Global event for young leaders in Belfast with ‘big rebellious spirit’ concludes


Claudia Savage, PA
Thu, 5 October 2023

The 2023 One Young World Summit in Belfast had a “big rebellious spirit”, a delegate has said.

The summit saw thousands of young leaders from more than 190 countries have discussions over three days on the biggest issues affecting humanity.

Delegates listened to speakers including the Queen of Jordan, Sir Bob Geldof, Rio Ferdinand and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.


Between panels, delegates were given the opportunity to network and collaborate on issues including climate change, peace and reconciliation, education, refugee rights and racial justice.

Akanksha Deo Sharma, a One Young World delegate from India, at the summit in Belfast (Claudia Savage/PA)

Akanksha Deo Sharma, from India, said attending the summit had been “life-changing”.

“I think this summit has been very inspirational, very thought-provoking,” she said.

“And what I loved the most was it had an undertone of a very big rebellious spirit, which I really respect.”

She added: “I have heard so many amazing young shapeshifters, change-makers, and the one lesson that I will take is that – you are enough, you can make a change.

“Everybody, no matter if they are one person or an organisation or running a big team. You all have the capability to make change.”

Nothulasizwe Mokoena, a delegate from South Africa, said her time in Belfast had been “mind-provoking”.

Nothulasizwe Mokoena, a One Young World delegate from South Africa (Claudia Savage/PA)

“I found myself thinking deeply about social challenges that I didn’t really think about before the summit,” she said.

“So really mind-provoking and really just mind-blowing. A lot of learning to take home with me to go back and start working and working hard.”

Ms Mokoena said her discussions at the forum gave her a new perspective on how global issues vary from country to country.

“When I came here, I thought we kind of like have the same challenges, but each and every country is actually experiencing different challenges,” she said.

“And what we are experiencing in South Africa is completely different to what they are experiencing in Japan. So we all come in here with different challenges and sharing perspectives, and it has been interesting.”

Ryosuke Bamba, from Japan, waved a Japanese flag as he took pictures with other delegates he had met during the week.

One Young World delegate Ryosuke Bamba, from Japan (Claudia Savage/PA)

“I really enjoyed making that connection and sharing my experiences and the good thing was we inspired each other and I was inspired by working with the delegates,” he said.

Motaz Amer, who is originally from Yemen and is living in Northern Ireland, said the week was “unbelievable and incredible”.

“People from different parts of the world, more than 190 countries, the same place together sharing perspective and experiences. Just a lifetime. Yeah, you cannot find it anywhere else,” he said.

Mr Amer said he had learned to speak some Japanese.

Motaz Amer, who is originally from Yemen and is living in Northern Ireland, at the One Young World summit in Belfast (Claudia Savage/PA)

“Listening is key. Diversity drives innovation, and together we can change the world,” he said.

“We are not the leaders of tomorrow, we are the leaders of today.”

Semiratu Abdallah, from Ghana, works in renewable and green energy.

“The week has been very amazing,” she said.

Delegate Semiratu Abdallah at the summit in Belfast (Claudia Savage/PA)

“It was very enlightening, learning and relearning different things.

“And then the message of hope has been very repeating over everything that I’ve learned and every discussion that I’ve had, so that’s the one thing I’ve taken away from here is the message of hope.”

Rishi Sunak urged to raise India detention of British man

Damian Grammaticas - Political correspondent
Wed, September 6, 2023 

Jagtar Singh Johal (right) arrives at court in India in November 2017

A cross-party group of MPs are calling on Rishi Sunak to intervene in the case of a British man who is facing the death penalty in India.

More than 70 MPs signed a letter urging the PM to call on Narendra Modi to "immediately release" campaigner Jagtar Singh Johal, when he travels to Delhi for the G20 leaders' summit.

They say Mr Johal has been "arbitrarily detained" for over five years.

The PM's spokesperson would not confirm or deny if the case would be raised.

Mr Johal, who is now 36, comes from Dumbarton in Scotland. He was a blogger and campaigner for Sikh human rights, which are said to have brought him to the attention of the Indian authorities.

He travelled to India in October 2017 to get married. The campaign group Reprieve says that while he was out shopping with his wife, he was hooded, bundled into a car by men in plainclothes, "severely tortured", and made to sign blank pieces of paper.

UK accused of tip-off that led to Brit's torture

Scot held in India faces murder conspiracy charge

Brit 'tortured to sign blank confession' in India

Tory MP David Davis told the BBC that "the first duty of a state should be to prevent a citizen getting harmed", and that if a citizen had been harmed and subjected to injustice, "the government should be raising the most serious protests".

