I spoke on women's rights in Iran, at Porticullis House  in the Houses of Parliament in London, on a panel launching Tahirih Danesh and Geoffrey Cameron's report called  " 'A revolution without rights? Women, Kurds and Baha'is searching for equality in Iran'.

It was organized by the Foreign Policy Center and speakers included UK Member of Parliament Mike Gapes, Baroness Afshar OBE, Professor of Politics and Womens' Studies, University of York, Kaveh Moussavi, Head of Public Interest Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford and Drewery Dyke, head of Iran affairs at Amnesty International's head office.

During my talk I brought up the case of Fatemeh Haghighatpajouh whom I wrote to you about in my last blog. Her case was extremely  urgent. Despite raising flags to international organization like the UN, government officials and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth offices about the matter in London,  we were too late. I am sad to report that she was executed the following day along with 9 other people in Iran.

http://www.payvand.com/news/08/nov/1266.html

After my talk, I had to rush over to the Foreign Press Association Awards to present  "TV feature of the year" who ended up winning the Journalist of the year award.

I was impressed how up to speed Prince Charles was on environmental issues. Supposedly he started activism through the Prince Charles foundation before the trendy wave on "green" issues started. http://www.princes-foundation.org/

One major concern on my mind lately has been the imprisonment of Ayatollah Boroujerdi who is a Shi'a Islamic Cleric in Iran. I had been corresponding with oneof the main campaigerns for his case and I got the opportunity to meet him in London and hear first hand the abuse that Boroujerdi si being subjected to. Simply because of advocating the separation between religion and state, he has been imprisoned for the last couple of years and subjected to torture. His wife was even raped in front of him in prison. Despite being in need of serious medical help, the murderous thugs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not grant him a doctor. Why would they do such a thing? The simple answer is FEAR. Ayatollah Boroujerdi has hundreds of thousands of supporters and he openly critisizes the constitution of Iran that holds the Supreme Leader (Velayat-faqih) to the highest order. The officials in Iran consider him a threat. He is in imminent danger.

Please tell your local media and members of parliament about Ayatollah Boroujerdi so they can enact pressure on Iran to free this man.

Peace be with you all

Nazanin

Related links to this blog:
A Revolution Without Rights? - Pamphlet in full
http://www.leithjb.net/blog/2008/11/26/a-revolution-without-rights-launch-of-new-report-on-irans-human-rights-abuses/
http://bwns.org/story/674
http://www.foreign-press.org.uk/
http://www.boroujerdi.eu