Exchanging Puppets: Why the International Left Should Not Support the So-Called Iranian Reformist Leaders

- By Lila Ghobady

While I have no doubt that those leftists who support the so called reform movement in Iran have good intentions, I believe that they have been misinformed, misguided, and are not aware of the whole truth about what has been really going on in Iran.

The dark fact is that those who lead the so-called Iran reform movement outside of the country, with huge financial support from Rafsanjani's mafia, are mostly people who have been part of the fundamentalist Islamic regime for years, including Mr. Ganji and Sazgara. Their goal was, and remains, limited to removing the Khamenei/Ahmdainejad band and installing the Rafsanjani mafia/reformist band in their stead. This sham reform has everything to do with power and nothing to do with the people's fight for freedom. Rafsanjani and his front man in the recent [s]election, Mousavi, have been willing participants in the regime's system of control, massacre and economic corruption for the past 30 years.

This, incidentally, was the strategy of the hardliners when they came to power in 1979. The Iranian people supported the revolution because they believed that the new regime would deliver basic social, political and economic rights and freedoms and independence from foreign influence. However, under Ayatollah Khomeini they did not even receive the minimum of what they had asked -- in fact, they lost whatever basic rights they already had.

This deception triggered the 1981 uprising, only three years after the revolution, in which thousands of freedom loving students, leftists, political activists and ordinary Iranians took to the streets, declared the revolution stolen and chanted "Down with Khomeini".

The Revolutionary Guards and Islamic Regime Militia responded in ways that are now all-too-familiar. There was a massacre: many protesters were killed and many more put in jail where they were tortured in the most brutal possible ways. Seven years later, in 1998, as many of these political prisoners neared their release dates, thousands of these daughters and sons of Iran, were executed on the direct orders of Ayatollah Khomeini and tossed aside into group or unknown graves.

Today's"Reformists,"Mr. Ganji, and Hajarian, were at the top of the secret police in Iran. They worked hard to maintain the new Islamic dictatorship that gave them so much power, and their hard work, massacring and torturing their own people, succeeded in securing for them the power they wanted. After the regime killed most of the opposition inside and outside the country, they needed a new illusion to maintain their legitimacy: an opposition. After crushing the real opposition, which was committed to the fight for human rights, the regime created a sham opposition from within the regime.

Mohamad Khatami epitomized the reformers' duplicity. He came to power espousing freedom of speech, civil rights and dialogue between cultures, but after he became president there was a crackdown on the students uprising in 1999. Again, many were killed, many disappeared and many were jailed for years and tortured even though many of them were the same young student who voted for Khatami and his promises for change in a first place. During his presidency many artists, authors and intellectuals disappeared and were found "mysteriously" murdered. Khatami never tried to stop the violence and never showed sympathy to his supporters. Instead, he openly avowed that his responsibility was to respect the wishes of the supreme Islamic leader, Ayotollah Khamenehi, and to protect the security of the Islamic regime!

In fact, real change never came under the eight years of reformist Khatami's rule, because real change was never the actual goal. Khatami was essentially installed by the Islamic Regime to absorb and delay the demands for real change and in that he was successful.

The power struggle following the recent presidential [s]election also has the same goal; to prevent and control a real grass-roots democratic movement by not letting it develop and by dissipating its energy in the illusion of reform. The current reformist movement is a conspiracy in service of continued oppression; a tool of the Islamist regime designed to protect itself from a hungry and oppressed Iranian people, who might otherwise be able to develop a real reform movement that would replace the current corrupt regime.

Over the last few years, the reformists' agenda was supported by western governments and media, who deliberately or through ignorance, misrepresented the reformists as supporters of an uprising toward real democracy and real change. However, Rafsanjani/Mousavi and their so called Reformist movement have no credibility as democrats and defenders of the Iranian people. The fact is that both Western governments and the Iranian regime do not want real change, because it would jeopardize their cozy economic arrangements that serve their common interests at the expense of the Iranian people.

In 1954, Americans supported a coup to prevent real democracy in Iran from taking root. What is different now? A puppet, Islamic regime that guarantees access to Iranian resources is what Western governments wanted. It is what they continue to want. Therefore, no Western government has ever supported a true democratic uprising in Iran. They simply closed their eyes to human rights concerns, purchased the oil, sold the weapons and enjoyed the ride. Western leftists and intellectuals, partly, have been equally blind and complicit in human rights violations in Iran. They supported Khomeini's regime simplistically, because they had the illusion it was anti-Imperialist!

Despite all propaganda, most Iranian people who are fed up with the dictatorship of the Islamic Regime know that the so-called reform movement is part of the regime. As a result, even though Mousavi is urging people not to use anti-Islamic Regime slogans and trying to limit people's demands within the framework of the "Islamic Republic", he has largely been ignored by the citizens who shout him down with slogans such as "Down with the Islamic Republic!" or "Independence, Liberty, Iranian Democracy!" during recent protests in Tehran. Finally, the people do not even want corrupt reformists in power and are only using the current situation as an opportunity to express what they really want when they shout: "Supporting Mousavi is an excuse -- the whole regime is our target!"

Based on these facts, I argue that Western Leftists should not be mesmerised by the corrupt reformers' seductive propaganda in western countries, and need to do more research on the backgrounds, and also recent agenda, of Mr. Mousavi and his followers before supporting them. Yes, I also believe that people do change, but the reformers have changed only their tactics. They continue to support a profoundly repressive Islamic regime while paying lip service to human rights. For instance, one of the top so-called reformist theorists, Ganji calls dictator Ayatollah Khomeini, "his Imam" (Leader) in his manifesto. Mousavi himself has also claimed to be a Basiji and Khomeini's true follower many times!

I urge you to look clearly at the Iranian situation so that you will see that the reformers who claim to care about democracy and human rights are using these sentiments, and the frustration of the people, merely as pawns in an internal power struggle. Look carefully at their dark and bloody history before throwing your influential support behind them.

I would hope that leftists of all people would have a healthy skepticism about any sham reform movement inside Islamic Republic of Iran. I hope they would support the people's Revolution against the whole corrupt Islamic regime, not their killer's sham reform whose plans are limited to saving the murderous regime. Please support our people's fight for a free, independent and secular Iran which certainly won't be possible while the fascist anti-human Islamic regime stays in power.

Long live freedom for Iran.

Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker living in Canada since 2002. She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalis in Iran and has continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee. She has worked as a Producer and associate Director of internationally-praised underground films along fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. Her recent film Forbidden Sun Dance has been well-received in several countries. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila has received her Master’s degree in Canadian/women studies from Carleton University in Ottawa. Lila Ghobady is the Venus Project Foundation's director of Iranian / Persian documentary film production.

Celebrating Iranian Women History of Resistance on International Women's Day

Here is the clip on Iranian women protests on March 8 1979 against mandatory Hijab ordered by Khomeini soon after 79 Revolution.

Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker living in Canada since 2002. She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalis in Iran and has continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee. She has worked as a Producer and associate Director of internationally-praised underground films along fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. Her recent film Forbidden Sun Dance has been well-received in several countries. As a journalist, she received the title of BlogHer of the Week for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila has received her Master’s degree in Canadian/women studies from Carleton University in Ottawa. Lila Ghobady is the Venus Project Foundation's director of Iranian / Persian documentary film production.

“The overwhelming existence of many historical FACTS and EVIDENCES, that beginning over 12,000 years ago the matriarchal Persian Empire has been recognized as a peaceful advanced civilization ruled under matriarchal social governing system, governing Asia, Europe and North Africa, up to little less than 4000 years ago. - Under the matriarchal rule Persian people have developed a flourishing civilization, language, music, dance, poetry, philosophy, science, mathematics, agriculture and much more. - The Persians highly rich culture and civilization, or the World's Cradle of Civilization and Culture, was centered in Mesopotamia, the capital of Persian Empire for thousands of years, an ancient region of southwest Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in today's Iraq. Mesopotamia was attacked by the Islamic savages and destroyed little over 1300 years ago. Soon after the invasion of Mesopotamia Arabs began subjugating and force converting people of central Asia to Islam at the point of the sword.

Had it not been for the initial 8,000 years of matriarchal civilization, wisdom and enlightenment, we the humankind would probably be still living in caves?” Bahram Maskanian, the founder of Venus Project Foundation

We The Iranian Women, Will Not Be Silent...!

- By Lila Ghobady

Throughout the history of Iran, women have fought abuses, inequality and despotism as forcefully and progressively as men, if not more. Women such as “Tahereh Qurratu'l-`Ayn” steered freedom movements forward and acted as the pivots of change.

In Iran’s modern history, more than 150 years ago and concurrent with most progressive women’s movements worldwide such as the women’s movement in France, Tahereh Qurratu'l-`Ayn (1814 - 1852) was the first woman who took off her covering-hijab and revolted against the establishment. She did this in a society where women were supposed to be fully subservient to men in both the physical and social (under the hijab) spheres.

“Tahereh” fought for “equality” and “freedom” in Iran around the same time that the West had only begun to be introduced to the idea of Socialism. She was a true freedom fighter who believed in freedom, equality and women liberation.

Tahereh Qurratu'l-`Ayn’s flame of freedom will never burn out; “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”

Half a century later during the Constitutional Revolution, a few brave women from the province of Azerbaijan took another step toward freedom and equality when they fought against Quajar tyranny side by side with male freedom fighters, but secretly, by dressing as men...

