No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me

No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me
by Lila Ghobady
Common Dreams
June 20, 2009

Lila Ghobady is an exiled Iranian writer-journalist and filmmaker living in Canada since 2002. She has been involved with human rights since working as a journalist in Iran and has continued her work in Canada when she arrived as a refugee. She has worked as a Producer and associate Director of internationally-praised underground films along fellow exiled filmmaker Moslem Mansouri before leaving Iran. Her recent film Forbidden Sun Dance has been shown in India, France, Canada and Sweden. As a journalist, she received the BlogHer of the Week award for her Review piece on Slumdog Millionaire in March 2009. Lila has received her master's degree in Canadian/women studies from Carleton University in Ottawa.

-----------------------

Why didn't I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth, Iran? Because no matter who is the president of Iran, they would stone me!

As a young Iranian woman, I require big changes in order to convince myself that a change in president would mean an improvement of my basic rights as human being inside Iran.

No change is possible while Iran is controlled by autocratic, fundamentalist religious despots who determine the laws of the land. There has been no real election. Candidates are all hand-picked and cleared by a central religious committee. It is a farcical imitation of the free nomination/ election process that we have pictured in the free world. There is no possibility that a secular, pluralistic, freedom-loving democratic person who loves his or her country can become a candidate to run for president (or any other office) in Iran.

Let us not forget that Mousavi was Prime Minister of Iran in the 1980s, when more than ten thousand political prisoners were executed after three-minute sham trials. He has been a part of the Iranian dictatorship system for the past 30 years. If he had not been, he would not be allowed to be a candidate in the first place.

For these and many other reasons, I did not choose to vote and instead to boycott the election, along with many other Iranians. But this time, many Iranians who boycotted the vote in the last election voted in this one because of their profound disgust with President Ahamdinejad. I sympathise with them, but I believe that there exists no better option for the people of Iran than to entirely overthrow the Islamic regime that oppresses the country of my birth. I strongly support my people's movement against the ever-present dictatorship and violence infecting my country. I will scream, along with my compatriots, "Down with dictators!" "Down with murderers!" "Down with the brutal oppression that is the Islamic regime and all of its toxic, self-serving alliances."

Long live freedom in Iran!

Please read the 10 "facts that demonstrate that irrespective of who is president, I would be stoned to death in Iran" at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/19-11

This is a game of inches....

is that they're in rebellion, for reasons well beyond the seating of that swindled candidate. He most definitely has feet of clay, and may yet fall by the wayside if he doesn't meet popular expectations. And my "gut" feeling is also that (unconsciously, perhaps) they're looking to the dismantling of that theocratic abomination. Until that CIA-sponsored coup in 1953, Iran HAD a popular, constitutional, AND secular government. It isn't as though they'd have to build one from scratch.

pnorman