Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s Plight In Iran Shames Anyone Who Screamed ‘We’re All Hizbollah Now’

GOOD news for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. The Iranian woman will not be killed by security forces, like Neda Soltan. She will not be stoned to death, as was first intended for her. The powers that be say she will be hanged. She will also be lashed 99 times for the crime of allowing the Times to publish a picture of her without a headscarf.

But it wasn’t her in the picture. It was another woman. It was Susan Hejrat, an Iranian political activist living in Sweden.

What else do we know about a case that highlights the plight of women in Iran?

This latest chapter of this story began on 28 August, when the Times published a picture it said was of Ms Ashtiani. The source of the picture was said to be her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafei. He says he was handed the picture by Ashtiani’s son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh. The son denies this, and Mr Mostafei is no longer in Iran, having fled to Norway.

The Times duly apologises for its error. Mr Ghaderzadeh, who along with the escaped lawyer is accused of not being able to recognise Ashtiani, writes an open letter. He says his mother is “on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her without hijab“:

“This news reached us through some prisoners who were released from Tabriz prison recently and have informed my mother’s lawyer, Houtan Kian, that she has been given a sentence of 99 lashes for the alleged unveiled photo of her published in western media.

“As far as we know, the sentence of 99 lashes has not been administered yet. Once I got the Times apology for the misidentified photo, I instantly informed the lawyer and we are going to ask for an appeal. My mother has been denied visits for the past two weeks, no one has been allowed to visit her, including her family and even her lawyer. She has also been denied access to a phone and we have been completely cut off from her.”

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Anorak

Posted: 5th, September 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (12)

Sarah Palin’s Alaskans For Oil-Enriched Water

SARAH Palin is not a witch. No spin doctors for Palin; just witch doctors.

Now in the Washington Post, Art Hackney, a political consultant and director of Alaskans for Clean Water, speaks out.

Yeah, Art Hackney, a man who sounds like a community collective in East London where members make papier-mâché effigies of Wives of Hizbollah.

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Anorak

Posted: 28th, September 2008 | In: Politicians | Comments (4)