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Election Fallout Edited by Marcus Michaelsen ELECTION FALLOUT First published in 2011 Asieh Amini © Marcus Michaelsen Farnoosh Amirshahi All rights reserved Arash Ghafouri Editor and Coordinator: Marcus Michaelsen Babak Ghafouri Azar Translator: Evan J. Siegel Arash Hassan Nia Copy-editor: Rebecca Whiting Ali Kheradpir Design, Layout and Photographs: no names. Fahimeh Khezr Heidari Online edition published by: Mariam Mirza Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Mana Neyestani Department for Middle East and North Africa Hiroshimastr. 17, 10785 Berlin – Germany Shahin Nourbakhsh www.fes.de Vahid Pourostad Reza Veisi Print edition published and distributed by: Verlag Hans Schiler Mohammad R. Yazdanpanah Fidicinstraße 29, 10965 Berlin – Germany www.schiler.de ISBN 978-3-89930-344-5 ٔﻧﺴﺨﻪ ﻓﺎرﺳﯽ در / Persian version available at http://www.fes.de/international/nahost/inhalt/publ_iran.php 2 ELECTION FALLOUT IRAN’S EXILED JOURNALISTS ON THEIR STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE Edited by Marcus Michaelsen The 2009 presidential elections and the surrounding events represent one of the most dramatic moments in contemporary Iranian history. The massive demonstrations over the official election results soon evolved into a broad protest movement demanding civil rights and political change, confronting the Islamic Republic with a significant crisis. When the Iranian regime responded with widespread repression, journalists were among its main targets – many were arrested, or pressurised, and some are still in prison; more than 100 have left their country in the biggest exodus of journalists since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In this book, 12 Iranian journalists, exiled after the election crisis, deliver poignant accounts of the events and their personal experiences during those days. In their articles they describe the agitation during the election campaign and the initial protests as well as the period of repression and arrests that followed. Others analyse the key moments of the protest movement or reflect on their life and work in exile. All authors hail from a new generation of professional journalists deeply involved in the struggle for reform and the democratisation of Iran’s Islamic Republic. Their writings not only provide records of the turbulent developments after the elections, but also attest to a political culture that cannot fail to change their country. 4 5 6 7 8 CONTENTS Marcus Michaelsen Introduction 13 Ali Kheradpir A Step Forward 30 Arash Ghafouri Setad 88–Iran’s Greatest Campaign in Support 50 of Mir Hossein Moussavi Shahin Nourbakhsh That Ill-Fated Afternoon… 64 Asieh Amini I Am not a Militant but I Have always Fought! 76 Babak Ghafouri Azar Playing on the Enemy’s Field 98 Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah Moussavi, Chef of the Iranian Stew 120 Farnoosh Amirshahi Behind the High Walls of Evin 142 Vahid Pourostad Evin–Heart of Iran 158 Reza Veisi From “Guerilla Journalism” in Tehran to 174 Exile Journalism in Prague Arash Hassan Nia Profession: Journalist in Exile 192 Fahimeh Khezr Heidari Earthquake Survivor 202 Mariam Mirza No One Is Waiting at Home for Me 212 Mana Neyestani Without Words 231 Timeline 238 Glossary 244 9 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book owes its existence to the contributions of various people and institutions. Without the generous funding of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Berlin the realisation of the project would not have been possible. At FES, I am particularly grateful to Ingrid Ross for her supportive and patient coordination throughout the entire course of the project. My thanks also go to Evan J. Siegel who, always interested and cooperative, translated all the articles from Persian into English. Thanks to Neda Soltani for so swiftly translating the English sections of the publication into Persian. Rebecca Whiting took on the vital task of English language editing with great determination and enthusiasm, and I thank her for that. I must also thank the creative team behind the graphic design and the photographs which give a superb visual accompaniment to the different articles. Special thanks go to Mana Neyestani for allowing us to use some of his caricatures. The production of the print edition has been partly funded by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, where several of the authors are now working since their exile from Iran. I am also grateful to the Hans-Schiler-Verlag for taking on this publication. Above all, of course, I would like to thank the authors for their participation. Particularly Maryam Mirza, who supported the idea of the project from the very beginning–her help proved essential not only for getting other participants involved but also for handling the Persian texts. Working with all the authors has been a highly enriching experience and I am grateful that they have shared their views on this difficult period in their personal and professional lives. This book is theirs and that of their colleagues and compatriots, inside and outside Iran, struggling for a better future. Marcus Michaelsen September 2011 11 12 Marcus Michaelsen INTRODUCTION “How easy to become a journalist, how hard to be a journalist until death!”