'Who is holding my son? What are the charges?': Blogger Hossein Derakhshan's father sends open letter to judiciary chief

The father of a prominent Iranian blogger has written an open letter to Iran's judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani almost a year after his son's arrest.

Hassan Derakhshan, father of Hossein Derakhshan, expressed concern that he and his family had yet to be informed of which authorities are holding his son or the charges against him. A translation of his letter can be found at the end of this article.

Hossein Derakhshan was arrested at his family's home in Tehran on November 1, 2008, but news of the detention did not reach foreign media until later that month. He had returned to Iran in October.

The Internet activist's prior trip to his homeland had been in the summer of 2005 to cover the presidential election which brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. He was detained for a week during that visit and made to sign a letter of apology for writing about 'taboo subjects.'

Hossein Derakhshan is known as the 'Blogfather' for his key contributions to popularizing blogs in Iran, initially as a digital culture journalist for two reformist newspapers which were shut down and subsequently as a popular blogger also known as Hoder. He published a seminal guide on how to create Farsi weblogs on Blogger after moving to Canada in 2000. Iran has become one of the top ten blogging nations in the world since then.

Derakhshan has advocated the use of blogs as instruments of political and social activism. In 2003, he began a campaign against Internet censorship in Iran. (To view a video of a seminar on the topic of reform, youth, and technology in Iran, presented by Derakhshan at Umea University, Sweden, click here.)

He made a highly publicized trip to Israel in 2006, which may be one of the reasons for his arrest. Of that visit and its goals he wrote:

This might mean that I won’t be able to go back to Iran for a long time, since Iran doesn't recognize Israel, has no diplomatic relations with it, and apparently considers traveling there illegal. Too bad, but I don't care. Fortunately, I'm a citizen of Canada and I have the right to visit any country I want. I'm going to Israel as a citizen journalist and a peace activist. As a citizen journalist, I'm going to show my 20,000 daily Iranian readers what Israel really looks like and how people live there. The Islamic Republic has long portrayed Israel as an evil state, with a consensual political agenda of killing every single man and woman who prays to Allah, including Iranians.I'm going to challenge that image. As a peace activist, I'm going to show the Israelis that the vast majority of Iranians do not identify with Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric, despite what it looks like from the outside. I'm going to tell them how any kind of violent action against Iran would only harm the young people who are gradually reforming the system and how the radicals would benefit from such situation.

An Israeli television report made during that trip includes interviews with Derakhshan in English:


Later that year, Derakhshan posted a number of articles in defense of Iran's nuclear program. He also strongly denounced the U.S.'s bellicose stance towards the Islamic Republic of Iran:

The more the clash between the west and Iran escalates, the more convinced I become that the west's real problem with the Islamic Republic of Iran is not its nuclear activities, its level of democracy, its human rights record, or its support for "terrorist" groups. [...] Increasingly, a lot of secular Iranians, like myself, are figuring that even if Iran is turned into the most democratic, secular, fair and peaceful state on earth, there is no guarantee the US won't find another excuse to try to overthrow its government. It will start bullying Iran for its "devastating role" in climate change, or animal rights, or - who knows? - for obesity. I'm not saying this as a fervent religious man with sexy Ahmadinejad's posters on my wall. In fact, I am an atheist and this can easily get me into serious trouble in any Islamic country. I did not vote for Ahmadinejad and I would do anything to democratically bring him down. [...] I am even a victim of the paranoid state of Iran that censors criticism and punishes dissent for fear of foreign-backed revolt. [...] Of course I do have the dream of an open, free, fair and secular Iran, run by competent and representative officials, and in peace with the whole world, obviously including Israel. However, I believe the Islamic Republic is a valuable cause, worth defending and, at its worst, is way better than anything that the United States or anyone else can bring to Iran. If the US waged a war against Iran, I would absolutely go back and defend Iran.

Derakhshan further lost support among Iranian reformists because of his grudging respect for Ahmadinejad. He ridiculed the New York Sun's call for Ahmadinejad to be kidnapped while attending the UN General Assembly in September of 2008. As reported in The Times, Derakhshan wrote, 'They don't know how big this man's balls are.'

But despite his turbulent and complex worldview, Derakhshan's democratic credentials and dedication to his country are difficult to dismiss.

While he has wasted away in an Iranian prison cell, his orphaned blogs have disappeared from the cyberspace he had championed so passionately. A visitor to HoderInIran is informed that the domain name expired on October 9, 2009, and is pending renewal or deletion. Hoder.com has also expired.

