Activists try to expose brutal regime

Los Angeles Daily News
By BRIDGET JOHNSON, Columnist

NOW that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is done presenting himself as a casually attired statesman at the United Nations, done waxing about his regime's noble aims from the lectern of the General Assembly and winning over hearts and minds of the blissfully ignorant, it's time to get back to his regime's daily business of killing people.

In a country where women are executed for having sex before marriage — like 16-year-old Ateqeh Rajabi, publicly hanged while the male co-defendant received lashes — or for defending oneself during a rape — such as Nazanin Fatehi, 18, whose execution has been temporarily stayed but whose life is very much still in danger — thousands face the ultimate punishment where a man in the same situation would not.

When Iranian activists around the globe learned that this week was the execution date for Kobra Rahmanpour, a 25-year-old who defended herself when her mother-in-law came at her with a knife, they pulled together in a last-ditch effort to draw attention to her plight and that of so many other women subject to the mullahs' misogynistic whims in Iran.

In Los Angeles, Mariella Hosseini and her daughter, actress Nazanin Boniadi, pulled the rally together within 24 hours, e-mailing thousands in the Persian community and sympathizers. By Sunday afternoon, they'd set up across the street from Fox News headquarters on Bundy Drive with signs bearing photos detailing various tortures, stonings and hangings under the regime. Rallies were also held Sunday in Vancouver and Iran, where Rahmanpour's father has tried hard to bring attention to his daughter's case.

Hosseini and Boniadi picked the location because the greatest challenge faced by activists trying to expose the mullahs' brutal crimes is getting mainstream media attention.

And once you have people's attention, you also face the challenge of educating those unfamiliar with what's really going on in Iran, or those who slap blinders on because all they see is potential conflict that might affect them.

Activist Roya Teimouri, holding a sign bearing faces of the condemned women, urged a passer-by to join their protest — a skeptical listener who had bought into EU-styled rhetoric that fruitful negotiation with Iran is possible.

“We don't want negotiation, we want regime change," Teimouri said, which elicited a knee-jerk reaction from the passer-by: “But not like we went into Iraq?”

Westerners who are first concerned about how foreign policy will affect them, know that it isn't just revolutionary wordplay when activists insist that the overthrow of the mullahs can — and will — come from within Iran, where young people are the vast majority.

Soon after I got back from the L.A. rally, I received word about the Tehran rally, which had begun at 5 p.m. their time outside the United Nations' office. Protesters were not just pleading for justice in the cases of Fatehi and Rahmanpour, but for Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajooh, a woman facing execution for killing her “temporary husband” as he sexually assaulted her 15-year-old daughter.

With 10 days' notice throughout Iran, a large crowd of political and human-rights activists gathered, and were quickly boxed in by security forces in riot gear. Plainclothes police also mingled with the crowd, which was growing larger and louder with cries of “Don't execute these women!” Hundreds of passers-by trying to join the demonstration were forced back by police, but many valiantly broke through.

Sources at the demonstration say that protesters were met with a violent response from the police, and the plainclothes officers mingling in the crowd began to chase people away while barking orders at other security forces. Eleven protesters were arrested, including two student resistance leaders who were wanted by the regime but came to Tehran anyway to raise their voices for the sentenced women.

In stark contrast half a world away in L.A., members of the Persian community warmly greeted one another and a few horns honked on Bundy in support of the quiet demonstration. I asked Boniadi what their brethren back in Iran thought of their efforts.

She said they are reminded that there are thousands of other women facing death under the regime and deserving of rallies, even as global activists are faced with the need to single out a few cases to put a face on the story.

“People in Iran say, What about my relatives?”

Bridget Johnson writes for the Daily News.
E-mail her at [email protected].