Protest at Japanese embassy in London 31 March

Please see the following call for action from the Free Jamal! campaign:

As part of the global action day for Jamal Saberi on Wednesday 31 March 2010, there will be a protest opposite the Japanese embassy in London from 4-6pm by the Free Jamal! campaign.

Address: 101-104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT
closest tube: Green Park

Please support Jamal and join us.
If you can't come, please call,fax or email the embassy on that day to add extra momentum to the campaign and please let us know about your messages to the Japanese embassy.
The contact details for the Japanese embassy are:
Tel: 020 74656500 (just say you wish to speak to someone about Jamal Saberi (Jalal Ahmadzade-Nouei)
Fax: 02074919348
Email: info@jpembassy.org.uk


Contact:
Patty Debonitas
freejamalcampaign@gmail.com
Tel: +44 750 797 8745

Global day of protest to free Jamal Saberi

Read the following announcement from the Free Jamal Campaign:

Global Day of Action against the anti-refugee policies of the Japanese government 31 March 2010



The Free Jamal! campaign announces 31 March 2010 a Global Day of Action against Japanese anti-refugee policies to coincide with the end of UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante’s mission to observe the human rights situation of migrants in the country and his scheduled press conference on that day in Tokyo.

Free Jamal! calls on all members and supporters of the campaign to hold demonstrations in front of Japanese embassies and consulates on 31 March to express their strongest objection at the Japanese government’s treatment of refugees.

Free Jamal! supports the struggle and the demands of thousands who are detained in the prisons of the Japanese Immigration Authorities and are highlighting the treatment of Jamal Saberi - a well-known women, worker and human rights’ activist for the people of Iran - by the Japanese Ministry of justice as a clear example of the unjust behaviour by the Japanese government towards refugees.

Free Jamal! demands the immediate release of Jamal Saberi, the repeal of his deportation order and that Japan must grant him refugee status.

Special representative of the Free Jamal! campaign, Farshad Hosseini, will be present in Tokyo next week to support the Global Day of Action locally.

The Japanese government and its Ministry of Justice should be aware that the whole world is watching their misbehaviour towards refugees and migrants, including Jamal Saberi who has been at the frontline of defending refugee rights in Japan for 18 years.

On 31 March Japanese officials will recognise that intending to deport Jamal Saberi as well as any underhand dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran will be exposed and will cost Japan dearly as a consequence. The Free Jamal! campaign with all its members and supporters are determined to free Jamal Saberi and to realise all demands.

Hambastegi - International Federation of Iranian Refugees


Contact
Free Jamal! campaign: Patty Debonitas
Tel: +44 750 797 8745
Email: freejamalcampaign@gmail.com

Special representative in Japan: Farshad Hosseini
Tel: + 31 681285184
Email: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com

freejamal.blogspot.com

TV International: Chaharshanbe Soori in Iran

TV International looks at what happened at this year's festival of fire, Chaharshanbe Soori, celebrated on the last Tuesday evening of the Persian year and the remarks made by clerics in Iran about attending the festival.

TV International: Free Jamal Saberi campaign

Fariborz Pooya and Patty Debonitas talk about Jamal Saberi, an Iranian activist who is in detention in Japan to be deported to Iran and look at the activities of the Free Jamal! campaign that has been set up to stop his deportation.

TV International: Evin prison protests

TV International looks at the daily protests by families of political prisoners in front of Evin prison in Tehran and the history of the notorious prison.

TV International: 8th March, sharia law & George Galloway

In this TV International programme:


Report on 8th March & the Free Jamal! campaign



Report on One Law for All's seminar on Sharia law



George Galloway, the Left and international solidarity

Save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran

Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) was arrested on Thursday 4 March 2010 by the Japanese Immigration Bureau in Tokyo with the intention of deporting him to Iran.

