Iran scene
I am writing with reference to Op-Ed: "Double standards," by Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam," (May 10).
Mr. Alam quotes Iranian President Ahemadinejad criticising Israel for violating human rights of the Palestinians. But Mr. Ahmadinejad may be reminded that the Iranian Mullahs, who control the government, have been brutalising Iranian people, especially women for long.
Last month, the Iranian government sentenced Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi on trumped up charges. At first, she was charged for buying wine and then the charge was changed to espionage. She has gone on hunger strike in protest. A few years ago, Iranian-Canadian journalist Zohra Kazemi was murdered for taking a picture of Evian prison.
Prof. Azar Nafisi, who was expelled from her teaching position at Tehran University, tells us about the brutality of the Iranian regime in her book Reading Lolita in Tehran. Her story of Iran is a country where ruling Mullahs "regularly hang people in the streets" -- a country where educated women are being considered as enemies of the state. As she writes: "The streets of Tehran are patrolled by militia, who ride in white Toyota patrols, four gun-carrying men and women, sometimes followed by a minibus.
They patrol the streets to make sure that women wear their veil properly, do not wear makeup, do not walk in public with men who are not their fathers, brothers or husbands. ... In the course of nearly two decades, the streets have been turned into a war zone, where young women who disobey the rules, are hurled into patrol cars, taken to jail, flogged, fined, forced to wash toilets and humiliated."
Early this year, thousands of Iranian women were arrested in a crackdown for wearing simple makeup and not wearing proper veils.
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