Behind the Headlines/April 22

Jamshid Chalangi:

In tonight’s program we will look at the aftermath of the flood disaster in Iran and find out what help the regime has offered to its victims.

Also, we will look at the latest news of human rights abuses in Iran and find out what has happened to Zeynab Jalalian and other women’s rights activists who are in Iran’s jails.

We will also look at the changes in the command structure of the Revolutionary Guard and the end of US sanctions exemptions for major importers of Iran oil.

Our guests tonight are journalist Sepideh Pouraghaie and human rights activist Siamak Kavousi.

Sepideh Pouraghaie:

We can see how an apparently natural disaster in Iran has turned into a social, political and security issue as the reports suggest that many of the volunteers who have been trying to help the victims of this national flood have been arrested.

This has been a natural disaster worsened by the authorities’ incompetence and lack of resources and planning to face such situations.

In Shiraz where several people have been killed, almost all the city’s authorities knew in advance that a flood was coming but they did not do anything about it. The same situation still continues in the province of Lorestan where the flood has not subsided.

Millions of Iranians have lost properties and farming lands across the country and yet the regime claims that our people’s anger and frustrations are “exaggerated”.

Sadly we now have the far greater problems of illness and relocations of the displaced and homeless people.

Siamak Kavousi:

It has become evident that this regime is incapable of solving our people’s problem and has even described the flood as a blessing of God.

The authorities have had absolute power over the last forty years but have not shown any sign of competence becausethey have been engulfed in corruption, nepotism and squandering our people’s wealth for their ideological objectives.

All we can do in our exiled life is to expose these issues and inform our people that those who rule over them make their problems.