He added: "That does not seem to be happening at the moment and that is a failure of the Foreign Office to do its most fundamental duty."

In their letter, the MPs say that "upon his arrest, Jagtar's interrogators electrocuted him, and threatened to douse him in petrol and set him alight. To make the torture stop, Jagtar recorded video statements and signed blank pieces of paper."

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said he had been targeted "because of his activism writing public posts calling for accountability for alleged actions committed against Sikhs by the authorities".

The MPs' letter says the UN Working Group "concluded that Jagtar's continued detention...lacks any legal basis".

Almost six years on, Mr Johal remains in prison in India. He faces eight charges of conspiracy to murder, linked to political violence in India. His family say court proceedings have started but been adjourned repeatedly.

His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal, who is a lawyer and Labour councillor in Dumbarton, told the BBC: "The fear for the family is that false allegations have become false charges, which could become a false conviction and result in the death penalty."

He said both former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Theresa May had discussed the case with India's prime minister, and said "it would be very difficult for Rishi Sunak not to raise the case... if Rishi Sunak doesn't, the question will be 'why didn't you?'.

Gurpreet Singh Johal has criticised the UK government's response to his brother's case

"Given Rishi Sunak has a good relationship with the Indian prime minister it shouldn't be a hard ask. Almost six years have elapsed, no evidence has been produced against Jagtar. These are just charges alleged against him, and it should be innocent until proven guilty."

He added: "It should be very easy to call for Jagtar's release. The UK did it, rightfully so for Nazanin [Zagari-Ratcliffe] and Anousheh [Ashouri] in Iran previously."

Asked if Mr Sunak would raise the case, the prime minister's official spokesperson said: "I am not going to pre-empt what they will or won't discuss."

In response to further questions, the spokesman said the government had raised concerns relating to Jagtar with the Indian government "on more than 100 occasions".

He said they included consular access, judicial process and reports of torture.

He said the family was receiving consular assistance and that Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad had met them recently.

However, in a letter sent to Gurpreet Singh Johal in July and seen by the BBC, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he had decided it was best not to press India over the issue.

Mr Cleverly wrote: "I do not consider that calling for Jagtar's release would result in the Indian authorities releasing him. Indeed I fear this could impact the co-operation we depend on... to conduct consular visits, resolve welfare concerns and attend court hearings."

That has angered both Mr Davis and Mr Johal's family. Gurpreet Singh Johal said: "It's saying basically 'I'm not going to do it and I'd rather have him rot in jail', that's the impression I get."

Mr Davis said it set "a terrible precedent" and "it encourages more governments to be prickly about complaints".

Gurpreet Singh Johal said he believed the UK's reluctance to speak up about the case now was connected to Mr Sunak's desire to sign a trade deal with India.

"Their focus appears to be that India are an up-and-coming country and they want this trade deal signed off with them, and they are putting trade over human rights," he said.

Mr Davis said he was clear a trade deal should come second to legal rights of a British citizen.

He added: "You don't have to be Palmerston to understand that the rights of a British citizen are the paramount concern of a British government and we do not accept torture as the price of a trade deal. Full stop."

BBC Audience Applauds And Cheers After Being Told Boris Johnson Had Resigned

Any Questions presenter Alex Forsyth revealed the breaking news during last night's programme.


Kevin Schofield

HUFFPOST
10/06/2023


The audience at the recording of a BBC radio show burst into applause after being told Boris Johnson had quit as an MP.

‘Any Questions’ presenter Alex Forsyth broke the news during this week’s edition of the Radio Four programme.

She said: “We do record on a Friday evening, it goes out on a Saturday, but I do want to bring you some news that’s just broken on Friday evening, which is that Boris Johnson has resigned as an MP with immediate effect.”

At that point, the audience in Rhosygilwen, Pembrokeshire, began clapping, whistling and cheering loudly for several seconds.

Johnson stunned Westminster by unexpectedly announcing his resignation on Friday evening with a furious blast at the privileges committee investigating whether he lied to parliament over partygate.

The former prime minister said he was the victim of a “witch hunt” and a “kangaroo court”.

He accused the committee - which has a Conservative majority - of trying to “drive me out”, all-but confirming that he has been found guilty and was facing a lengthy suspension from the Commons.

Johnson said: “It is very sad to be leaving parliament, at least for now, but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.”

The former PM - who resigned in disgrace last year - also took aim at Rishi Sunak’s government, accusing it of destroying his legacy.

He said: “When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened.

“Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk.

“Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.