Mr. Jamal Saberi is a well known political opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been politically active for the last 18 years in Japan. His lengthy political activities with the Worker-communist Party of Iran, and against the Islamic regime of Iran have come to the notice of Iranian authorities and he applied for refugee status to the Japanese Minister of Justice on May 10, 2001.

The fate of opponents of the regime has been well documented over the last 30 years and has gained international focus in the last 10 months: Imprisonment, widespread use of torture, rape, show trials, executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be a major abuser of human rights with no evidence of improvement.

Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion and political activities. His life and freedom would be in imminent danger if he were to be deported to Iran.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees is campaigning on behalf of Jamal Saberi and calls for the immediate release of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) and that he must be granted refugee status.

They have set up an online appeal that will send your letter of protest straight to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan.

You can sign it here

We must act quickly to save Jamal from deportation!

We call on all individuals and organisations to help save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran where his life and liberty are in danger.

You can also write to the Japanese embassy in the country where you live, a list with contact details is here

You will find a sample letter at the end. Please send your appeal immediately.

For further information, contact Farshad Hoseini Tel:0031 613940534 or E-mail farshadhoseini@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network IFIR
Postbus 1312
5602BH Eindhoven,
Netherlands
http://www.hambastegi.org

IFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers;provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center;and provides referrals for services.

We have also included the Japanese Ministry of Justice and UNHCR contact details here:

Ministry of Justice
Address: 1-1-1 Kasumigaseki,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8977
Phone: +81-3-3580-4111
e-mail: webmaster@moj.go.jp

UNHCR Representation in Japan
UN House 6th Floor
5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel +81-3-3499-2011/2310
FAX+81-3-3499-2272

UNHCR Representation in Japan
Protection Unit
Tel 03-3499-2075
Mail jpntopu@unhcr.org


SAMPLE LETTER

RE: Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei)

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my strongest concern over the fate of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) who is currently detained by
the Japanese Immigration Bureau and is going to be deported to Iran from Japan. Jamal Saberi is a political opponent which will face serious persecution if deported to Iran.

I urge the Japanese Immigration Authorities to immediately release him and cancel his deportation order. I also urge the UNHCR and the Japanese
Immigration Ministry to grant him refugee recognition.

I am awaiting your immediate intervention in this life-threatening situation. Needless to say, the UNHCR and the Japanese government will be held accountable for Jamal Saberi's life and freedom.

Signed
Name
Organization

CC: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com

Happy International Women's Day!!!!

Hamid Taqvaee’s Message on the Occasion of March 8:

Sexual Apartheid Regime should be smashed

March 8, International Women’s Day, the day of struggle for women’s rights is on the way. Commemorating March 8 in Iran has a larger weight and is more important, when compared to other countries in the world. For more than three decades the misogynist Islamic regime has deprived women from participating in many social, artistic, and sport activities; the Islamic regime has denied women’s basic rights, has considered women, at best, half the men, has denied them fundamental human rights such as the right to divorce, the right to custody of children and has set father’s or older male family member’s permission as the condition of women’s participation in social affairs or their right to travel. For more than three decades the Islamic Republic has treated women as men’s sex slaves, has considered them source of perversion of the “Islamic society” and has imposed Islamic veiling and sexual segregation in means of transportation, schools, and work places on society on the basis of such ultra-reactionary ideas.

However, freedom-loving women and men have never surrendered to such ideas. People’s overall conceiving of women’s position in society and within family is the exact opposite of the reactionary understanding that the Islamic Republic represents. That is why people have always rejected the Islamic regime as unacceptable and unwanted. That is why from the very conception of the Islamic regime on, from March 8, 1979, the struggle against the existing situation and for emancipation of women has permanently been continued.

This March 8 is the day that this struggle emerges strongly and in concert against totality of the misogynist Islamic regime. We are approaching March 8 through eight months of people’s revolutionary struggle to topple the Islamic regime. Women are a major force and pioneers of this struggle; Neda Aghasoltan is the symbol of this struggle; emancipation of women is a fundamental demand of this revolutionary fight.

