Close-up: Islamic regime's rape victims?

Much of the information coming out of Iran is in the form of footage uploaded to the Internet without the benefit of any description or explanation. Each installment in the Close-up series provides an in-depth analysis of a single video or a series of videos covering one event.

Summary
A video posted on several YouTube channels on April 6, 2010, purports to show victims of rape in a prison of the Islamic Republic, according to descriptions and titles accompanying the video.

The video
This clip is from Unity4Iran's YouTube channel, although others have also posted it. (Viewer discretion advised)


Background
The incidence of rape in the Islamic Republic's prisons has been widely reported, although the judiciary has yet to prosecute anyone for such crimes. Victims have described being raped by security forces, sometimes with bottles and batons.

Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi famously accused the regime's security forces of numerous cases of prison rape and declared that he had compiled evidence which he would gladly submit to a special investigative committee of the Majlis. No such committee ever summoned Karroubi, but a three-man judiciary panel, which included former Intelligence Minister and current Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, hastily rejected the complaints and recommended that Karroubi be prosecuted for making false allegations. Karroubi has yet to be charged.

After this video was uploaded to the Internet, a great number of posts on Twitter, FaceBook, various blogs, etc, alleged that it showed two victims of prison rape. The Voice of America's Newstalk show reported on Tuesday night, April 6, that it showed a scene from the notorious Kahrizak prison (Please click here for VOA Newstalk program. Go to 51:30 mark).


The circumstances
The language spoken by everyone in the video is unaccented Farsi, which may indicate it was filmed in Tehran.

The cameraman points his camera down, for the most part hiding the faces of a group of young men tending to two individuals lying on the ground. This suggests that the cameraman does not want security forces to discover the identities of the people in the video. This would probably not be the case if they were already in prison.

No one is wearing prison-issue plastic slippers, though this does not preclude outright the possibility that the people in the video are in detention.

The locale is well-lit. Shadows indicate that the light source is directly above. No windows are visible. A staircase leads up, but none can be seen going down. These facts suggest that the scene is being filmed in a basement.

Four young men are bent over Injured Individual 1, while only one stands next to Injured Individual 2.

Injured Individual 2 speaks on several occasions, but Injured Individual 1 cannot be heard on the clip. One man appears to be stemming the flow of blood from Injured Individual 1's pubic area. His underwear has been pulled down to his knees.

Injured Individual 2 has a torniquet around his upper thigh. There are several puncture wounds on his thigh, but he is no longer bleeding.

The young men are treating the injured individuals with bottled water, Kleenex, gauze, and antiseptic. Rudimentary as the supplies are, they would probably not be freely available in the detention centers and prison cells where rape has taken place.

The locale appears clean and there is no sign of blood. The individuals were probably injured elsewhere.

The discussions are often garbled, but the following can be heard in the video:

00:05
'Bring water.'

00:07
As the cameraman approaches Injured Individual 2.
Injured Individual 2: 'Don't film my face.'
Cameraman: 'No, no. Not your face. Rest assured.'

00:15
'Don't be afraid.' The voice sounds farther away and is perhaps directed at Injured Individual 1.

00:17
Inaudible woman's voice. Men and women would probably not have been held in proximity to one another in a prison.
'The ambulance has arrived.' Suggesting someone had called for an ambulance and that the people in the video were waiting for it. This does not conform to a prison situation, where prisoners would probably be first taken to the infirmary. Kahrizak prisoners were visited by a doctor only once a week, whatever their dire conditions, according to accounts that surfaced after the death of Doctor Ramin Pourandarjani.
'Don't take them out.' Probably referring to the injured, indicating that the danger is outside, and that the current locale is a temporary shelter or hiding place.
'One of you, come in.' Probably directed at the emergency workers.

00:38
'Who's got the key to this?' This is said after two faint thuds, perhaps the sounds of someone attempting to open a door. Prisoners would probably not have keys.
'F*** your mothers... Your mothers are dogs...' An angry young man, probably expressing his anger at those responsible for the injuries.
A woman shrieks out some inaudible words.

01:02
'Is it just these two?' Probably the emergency worker. The man's fluorescent jacket with a logo on the back is visible. The uniform and logo resemble those of emergency workers of the Islamic Republic's Health Ministry.
'Yes, just these two.'

01:04
Injured Individual 2: 'Don't take me.'
Emergency worker: 'Why?'
Injured Individual 2: 'Don't take me. They'll come and capture me.'
This last exchange strongly indicates that the individual is not in a prison, and actually fears being arrested if he is taken to a hospital. During the post-election protests, there were numerous reports of security forces arresting injured people in hospital emergency wards.

It is impossible to make an absolute determination, but the evidence strongly suggests the video was not filmed in a prison. Because of the cameraman's efforts to hide faces, the desire to hide from authorities in the locale, and particularly the last exchange, it is almost certain that the individuals were injured by the regime's security forces.

It is equally impossible to determine whether one or both individuals were raped. Injured Individual 1's bleeding pubic area, however, seems to support the possibility of some form of sexual assault.

A friend of this blog has offered the hypothesis that the locale is the basement of a university dormitory after a raid conducted by security forces.

Security forces and protesters clash in Orumiyeh

The following footage shows protesters clashing with security forces next to Orumiyeh Lake, northwest Iran, on April 2, 2010, Sizdah Bedar in the Iranian calendar. Sizdah Bedar is the 13th day of the Iranian new year when everyone traditionally leaves the house to go on picnics and celebrate nature.



