November/December 2004

Stop Stoning of the 13 Years Old Girl in Iran!

Nahid Riazi´s announcement regarding campaigning to save Jila Izadi.

Nahid Riazi from the Central Committee for the Emancipation of Women, and the coordinator of the campaign against the imprisonment and stoning of Jila in Marivan.

Sculpture: "Woman", work of Iranian artist Sam Danaipour, Maniha.com, "The Voice of Iran's Independent Poetry."

The Islamic regime of Iran is going to stone a 13 year old girl in Marivan to death. Jila has been condemned to stoning to death. She is pregnant due to a sexual relationship with her 15 year old brother. The Islamic regime of Iran wants to stone this girl. I ask all people in Iran and all NGO organizations which are active for children´s rights or other human rights in Iran and outside Iran to put pressure on the Iranian regime for immediate release of this child. Jila is a child, a 13 year old child. She must not stay in prison one minute more. We are human beings, and we cannot witness the imprisonment of a child. Execution or stoning to death should be unimaginable. I implore everybody, and all political or social organizations, to stand up to save Jila´s life. Sign the letter condemning her arrest and sentence. We will guarantee that people in West hear your opinions and condemnation of this barbaric act. With millions of letters in favour of saving Jila and against the Islamic regime, sent to the United Nations and European Union, we can save her life. I ask all internet websites, web loggers, radios and TV stations which are humane, to broadcast this campaign to save Jila´s life. You can sign the condemnation letter below, or write another letter of your own. You can translate this letter into other languages and ask people to sign it.

Please send a copy of your letter to us to make sure we work collectively. With thanks, Nahid Riazi

Sign the Petition Here

Source: Iranianinstitutefordemocracy


Iran to Submit Nowrouz Dossier to UNESCO in Fortnight

Iran plans to submit its dossier on the New Year festivities of Nowrouz to UNESCO to have it registered as an oran and intangible masterpiece.
“Since the deadline has been extended from the end of September to the end of October, we intend to review our dossier and submit it on time,” said Fatemeh Farahani, head of cultural affairs in Iran’s National UNESCO Commission.
She predicted it would take 6 to 7 months for UNESCO experts to profuse each case and announce their final verdict in the general assembly of the UN body.
Beside Nowrouz, Iran aims to submit another dossier on Tazieh, a eulogy on the third martyred Imam of Shiite Islam.
“All documents and films, both in 12 minute and 2 hour formats, have been prepared and they just have to be dubbed in English,” noted Laleh Taghian, a member of the committee on registration of Tazieh.
In 1998, UNESCO created an international distinction entitled “Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” to honor the most remarkable examples of the oral and Intangible heritage of humanity. According to this proclamation, traditions and rituals observed in several countries must be submitted as a common file by all those member states.
On May 18, 2001, for the first time, UNESCO proclaimed 19 of the world’s most remarkable examples of the oral and intangible heritage. Selected by an 18-member jury the winning entries were chosen for their outstanding value as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The global proclamation emphasizes the importance of protecting this outstanding but endangered heritage - cultural spaces and forms of popular and traditionaexpression - and of preserving cultural diversity.
Upon the recommendation of the International Jury for the First and Second Proclamations (2001 and 2003), UNESCO has so far proclaimed 47 “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” from all regions of the world. In a Circular letter, CL/3698 of 23 January 2004, the Director General invited UNESCO Members States and Associate Members to submit candidatures for the Third Proclamation of Masterpieces which will take place in Paris in July 2005.
Nowrouz is the New Year holiday in Iran, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India and among the Kurds. The word itself literally means “new day” in Persian, and the festival marks the beginning of the solar year and New Year on the Iranian calendar, as well as among several other nationalities. Nowrouz traditionally celebrates the awakening of nature and even the triumph of good over the oppressive darkness of winter. It is a time to celebrate life at the time when life begins or is renewed for much of that which is on the earth. The New Year is marked at the instant the sun leaves the astrological sign of Pisces and enters that of Aries. This renewal of nature is the essence of this millennia-old tradition. Originally held as a spring festival, it is believed to have been first acknowledged and named “Nowrouz” by the mythical Persian emperor Jamshid. Others credit the Achaemenid dynasty of the 12th century B.C. for institutionalizing the Nowrouz festival.
There is also a tradition, mainly in Iran, of cleaning everything in the house before Nowrouz, which may even play a role in the origins of the “spring cleaning” practiced by many American households. The spirit and significance of the holiday has often made Nowrouz a target for foreign invaders and anti-nationalist forces throughout the history of Iran. Alexander the Great and the Arab conquerors a thousand years later tried to eliminate the holiday.
The intangible cultural heritage, as defined in the Convention that was adopted by the 32nd Session of the General Conference of UNESCO, means in the first place the practices, representations, and expressions, as well as the associated knowledge and the necessary skills that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.
The intangible cultural heritage, while being transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their historical conditions of existence; the intangible cultural heritage provides people and groups of people with a sense of identity and continuity. The safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage promotes, sustains, and develops cultural diversity and human creativity.

