Hossein Ronaghi’s letter from prison “I Will Not Bow to the Unfair and Unjust Judiciary”
“O Followers of Scripture! Why do you confound truth with falsehood and knowingly conceal the truth?” (Verse no. 71 of Al-e-Imran, third sura of the Qur’an) To Grand Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council [of the Islamic Republic of Iran] My greetings and respects. You are most certainly aware of the […]
Mohammad Nourizad: “a Mother’s Sorrow”
“A Mother’s Sorrow,” a film released by outspoken Iranian dissident Mohammad Nourizad in December 2014, portrays the struggle of Iranian mothers whose children have lost their lives in the fight for a free Iran. The film follows the family of Saeed Zeinali, a student activist who has been missing since his arrest by Iranian security […]
John Gray: “the Violent Visions of Slavoj Žižek”
Slavoj Žižek (1949-) is a Slovenian social theorist. A political radical, he has been called a “celebrity philosopher” and his work has been translated into 20 languages. In this review of two of Žižek’s recent Books and Manuals, English political philosopher John Gray argues that the most prevalent theme in Slavoj Žižek’s thought is a […]
Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari: “No! This is No Longer My God!”
Hassan Yousefi Eskhevari is an Iranian dissident religious intellectual who has spent four years in prison. He now lives in exile in Germany, where he has advocated the establishment of a secular government in Iran and remains a prominent critic of the Iranian regime. Below is a translation to English of his 1/7/2015 statement about […]
Behnam Ebrahimzadeh’s Letter to His Son From Prison
Imprisoned union activist Behnam Ebrahim Zadeh, who began a hunger strike in Raja’i-Shahr prison on December 3, 2014, is now in troubling physical condition. He started his hunger strike in protest to being transferred from the political prisoners’ ward to death row. While on strike, he wrote this letter to his son Nima (who is […]
Gohar Eshgi’s Message on Her Son, Slain Blogger Sattar Beheshti
Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti was arrested on October 30, 2012 by the Iranian cyber police. Sattar died in custody, allegedly from severe torture. His family was informed of his death one week later, on November 6. Gohar Eshghi, Sattar’s mother, recorded this message in her son’s memory for the Persian New Year in March 2013. […]
Farzad Kamangar’s unpublished Letter to his beloved
Farzad Kamangar sits amid a crowd of his students, green mountains in the background. Farzad Kamangar was a Kurdish schoolteacher and civic activist hanged for the crime of moharebeh (“warring against God”) alongside several other political prisoners at Evin Prison near Tehran on the morning of May 9, 2010. Kamangar’s execution was condemned by the […]
Jila Baniyaghoob’s Story “Three Years have Passed”
Iranian journalist Jila Baniyaghoob shares the story of her and her husband’s arrest in 2009. Source: Jila Baniyaghoob’s blog Three years have passed, three years since the day they arrested me and my husband (Bahman Ahmadi Amouee) in our home. It was the 30th of Khordad [June 20, 2009]. It was at night. The neighbors […]
Zia Nabavi’s Excruciating Story
Zia Nabavi, dressed in a light blue button-up shirt, stands facing into the sun in front of a body of water. In this letter, written in April 2012, Zia Nabavi, a student exiled to Karun Prison in Ahwaz, describes the torture he underwent during interrogations. “I was under physical and psychological pressure during all of […]
Mohammad Nourizad’s Message “We have killed People”
Nourizad used to write for the hard-liner Kayhan newspaper, which is under the direct supervision of the Iranian regime. In fact, Nourizad himself says he wrote more articles praising the Supreme Leader than any other journalist. However, after Khamenei ordered a violent crackdown on the post-election protests in 2009, Nourizad became one of the Supreme […]