The level of Orumiyeh Lake has fallen drastically in recent years because of the construction of dams on rivers flowing into this body of water. Environmentalists fear that Orumiyeh Lake will turn into salt lands within decades. Activists in West Azerbaijan province had called on citizens to come to the banks of the lake on Sizdah Bedar, an appropriate celebration of nature, to voice their concerns.

Protesters from around Azerbaijan brought bottles of water with them and ceremoniously emptied them into the beleaguered lake.

Security forces had set up blockades on roads leading to the lake and prevented protesters from making their way to the meeting point.

The anthem that refuses to go away

Mohammad Reza Shajarian

The spectators, who were gathered at London's Barbican center for a concert by celebrated vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian, gave a spontaneous rendition of the patriotic, anti-Islamic Republic, anthem Ey Iran on Saturday evening, April 3, 2010.

The wildly popular Master Shajarian, a living legend of Iranian classical music, was performing with the Shahnaz Ensemble, under the direction of Majid Derakhshani. The following footage shows the audience singing several lines from Ey Iran...

May my life be sacrificed for the pure soil of my homeland
Since your love became my calling
My thoughts are never far from you
In your cause, when do our lives have value?
May the land of our Iran be eternal.

Following the disputed election of June 12, Shajarian demanded that the state radio-television of the Islamic Republic refrain from playing his music in protest at the regime's violent crackdown against demonstrators. 'I have always been on the side of the "dust and dirt"', Shajarian said at the time, using a derogatory phrase that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had employed on June 14 to describe protesters. The arch-conservative Keyhan newspaper, run by Leader Ali Khamenei's representative Hossein Shariatmadari, subsequently wrote that Shajarian had 'sold out his country.'

One of Shajarian's latest works, Tofangat Ra Zamin Begozar (Lay down your gun), is a thinly veiled indictment of the regime's actions:


Ey Iran has never been the national anthem of the country, although it played that de facto role for a few months between the victory of the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Neither the first official anthem of the Islamic Republic, Payandeh Bada Iran (May Iran Be Everlasting), with its religiously militant tones -- Our helper is the hand of God/He is our guide in this battle./Under the shadow of the eternal Qoran/May Iran be everlasting! -- nor the current anthem adopted in 1990 after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, with its elegiac references to the Imam (Khomeini) and the martyrs of the revolution, have ever enjoyed the popularity of Ey Iran.

The song became an instant success from the moment it was written by Hossein Golegolab and Ruhollah Khaleghi in the aftermath of World war II. Its rousing melody, rooted in the notes of traditional Iranian music, its unabashed patriotic lyrics without any mention of religion except for the word izadi (divine), which is a pre-Islamic term from the Pahlavi language and Zoroastrianism, have turned Ey Iran into an anthem of opposition to the Islamic Republic. In the following footage, literally thousands of demonstrators chant the song in the streets of Tehran on June 18:


And in this video, violinist Shadmehr Aghilli, decked in appropriate green, plays the tune while spectators sing two verses from the song at a concert in July 2009 in the United States:


For those readers who have never heard the full song, here is a version by the fabulous soprano Darya Dadvar at a concert in Vancouver, April 2007. Notice how the audience spontaneously stands up once she starts singing:


As for Iranian national anthems, past, present, and future, I have developed a soft spot for Vatanam (My Homeland), particularly the following version by classical vocalist Salar Aghili. This 19th-Century song is the first ever national anthem of Iran and it was written by a Frenchman. But that is a story for another post...


---

Ey Iran
Oh Iran, oh bejeweled land
Oh, your soil is the wellspring of the arts
Far from you may the thoughts of evil be
May you remain lasting and eternal
Oh enemy, if you are of stone, I am of iron
May my life be sacrificed for the pure soil of my homeland
Since your love became my calling
My thoughts are never far from you
In your cause, when do our lives have value?
May the land of our Iran be eternal
The stones of your mountains are jewels and pearls
The soil of your valleys are better than gold
When could I rid my heart of your affection?
Tell me, what will I do without your affection?
As long as the turning of the earth and the cycle of the heavens lasts
The light of the divine will always guide us
Since your love became my calling
My thoughts are never far from you
In your cause, when do our lives have value?
May the land of our Iran be eternal
Iran oh my green paradise
Bright is my fate because of you
If fire rains on my body
Other than your affection I will not cherish in my heart
Your water, soil and love molded my clay
If your love leaves my heart it will become barren
Since your love became my calling
My thoughts are never far from you
In your cause, when do our lives have value?
May the land of our Iran be eternal
(translation, with a few personal modifications, courtesy of Wikipedia)

Happy Nowrouz, Mr. President

Iran: From 1979's Revolution to 2009's 'Revolution'?

The New School held a conference entitled 'Iran: Politics of Resistance' on February 11, 2010, at the Tishman Auditorium in New York.

The participants were Abdolali Rezaei, professor of sociology at the University of Calgary, and former journalist for numerous Iranian publications including Etelaat, Shargh, and Aftab; Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research; Charles Kurzman, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Danny Postel, journalist, co-coordinator of the Committee for Academic and Intellectual Freedom of the International Society for Iranian Studies, and member of the Chicago Committee in Solidarity with the People of Iran.

The following is a short clip of Kurzman's comments about the video of Neda Agha Soltan's death:


For those of you with a bit more time, here is the full conference which ran for over two and a half hours. The panel -- particularly Mr. Rezaei -- presents some fascinating insights and information. You can also go to Fora TV's web page which offers an outline of the conference and allows users to jump to conveniently titled chapters within the video.