By the beginning of 20th century (1924) another brave woman – a great freedom loving singer “Ghamar ol-Moluk Vaziri” – bravely took off her hijab (Scarf) in an all male setting and sang:

The country is in ruins

The nation is asleep

Oh women of this country

It’s time for revolution!

Fifty five years later, as chauvinistic elements from left to right helped Khomeini and his Islamic Republic steal the “people revolution” under the lie of “anti-imperialism,” the women of Iran showed their tremendous bravery and tact by staging mass protests on International Women's Day on March 8th, 1979- less than a month after the Islamic Republic took power. They shouted (1):

Freedom is global, not eastern nor western!

We didn’t have a revolution in order to regress!

We women of Iran will not stay silent!

And they did not stay silent, and have been the flag bearers against the inhumane Islamic Republic over last three decades. Their demands are crystal clear: Freedom, equality and human rights!

The reality of 30 years of the backward anti-women’s regime of Iran shows that the equality and women's right remains a dream under the current regime; Reform is not possible under this misogynist -hypocrite Islamic regime which on the one hand stones women to death savagely and on the other hand sells little Iranian girls from Dubai to China as part of their sex trade mafia...

The only solution is to overthrow one of the most anti women’s murderous regime of all time and replace it with a secular democratic system. We will shout louder than ever on March 8th:

Down with the anti women Islamic regime of Iran!

Long live women’s rights!
Long live human rights! We women of Iran will not be silent!
March 8, 2010

Stop Violence Against Women!

- By Bahram Maskanian

The absolute facts are that; real men are kind, humble, brave, respectful and tough. Real men are caring and protective of women. Real men have a clear understanding of the fact that women are absolutely equal to men. Real men perceive women as equal partners, not their property.

Also another fact is that; abusive men are cowards, weak and misogynists.

All forms of brutal violence towards women are due to men's sense of superiority and entitlement, instilled in them through the patriarchal criminal religious barbarism, upbringing and social conditioning.

Precisely the reason why women are seen, and treated as liability, subhuman, slave and subservient to men, but men are seen, as assets made in the image of a manmade mythical god, fabricated and widely disseminated by Judaism and its two derivatives: Christianity and Islam religion myths and their barbaric manmade religious manuals.

The origins of every man's sense of superiority and entitlement, expecting to be furnish with the rights and claim for owning women comes directly from their immediate family first, coupled with the religious and social conditioning therein.

Why do we, the humankind, knowingly deprive our own daughters, sisters and women of the most essential and basic human dignity and equal rights?

Why almost all over the world our daughters, sisters and women are denigrated and perceived as less of a human and liability, but our sons, brothers and men, are celebrated and seen as assets?

Why do we, the humankind of the 21 Century, impose such barbaric medieval traditions on our own daughters and sons? - We even dress them apart, coloring girls in pink a passive color and boys in blue an aggressive color, thus grouping and categorizing our children in two opposing teams, pushing them down hill on the path of a never-ending social and domestic conflict.

Why do we insist and also volunteer to brainwash our children by teaching them these terrible, divisive, mythical, racist, sexist, misogynist, genocidal, murderous, slave trading and war mongering religious nonsense of the criminal and barbaric old cultural hogwash and medieval backward traditions to our daughters and sons?

Why don't we see the destructive, soul crushing cause and effect of our actions, when we deliberately sentence our daughters to a life of misery and slavery, shaming them for being a woman?

Why do we insist to impose the obligation of paying for our daughter's wedding, and or give dowry, money, or property, to a man, for becoming her life partner, as if we are unloading a rotting merchandise, our daughter, the bride, to her husband for marriage?

Why are we such blind, ignorant, merciless and savage beasts? - The savage beasts living in the jungles, that never claimed to be so-called civilized, would have never done what we do to our own children and each other every day.  Stoning women to death for being raped, or having sex, murdering women to save the honor of her family?  The stupid men would rather murder their own daughters, or sisters, or female family member to uphold a barbaric law written by bunch of criminal political hostlers thousands of years ago, than growing up and learning the truth, that women deserves a revered social position and a high respect.

Shame on all of us for allowing these atrocities to continue, each and every one of us must do what we can to dismantle and correct these criminal barbaric religious behaviors.

Why do we maintain and teach these obvious barbaric and criminal religious nonsense, these dim-witted old cultural rubbish, these medieval traditions to our own daughters and sons, setting them up for an unnatural, miserable and unhappy life of constant struggle against one another, and the fundamental obvious principles of common sense and ethical standards and the superior laws of Mother Nature?

The answer to all of the above vital questions is surprisingly a very simple one, ignorance, yes, IGNORANCE, which is the most deadly and destructive Weapon of Mass Destruction. - If we stop burning books, and start reading them with an open mind, we can easily remedy this problem and many others we, the humankind are grappling with in this day and age?

