Iran

No deportations to Iraq! The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq held a successful and well-attended conference in London on Saturday 24 June, opened by John McDonnell MP. Dashty Jamal of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees gave an overview of the current situation in Iraq— “turned from a modern country into a jungle”. Sawsan Salim from the Kurdistan Refugee Women’s organisation spoke of the circumstances of women fleeing from Iraqi Kurdistan. Sarah Cutler (Bail for immigration Detainees) gave a practical speech to the conference about the first steps to be taken by asylum...

Laura Schwartz reviews Offside, directed by Jafar Panahi Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad recently ruled that women would finally be allowed into the stadiums of football-mad Iran. When “supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei overturned this ruling on the grounds that it was un-Islamic for women to look at the uncovered arms and legs of male players, angry women football fans stormed the Azadi stadium in Tehran. Offside has been banned in its own country for its portrayal of this surreal mixture of football and fundamentalism. Jafar Panahi was inspired to make the film when his own daughter...

Joan Trevor reviews “Iran Awakening” by Shirin Ebadi (Rider, 2006) Shirin Ebadi is a human rights lawyer in Iran and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She takes up cases like that of the well-known political journalist Akbar Ganji, and of completely anonymous Iranians, like the dirt-poor family of Leila Fathi. Leila was raped and murdered by three men in 1996. One of her killers supposedly committed suicide, the other two were sentenced to death. Ebadi describes what happened next: “Under Islamic law, the family of a victim of homicide or manslaughter has the right to choose between legal...

Leaflet from the International Alliance in Support of Workers Rights in Iran for the "Action Iran" meeting with Shirin Ebadi in London on 2 June 2006. Military attacks by the USA on Iran will not only bring death and destruction, but also play into the hands of the reactionary Islamic regime in Iran. Attacks, and threats of attack, would strengthen the government's hand in suppressing the struggles for democracy in Iran. But there are not just two factors in the situation, the US government and the Iranian government. There is a third factor: the people of Iran. The majority of the people of...

The following statement is being circulated by the Worker-communist Party of Iran. We publish it here to further debate. The present conflict between the Western governments and the Islamic Republic of Iran can have disastrous human, political and social consequences. The terrible experience of Iraq has shown to all the catastrophes that can result from economic sanctions and a military attack. Deterioration of living conditions, economic plight, death, destruction and displacement of people, and increased repression by the Islamic regime, would be some of the immediate consequences of...

The statement below has been circulated by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy , which also published a "no to war, no to Saddam" statement (promoted by AWL in Britain) in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It has been signed by numerous well-known left-wingers in the USA, listed below. Just as it did before its invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration is manufacturing a climate of fear in order to prepare public opinion for another act of aggression - this time against Iran. Three years ago it was the specter of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction; today it's the...

May Day rallies in Tehran and Sanandaj were attacked by the Iranian security forces, with 17 demonstrators, including members of the executive board of Tehran bus workers’ union, arrested. In the rally in Tehran, called by the bus workers’ union and held outside the bus company’s headquarters, 13 people were detained. They included eight union activists and five students. They were released a few days later. In the rally in the city of Sanandaj four people were arrested. Around twenty thousand demonstrators defied 2,000 members of the security forces in the rally in Tehran. According to...

By Sacha Ismail In the run up to May Day, Iranian socialists and labour movement activists in the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran have launched a new call for international solidarity. The statement puts forward a clear “third camp” perspective against both US war threats and Iran’s theocratic dictatorship, in refreshing contrast to the mealy-mouthed pro-Islamist position of much of the British left. The initiative could not have come at a better time. An important element of the Iranian rulers‚ show down with Bush is their attempt to create a nationalist release valve for...