Response to Letters Asking For Help For Sakineh, Mostafaei & Iran

As part of it's work supporting the campaigns to save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani from her sentence of death by stoning in Iran, The AIM and several of it's members have emailed and posted a number of letters and petitions to a large number of government officials, human rights organisations and media outlets. A few days ago, The AIM received a response to one of the emails sent which you can read below. I have also received a response to a letter I sent to Downing Street which was then passed to The UK Foreign Commonwealth Office asking for pressure to be applied for Iran to be removed from The UN Commission on the Status of Women. The letter text and responses are available to read here. These letters and emails were based on samples provided by our comrades at Mission Free Iran.

Original Email to EU Governments:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you with an urgent request that you intervene with the authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who continue to harass, intimidate and persecute Mohammad Mostafaei, and have issued a warrant for his arrest, in the wake of the international outcry demanding freedom for his client, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. The regime has also taken as hostages Mostafaei's wife and brother-in-law (Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi), imprisoning them in a craven attempt to force Mostafaei to turn himself in.

Mohammad Mostafaei is a lawyer who has honorably and courageously defended Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani against a stoning execution in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The worldwide outcry against the execution of Sakineh Ashtiani has created embarrassment and political difficulties for the Islamic Republic, and they have harassed and attempted to intimidate Mr. Mostafaei in an effort to reduce the pressure on the regime that has been caused by the campaign for Mostafaei's client Ashtiani.

I condemn the reprehensible injustice of the Islamic Republic; the regime should not be allowed a free hand to silence Mostafaei and terrorize his family in this way. Iranian lawyers must be free to represent their clients without fear of harassment and intimidation of themselves or their loved ones. I therefore demand immediate and unconditional freedom of Mostafaei's family; immediate and unconditional guarantee for Mostafaei's safety and freedom of practicing his legal obligations towards his clients; immediate end to harassment and intimidation of Mostafaei, his family, friends, and colleagues; and immediate and unconditional freedom for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is solely responsible for the safety and freedom of Mr. Mostafaei.

Diplomatic sanctions, including travel bans, freezing of bank accounts, and expulsion from international organizations such as the UN must be used to force the Islamic Republic to comply with international law and standards of human rights. I expect this government to take immediate steps to implement serious diplomatic sanctions against the criminal regime of the Islamic Republic.

Sincerely,

The Anti-Injustice Movement

www.antiinjusticemovement.com

Response to Email from Finland:

Dear people of The Anti-Injustice Movement,

Finland, as a part of the European Union, is following closely the developments of the human rights situation in Iran. We are aware of Ms. Ashtiani’s case and are keeping watch on her situation.

Iran is a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This Covenant includes e. g. right to a just and fair trial, which is also contained in the Constitution of Iran. The Covenant also prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, has recently voiced EU’s profound concern on Iran's increasing use of the death penalty and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities and women.

The EU has repeatedly demanded Iran to comply with its international and national human rights obligations. Finland and other EU countries have summoned the Ambassadors of Iran several times in regard to the human rights situation in Iran. We also continue to support efforts to improve the human rights situation in Iran.

Sincerely,

Jussi Soini

Regional Manager

Unit for the Middle East and North Africa

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

jussi.soini@formin.fi

US House Resolution 1371 - UNCSW

As you all know we at The AIM have been supporting a campaign started by Mission Free Iran (MFI) which aims to have Iran removed from their recent appointment to The UN Commission On The Status Of Women (UNCSW). We have received a few different messages with updates on the campaign so please read on to find out the latest.

MFI came across this article which reports on US House Resolution 1371 - a bill that is asking the US government EXACTLY what the campaign has demanded!

The campaign has demanded that the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women;

(2) calls on the Administration to denounce the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the Commission;

(3) urges the President to direct the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States at the United Nations to advocate for the removal of the Government of Iran from the Commission; and

(4) reaffirms its solidarity with the Iranian people in their continuing struggle for freedom and human rights, including equal rights for women in Iran.

US citizens: Please contact your Representative in Congress and voice your support for House Resolution 1371! For more information on how you might do this most effectively please visit the post by MFI.

Message from Maria Rohaly of MFI:

Dear Friends at We Declare the UN Commission on the Status of Women is Illegitimate:

House Resolution 1371 echoes almost exactly the objectives of the Mission Free Iran campaign that this group has been centered on. Those objectives are much stronger and far-reaching than any other set of demands that circulated in the wake of the UNCSW selection. Our demands, through one pathway or another, have been heard: a handful of US Congresspeople have stepped up to the plate to oppose the Administration and voice our demands.

Please note the following:

1. The US Administration made its position on the Islamic Republic very clear when it deliberately allowed the Islamic Republic to attain a seat on the UNCSW without raising a single objection: freedom and true human rights in Iran are not the US Administration's priority.

2. The US Administration is focused exclusively on the nuclear issue vis-a-vis Iran. This can be empirically observed by comparing the number of mass media articles on nuclear issues with the number of articles covering the revolutionary (not the reformist) movement in Iran.

3. Given points 1 & 2, it may be deduced that the Congresspeople who have proposed House Resolution 1371 have taken an explicit position against the current US Administration and its policies vis-a-vis Iran.

4. The point is that these Congresspeople have gone against the US Administration in order to reflect our demands. It doesn't matter what their motives are: they could be zealous feminists or they could be fascists. This bill reflects what we have asked for, which is a fundamental demand for the respect of women and women's equality in Iran and worldwide at the same time that it contributes to the diplomatic isolation and delegitimization of the Islamic Republic.

5. This bill will reflect OUR DEMANDS internationally if it is passed. And the next step will be for us to force the same action out of the governments of Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, and every other government that stood against women by allowing the uncontested ascension of the Islamic Republic to the UNCSW.

This is a political battle front.

We may go out on one day and shake our "boobs" to ridicule a regime which considers a woman's body a threat to the society, while the very next day we sit and negotiate with the UN commissioners in their fine offices.

This battle has many fronts but remember one thing! The pressure is mounting on the international institutions, governments, and the media. We need to realize that we represent a gigantic force. This force is the Iranian revolution, AND it is a revolutionary movement all around the globe, with a distinguished objective: total gender equality, not on paper, not only legally, but in reality. This movement has started and is gaining momentum, and we represent this gigantic force, even if we do not realize it yet...

Look around you and follow the events taking place every day, and you will see the clear indicators. How could any one explain that only 2 months ago the US administration handed over a seat to the Anti-Woman Regime in Iran and now is trying to guard itself against the mounting pressure and embarrassment that it has caused and that should even intensify? If we work on this, even the political scandal due to this "wrong policy" will force this and other governments to correct their "wrong decisions."

This existence of this pressure is, and will continue to be, thanks to you and to us, and thanks to Iranian women's revolutionary demand for equality and the support of half of the worlds population. We, if united and organized, can do much more and we at MFI have news for you. We will take our campaign to a new level. We need you, all of you and many more. Please join us there.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=258388322697&ref=ts

My best regards to you all,
Maria Rohaly
Mission Free Iran
June 17, 2010

Please take any action you can to support this very important issue. The AIM have printed a stock of the MFI campaign materials and will be handing them out in London to be signed and then posted by The AIM in bulk. For details of campaign materials you can use please visit the campaign page on the MFI site.