“We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up.

“We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government.”

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns as MP over 'Partygate' probe

Former prime minister blames a parliamentary probe into the "Partygate" scandal for driving him out

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a confidence vote, on 6 June 2022 (AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 9 June 2023 

Britain's former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday announced his resignation as an MP, accusing a parliamentary probe into the "Partygate" scandal for driving him out.

Johnson, 58, said he was stepping down with immediate effect, "triggering an immediate by-election" in his seat, which heaps political pressure on his successor, Rishi Sunak.

Johnson is currently being investigated by a parliamentary committee over whether he lied to MPs about lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street.

In the statement, Johnson said he had received a letter from the committee "making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.

"They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons," he said.

Speaking to the committee in March, Johnson denied intentionally misleading parliament.

"I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the Committee know it," Johnson said in the statement on Friday.

"They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons, I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister," he added.

Johnson said he "corrected the record as soon as possible".

He accused the committee of being a "kangaroo court" and said that its "purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.
Political scene

Johnson has loomed large over the UK political scene. During his tenure as prime minister, he oversaw some of the biggest crises to face the country in recent years, primarily the Covid-19 pandemic and the post-Brexit process of decoupling the UK from the European Union.

His last year in office on the foreign policy front was dominated by the war in Ukraine. He positioned himself as a staunch advocate of Kyiv, but he also had some notable Middle East moments.

Is Boris Johnson staging a political comeback?Read More »

Johnson faced criticism from British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after her release from Iran for responding too slowly to her imprisonment. His government later announced that it had paid a debt owed to Iran dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution on the same day Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the UK.

While a series of ethics scandals led to Johnson’s downfall as prime minister and now exit from parliament, he also had some Middle East gaffes.

In 2016, Johnson, who often references his Ottoman and Turkish heritage, published a poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he described the Turkish leader as a "wankerer from Ankara" and implied he had sex with goats.

In one of his last foreign engagements before resigning as prime minister, Erdogan jokingly addressed Johnson on video during a Nato summit, saying: "This one is a disgrace to us", apparently in reference to his Turkish heritage. Johnson responded with "very nice, very nice" in Turkish.

Decrying 'witch hunt', Boris Johnson resigns from UK parliament

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves his home in London.
PHOTO: Reuters
PUBLISHED ONJUNE 09, 2023 

LONDON - Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly quit as a member of parliament on Friday in a furious protest against lawmakers investigating his behaviour, reopening deep divisions in the ruling Conservative Party ahead of a general election expected next year.

Johnson had been under investigation by a parliamentary inquiry looking into whether he misled the House of Commons about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.

After Johnson received a confidential letter from the committee, he accused lawmakers investigating him of acting like a "kangaroo court" and being determined to end his political career.

Accusing the committee of mounting a "political hit job", Johnson said in a statement: "I am being forced out by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions."

Parliament's privileges committee - the main disciplinary body for lawmakers - had the power to recommend Johnson be suspended from parliament. If the suspension is for more than 10 days, voters in his constituency could have demanded he stood for re-election to continue as their representative.

Johnson hinted that he could return to politics, declaring he was leaving parliament "for now".

But the decision to resign may be the end of his 22-year political career, where he rose from parliament to mayor of London and then built a profile that tipped the balance of the 2016 European Union referendum in favour of Brexit.

Johnson, whose premiership was cut short in part by anger in his own party and across Britain over Covid-19 rule-breaking lockdown parties in his Downing Street office and residence, said the committee had not found "a shred of evidence" against him.

"I am not alone in thinking that a witch hunt is underway to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result," he said. "My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about."

The investigation is chaired by a senior Labour Party lawmaker, but the majority of lawmakers on the committee are Conservatives.

The committee said it will meet on Monday (June 12) to conclude its inquiry and will publish its report soon. A spokesperson for the committee said Johnson had "impugned the integrity" of parliament with his resignation statement.

Attack on Sunak

The resignation will trigger a by-election for his constituency in west London. It is the second in a day for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after an ally of Johnson, Nadine Dorries, announced she would step down.

Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said: "The British public are sick to the back teeth of this never-ending Tory soap opera played out at their expense."

Johnson came to power nearly four years ago, promising to deliver Brexit and rescue it from the bitter wrangling that followed the 2016 referendum. He shrugged off concerns from some fellow Conservatives that his narcissism, failure to deal with details, and a reputation for deceit meant he was unsuitable.

