It has been three years since the popular protest of the people of Iran
in 2009. This was a year when the streets of Iran were filled with men
and
women
seeking freedom and justice. People who were frustrated with years
of pressure and oppression, inspired by this political movement, and
impressed by the TV shows and debates, were convinced that “their votes”
would have value and that they could change their conditions by
participation in the elections.
After the announcement of the
results, people poured onto the streets in protest but this time, it was
not just the people who had voted. Many people, who had suppressed
their frustrations over the years, came out to the streets in protest to
such an overwhelming injustice. However, the government responded to
people’s simple and peaceful protest by imprisonment, torture, bullets,
and killings. These detentions and killings, once again, brought out
mothers of many detainees to find out about their children by gathering
outside prisons, courts, and cemeteries, and many mothers ended up
grieving for their beloved children. The grieving mothers and the
families of political prisoners wore black as a sign to seek justice for
their murdered children, protesting the suppression, detentions,
tortures, killings, and they asked for trial and punishment of those
responsible for the crimes committed in prisons and on the streets.
During
a meeting on June 25, 2009, as a symbolic act of protest, the Grieving
Mothers announced that they were going to gather every Saturday from 7
to 8 pm in the Fountain Square of the Laaleh Park, and in other parks in
Tehran, and that by holding the pictures of their sons and daughters,
they would light candles and would make their voices heard by the people
of the world, and that they would never stop fighting until their
demands were met. Following the publication of this meeting, different
groups, supporting the grieving mothers, were formed across Iran’s
cities and around the world. These groups also gathered in protest every
week to show sympathy with the grieving mothers.
The protest
movement of the Grieving Mothers began on June 27, 2009. From that day
on, a large number of the mothers and their supporters (around 90), were
subjected to attacks and assaults of the security forces, and were
detained. During this entire period, these individuals and their family
members have been subjected to threats, harassments, summons, and
beatings by the forces of oppression. Yet, every day, the bond between
these mothers became stronger and they became even more determined to
fight through various forms of civil activism. They held on to their
demands steadfastly by gathering in front of Evin Prison and the
Revolutionary Courts, gathering in various parks, showing their support
for prisoners on hunger strikes, participating in memorial ceremonies of
those killed, visiting and sympathizing with the families of those
killed in Tehran and other cities, and protesting the executions. This
protest movement gained widespread support from different political and
social groups around the world and a large number of human rights
activists announced their support of the grieving mothers. The support
continues and, everyday, this network of justice seekers attracts more
supporters. They include high profile Iranian and international human
rights and peace activists, activists in the women movements, student
movements, movie and theatre artists, poets and writers, and also, the
world’s black-clothed women, and the Argentina’s De Mayo Square Mothers.
On the first anniversary of this protest movement, the grieving
mothers changed their name to the Mothers of Laaleh Park and, defining
their goals more specifically, they continued their activities, and they
have not rested to this day, insisting on their demands. Mothers of
Laaleh Park present themselves in the following terms:
“We are a
group of mothers and family members of those individuals who were
either killed or damaged during the rule of the Islamic Republic and,
seeking justice, we have the following demands:
1.We demand an end to capital punishment and the killing of human beings in any shape or form.
2.We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners.
3.
We demand a public and fair trial of all the perpetrators of the crimes
committed by the Islamic Republic since it’s inception.
We,
the Mothers of Laaleh Park, believe that it is a crime to execute people
individually or in groups in prisons, to kill and assassinate ethnic,
national, religious, political, and ideological targets on the streets,
to attack homes and student dormitories and work places, to kidnap,
detain, and hurt individuals in order to kill human ideas, to torture,
get forced confessions, rape, kill by stoning, or for vendetta. We are
fighting to prevent these crimes and to elevate human condition.
