promoting Iranian culture last week in protest of the treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the woman who had been sentenced to stoning.
Meanwhile, videotaped interviews with Ashtiani and others related to her case were shown on Iranian television Monday in an apparent effort to counter the international outcry. The videos showed the interviewees admitting wrongdoing and improper behavior.
The Ukrainian demonstration by five members of one of Ukraine’s most famous activist groups, Femen, brought more international attention to Ashtiani’s case! The feminists interrupted an event with hundreds of Ukrainian and Iranian luminaries celebrating Iranian culture by tossing off their blouses and bras and shouting statements such as “Don’t kill women!”
The activists chose as their forum the opening ceremony of the “Week of Iranian Culture in Ukraine,” a cultural exchange program hosted by Iran’s embassy in Kiev. A Femen leader said they acted because the Iranian ambassador “did not come to us,… [so] we had to go to him.”
Femen has staged numerous topless protests on issues ranging from sex tourism to student dormitories. The tactic of removing their clothes was selected because, as one member said, “This is the only way to be heard in this country. If we staged simple protests with banners, then our claims would not have been noticed.”
The demonstration did not appear to have been taken too seriously, however, as a Ukrainian official who later apologized for the interruption commented, “At least we don’t have to be ashamed about what we have on display.” The female protestors were removed by security guards after some pushing and shoving.
The videotapes that aired on state television Monday were not images of the protest, but a seven-minute report refuting international concern with statements from Ashtiani, her son and two jailed Germans.
Her face blurred out and her words translated in a voiceover from Azeri Turkish to Persian, Ashtiani admitted to being a “sinner.” She said her lawyers deceived her and that she wishes she could change the actions she had taken on her case. “I committed a sin,” she said.
The segment also broadcast her son’s disapproval of his mother’s lawyers and regret for listening to them. Sajjad Ghaderzadeh said Mohammad Mostafai, who represented his mother before fleeing to Norway, was detrimental to the case, publicizing it on the international stage so everyone would know. “In my opinion, we do not have any respect anymore because of Mr. Mostafai,” he said.
Most families in Iran remain silent publicly when a relative is accused of adultery. But Ghaderzadeh went public in defense of his mother. Many observers consider that to have been key in making his mother’s case an international sensation.
Mostafai has just been tried and sentenced in absentia to six years in prison because his advocacy for his former client in media abroad as well as a blog were an “attack on national security,” reported the human rights website Herana.
The interviewees in the broadcast only attacked Mostafai, but also Ashtiani’s current lawyer, Javid Hutan-Kian, who allegedly convinced Ghaderzadeh to lie about his mother. Ghaderzadeh said, “He asked us to tell [the media] that she had been tortured and was not allowed to have any visitors. She said all these things. Unfortunately, I listened to him, too. Everything I told the foreign media was a lie.”
The video also showed Ashtiani and her son placing blame on a German-based human rights activist, Mina Ahadi, with Ashtiani adding, “Ms. Mina Ahadi, this is none of your business.” Ahadi has been one of the many figures in Europe publicizing the case.
The only faces that could be seen clearly during the segment were of two Germans arrested last month for trying to interview Ghaderzadeh and Hutan-Kian without journalist visas. The Germans also accused Ahadi of deceiving them so she could benefit from the propaganda of their arrests.
The video is one of several broadcast on Iranian television that contradict reports in the international media, which the Islamic Republic says are a ploy by the West to demonize Iran.
Previously publicized by international outlets was an October letter from Ghaderzadeh to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon pleading for help in his mother’s case. He said in that letter that two previous interviews of his mother aired on state television were faked. “Those interviews have been extracted under conditions of extreme physical pressure and psychological as well as moral coercion, caused by using our own family,” he wrote.
In that letter, he also said that while his mother is in jail, Issa Taheri, the real murderer of his father according to Ghaderzadeh, was set free, despite committing three murders.
The Judiciary continues to say that Ashtiani’s sentence has not been finalized, noting that “some more time and investigation is required to arrive at a definite sentence.” It has not been explained why a further investigation is required four years after Ashtiani was found guilty of adultery.
The state also now insists that Ashtiani was convicted of murder, although her lawyers say she never was. Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai told the state news agency last Wednesday, “I emphasize … that without a doubt the accusation and sentencing for murder is taking precedence over the other accusation [of adultery] and the Judiciary has put this on its agenda first.”
This reflects what appears to be the conclusion of many in the Islamic Republic that it is only the stoning sentence and the idea of execution for adultery that has riled people in the West. Officials seem to believe that if they execute Ashtiani by hanging for murder, the uproar in the West will not be so great.
However, the uproar surged two weeks ago when Ahadi said she had learned that Ashtiani was about to be hanged for murder. As measured by the number of people signing the online petition calling for Ashtiani’s release, the case has taken on a life of its own separate from the issue of stoning for adultery. The global public seems to see the case now as a simple matter of state oppression.
As of Tuesday, 432,160 people had signed the online petition at www.freesakineh.org. That was an increase of 670 signers per day over the previous week, a major drop off once Iran said no execution was imminent. But the huge surge the previous week when Ahadi said the hanging was imminent showed the case is not being ignored by the Western public although it may lie dormant when there are no new developments. Here are the daily averages over the last 15 weeks, beginning with this past week.
670
10,900
140
110
200
175
275
365
1,000
3,800
11,400
3,700
2,200
3,600
2,000