Even though we had over a few centuries of enlightening, exciting and mind opening scientific discoveries and insights, substantiating billions of years of history of life itself on planet Earth, and billions of years antiquity of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Universe, the followers of the three Abrahamic Adam and Eve based religions; Judaism and its two derivatives: Christianity and Islam have been brainwashed to believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that such thing as Noah and his Ark ever existed, and the first members of human species were fashioned out of dirt and the male God breath, in the God’s own image, in a garden in the sky, with a talking snake who fooled Eve to have bite of an apple thereby pissing off the male God and get thrown out of the non-existent heaven, all by the will of an invisible male God. Furthermore, - that the entire Milky Way Galaxy and the Universe was created a little less than 6,000 years ago!!!

These are incidentally, despite the overwhelming existence of many historical FACTS and EVIDENCES, that beginning over 12,000 years ago the matriarchal Persian Empire has been recognized as a peaceful advanced civilization ruled under matriarchal social governing system, governing Asia, Europe and North Africa, up to little less than 4000 years ago. - Under the matriarchal rule Persian people have developed a flourishing civilization, language, music, dance, poetry, philosophy, science, mathematics, agriculture and much more. - The Persians highly rich culture and civilization, or the World's Cradle of Civilization and Culture, was centered in Mesopotamia, the capital of Persian Empire for thousands of years, an ancient region of southwest Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in today's Iraq. Mesopotamia was attacked by the Islamic savages and destroyed little over 1300 years ago. Soon after the invasion of Mesopotamia Arabs began subjugating and force converting people of central Asia to Islam at the point of the sword.

Had it not been for the initial 8,000 years of matriarchal civilization, wisdom and enlightenment, we the humankind would probably be still living in caves.

The followers of the three Abrahamic Adam and Eve based religions; Judaism and its two derivatives: Christianity and Islam ended up basing their decisions concerning all aspects of life on their ignorance to elect / select and support the criminal and barbaric patriarchal types of social governing systems we currently have all over the world.

To avoid ignorance, we must learn and realize the simple, obvious and fundamental laws of nature, that our daughters, and our sons, both need love and attention, they both need respect, emotional stability, dignity, equality and education. - Teaching our daughters one sets of rules, and our sons another, is the recipe for disaster and highly stupid, divisive, destructive and unnatural.

The sad and unfortunate truth is that we do these atrocious violence towards each other and our children based on the rules and regulations prescribed in the so-called Bibles, or - Religious Manuals, - without even bother to read these religious manuals for ourselves. - Consequently we end up following the words of criminal religious mullahs blindly. - We must have a change of heart and attitude, read and learn what is in these manuals.

We must recognize our endless ability and all of what we are capable of doing. - We, the humankind, must realize our endless built in self-determination and self-motivation to be kind, just, ethical and moral, highly noble and admirable human qualities, which are strongly apposed by the warmongering, manmade, dividing and conquering three Abrahamic Adam and Eve based religions; Judaism and its two derivatives: Christianity and Islam.

Women are our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and partners / wives.  Well over half of the world’s population consists of women.  Over half of the world’s creative power, half of the world’s consciousness and over half of the world’s brainpower are women.  Human rights, gender equality and equal rights are all inalienable rights given to every woman and man by Mother Nature.  We must realize that the one and only way to truly prosper on Planet Earth is to free and unleash the unimaginable majestic power of women for the benefit of all humanity.

To insure our species continued being; we must evolve and learn to embrace reason, common sense principles, ethical standards, knowledge and wisdom.  We must eliminate and get rid of the idiotic, manmade, patriarchal and barbaric religions along with their superstition lunacy. We should all be dedicated to the defense and promotion of justice, love, liberty, democracy, equality, human rights, abolition of female and child slavery, female rights, gender equality and environmental protection measures.

Womankind + Mankind = Humankind

Silence solves nothing, it never has, and it never will.  Our silence will encourage more devastation, violence and judicial corruption at all levels, all over the world.  Our silence will help to defeat and silent the peaceful ethical voices of reason and common sense. - It is our civic duty, ethical and moral obligation, to get involved and never be silent, to solve our many problems, by simply casting the light of truth and exposing the source of the problem, followed by enlightening educational measures to solve the problem through a peaceful conflict resolution.

All real men must break the silence whenever witnessing any form of violence against women, must act, prevent and educate the abuser.  All real men should unite to bring about change of abusive practices and attitudes against women. All real men must rise to stop violence perpetrators and condone violence at any level especially against women and children.

There are only two ways of spreading the light of truth and hope, either to be the source of light, truth and hope, The Projector, or be The Mirror, that spreads and reflects the light of truth and hope to others, which one are you?