As
mothers, we are trying to create a safe and humane environment, away
from war and bloodshed, discrimination and humiliation. That is why we
are against revenge and physical elimination. But we believe that, in
order to prevent crimes from happening, it is imperative that all those
agents who, directly or indirectly, were perpetrators of crimes during
the rule of the Islamic Republic, should be tried in a fair, public, and
popular court and be held accountable for their anti-human actions and
to receive punishments in accordance to their crimes, while also being
rehabilitated and educated in understanding and respecting human ideas.
As mothers, we ask all those who have been victims or
witnesses of these crimes over the years, to join us in asking for
justice. As victims of violence and discrimination against women, we
support all actions that oppose violence, seek equality and the removal
of discrimination, and invite all the victims of violence to join forces
with us.
In the last three years, we, the Mothers of Lealer
Park, have not failed, even for a second, to pursue our demands, and
have, continuously, tried to make the authorities respond to family
members. We have tried to be strong allies of all those who have been
hurt and who demand justice from the Islamic Republic. We have done so
by participating in popular protests, sympathizing with families of
those killed, writing protest letters and stories of our quest for
justice, writing letters to the representatives of the human rights
organization, writing letters to Ahmad Said, organizing demonstrations
in various countries and bringing the protest cry of the Iranian people
to the outside world, launching different campaigns for the release of
other political prisoners, writing declarations and protest letters
requesting the annulment of the inhuman punishments and the capital
punishment, protesting against the terrible conditions of the prisons
and the prisoners, protesting the indifference towards the rights of
the families of those killed who need to know “why” and “how” the
killings took place, and to prevent injustice and discrimination.
It
has been three years since the popular uprising against the outcome of
the elections; yet, the authorities have been unresponsive to the
demands of the people of Iran and the three demands of the mothers. To
this day, none of the individuals responsible for the bloody
suppression of the children of this land have been punished. Instead,
they have intensified threats and pressures on all the victims of
violence and they have tried and detained a number of Mothers of Laleh
Park on the charge of supporting and sympathizing with the families of
political prisoners who were killed and who are in prison.
These
pressures started from the very beginning of the pro-justice movement
of the Mothers of Laaleh Park and continue to this day. During this
time, they have harassed and abused many of them for supporting the
grieving mothers throughout the 33 years of the Islamic Republic crimes.
Many have gone through temporary detentions, many others have been
constantly harassed by summons and threatening calls, and some have been
put through unlawful and Para judicial trials and handed down heavy
sentences, and, still, others were pressed to leave the country. The
prison sentences of three mothers and their supporters, namely Djila
Karamzadeh Makvandi, Leila Seifollahi, and Nader Ahsani, have been
affirmed in the court of appeal and Zhila Karamzadeh Makvandi, in spite
of illness and high blood pressure, has been detained as of December
26, 2011 to serve a two year sentence. Leila Seifollahi has been
sentenced to two years actual and two years of suspended sentence, and
Nader Ahsani has been sentenced to two years of actual prison. Also,
actual prison sentences have been handed down to Mansoureh Behkish for
four and a half years, Mehdi Ramezani for three years, Hakimeh Shekari
for three years, Neda Mostaghimi for three years, and Seyed Mohammad
Ebrahimi for five years. Additionally, the following individuals await
the decision of the appeals court subsequent to the preliminary court
ruling, Djila Mahdavian, three years of actual and two years of
suspended prison terms, Maryam Najafi, six moth of suspended term, and
Omolbanayn Ebrahimi, three years of suspended prison term.
In
the three years, no amount of threat, scare tactics, arrest, detention,
and frequent court rulings against the mothers has prevented the protest
movement of Mothers of Laaleh Park. Instead, the longer the
authorities have refrained from offering answers, our resolve to demand
our legitimate and rightful human rights has become stronger. By taking
lessons from our past experiences and to prevent history from being
repeated, we reached out across the lines and together with all the
families of those killed as political prisoners of the past and today,
in the 33 years of the Islamic Republic crimes, and we continuously and
steadfastly, insist on our three basic demands!
Mothers of Laaleh Park
June 26, 2012