Partygate panel to publish inquiry

report  after Boris Johnson quits as MP

(Victoria Jones/PA)
FRI, 09 JUN, 2023 - 
PATRICK DALY, PA POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

A report into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs over his partygate assurances will be published “promptly” after the former prime minister’s decision to dramatically quit the Commons.

The UK'sCommons Privileges Committee said the cross-party panel of MPs will meet on Monday to complete its inquiry.

It comes after Mr Johnson launched a blistering attack on the Conservative-majority committee, comparing it to a “kangaroo court” and a “witch hunt”, as he announced his intention to stand down as an MP and trigger an immediate by-election.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “The committee has followed the procedures and the mandate of the House at all times and will continue to do so.

“Mr Johnson has departed from the processes of the House and has impugned the integrity of the House by his statement.

“The committee will meet on Monday to conclude the inquiry and to publish its report promptly.”

Mr Johnson had accused the probe, chaired by veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman, of “bias” and suggested it was attempting to use its investigation to “drive me out of Parliament” in a move he said was motivated by a desire to reverse Brexit.

Several reports have suggested the committee had ruled that Mr Johnson did lie to the Commons when he said that covid rules were followed in Downing Street following reports that lockdown-busting parties were held during the pandemic.

Boris Johnson accused Harriet Harman’s committee of ‘bias’ (House of Commons/UK Parliament)

The committee was said to be recommending a 10-day suspension from the Commons, a conclusion which would have resulted in a recall petition among his constituents and a potential by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.

Mhairi Black, SNP deputy Westminster leader, said the former No 10 incumbent “jumped before he was pushed”.

The former Conservative Party leader’s announcement that he was quitting as an MP came only hours after his resignation honours list had been published, in which he gave peerages, knighthoods and damehoods to close allies.

Mr Johnson’s resignation means Rishi Sunak’s Tories face a tough battle to hold onto his old seat at an upcoming by-election.

Polling released by Savanta suggested Labour, which was 7,000 votes behind in second place at the 2019 election in Uxbridge, currently holds a 14-point lead over the Tories in Mr Johnson’s former west London constituency.

Even before Mr Johnson’s decision to stand down, the constituency was already in Labour’s top 100 target seats at the next election, which is expected to be held next year, as Sir Keir Starmer seeks a majority to put him into Downing Street.

The contest was the second by-election triggered on Friday following former culture secretary Nadine Dorries’ decision to quit the Commons immediately, rather than wait until the next election.

Boris Johnson criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration in his resignation statement (Danny Lawson/PA)


Mr Johnson said he was “stepping down forthwith” after receiving a letter from Ms Harman’s inquiry setting out its position.

However, he left the door open to making a return to frontline politics, saying he was leaving Parliament “for now”.

In a scathing attack on the Privileges Committee, he accused the MPs of producing a yet-to-be-published report “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice” while providing him with “no formal ability to challenge anything they say”.

“They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current Prime Minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together,” he said.

“I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the committee know it.”

He said he was “bewildered and appalled” at being “forced out, anti-democratically” by a probe that he claimed had set out from the beginning to “find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.

The Privileges Committee inquiry into Mr Johnson’s partygate comments is made up of seven MPs, with the four Tories – Sir Bernard Jenkin, Sir Charles Walker, Alberto Costa and Andy Carter – holding the majority.

Their inquiry took both written and oral evidence from Mr Johnson, along with other witnesses, with the former British leader giving testimony during a lengthy session held in March.

Boris Johnson pictured giving evidence to the Privileges Committee in March (House of Commons/UK Parliament)

In his resignation statement, Mr Johnson was also critical of Mr Sunak’s administration, questioning the decision to increase taxes and abandoning the prospect of a free trade deal with the US.

But he said the Tory Party has the “time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election”.

Mr Johnson became prime minister four years after returning as an MP, having stood down as MP for Henley in 2008 after being elected mayor of London, replacing Theresa May in Downing Street in 2019.

His landslide election victory at that year’s snap winter general election allowed him to deliver on taking the UK out of the European Union.

Mr Johnson left office in September after repeated scandals including the partygate row over lockdown breaches in Downing Street, the Owen Paterson lobbying affair and his handling of complaints against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the British public was “sick to the back teeth of this never ending Tory soap opera played out at their expense” as she urged voters to “turn the page with a fresh start” under a Labour government.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said it was “good riddance” to Mr Johnson.

UK: Boris Johnson quits as lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament

Johnson accused the Commons inquiry of attempting to "drive me out"

 By PTI Updated: June 10, 2023

Boris Johnson | Reuters

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shocked the nation by abruptly quitting as a member of the parliament after being told by a parliamentary committee that he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties at Downing street during his premiership.

