We support the Tunisian, Egyptian and other Middle East and North Aftrican uprising against the dictators

On the anniversary of the Iranian

 revolution

The peoples of the Middle East and North Africa have woken up! On the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution, International Coalition Against Violence in Iran (ICAVI) supports whole heartedly the uprisings of the Tunisian and Egyptian peoples and hopes that they will meet their demands which is freedom and democracy through peaceful means.  During the twentieth century, Iranian peoples made two revolutions; the constitutional revolution in 1905, which demanded freedom, democracy and the rule of law and the 1979 revolution which had the same demands. Iran was the first country in the Middle East to go through two revolutions in a century, all for freedom and democracy. The same demands that other Middle Eastern countries are rising for in the twenty first century.  Thirty two years ago in February 1979, Iranians overthrew the two thousand five hundred years dynasties rule, hoping to establish a republic based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Unfortunately, those who took over the revolution implemented their vision, which was far from people's aspirations and through the use of force and by violent means. Now, after 32 years of theocratic rule, the original demands of people and their hopes for a better future seems beyond reach. State-sponsored violence to control the society in Iran knows no boundaries:Women are detained and sentenced to long prison terms for “improper veil”, for demanding equality and the abolition of gender discrimination. Students are banned from universities and put in prison and tortured and in some cases executed for speaking out.Journalists are banned from writing the truth and detained and their papers closed down.Writers do not get permission to publish their work. The printing shops are systematically closed down.Workers who demand a fair wage or their delayed salaries are thrown into prisons.Every year, thousands flee the country to seek a peaceful life elsewhere.State-sponsored violence to control the society has no boundaries:Religious minorities such as Bahais, Dervishes; ethnic minorities and groups such as the Kurds, and Baluchis; homosexuals and converts to other religions and even young student clerics who speak up their minds are suppressed indiscriminately.

Worrying even more is the increasing number of executions of political and ideological prisoners who are deprived of a fair trial, of having an attorney, of access to their files and the presence of attorneys in the short, sharp trials. Prisoners are executed without saying their last farewells. Their bodies are buried in unknown graves without their loved ones’ knowledge. Execution of common criminals is chosen as the only way to decrease and solve the increasing level of crime.

Furthermore, corruption, waste of Iran’s oil and other natural resources to support and maintain fundamentalist groups elsewhere, bribing, theft of nation’s wealth, addiction, prostitution, human trafficking and drugs trafficking at macro level; and domestic violence, suicide, self-burn, murdering wife and husband, honour killings, at micro level have created  a society which is on the verge of collapse. Worse than this is the law of retribution by which, any member of the victim’s family has the right to execute the alleged murderer! A barbaric practice which can potentially make every Iranian a murderer, which from a sociological and psychological point of view has dire consequences for the society as a whole.  On the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution, ICAVI condemns the systematic and violent policies of the Islamic republic of Iran, which has taken the Iranian people hostage for such a long time. ICAVI hopes that the Iranian society  returns to a non-violent state, where all Iranians can live in peace and free from violence and fear and work towards a democratic and free Iran.ICAVI supports the peoples of Tunis and Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries in these crucial times and hopes they will meet their demands through a peaceful transition into democracy which are the aspirations of the Iranian people. 

International Coalition Against violence in Iran

(ICAVI)

12 February 2011