khalijefars News, Blogs, Art and Community
We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
In tonight’s program we speak to our guest Dr. Kazem Kardavani about the state of freedom of thought in Iran, after three members of the Association of Iranian Writers have each been sentenced to six years in prison for expressing their views.
Forty years after coming to power, this regime is still repressing our people anddenying them of their basic human rights.
Dr. Kazem Kardavani:
That is correct. If you put this sad news next to the report that says the Friday prayers Imam of Isfahan has banned women from cycling, then you can see thechaos that rules over our country.
The story of crack down on the writers association has been going on for the last forty years and nobody knows where it will end.
The contradiction between the regime’s actual policies towards our artists and the way it pretends that it supports them can be seen very clearly.
On the same day that Khamenei visits the Tehran book fair and appears in a photograph holding the book of dissident writer Ahmad Shamloo, and Rouhani meeting with a group of writers and poets, we hear that these three writershave been unjustly sentenced to prison and lashes.
In the Iran of today writing books that are not to the liking of the regime is a “crime”, while thieves connected to the corrupt leaders of the regime are free to steal billions of dollars of our nation’s wealth but go free.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
It appears that even not writing books but just being known as a dissident writer also meets with the regime’s wrath and retribution.
Mr Shamsulvaezin who has long been banned from writing has now turned into farming. Yet, last week his home was raided by security forces and his belonging were seized by a regime that has not even ceased its clampdowns on our writers during the month of Ramadan.