Johnson, 58, had been under investigation by a parliamentary inquiry looking into whether he misled the House of Commons about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Johnson's decision came on Friday as he received a confidential letter from the MP-led privileges Committee over the crucial matter.

Johnson accused the Commons inquiry of attempting to "drive me out". In a statement he said: "They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons."

Earlier on Friday, he received a copy of the yet-to-be-published report, which he claimed was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice".

In evidence given to the Privileges Committee in March, Johnson admitted misleading Parliament, but denied doing it on purpose. He said social distancing had not been "perfect" at gatherings in Downing Street during COVID lockdowns.

But he said they were "essential" work events, which he claimed were allowed. He insisted the guidelines - as he understood them - were followed at all times.

Announcing he would step down, Johnson issued a lengthy statement in which he said: "I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the committee know it."

"They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister," he said. Johnson said he corrected the record as soon as possible, and claimed committee members "know that".

He said the "current prime minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak" also believed they were "working lawfully together". Johnson condemned the committee as a "kangaroo court", and claimed that its "purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".

Johnson's departure from political life comes less than four years after he won an 80-seat political majority and nine months after he stood down as prime minister after a police fine for breaking his own COVID rules.

In his statement, Johnson hit out at political enemies for targeting him after he was shown the privileges committee findings against him earlier this week.

"It is very sad to be leaving parliament at least for now but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by [the Labour MP] Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias," he said.

The resignation will trigger an immediate by-election in Johnson's Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. It was the second in a day for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after Nadine Dorries resigned as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after her inclusion on Johnson's peerage list was blocked.

Labour sources view both the seats as winnable.

Boris Johnson's resignation statement in full as he quits as MP

The former PM suggested he was the victim of a 'witch hunt' as he criticised the Privileges Committee investigating him.

Boris Johnson will step down as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. / PA

Political Correspondent Harry Horton reports on the latest as Boris Johnson resigns from Parliament

Boris Johnson has announced his resignation as an MP after receiving the findings of a report by the Privileges Committee investigating him over the Partygate scandal.

In a lengthy resignation speech, the former prime minister said the panel was “determined” to use proceedings to drive him out of Parliament.

It comes hours after the approval of Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list and the resignation of former Cabinet member Nadine Dorries.

Here is Mr Johnson’s resignation speech in full:

“I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament.

“They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.

“They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.

“They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current Prime Minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together.

“I have been an MP since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously.

I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the Committee know it.

“But they have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth because from the outset their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons.

“Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.

“Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves.

“In retrospect it was naive and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair.

“But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth.

“It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced.

“Of course, it suits the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. / Credit: PA

“Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view.

“I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.

“My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in Number 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader.

“Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.

“When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened.

“Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk.

“Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.

“We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda.

“We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up. We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government.

“Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare?

“We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit.

“I am now being forced out of Parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate.

Johnson accused the Privileges Committee of a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’ to drive him out. / Credit: Andrew Boyers/PA

“I believe that a dangerous and unsettling precedent is being set.

The Conservative Party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election.

“I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable.

“The Committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice but under their absurd and unjust process I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say.

“The Privileges Committee is there to protect the privileges of parliament. That is a very important job.

“They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hit-job on someone they oppose.

“It is in no-one’s interest, however, that the process the Committee has launched should continue for a single day further.

“So I have today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election.

“I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as Mayor and MP.

“But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15-year stint I have helped to deliver among other things a vast new railway in the Elizabeth Line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun.

“I also remain hugely proud of all that we achieved in my time in office as prime minister: getting Brexit done, winning the biggest majority for 40 years and delivering the fastest vaccine rollout of any major European country, as well as leading global support for Ukraine.

“It is very sad to be leaving Parliament – at least for now – but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.”

‘Loss for Iran’s wildlife’: woman jailed in Tehran calls for environmentalists’ release

Seven environmentalists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation remain in jail in Iran. Photograph: Handout

Aras Amiri, a British Council employee, was held in Evin prison with seven members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation

Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor

THE GUARDIAN

Thu 1 Jun 2023 00.01 BST

Aras Amiri has kept a low profile since she was released from Iranian detention two years ago, avoiding interview requests after returning to the UK. But now, the British Council employee, who spent three years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, wants to speak. An injustice has compelled her: the detention of seven friends and environmentalists she left behind.

