Drums of War + Allah is Great + Beating up Students + Taking Hostages

As the drums of war get louder, both the American and the Iranian governments say they are not planning for an imminent war. In the meantime, the Iranian government is doing what it does best, which is suppressing people and taking hostages. 

An Iranian based in Britain has been handed down a hefty prison sentence, so relations between the UK and Iran look bleak too. Although her name hasn’t officially been announced, it’s widely believed that the prisoner is London-based art student and British Council employee Aras Amiri. She’s been given a 10-year sentence and accused of “cultural intrusion.” This means she’s tried to sabotage the Islamic culture that underpins the Islamic Republic. Officials are so adept at coming up with these ridiculous paranoid fantasies, and it’s hard to know what message they are trying to send by holding another person with links to the West hostage. It seems preposterous that they could think this could help bolster the country’s reputation in any way. 

Life on the domestic front continues to be troubling, if not harrowing. On Tuesday, members of the Basij paramilitary group violently attacked a student rally at Tehran University. Students were protesting against the recent crackdown by university security on the way people were dressed — on female students not wearing hijab “properly,” but also on male students not dressed conventionally. “Forcing a specific kind of dress on students is a blatant violation of students’ privacy and their human rights,” a student statement said. One protester IranWire spoke to said the protests weren’t just about the new push for “morality” to be upheld on campus, but also about gender discrimination and to call for the release of journalist Marzieh Amiri, who has been detained since a protest on International Workers’ Day.

Violence seems to be on the increase in Iran. Prison conditions continue to be shocking, especially for political prisoners, and a recent riot in Fashafuyeh Prison resulted in several detained Gonabadi dervishes being injured. Officials refuse to listen to pleas for prisoners of conscience to be held on different wards from those accused of violent crimes — even though this is how it should be under Iranian law. 

Aida Ghajar continues her compelling and often heartbreaking series on human trafficking and Iranian refugees. She’s spoken to dozens of people about their dangerous journeys across borders, and the lack of empathy when they arrive. These people just want normal lives, but, as several refugees point out, once they put their futures in the hands of traffickers, they lose all power. “That is why reaching your destination means deliverance,” one of them told her. “It means the end of bondage.” 

As always, please let me know if you have any comments.