Crumbs of human rights

What doesn’t work throughout the year is possible for one day: every year, on 21 March the fragmented Iranian nation unites. Male and female, young and old, ethnic Iranians, Kurds and Azeris among others celebrate the ancient festivities of Nowruz.  This festival marks the beginning of the solar year as well as that of the New Year on the Iranian national calendar. Now, we have entered into the year 1394. (Source: irantraders.net)   People inside and outside the country come together with their family and friends and gather around the table, which is set with special treats: delicacies for offering to guests to eat, such as baklava and other Persian sweets and some things, which hold symbolic meaning, such as garlic (symbolising health) or apples (symbolising beauty and love).    As President Rouhani put it in his new year message, Nowruz is an “ancient heritage” that Iran and the regional states share in their culture . Besid...

Having opposing views than that of the government is quite dangerous in Iran. Let me take the example of the 2009 presidential election, after which several hundreds of people were arrested. Among them were prominent reformist politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and students. www.aljazeera.com But how did that happen? In 2009 Iranian people were about to appoint their president for the next four years, after the controversial presidency of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  In the previous four years, the inflation had risen and the property values, especially in the capital, had increased sharply. Moreover, Mr Ahmadinejad focussed on Iran's nuclear program, which resulted in the United Nations’s sanctions on the Iranian government. So in the election of 12 June 2009, three new candidates, running beside Mr Ahmadinejad, promised to change the current economic and social situation and bring reforms, namely:  - Mir-Hossein Mousavi , a re...

The race for reaching a complex nuclear deal with the West is still the biggest determining factor in Iranian politics. In recent weeks President Rouhani has come under pressure over the talks , with members of parliament pushing for laws that would block the interim deal completely. As Shahir Shahid-Saless, an Iranian political analyst said: “Any compromise on the nuclear issue will be attacked by hardliners.” But about a month ago, talking to hundreds of Iranian economists and business leaders at a conference, President Rouhani said that he might start putting important issues to referendums . The president underlined that under the constitution, Iranians are entitled to have important economic, political, social and cultural issues put to a referendum instead of having the parliament decide. “On a crucial matter that affects all of us and our livelihoods, let's ask people's opinion directly, just for once,” he said, without specifically stressing the subject of the propos...