Kept in solitary confinement for 69 days, Amiri was allowed to return to Britain after serving just under a third of a 10-year prison sentence. In the women’s ward, she not only met fellow British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, but Niloufar Bayani and Sepideh Kashani, two of the seven members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation in jail since 2018. Of the nine originally jailed, one has been released after serving his two-year sentence and another, the founder of the group, Kavous Seyed Emami, died in his prison cell only two weeks after his arrest. The authorities called it suicide, but produced no autopsy.

Aras Amiri spent three years in prison in Tehran, where she was confined with the group of environmentalists. Photograph: Family photo.

Amiri said she had previously turned down interview requests because she finds newspaper framing of Iranian prisoners reductionist and populist. But the only crime of her environmentalist friends, she said, had been to try to save nature from extinction.

“They are so close to my heart,” she said. “Can you imagine these people were always under the sky and now, for such a long time, being in a confined space? Lack of freedom is very difficult for anyone, but maybe for those that are used to living in nature, it is made harder.”

Amiri said she learned about Iran’s environment and wildlife through conversations with them in prison, where they held informal workshops for the detainees. “They made prison a better place just by their presence,” she said.

“They always taught if you want to do conservation in a sustainable way, you need local people to trust you so that they continue to support the work, and that applies to conserving the Asiatic cheetah, or dolphins in Qeshm Island, or wild sheep in Larestan, or the Iranian leopard in Golestan national park,” said Amiri. “What makes it more appalling is that the more their imprisonment is prolonged, the greater there is an irreversible loss for Iran’s wildlife, and Iran’s wildlife is also the world’s wildlife.”

For World Environment Day on 5 June, Amiri has helped organise an event at which leading environmentalists will pay tribute to the importance of the group’s work, and again call for their release.

Dr Christian Walzer, now director of health at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, who has worked with members of the Iranian group since 2007, said they were “really instrumental” in work to get the near-extinct Asiatic cheetahs defined as a distinct subspecies and to get collars on the animals to track their movement across huge areas.

Unfenced roads, drought, the decreasing population of the prey species, and habitat loss have all led to the decline to as few as 12 Asiatic cheetahs, although Walzer said the precise data was unclear. In March, a female cheetah pregnant with three cubs was killed by a car. Walzer said since the group’s arrest, international cooperation with Iran had withered.

Asked why this group was targeted, he said: “It is incomprehensible. … Putting up camera traps [treated as espionage by their accusers] is standard practice all over the world. We might talk about politics, but just as normal chit-chat. They would talk about rock climbing or fixing Land Cruisers so we could chase animals.”

The imprisoned environmentalists were involved in work to save the endangered Asiatic cheetah. 

Photograph: Houman Jowkar

If there was anything distinctive about the group, it was that some members, such as Morad Tahbaz, a British-Iranian-American trinational, had international connections.

Asked why they were arrested, Amiri said: “Everyone has their own reading. Often stopping the exploitation of nature conflicts with those in power, including governments and big corporations. This is true in Iran and elsewhere ... It is hard to find a direct logic. Sometimes it can be random: perhaps it is to create fear.”

Homan Jowkar, one of the group of seven members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation imprisoned in Iran, with a Persian leopard. Photograph: Houman Jowkar

But Amiri cannot understand why the group has been treated so harshly, even by the standards of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two weeks of solitary confinement is difficult, she knows from her own experience, so two years is unimaginable. One of the prisoners, Bayani, sent a letter detailing the interrogation techniques used against her, including sexual threats and warnings that she would end up dead.

Amiri was arrested after she had flown to see her grandmother, who was in a coma in Tehran. She was charged with forming a group to subvert the regime. She said all her work at the British Council had focused on fostering knowledge of Iranian art and artists in the UK. “It was transparent, and agreed with the foreign ministry.” Despite living in the UK since the late 80s, she had an Iranian passport, and chose not to campaign for her release in the UK, hoping discreet lobbying by her family would make the judiciary grant her appeal.

“The principle for me was not to collaborate if I could tolerate the pressure. It is hard if the threats are to your life and people that you know and love,” she said. “The interrogators know their job very well.”

Actor Nazanin Boniadi asks world to back Iran women protests


Wed, March 8, 2023



ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Actor Nazanin Boniadi on Wednesday urged the world to back the protests in her native Iran calling for women's rights and political change, saying despots fear nothing "more than a free and politically active woman.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, Boniadi told The Associated Press that she hopes people will sign a petition she's supporting accusing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Iran of committing “gender apartheid” with their policies targeting women.

“These systems of oppressing women, of dehumanizing women, are based on strengthening and keeping these entrenched systems of power in place," she said. "So we have to legally recognize this as gender apartheid in order to be able to overcome it.”