Goli Ameri for Congress

Goli Ameri is the founder and president of eTinium, a consulting and market research firm specializing in the telecommunications industry and advising such firms as Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. She writes a bi-monthly industry analysis column for Telephony magazine and is quoted regularly in such publications as Internet Week, The National Business Journals, The San Jose Mercury News, The Oregonian and The Seattle Times, and is invited regularly as a speaker and moderator to industry conferences worldwide. Prior to founding eTinium, Goli had a broad career in the high technology industry culminating in her last position as a Director in U.S. Leasing, a former division of Ford Motor Company and Fleet Bank.

Goli was born in Tehran, Iran in 1956 and came to the United States at the age of 17 to attend Stanford University. She holds a Bachelor's in Communications and French Literature and a Master's in Communications from Stanford and has studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. She is fluent in French and Persian and has a working knowledge of Spanish.

In 1990, Goli was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and spent the next year and a half battling the disease, finally overcoming it just before moving to Oregon.

Goli has been married for over 25 years to Jim Ameri, also a graduate of Stanford University and a real estate investor in the Pacific Northwest, and has two sons, Darius, 19, and Sherwin, 15. Darius is a second year student at Stanford University and Sherwin is in the tenth grade at school in Portland, Oregon.

Goli is a member of the National Education for Women's (NEW) Leadership Oregon at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She is also a leading member of Senator Gordon Smith's (R-Oregon) finance committee. She is a past member of the Executive Committees of the San Francisco and Oregon Republican Parties and was an Oregon delegate to the National Republican Women's Conference.

Goli is a past trustee and Vice Chair for Development at the Catlin Gabel School, overseeing fundraising activities for the Upper School campaign, scholarship fund and teacher education. She is also a member of the Oregon Steering Committee on the Campaign for Undergraduate Education for Stanford University as well as a member of the Special Gifts Committee. Goli has been a long-time supporter of the Providence Child Center, the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Center for Women's Health, Oregon Alzheimer's Association, Portland Firefighters Association, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She has also volunteered at Head Start.

Goli is an avid runner and reader of politics and policy-related non-fiction as well as modern fiction.

Cosmetics Operation In Iran

Twenty-five years ago, former Hollywood makeup artist Bob Sidell helped spearhead a hoax that lasted several months, spanned two continents and resulted in the escape of six Americans trapped in Iran.

Only recently have bits and pieces of the CIA-inspired plot and Sidell's role in the rescue come to light, but the full story will soon be public knowledge.

An hour-long documentary called "Escape From Iran, The Hollywood Option" will be televised on The History Channel in the United States later this fall after airing on Canada's History Channel Oct. 30 and Nov. 4.

Produced by Canada-based Partners In Motion, the documentary chronicles the U.S. Embassy takeover by Iranian militants in Tehran.

When 66 Embassy staffers were taken hostage on Nov. 4, 1979, six escaped through a back door as militants were breaking down the front door. The six eventually took refuge at the Canadian Embassy.

Working with the CIA and the Canadian government, Sidell set up a bogus film production company that would go to Iran to allegedly scout locations for a movie so the Canadian "houseguests" could be absorbed into the production crew and exfiltrate the country under fake Canadian passports.

"We set up a production company with an office and telephones," said Sidell, who now operates California Cosmetics Corp., a $10 million skincare and cosmetics firm with offices in Calabasas, Calif., and Las Vegas.

"The film was to be called 'Argo,' and to add to our credibility we ran full-page ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announcing the upcoming production," said Sidell. "The hoax was so effective that reporters began calling for more information about the film, and unsolicited scripts and aspiring actors and actresses began showing up at our door."

The Iranian government ultimately approved visits from an Argo party of eight -- six Canadians, a European and a Latin American, the latter two actually being CIA operatives posing as a production manager and an associate producer.

The two agents arrived in Tehran on Jan. 25, 1980, reviewed documents and cover stories with the six Americans at the Canadian Embassy, and as a group, they departed Iran without incident Jan. 28, 1980, on a Swissair flight.

"I've worked on a number of movies, and I've had the privilege of working with some of the most prominent stars in Hollywood -- from Kathleen Turner and Joan Collins to Dolly Parton and Heather Locklear -- but the escape from Iran was the most important part I ever played in a story," said Sidell. "It was for real, with lives at stake."

The remaining Embassy staff hostages were not released until a year later, on Inauguration Day in January 1981.
Additional information on Sidell and his company can be secured at www.silkskin.com.

Iranian.ws

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