Fw:

[pouya nekouei]

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: pouya nekouei <pouya.nek...@yahoo.com>
To: Prof. Sundar Sarukkai <saru...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tue, March 15, 2011 12:16:39 PM
Subject:

Greetings and Good Afternoon,

My name is Puyan Mahmudian. I was a student activist during my under graduate studies at Amirkabir University of Technology. I served as the spokes-man and a member of executive board.of the university’s student association. At the same time I was a memebr of Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat(The office to strenghten unity), the national student union in Iran. The student union was regarded as the biggest dissident organization and tried to push the regime toward democratic changes.  I was also the editor in chief of a well known student newsletter called “Rivar” which was banned by the university officials becasue of its critical stance toward Mr. Ahamadinejad’s government.

I got arrested in 2007. The accusation was insulting the supreme leader and president Ahmadinejad. I spent 76 days in solitary confinement without acess to lawyer and family. During detention, I was tortured, humiliated and pressured to make false confessions. Eventually, I agreed to do an inteview in front of camera and accepted the invented charges, due to this, I got released on a bail of  roughly 100000 $.

The year after, I took part in the nationwide entrance examination for graduate schools and despite achieving rank 6th among 800 applicants, I was prevented from pursuing my graduate studies.

The officials informed me that the Information Ministry had not affirmed my ral qualification to enter university. They told me that “my loyalty to the regime has not been approved by information ministry” and the reason given for this was, my political activities in the past.  So I became a “starred student”, which means that I can not enter any  Iranian university for the rest of my life.


After the 2009 presidential election, I was called to court and at the preliminary trial I was sentenced to three years of detention. Out of a wish to avoid imprisonment and a desire to pursue my studies, I decide to leave Iran. Currently I am doing a master degree in Berlin. However, I am still very  involved with the activities of the student movement in Iran.

As we all know and  based on clear evidences, the situation of human right has got dramatically worsen after the 2009 presidential election. Some dare to say this is an unprecedented catastrophe for human rights in Iran.

Almost all of independent student organizations were ordered to be closed and hundreds of their memebrs were detained, tortured and deprived of education. Tens of these students were sentenced by the judicary to long terms of priosn. Right now, while I am talking to you, at least 70 of student activits are in jail. Their trials were held and judgments were passed, whilst they were under extreme physical and mental pressure. As in my case, they were deprived of very basic prisoner rights such as having access to lawyer or contacting family.  Their experiences are well documented in the letters written by some of them, describing the torture and ill-treatment committed by thier interrogators.


I would like to draw your attention to the following examples of student prisoners:
o    Bahareh Hedayat,  nine and a half years
o    Majid Tavakoli, sentenced to eight and a half years
o     Milad Asadi,  7 years
o    Zia Nabavi,  10 years
o    Majid Dorri, 6 years
o    Ali Malihi, 4 years
o    Mahdieh Golroo,  two and a half years
o    Mohammad Pourabdollah, 3 years
It is worth to mention that detention and imprisonment sentences for students, are being still issued on large scale. In the weeks following  the protest by the green movement and in recent weeks, at least 80 university students across the country got arrested. Even more shocking, is that three students were shot and killed in the recent protest.

In addition to illegal detention and imprisonment, governement has been violating the right to education in order to silence student activists and to spread fear among them.

In recent years, specially over the last two years, thausands of students have been dperived of education either temporarily or permanently. Unfortunatly the Iranian government uses this immoral tool in large scale to suppress university activists.

Not long ago a student website issued a report stating that at Shiraz University around 200 students were suspended for one to four semesters because they held a protest inside university campuses.

Along with those who are deprived of education for temporary terms, many of student activists are fired from university or deprived of education for their life time.

My friend, Mostafa Khosravi, who is present here, is among those who got expelled from university because of his activism.

All critical student publications have been banned by the authorities. From thousands of critical student publications which were issued and distributed each day throughout the university campuses, just a few have remained. Which by the way, do not have the opportunity to publish critical articles due to governmental censorship.  

The two main reformist parties which used to exist were ordered to close and governmental forces have detained their activists in hundreds, tortured them and convicted them in show trials in large numbers. For the time being, the two predominant reformist leaders, namely Mr. Moosavi and Mr. Karoobi, are under house arrest, deprived of basic human rights.

All newspapers which were crtical of Ahmadinejad’s government were banned and most of thier journalists were detianed and some sentenced to long prison terms.


Women’s right activists have been the target of harsh suppresion as well. Almost all of the well-known women’s right activists have been arrested during recent years. Some of them got incredibly long prison terms and in some cases even barbaric punishments like lashes were ordered by the judicary.

As example of imprisoned women right activists I can mention the folllowing names:
•    Nasrin Sotoudeh, sentenced to 11 years of prison
•    Bahare Hedayat, sentenced to 9 and a half years of prison
•    Shabnam Madadzadeh, sentenced to 5 years of prison in exile
•    Atefeh Nabavi, sentenced to 4 years of prison
•    Kave Kermanshahi, sentenced to 5 years of prison

Ethnic and religous minorities are suffering from unfair and suppresive policies of the government. Yaresanis, Derwishs, Sonnis, Christaians and Bahai’s are systematically deprived from their basic human rights such as right to practise their religon. Among religous minorities, the governement is treating Bahai’s the worst. They are not allowed to enter universities, their homes and shops are being attacked by government associated forces.

Among the ethnic minorities, Kurds are suffering the most. In recent years many of Kurdish poitical activists have been executed without having had a fair trial. Furthermore, the pressure on Kurdish civic activists is much higher than those from central parts of the country. Because, every kind of peaceful activism is being obseved as a security threat to the central government.

Labor right activists including teacher and worker syndicate activists are in the same situation. Mansoor Osanloo along with several other memers of a labor syndicate is spending a long prion term.

Last but not the least, the number of executions is sky rocketing. In the past two months more than 100 people have been executed in silence.

I ‘d like to conclude with the observation that the human right situation in Iran has severely deteriorated compared to two years ago. Therefore we, as Iranian Civic activists, demand international community to react proprely and to put pressure on the Iranian government to abide by its responsibilites specified in international conventions such as the universal human right declaration.

Thank you for your attention.