Boniadi, who as a young child left Tehran with her family for England following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has used her fame as an actor in the series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime and in roles in feature films to highlight what's happening back in Iran.

Since September, Iran has faced mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being detained by the country's morality police. In the time since, activists say over 500 people have been killed and more than 19,000 others detained in a security force crackdown.

“The thing that is unprecedented is we’re seeing 12-year-old girls, schoolgirls, come out into the streets saying, 'We don’t want an Islamic Republic," Boniadi said. "The courage that takes is astounding. And that courage has been contagious.”

However, recent months have seen suspected poisonings at girls' schools in the country. While details remain difficult to ascertain, the group Human Rights Activists in Iran says at least 290 suspected school poisonings have happened over recent months, with at least 7,060 students claiming to be affected.

It remains unclear what chemical might have been used, if any. No one has claimed the attacks and authorities have not identified any suspects. Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no recent history of religious extremists targeting girls’ education. However, some activists worry extremists might be poisoning girls to keep them out of school.

“The thing that ties us together is that (with) dictators and despots, there’s nothing that they fear more than a free and politically active woman. And so that’s why the crackdowns exist today in Iran ... as you’re seeing with the chemical attacks on schoolgirls."

She added: "We have to come together. We have to unite. We have to find a way forward and end these atrocities against women.”

___

Follow Malak Harb on Twitter at www.twitter.com/malakharb.

Malak Harb, The Associated Press

The Women of Iran Are Not Backing Down

Suzanne Kianpour

POLITICO
Sun, January 22, 2023 

LONG READ

Persian pop music blasts from the speakers of our silver Peugeot as we weave through Tehran traffic. It’s a Friday in early 2007 and I’m taking advantage of winter break from school to visit my cousin who lives in Tehran. We have meticulously planned our outfits, pushing the boundaries of the required dress for women of the Islamic Republic of Iran: a colorful ‘monteau’ (tunic) as short as we can get away with, matching hijab covering our hair with as little fabric as possible.

My Iranian hosts wanted to show me, anIranian American, a good time, and so they offered one of the few pleasures afforded them in the strict Islamic Republic: a ride around town.

The boys sit in the front; girls are in the back. Normally, as an American college student, I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at the scene. But we’re dabbling in dangerous territory: unmarried women riding around with unmarried, unrelated men, listening to “haram” (un-Islamic) music, wearing haram clothes.

Our minds are not on mullahs or morality police — until we spot flashing lights in the rearview mirror.

“Oh my God, it’s the police,” I think.

I remember what I’d witnessed earlier that week: a woman in a long black “chador,” a type of cloak that covers the whole body except for the face, flinging open the door of a green and white van and snatching a young woman off the street. The morality police were active again, and we would not pass the Islamic purity test.

But the car passes by us. My fear, in this instance, is unfounded: Those flashing lights were nothing more than a souped-up whip on a joy ride, attempting some semblance of normality in an abnormal society.


Fifteen years later, the morality police took it too far. In September 2022, during what seemed a typical detention over an inadequate hijab, Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman visiting Tehran, was arrested and beaten. She subsequently died in custody. Two female journalists broke the story. They are now in prison. The country erupted in widespread protests not seen since the Green Revolution of 2009, demanding justice for Mahsa and freedom and civil rights for all women.

At the time I was in production for my BBC documentary on Iran’s war with Israel and the U.S., “Out of the Shadows.” I’d moved from Washington to Dubai — 70km from Iran, the distance between Washington and Philadelphia — to work on the hour-long program. The region felt like a tinderbox.

While no one could have predicted the flashpoint would be a routine morality police arrest, it did not come as a complete surprise to me. Throughout my years of reporting on Iran and the wider Middle East, I’ve always kept a keen eye on the hidden power of the women. All this time, they’ve been quietly, strategically, slowly pulling at a literal thread in the fabric of the Islamic Republic regime: the hijab. Now, it’s unraveling.


Protests are not a new phenomenon in Iran. They’ve flared up over the years — over election fraud, economic woes, civil liberties. But this time is different — an unprecedented revolution led by women, with support from men, encompassing a wide variety of grievances, all laid out in the heart-wrenching Persian lyrics of Shervin Hajipour’s song “Baraye,” or “Because of.” It’s become the anthem of the revolution, striking such a nerve around the world that backlash after Hajipour’s arrest led to his release.

This is a spontaneous civil rights movement made up of people at their wit’s end — unable to afford basic life necessities while forced to adhere to the oppressive rules of a religious autocracy that promised to take care of its people. What’s more dangerous than a mob with nothing to lose? See: The French Revolution.