Another free Iranian voice has been silenced, at least for now.

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The following is a translation of Hassan Derakhshan's open letter to judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani:

In the name of God.

Ayatollah Amoli Larijani, Honorable President of the Judiciary,

With greetings and respect,

One year has gone by since the arrest of my son, Hossein Derakhshan.

In the months, days, and hours that have passed, my hope and that of my wife and family has been to see my son's case treated accordingly by religious rulings and in the shadow of Islamic justice's benevolence.

This letter is our first publicized reaction in twelve months, which shows the extent of our hope that the legal framework would be respected within the borders of our dear country. It goes without saying that on numerous occasions we rejected the requests of foreign media for news about Hossein's situation, even when the worst rumors about his mistreatment were reported in semi-official media outlets. No authorities would deny these extremely distressing news reports -- not to comfort the turmoil in our hearts, but to protect the independence of justice in this case.

In all this time, we have visited our child on only two short, minutes-long occasions. Imagine, a few minutes every six months! I declare that we have no knowledge of his legal situation. No trial has been set and it is unclear which security authority or body has custody of him. We have tried many times to obtain detailed information about his situation, but have not succeeded.

Is this the result that must be expected from the composed and respectful behavior of a prisoner's family? In his remarks and writings, my son has expressed his desire to serve his country and he returned to Iran of his own free will to respond to the accusations against him. Is this a suitable way to greet a person who has returned to the bosom of his beliefs and homeland?

Our complaint is not against the enforcement of the law, but rather is directed at the state of uncertainty and ignorance we have been kept in and the lack of attention to the law. The accused have rights. The families of the accused have rights. In the same manner that the sovereignty of society is to be respected, and order and rules are precious.

I request that you order that my son Hossein Derakhshan's family be informed of the state of his case. Which authority is holding him? Which judge is overseeing his case and what are the charges against him?

I am sure that Your Excellency would agree that one year of detention is not an appropriate greeting to a person who has voluntarily returned to the bosom of Iran and dear Islam. My wife, my family, and I await your just deportment.

With respect, (handwritten)
Hassan Derakhshan

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The banality of evil: Shocking video of a man being lashed in Iran

It is hard to put a face to the torturers and murderers that have filled our common psyche in the past months. What exactly does a human being who beats another to death look like? In what dingy outpost of civilization do these deeds occur? Are filthy, dark cellars the only province of deliberately inflicted pain?

But harder still is the jarring realization of what philosopher Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil, that great oppression is carried out by legions of functionaries who may pull a prisoner's nails out with pliers, then go home and kiss their children goodnight. Normality in the name of a premise, an ideology, a religion.

Much as our sanity demands it, we cannot relegate evil to groups of fanatics operating in the stifling heat of a detention center, overcrowded and reeking of urine and feces and fear.

It can be seen in the jovial face of Hamid Rasai, Majlis representative from Tehran, as he compares Mir Hossein Mousavi with MKO leader Massoud Rajavi and says that anyone who stands in the way of the goals of the Islamic Revolution must be eliminated. And it can be heard in the words of former health minister, Kamran Lankarani, a poster boy for youthful idealism, as he claims that Mohsen Rouholamini died of meningitis, not because he was bludgeoned so severely in jail that his jaw had been shattered. Or in the fatherly figure of Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the supposedly moderate former head of the judiciary, as he pleads that he could have done no more than sign a watered-down moratorium on stonings after Jafar Kiani had been buried in a pit and stoned to death in Takistan.

And as the footage posted on the bottom of this page shows, evil can occur under the leafy green canopy of a tree on a sunny day, the tinny sound of a radio playing soothingly in the background, an old man watching dispassionately from a row of chairs along the garden wall. The banality of evil.

The exact details of the footage are unknown now, but they are immaterial. The place is Iran, the time is recent enough for the video to have been filmed with a mobile telephone. 'Please don't film me, I'll be dishonored,' the prisoner wails, clutching at his tattered dignity. 'I'm not filming,' the other man responds. 'This is my handset.' Primeval barbarity meets modern technology.

The man is tied to a tree, his back bare, and he is methodically lashed 76 times. The sentence lasts six minutes, during which time the man screams and pleads to no avail. Justice must be done.

As a child in the Shah's time, I knew a man, a family friend, whose eyesight had been damaged at a torturer's hands. A clamp had been placed on his head and the screws tightened until he had shrieked and his eyeballs had almost been expelled from their sockets. He had rebuilt his life, but was forced to use a magnifying glass to read. It was a cruel daily reminder of prison days for such a voracious reader. I asked my father about him once, only once because even a child knows that some personal horrors cannot be delved too easily. But the truth still pierced my cloistered existence and has stayed with me since.

