- 8 July 2009
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- Events in Iran, Human Rights in Iran, Iran Election 2009
7:41 pm: Open Letter by Shirin Ebadi to Ahmadinejad – Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi sent an open letter to President Ahmadinejad on Sunday requesting the removal of a ban placed on the operation of her human rights organization, and an end to pressures on civil, political and human rights activists by governmental officials in his administration.
The honorable President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
With a brief examination of the pressures and limitations placed on myself and the members of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, any objective onlooker will understand the level of pressure your government has placed on the defenders of human rights in Iran and the illegal and inhumane treatment you have imposed on them. These extreme pressures have taken place despite the fact that our government in line with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, voted and adopted by the UN members including Iran in 1999, has committed to cooperate with human rights defenders, and to provide them with immunity from prosecution with respect to their human rights activities.
I would like to only address a portion of the pressures which we as human rights defenders have faced in the past 6 months:
Read the full letter here (English).
7:37 pm: Tweets:
“Important: Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, lawyer and member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center has been arrested.”
“Mohammad Reza Yazdan Panah member of the Participation Front has been arrested.”
7:34 pm: Mothers protesting the arrest of their loved ones in front of Evin Prison
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cx8rqHRp3A]
7:32 pm: People boycott SMS – According to Etemademeli, SMS customers in Tehran are discussing the boycott of SMS “for a long time” in order to protest its disconnection for several weeks. “83% of the phone company’s shareholders believe stopping SMS service increases risk and lowers revenues of the company…SMS is one of the most important sources of revenue for this company.” After the SMS was back in service, one message was sent which said “God freed SMS” but after that no messages were sent. “Even the time passing and father’s day coming did not change the decision of the protesting people” and unlike last year, no one used this service to send greeting messages on Imam Ali’s birthday anniversary.
7:09 pm: Key points of Ahmadinejad’s speech:
The following summary was posted by an Iranian-American professor to an Iran-centric list-serve. For those who speak Persian and are interested in watching the complete speech, watch it here: