Category Archives: Iran

Iranian presidential election is puppetry

Aziz Sheikhani

By Aziz Sheikhani: Before analysing the upcoming Iranian election, it is better to highlight some issues that have affected the whole situation in Iran.  The history of the country, people, social structure, political system, economics and the undemocratic situation of the country, religion, and both internal and external factors – all are elements that cannot…

Kurds and the presidential elections in Iran

Momen Zellmi

By Momen Zellmi: The eleventh election of the President of Iran is scheduled to be held on Friday, 14 June 2013. If no presidential candidate polls 50 percent of the vote in the first round, a runoff will be held on 21 June. This will elect the seventh President of the Islamic Republic of Iran….

Lullaby

A Short Story by Ava Homa: Farzad Kamangar was an elementary school teacher, nonviolent civil liberties advocate and poet from Eastern Kurdistan who was detained by Iranian security forces in 2006 and accused of collaborating with Kurdish opposition groups. Charged with being a mohareb or “enemy of God,” Kamangar refused to confess in spite of…

Excruciating life of Kurds under the Iranian regime

Ramyar Hassani

By Ramyar Hassani: As Kurds were segregated into four countries in the 1920s, a part of Kurdistan went under the control of the Iranian government up until now and Kurds in this part have suffered a lot because of being a minority and whenever they have demanded their basic rights they have faced repression and…

Kurdish Men for Gender Equality

Dilar Dirik

By Dilar Dirik: “Being a woman is not a tool to punish or humiliate anyone – No free society without free women” In the last couple of days, a remarkable and unusual sort of civil disobedience was triggered in Marivan, a city in East Kurdistan, which now echoes around the globe, rattling and shuddering the…

‘Being a woman is not a tool to humiliate or punish anyone’ Campaign

Ramyar Hassani

By Ramyar Hassani: Recently two men in Mariwan, a Kurdish city of Iran, were made to wear women’s clothing and paraded around the city. This brought rage from Kurdish people and the protests resulted in the formation of the ‘Being a woman is not a tool to humiliate or punish anyone’ Campaign. Activists spoke out forcefully and…

Free Rahmatolah Maadi: Innocent Iranian Kurdish businessman

By Neamat Maadi: Rahmatolah Maadi, the father of a newborn baby, a hardworking and peaceful man, was arrested by Iranian intelligence (Etelaat) on November 4th 2012 and there has been no news from him since. Rahmatolah was born on 25th February, 1969 in Saqaz, Kurdistan, Iran and he was raised and studied in Sannandaj. He…

Stop the persecution of Kurdish journalists and activists in Iran

By Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group: Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations H.E. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General, United Nations First Avenue and East 44th Street, New York, New York, U.S.A. March 28, 2013 Mr. Secretary-General: The Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group expresses its grave concern and outrage at continued detentions and imprisonments of …

Save the lives of Zaniar and Loqman Moradi in Iran

Stop the Executions

By Dr. Amir Sharifi, Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group: The Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group condemns the continuing arrest and persecution of political prisoners in Iran. We are particularly concerned about the looming executions of numerous political prisoners, including two Kurdish prisoners named Zaniar and Loqman Moradi. We join the January 19-20 2013 Worldwide Campaign to…

Iran: Kurdish girls caught in village school fire

KT News: Around 40 girls were caught in a fire in a village school in eastern Kurdistan (Iran) today. Some were badly burned and, according to latest reports, one girl has died from her injuries. The fire occurred in Enghelab Elementary Girl School in Shinabad, a village near the city of Piranshahr, after an oil…

The Kurds: still world’s largest stateless nation, Syria’s Free Kurdistan Regional Government

By Dr. M. Koohzad: The Syrian Arab Spring that started almost two years ago is still in full swing. Under the leadership of al-Assad II, the government has been massacring its own people, many of them civilians. The uprising in Syria, of course, is seen neither in isolation nor as an internal issue. More than…

Kurdish literary genius and giant, Shokrollah Baban: An obituary

By Dr Amir Sharifi: On November 18, 2012, Shokrollah Baban, the great Kurdish poet, author, mythologist, radio programmer, and lexicographer passed away. He had been afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease.  Born to an influential Kurdish family in Sanandaj, Baban was heir to a great deal of wealth and land. However, so powerful was his artistic sensibility…

Iran: IHRDC reports ‘On the Margins’ – book review

Michael Rubin

By Michael Rubin: The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) has existed for less than a decade, but it has already established itself as among the most serious and least politicized human rights organizations. Amnesty International may make headlines, but it too often conflates leftist politics with human rights advocacy. Human Rights Watch (HRW), too,…

Lack of a National Strategy hurts the KRG’s future

Kamal Chomani

By Kamal Chomani: In the October 17 Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ministers meeting, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani rejected criticism by opposition parties and journalists for his not having a national strategy to deal with the political conflicts in the region. The question is: Do we have a national strategy in the interest of the Kurds…

‘West should accept a cooperative, nuclear Iran’

Dr Mustafa Shamamy

Part 4 of KT Interview with Mustafa Shamamy, Republican Movement of Kurdistan (RMK): KT: What is your attitude towards the threat of US and/or Israeli military action against the Iran regime? MS: America is conducting a policy of militarising the Middle East – aimed at abolishing the dictatorial systems and, alongside this, it also conducts a policy…