Emancipation of society is not realizable without emancipation of women. Strengthening and progression of women’s emancipation movement is a determining factor in the struggle against the nightmare of the Islamic regime. On anniversary of March 8, let us all women and men march the streets side by side; let us commemorate Neda Aghasoltan’s memory; let us shout out loud “Down with Anti-woman Regime,” let us throw Islamic veils and smash sexual apartheid walls and the whole of anti-human Islamic regime!

On the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day, I congratulate all freedom-loving women and men all around the world.

Hamid Taqvaee

General Secretary of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

March 3, 2010

International Women's Day in London

WPI in England celebrated International Women's Day today and joined forces with Iran Solidarity and Equal Rights Now who also had a rally on Trafalgar Square.

The black veils were thrown on the floor as part of an act against compulsory veiling


and several people stomped on them in solidarity






















Here is a video of Bahram Soroush's speech

TV International programmes on International Women's Day

News and events for International Women's Day inside and outside of Iran



Manifesto of Liberation of Women



Women's struggle in Iran and its international effects

WPI International Women's Day across the world

USA

Washington DC

Sunday 7 March, 1pm

Embassy of Pakistan (Islamic Republic of Iran is represented here)

Dallas

Sunday 7 March, 2pm

Picknick

Russell Creek Park, Mc Dermot Road – Plano

Canada

Toronto

Saturday 6 March, 11am – 1pm

Bloor St West OESI Building

Subway Bedford Station 252

Rally 1pm

Ryerson University 1.30-5pm

Vancouver

Saturday 6 March, 1 to 3 pm
South side of Art Gallery, Robson & How street

Germany

Bremen

Monday 8 March, 12:00 – 14:00

Universität Bremen

Frankfurt

Monday 8 March, 17:00
Demo

Hauptwache (Zeil)
Kontakt:015781688732

France

Lyons

Saturday 6 March, 17:00 – 19:00

City Centre

Monday 8 March, 20:00

Meet-up

at Patooq (socialising) space

Besancon

Monday 8 March, from 9am

Marketplace

Norway

Oslo

Saturday 6 March, 12:30

Parliament

Monday 8 March, 18:00

Rally

Youngtorget – Oslo

UK

London

Saturday 6 March, 12-4pm

Trafalgar Square, North Terrace

Sweden

Stockholm

Monday 8 March, 15:00 – 17:30

Södermalmstorg

Gothenburg

Saturday 6 March, 15:00

Folket House

Monday 8 March, 16:00

Rally

Brunnsparken

Malmo

Monday 8 March, 17:00 – 21:00

Kronetorpsgatan 1

Rally 18:00

Gustav Square

Contact: +46 70 36 38088

Holland

Den Haag

Monday 8 March, 15:00

Parliament

Rotterdam

Monday 8 March, 14:00

Astedhouse

For information on any of these events please contact your local WPI branch or email:

hasan_salehi2001@yahoo.com

International Women’s Day 2010

Summary of WPI Press release on International Women’s Day 2010



This year March 8th, on international women’s day, the attention will be focused on the heroic women of Iran and the revolution of which Neda is truly the international image. A revolution that is against the Islamic regime, the most odious misogynist government in contemporary history. A revolution that is against the hejab, discrimination and sexual apartheid. A revolution where women are at the forefront and their demand for freedom and equality is its undeniable hallmark.

The first and possibly the most effective assault against the 1979 revolution was an unprecedented attack on women. Hell was created to silence the society. The Islamic regime not only pushed Iranian women and society back into the Dark Ages, but started a round of attack on women’s rights all over the world. Attacking women’s rights, the imposition of the hejab and sexual apartheid became the most important characteristics of and a means at the disposal of the reactionary political Islamic movement. This reactionary movement has not only enslaved women through sharia law and hejab in Islamic ridden societies, but extended its sphere of influence into the heart of Europe, with the tacit agreement of the European government.