But what of the present Iran? What have the pious overlords created? What hope for the future generations? Over 230 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of the year. Iran is the only country in the world to kill juvenile offenders. Torture and brutality had become common practices, even before the recent unrest.

When the highest authorities in the land set the tone, the rest of society follows. The murder rate rose an astonishing 11% last year, according to official statistics, which can be suspected of being below the true figures. The number of people killed by relatives increased by 10% and the murder of parents by their offspring was up by 3%. Bank robberies ballooned by 36%. Violence and death beget more of the same. As prominent thinker Abdolkarim Soroush said in a blistering open letter to Leader Ali Khamenei recently, 'All your celebrations have become mourning ceremonies.'

This culture of violence must come to an end. The regime and its functionaries have committed many crimes, but the day that they are removed, the cycle of vengeance must be broken. They must be tried in open courts and capital punishment must forever be banished from Iran. Only then can the country become a champion, rather than a violator, of human rights. The land which spawned the Cyrus the Great cylinder, considered by some to be the first human rights charter in the world, can aspire to nothing less.

Many years ago, Elie Wiesel, a concentration camp survivor and author, recounted a parable at a gathering. A man lives in unjust times. He comes to the town square every day and speaks of justice and tolerance, but no one takes notice. In fact, brutality and corruption become the norm. Yet, every day, he returns to the square and, as the years go by, speaks louder and longer. Finally, an exasperated passerby asks, 'Why do you come every day and speak louder and longer? You are not changing anyone.' The man responds, 'I speak louder and longer so that I may not change.'

We must speak out. We who hold no power must speak out lest we become like them if ever we do wield power.

We must speak out to retain our own humanity.

(Viewer discretion is strongly advised)

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Iran 172nd out of 175 countries in Press Freedom Index

Iran approached the bottom of the heap in a press freedom index issued Tuesday by international watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

The annual report, also available in Farsi on the group's web site, measures freedom of the press around the globe from September 1, 2008 to September 1, 2009.

Iran was ranked 172nd this year, falling even further than its 166th place in 2008. Its position was only better than that of Turkmenistan, North Korea, and Eritrea, respectively 173rd to 175th in the ranking. 'Iran has now reached the gates of the infernal trio at the very bottom, where the media are so suppressed they are non-existent,' said Reporters Without Borders in its report.

The Paris-based organization compiles its report with the help of questionnaires completed by media experts, partner organizations, journalists, jurists, and human rights experts. The index does not cover all the countries in the world and does not take into consideration purely human rights issues.

The questionnaire contains 40 criteria which assess violations against journalists - murder, prison, or torture - as well as against news outlets. The index is also affected by the level of impunity which the violators enjoy. Occupational issues such as self-censorship and financial pressure, particularly present in Iran where journalists are routinely laid off or prevented from working, are also parameters used in calculating the index. 

Reporters Without Borders stressed that the index should 'in no way be taken as an indication of the quality of the press in the countries concerned.'

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Afghan president's web site removes embarrassing Ahmadinejad congratulations

Afghan President Hamed Karzai's official web site has removed an article reporting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hasty congratulations following the first round of the presidential election in Afghanistan.

Hamid Karzai conceded in a press conference hours ago that he did not win the election outright and must now participate in a runoff against his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, on November 7.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been the only world leader to congratulate Karzai on his supposed victory in the first round of the election on September 18.

Though a search of the Afghan presidential web site still returns a result entitled 'President Ahmadinejad congratulates President Karzai on Re-election' (see above), the post itself appears to have been removed.

According to Fars News, Ahmadinejad had told Karzai, 'The Afghan people have picked you as an ingenious and devout leader.'

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'Neda died for her country, not so that I could get a monthly income': Neda's mother rejects regime's efforts to pay her off

Hajar Rostami Motlagh

The mother of Neda Agha Soltan, whose death turned her into an icon of the Iranian opposition movement, has publicly spurned the Islamic Republic's offer to buy her off.

Hajar Rostami Motlagh told the Voice of America on Sunday that 'Neda died for her country, not so that I could get a monthly income,' amid reports that the Martyr Foundation was offering compensation for the slain young woman if it was proven that she had been the victim of a 'plot by opponents and enemies' of the regime. Any acceptance of said funds by Neda's family would constitute a confirmation of the government's official scenario.

