him to go to a building on Jordan St. to have discussion and "deliver some explanations".

--AUT Newsletter: Students of Najaf-Abad Azad University in a union assembly protested against extremist action of university officials. These student who were unhappy about installation of surveillance videos inside departments and sexual segregation in university buses en-route Shiraz gate, Isfahan, expressed their protest by chanting slogans such as "Our dishonor, Our Culture Minister" and  "Student dies but does not accept abjection".

--Hana Makhmalbaf, a referee at Denmark Documentary Film Festival who is also attending this festival to display her movie "The Green Days", spread the color of Iranian people's movement to this festival. After this movie was displayed, the festival jury wore green scarves on solidarity with the movement of Iranian people.

--Norooz: The commemorative ceremony of Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar [translator's note: two victims of 1998 chained murders] will be held on November 22. Their children will soon invite people to attend this ceremony in an official statement. This ceremony will be held on Sunday, November 22, 3-5 pm at their house No. 18, Moradzadeh St, Hedayat St, Tehran.

--Parleman News: Hossein Mar'ashi, spokeman for Executives of Construction Party in response to a question about the latest situation of this party, said: This party is in the process of reorganizing details of which will be explained later. Regarding the possibility of reformists taking part in the upcoming elections, he said: In case the current condition continues, my personal suggestion to Executives of Construction Party and the Reform Front is not to officially attend this election.

--Norooz: After the government's coup against the Culture Academy to seize it and remove Mir Hossein Mousavi as its chair, they are not trying to eliminate the Institute of Culture and Civilization Studies which runs under the supervision of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Ghorban Behzadian-nejad. It has been reported that the second biennial of "The Persian Gulf: Culture and Civilization" is being held on November 15-16 at Faculty of Literature and Human Science of University of Tehran, but the name of this Institute which had organized the first series of these biennials has been removed from the second series.

--BBC: On Sunday November 15 and on the occasion of International Student Day (November 17), Iranians in Washington, D.C., held a protesting assembly to express support and solidarity with protesters to results of Iran's presidential elections. "The Green Scroll" which displays the slogan "Ahmadinejad is not Iran's President" was brought to Washington, D.C., after being shown in Paris, Stockholm, and New York and was marched by Iranian in the city center in front of the Congress building.


NEWS OF THE ARRESTED, MISSING, AND DECEASED

--Norooz: Mostafa Shafiei, a medical student at Anzali University was arrested on November 3 while going to the campus and has been transferred to an unknown location. According to Human Rights Activists, Shafiei was active in Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign.


Analysis

--BBC: Ahmadinejad has recently called on responsible organs to conduct the resolution of Higher Council of Cultural Revolution in the field of human science. Formerly, Ali Khamenei had said teaching the humanities in Iran's universities is against the foundations of Quran and religion. Mehdi Khalaji, an Islamic researcher in Washington told BBC Persian that "This council does not aim to transform the field of the humanities, but rather make this scientific field Islamic." Mr Khalaji believes that the humanities are secular in nature but "From the beginning, the Islamic Republic has attempted to make this nature religious which means bringing it down to the level of theology. The ultimate goal of this council is to return to the medieval era before the humanities were formed." He added that "the ultimate goal and ideology of Iran's ruling system is to achieve power, and as the modern humanities cannot be used as a tool for this end, it is being condemned by them. That is why the nuclear technology is the main focus of power in Iran, because ideology has a thirst for weapons and thinks of science and philosophy as weapons as well. However, it is obvious that the humanities formed in the Europe and spread worldwide is not an effective weapon for the Islamic ideology."

Recommendations and Warnings:

--A new anti-filtering strategy: 1- Visit AOL.com, 2- register an account (sign up for a free email), 3- download free software (AOL 9.5), 4- sign into your account in AOL 9.5, 5- enjoy surfing high speed internet without filtering.

--Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points in his Sunday and Monday videos:

    -Referring to the joint session between Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi and their emphasis on not using violence during struggle, he mentioned the "non-violent struggle" but reminded that people should be aware of escape and defense techniques as well.

    -He said the coup agents will attempt to lead the struggle to use violence and have an excuse to start a serious repression.

    -IRGC's commander emphasizing that all their actions were undertaken as commanded by the Leader is somehow giving the infamy of all murders to the Leader.

    -Burying Dr Ramin Pourandarjani without conducting autopsy and released information about pressures on him increase the likelihood of his murder.

    -The rumour of universities being shut down during the week of Dec 7 is a mental war that should not cause any interferes in plans of the green movement.

    -He also talked about the 3,000 students of Najaf-Abad Azad University and said it shows the high potential of student movement.

    -He talked about strikes and protests of workers in a number of factories in Rasht, Sanandaj and Arak and said workers' movement is an important comrade of the Green Movement.

    -Finally, he said the official announcement of an increase in people's approach toward satellite channels shows illegitimacy of the ruling system, government and their various organs among the people.


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