Hence 31 years of women’s struggle and revolution has rightly attracted the interest of all of the Islamic ridden societies, but also attracted the support of men and women everywhere in the world. This revolution must be a success. The Islamic regime in Iran with all of its sexual apartheid, anti-women and all of its religious laws must for ever be buried. March 8th is one of the most significant moments of the revolution against the Islamic Republic.

WPI calls on everyone to take part in and support this struggle and join the protest against the Islamic regime, hejab, sexual apartheid and misogyny.

Long Live Freedom and Equality!
Long Live International Women’s Day!

Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran

This March 8th, in memory of Neda, symbol of people of Iran’s struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran

The very existence of the Islamic regime of Iran is incompatible with freedom of women. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a misogynist state, architect of gender apartheid and perpetrator of three decades of the most odious forms of abuse, discrimination and violence against women in Iran. A society cannot be free if women are not free. Without the overthrow of the misogynist Islamic regime, women in Iran will not achieve their rights. The Islamic Republic must go! This is the message of Neda Agha Soltan, the symbol of the ongoing revolution in Iran; it is the decree of the brave women who at the front lines of people’s protest have been challenging the entire Islamic state for the past seven months.

Thirty years ago on March 8th, 1979 in Iran, we freedom-loving women and men stood up to the reactionaries who had just come to power, with shouts of No to compulsory veil! Today, with the painful and bloody experience of three decades of gender apartheid, gender slavery and nonstop suppression of women behind us, we state even more clearly and forcefully, along with the young and progressive generation of today, that the Islamic Republic, as a misogynist state, as a regime of gender apartheid must be overthrown.

We say that the leaders of the Islamic Republic must be arrested and put on trial for systematic crimes against millions of women, for crimes against humanity. This is the decree of the revolution in Iran. With the overthrow of the Islamic Republic we will lend a helping hand to millions of women in Islam-stricken countries who are prisoners of terrorist Islamic states and gangs and honour-worshiping, male-chauvinistic Islamic traditions.Today, support for the ongoing revolution in Iran can and should become a vast international movement.

March 8th is International Women’s Day, which this year bears the mark of solidarity with women and people in Iran in the struggle to topple the Islamic regime. We call on women’s rights activists and organisations to express their solidarity with the women’s movement in Iran, while remembering Neda Agha Soltan as the symbol of the revolutionary movement against the Islamic Republic.

March 8th this year is the day of solidarity with the movement of the people of Iran for freedom!We issue the following Manifesto of the Liberation of Women in Iran, and call on all women’s rights’ activists and secular and progressive forces to support this Manifesto and join up in solidarity with the people of Iran in the struggle to overthrow the Islamic regime of gender apartheid:

1- Prosecution of the leaders and officials of the Islamic Republic for crimes against humanity, including for thirty years of the vilest abuse, discrimination and violence against women in Iran
2- Abolition of all misogynist Islamic laws and all laws that discriminate against women; complete equality of women and men in all economic, political, cultural, social and family spheres
3- Complete separation of religion from the state, the educational system and all laws
4- Abolition of segregation of the sexes and gender apartheid
5- Prohibition of sighe (Islamic ‘rent-a-wife’) and polygamy; unconditional right of separation (divorce) for women and men; abolition of all laws which make women’s civil rights (such as the right to travel, social intercourse, participation in social activities, etc.) conditional on obtaining the permission of the husband, father or other male members of the family; complete equality of women’s and men’s rights and duties in the custody and care of children following separation
6- Abolition of compulsory veil (hejab) for women; prohibition of hejab for children; full freedom of dress
7- Abolition of all the barbaric laws of stoning, execution, retribution (qesas) and other Islamic punishments
8- Unconditional freedom of expression, protest, strike, assembly, organisation and forming parties
9- Immediate release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience
10- Freedom of religion and atheism and freedom to criticise religion.

Mina Ahadi
Mahin Alipour
Shahla Daneshfar
Maryam Namazie
22 January 2010