Evening Telegraph (UK) – While Iraq has dominated the headlines with war and blood shed, you might be forgiven for thinking that all is quiet in its neighbour and former enemy, Iran. But not so, as Iranian refugee Amin Namdari knows all too well – and now he wants to tell the world all about it and change life there for the better. Simon Burch reports.
In Britain we have become more used to hearing about Iraq more than its neighbour, Iran, but Amin Namdari wishes it was more in the news.
But that is not because the mountainous country, in the troubled Middle East and sandwiched between Iraq and Afghanistan, causes his heart to swell with pride at its beauty and its achievements.
Rather, its record in the field of human rights is atrocious, with its fundamentalist Muslim rulers (or mullahs) dishing out justice that belongs to the very darkest corners of islam with lashings, amputations and stoning to death very much a part of 21st century life in Iran.
It is also an oppressive theocratic regime which indulges in the horrific torturing of thousands of people to stay in power. In short, says Amin (28), regime change is badly needed and, for that to happen, the world needs to learn about what is happening there and governments need to act to stop it.
Amin knows more than most about the human rights abuses in Iran. When a member of the Iranian Revolutionary, he became sickened at his duties – which involved arresting political prisoners – and told his superiors he wanted to leave.
His protests earned him residency in one of Iran’s many prison, run by Iran’s feared Intelligence ministry where he was hung from the ceiling, with his toes barely touching the ground and hit with heavy cables on the sole of his feet.
“The rulers feel under threat from anyone who has a different ideology to them”, he said, speaking through an interpreter, fellow Iranian Mehrzad Yazdanipour. “Although they like to portray Iran as a free county, the opposite is true. So they want to change you mind and they want to break you.”
Amin was “partly” broken but his tormentors never got to finish the job. Released conditionally from prison, he fled and arrived in Britain five years ago, getting status as a refugee 18 months later.
His time in prison is not something Amin likes to dwell on, but now, sitting in the living room of his home in Sunny Hill, with an Iranian flag propped in the corner, he reflects that he was one of the lucky ones.
“What I went through was nothing compared to what my friends suffered,” he said.
Amin believes that if he had stayed, he would be dead by now. Numbers can only ever be estimates, but human rights groups believe 120.000 Iranians have been killed for their beliefs.”
This is the side of modern-day Iran on which Amin and Mehrzad, who are both members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, want to shine a light. Other atrocities include the punitive methods of censure under Islamic-based Sharia law – law imposed to reflect the word of God, as, say its proponents, laid out in the Koran.
This, said Amin, is nothing but an outrage. Sharia law still supports stoning women accused of adultery (they are buried in sand up to their shoulders with their heads covered before being pelted by stones until dead), lashing, amputation, gouging out eyes and hanging, all to impose the law of the land.
Last year, for example, two teenagers, one aged 18, the other believed to be 16 or 17, were hanged for being gay.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people in Iran want a change of regime – an irony, since the current system was brought in on a wave of revolutionary euphoria in 1979, bringing to close the rule of the hated Shah.
Amine comes from the south of the country, in a city called Isfahan, but the outbreak of the Iran/Iraq war in 1982 saw his family flee north.
When he was doing his compulsory army service, Amin was stationed in the far north-west, in Kurdistan, which is where he became an enemy of the state.
His statute has not changed, especially since he devotes his efforts to spreading the word about all that is wrong with Iran, even though his own parents still live there – his younger brother, Mohammad, also lives in Derby – and live in fear of the Intelligence ministry.
The NCRI, headed by Maryam Rajavi, wants the west to support it in its campaign to force change in Iran.
Every month, there are demonstrations in Iran, which often en in mass arrests and public hangings, and Amin and the British based members of the group have demonstrated in the somewhat safer environs of Westminster and Birmingham. Yet, at the moment, it is ridding the crest of a growing wave. The world has reacted with concern at the news that Iran is developing a nuclear capability – as revealed by the NCRI – and Tony Blair has openly denounced Iran as a sponsor of Islamic terrorism.
Mehrzad, who has lived in Derby for 27 years but is not a refugee, agrees.
Every terrorist atrocity committed in the name of Islam is linked to Tehran, he believes. “Iran is like an octopus and Tehran is where the heart of fundamentalism beats”, Amin added.
The NCRI has widespread support of lawmakers in the Britain, but some vital pieces of the jigsaw are missing – including baking from the Government and direct action from the UN, such as sanctions to put the Iranians leaders on the back foot.
“I’m proud of being Iranian but I hate the mullahs”, said Amin. “You cannot reform their regime. They’re a medieval government.
“I would go back to Iran if things changed there and so I’m pleased that people are realising what life is like in Iran, but the Iranian resistance has paid a heavy price to get to where it is today.”
Article published on September 22, 2006