Heroic Women Fighting for Freedom

by Khadija Khan • January 2, 2018 at 5:00 am

Iranian women, like many others, are sick and tired of living in layers upon layers of imprisonment.

Iran's leaders have promised to soften their misogynistic laws by not imprisoning women who appear in public without their veils on. Instead, the "offenders" would have to attend special "morality classes" by the sharia police. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Take note, those of you who want to see real women freedom-fighters. Look into the streets of Iran or listen to the chess champion Anna Muzychuk.

Iranian women, by risking their lives, have unmasked the faces of those trying to promote burqas and hijabs as supposed "symbols of liberation".

The desperate attempt of Iranian people pouring out onto the streets against the Islamist regime exposes the bitter life that Iran's citizens, especially women, have been forced to live for nearly forty years in the name of Islamic law, (sharia).

These demonstrations have also shown the ugly face of Islamists who take their own people hostage to quench their thirst for power -- by repression, jail, torture, executions -- any way they can.

Iranian women, like many others, are sick and tired of living in layers upon layers of imprisonment.

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An Indian Embassy in Jerusalem, Please

by Jagdish N. Singh • January 2, 2018 at 4:30 am

New Delhi should now appreciate this American logic and refrain from opposing the current US administration's decision on relocating its own embassy wherever it likes. New Delhi would have done better to vote against the resolution and support Washington on the capital transfer also to improve its ties with its two important natural democratic allies -- the United States and Israel.
In the post-Cold War landscape, relations between Washington and New Delhi have attained new heights. India today needs American support for defence platforms and membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. US President Donald Trump has already described India as a leading global power and expressed his readiness to support it in reaching this status.

Pictured: Officials and staff celebrate India's 70th Independence Day on the grounds of the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv, on August 15, 2016. (Image source: Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv)

India's vote in favour of the recent UN General Assembly resolution critical of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and shift its embassy to the holy city is most unfortunate. The resolution, adopted with 128 in favour to nine against, with 35 abstentions, expressed "deep regret" over this decision and stressed that Jerusalem "is a final status issue to be resolved through negotiations in line with relevant U.N. resolutions."

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What to Make of Latest Protests in Iran?

by Lawrence A. Franklin • January 2, 2018 at 4:00 am

Security forces, such as agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), are photographing the protests, enabling police later to arrest leaders of the protests, violence-prone demonstrators, and those holding aloft political and anti-regime placards.
The regime will, of course, try to weather this latest round of protests while arresting leading agitators, to be followed by torture, "recanting" show-trials, and executions.

Anti-regime protestors in Kermanshah, Iran, on December 29, 2017. (Image source: VOA News/Wikimedia Commons)

For the past several days, Iranians have demonstrated against a government that has not delivered on promised economic improvement and against a regime whose ruling clerical class they despise.

The public's animosity against the existing order, as past protests indicate, is no surprise. Particular aspects of this latest series of demonstrations, however, invite a critical eye by Iran-watchers.

The current protests began, not as usual, in the Iran's capital, Tehran. The protests began in Mashhad, center of the wealthiest and most powerful religious foundation in the country. At first, the crowds were demonstrating for the long-promised but undelivered economic benefits that were supposed to follow the roll-back of internationally-applied sanctions against Iran, after the Obama administration delivered more than $150 billion to the Islamic Republic.

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