And so Iran is backing down. The Islamic Republic does it in its own way, tortuously, but it is backing down. And that is what is evident in two stands made public this morning, after the new stay of execution accorded Sakineh under the pressure of public opinion and of the chancelleries.
The first comes from the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manouchehr Mottaki, telling his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that "the authorities of justice had not pronounced the final verdict in the affair concerning Sakineh Ashtiani" -- a discreet, to say the least, way of making one (temporarily) forget the letter addressed by the Supreme Court of Tehran to the application of sentences office of Tabriz prison instructing that the young woman be executed as rapidly as possible.
And the second, from M. Mehmanparast, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported by the Isna press agency, regrets that the Westerners have the "insolence" to transform "the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who has committed crimes and is guilty of betrayal, an affair of human rights". What insolence, indeed, M. Mehmanparast insists, to have made of "her case a symbol of the liberty of women" and to "use a simple case (the criminal law case) as a means of pressure against Iran".
Ah, what a lovely way to express things. And how elegantly put the ire of the Iranian government. Fortunate "insolence", in any event! Happy mobilization that has transformed Sakineh's face into a global icon, a symbol, and thus put off, for the time being, the date of her expected death!
For me, of course, the struggle continues. It continues even more than ever. For a stay of execution is not a pardon. And, lamentably, execution of the sentence can still occur, and at any moment. We must keep up the pressure. There must be increasingly more citizens--signing, for example, the petition of La Règle du Jeu-who express their solidarity with the young woman unjustly condemned and, of course, with her son, Sajjad.
Let's not give in.
Let's continue to be "insolent".
Bernard-Henri Lévy
And how many others are there, in places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Yemen, etc. etc.? How many are killed, maimed, or otherwise horribly punished for breaking medieval "laws"? And these are only the "judicial" victims. How many are "honor" killed, beaten, tortured, mutilated, imprisoned in their own houses, forcibly married, oppressed, enslaved, etc. by their own families, villages, societies -- due to abysmal primitivism and backwardness?
If WE do not act in their defense, WHO will?
This is becoming a joke, you guys make up stories, then it turns out to be all made up and then you claim Iran is backing down. The demonizing of Iran by the international war mongers if wasn't so criminal it would be funny. No matter what one thinks of Ahmadinejad, he has nothing to do with the case of this woman who killed her husband and is in jail for it. Even if Ahmadinejad wanted to release her he wouldn't be able to do.
I would like to bring your attention to an important news story for which there is a complete MEDIA BLACKOUT. Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, a young Iranian national, was arrested in the US in December 2007, and now complains that she was lured to the US as a means to get to her ex-husband, then kidnapped, held ransom for him, and brutally tortured and abused in US Federal Prisons. She reported this in a telephone interview with PressTV. Her ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif, had allegedly tried to export night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria. The story can be found here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/149384.html
This is a verifiable story! She is being held in FEDERAL Prison and she can be located and interviewed, but there is a media blackout! Please HuffingtonPost, research and investigate this. For my fellow HUff Posters, please promote this information to whoever will listen. One person's humanity is not any less because she is Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, or otherwise. She has two daughters, young, who are very worried and are asking Obama, formally, to allow them to see her. Please tell everyone you know about this and overcome the media silence!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbfxwDcTe3k&feature=player_embedded#!
While not implying in any way that Sakineh's case is mere propaganda, I think that there has to be some sense of moral consistency and universality, which would condemn all such injustices.
Compare this woman's fate to that of the handicapped woman in Virginia. With regards to these two cases, which nation has shown more forebearance or humanity?
i wonder what they will show to the gullible citizen when it's time to justify going to war against Pakistan, Yemen, Eurasia, Oceania and .....
Of course, this would be less easily done if Iran had a more western social and legal system.