–The title of a commentary written in spring 2008 by Mohammad Qowchani, editor-in-chief of several successful Iranian publications which, one after the other, were eventually closed down. Qowchani laments the difficulties of being a journalist and editor who arrives at his office every morning not knowing if his paper still exists or not. Qowchani is of a generation of Iranian journalists who had entered the field with ease and mostly at a young age due to the sudden escalation in the appearance of publications under the reformist president Khatami after 1997. Then, given the intensified restrictions on the press during the first term of Ahmadinejad’s presidency, he and his colleagues found it increasingly hard to pursue their professional activities. In the article the passionate editor complains that his father was still expecting him to find a “decent” occupation, such as in the government or administration, without understanding that he had actually found his calling. He then describes his dream of growing old as a journalist, experienced and respected, and ultimately ending his days still practicing journalism. He could never have foreseen that this simple wish would become even farther beyond reach in the turbulent aftermath of Iran’s tenth presidential elections, and that “dying as a journalist” would then evoke completely different images! A few weeks after the poll, Qowchani was summoned before court, along with nearly a hundred other defendants, accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic. 13 ELECTION AND PROTEST WHEN THE IRANIAN AUTHORITIES ANNOUNCED the victory of incumbent president Ahmadinejad in the elections of 12th June 2009, hundreds of thousands of people in Tehran and other major cities took to the streets to protest against what they perceived as massive electoral fraud. During the ensuing weeks and months, the protests against the rigged elections evolved into a broad social movement–the “Green Movement”–no longer merely demanding a recount of the votes but a realisation of fundamental civil and political rights. The Iranian regime, however, responded with large-scale repression. During the first weeks of protest, thousands of people throughout the country were arrested. Prisons and improvised detention centres provided sinister locations for the beating, torture and sexual abuse of peaceful demonstrators. Although figures are obviously a matter of contention, it has been established that at least 40 people were killed during the June crackdown. This number more than doubled by the end of that year. Although obviously surprised by the extent of the protests, the regime nevertheless appeared well prepared for suppressing any contestation from Ahmadinejad’s opponents in political circles and in civil society. Proceeding along what seems to have been a carefully devised plan, security forces arrested the key figures of the reformist parties, politicians and campaigners supporting the two opposition candidates Moussavi and Karroubi, critical intellectuals, civil society activists, and journalists from as early as the first hours after the poll. Some of these arrests were even executed with warrants that had been issued before Election Day. In August 2009, the regime staged a series of Stalinesque show trials in order to depict the unrest as a Western conspiracy against the Islamic Republic. Subjected to mistreatment and psychological pressure, a number of defendants were forced into confessions admitting their involvement in a “velvet revolution” against the Islamic Republic. According to the twisted portrayal of official propaganda, the transmission of information via newspapers, websites, blogs and social networks equalled a significant threat to national security. Consequently, journalists became a major target for the regime’s repression of dissent. 14 JOURNALISTS UNDER SIEGE AT LEAST 30 JOURNALISTS AND REPORTERS WERE ARRESTED within the first weeks after the election, among them renowned authors like Ahmad Zeydabadi, Jila Bani-Yaqoub, and also Mohammad Qowchani. In the following six months, more than 100 journalists spent brief or lengthy periods of time in custody. In the run-up to the festivities for the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, 11th February 2010, which both opposition and regime parties perceived as a kind of showdown in their months-long conflict, Reporters Without Borders announced that 65 journalists and bloggers were being held in prison–an
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