'If it is proven that Neda Agha Soltan was killed as the result of a plot hatched by enemies, and the proper security bodies confirm this, she will be covered by the Martyr Foundation,' said Massoud Zaribafan, head of the Martyr and Veterans' Affairs Foundation, in an exclusive interview with the Iranian Labor News Agency on Saturday.

'The footage shows that Neda Agha Soltan was murdered as a result of a plot by opponents and enemies,' said Zaribafan at a veterans' affairs conference, before conceding that the Martyr Foundation does not have an investigative arm. 'The Intelligence Ministry and other bodies which can discover the truth must tell us what happened.' Neda's family would have to be covered by the Martyr Foundation to compensate for its damages if the existence of a plot was proven, Zaribafan added.

'If these officials are saying that Neda was a martyr, why do they keep wiping off the word "martyr" that the people write in red on her gravestone?' countered Neda's mother in a telephone interview broadcast on VOA. 'Neda died like Sohrab and Ashkan and the other kids,' she said, naming Sohrab Aarabi and Ashkan Sohrabi, two other young protesters who were killed by security forces during the post-election unrest.  'However the other kids were killed, my Neda was killed the same way. There was no plot.'

Neda's mother forcefully rejected any compensation from the government, saying, 'I just want the killer to be found and brought to justice.' (NB The translation of the interview with Neda's mother is available at the end of this article)



This is only the latest episode in a string of bumbling efforts by the Iranian regime to divert attention from the most famous victim of its crackdown following the disputed election of June 12. Neda was shot on the street on June 20, one of the bloodiest days for protesters in Tehran.

The government's reaction was telling. A manhunt was launched for one of the key eyewitnesses of the killing, Dr. Arash Hejazi, who managed to escape to London where he divulged that the alleged murderer had been caught by protesters and released after they took away his identity cards. ID cards belonging to a Basij militiaman have been posted on the Internet and Hejazi has said that the photo corresponds to the man he saw the protesters capture, although he did not see the actual shooting. Out of respect for the presumption of innocence, this blog will not publish the photos or the name of the individual.

The regime initially blamed the BBC's correspondent Jonathan Leyne for orchestrating the murder of Neda for a documentary he was making. Neda's fiance, Caspian Makan, was arrested on June 26 and reportedly released on bail in September.

More recently, when confronted by NBC's Katie Couric with a photo of Neda, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whipped out his own photo... of Marwa Ali Sherbini, a head-scarved Egyptian woman who had been stabbed to death by a racist lunatic in a German courthouse. Ahmadinejad has claimed that Neda was shot by agents of the Mujahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO), an armed resistance movement which is broadly discredited in Iran because of its cooperation with the Saddam government during the Iran-Iraq War.

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Translation of the VOA interview with Neda's mother

Hajar Rostami Motlagh, Neda's mother:
I heard about this yesterday, when one of the domestic dailies called me. Then I read about it in another newspaper today. But under no condition... in any case, it's not true that my daughter was the victim of a plot. I will never accept to be covered by the Martyr Foundation. Neda died for her country, not so that I could get a monthly income. If these officials are saying that Neda was a martyr, why do they keep wiping off the word 'martyr' that the people write in red on her gravestone?

Payam Yazdian:
Massoud Zaribafan, the head of the Martyr Foundation, said yesterday that the footage of Neda's death shows that she was the victim of a plot hatched by opponents and enemies. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told foreign media that Neda's death was suspicious. What do you think?

Hajar Rostami Motlagh:
No, Neda died like Sohrab and Ashkan and the other kids. However the other kids were killed, my Neda was killed the same way. There was no plot. Neda escaped and ran into the street to get into the car and she was felled by a bullet 26 meters, 26 steps, from the car.

Payam Yazdian:
In any case, they've said that you will be covered by the Martyr Foundation to compensate for the damages. They refer to Neda's death as 'damages.'

Hajar Rostami Motlagh:
Mr. Yazdian, if they give me the world, I will never accept. The world can't even equal a hair on Neda's head. I can't accept such a thing. Neda's gone and nothing, not money or monthly income, nothing can compensate for it. I just want the killer to be found and brought to justice. The important thing is that my Neda has found honor before God, and the people of Iran and the world. That's the important thing for me. To have her registered as a martyr somewhere means nothing to me. I will never do such a thing. I will never be convinced to have Neda's name registered somewhere as a martyr. She was martyred before God and the people, and that's enough for me.

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