The politics of fear have been key to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s theocratic rulers’ hold on power for 43 years. Women are forced to cover their hair in hijab and bodies in loose clothing. They cannot dance publicly, cannot drive motorcycles and cannot travel without parental or spousal approval — just to name a few restrictions. The Iranian men’s soccer team was in the spotlight during the World Cup in Qatar, but at home, women are forbidden from watching men’s sports in stadiums. While at a soccer game in Wimbledon, England, I recently challenged this rule to an Iranian man in Tehran who works with a production company close to the foreign ministry. He told me, a reporter who’s covered wars in a flak jacket and helmet, that “the infrastructure of the stadiums is not suitable for women.”

Periodically over the years, women would literally get an inch on what is tolerated in terms of compulsory hijab — they could get away with some hair showing, only to have the rules snap back with no warning. Public dancing for women is another point of leverage. When I was in Tehran in 2005, the soccer team had just qualified for the World Cup. The streets were jam-packed with celebrating men and women, dancing on cars while blasting Western music, which is also banned. Police stood by, letting the scenes unfold. By the time I returned less than two years later, hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had reversed the previous reformist president’s relaxation of the rules. I saw the results years ago, on my visit with my cousin, during that incident with the morality police.

The regime controls its population by unofficially easing up on social restrictions and then suddenly pulling the lever — a litmus test for its grasp on power over the people. This easing is unspoken; it’s not announced, the push-pull is organic. Women are at the mercy of the morality police’s mood. Mahsa’s story was the last straw. She had a few hairs peeping out from under her headscarf, like so many other women often do, not the least because the laws of physics are not forever in the compulsory hijab’s favor: Fabric slips.

One woman who lives in the southern part of Iran sent me a voice note on Instagram. A couple of months ago she received a summons to go down to the police station. She was ordered to pay a hefty fine and her car would be impounded. Her crime? A traffic camera had caught her, sitting behind the steering wheel of her car alone at a stop light, with her hijab having fallen off her head. If it happened again, she’d be imprisoned.

But in the midst of this push-pull, the regime missed a thread: They underestimated the emboldening of women, who had already begun to ditch the hijab, even before Mahsa’s death.

The aging leaders who came to power during the Islamic Revolution are completely out of touch with Gen Z — who are truly the leaders of this revolt. What started out as protests against compulsory hijab have evolved into calls for an end to the Islamic Republic itself, with shocking scenes of schoolgirls defiling images of Supreme Leaders Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Khomeini.


The protests have now been going on for over three months, and the crackdown has been brutal: hundreds killed, including children; over 10,000 arrested; reports of horrific sexual abuse of men, women and minors in detention.

Iranian officials dismissed a Newsweek report that said 15,000 arrested protesters face execution as a result of a parliamentary vote in favor of the death penalty for them. After the story went viral on social media and shared by multiple prominent Western figures like Justin Trudeau, traditional media fact checked the report labeled misinformation. Newsweek issued a correction that read: "A majority of the parliament supported a letter to the judiciary calling for harsh punishments of protesters, which could include the death penalty."

But in fact, the regime has begun executing protesters by hanging, as is typical in Iran. Four men in connection with the protests have already been executed and at least 41 protesters have received death sentences.

The Islamic Republic’s atrocities have gotten global attention and led to Iran being kicked off the UN commission on women — a win for Iranian-born British actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi.

“The most unprecedented thing we’re seeing is people are fighting back against security forces. Women are not just taking off their headscarves in protest, they’re burning them. And young kids, young girls are protesting,” Boniadi told me.

“Despite the brutal crackdown, they’re showing no signs of slowing down. I think this is a historic moment, I truly believe this is the first female-led revolution of our time.”

In October, Boniadi met with Vice President Kamala Harris and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House to discuss how the Biden administration can help protesters with internet freedom and hold the Islamic Republic accountable for human rights abuses. Boniadi’s activist work has put her in the crosshairs of the regime for years. Like many members of the diaspora, she is in exile, and cannot return to Iran so long as the present government is in charge.

The Western response has been swifter than usual, but many say it’s not enough. Messages I receive from inside Iran are in particular focused on family members of the regime who live freely in the West. There are calls for assets to be frozen and deportations — both of which are gaining traction in Washington and Europe. Negotiations around Iran’s nuclear program have also been a point of contention, with calls to abandon efforts to revive the JCPOA as the regime cracks down on its own people. In a recent off-the-cuff moment, President Biden said the deal “is dead, but we’re not going to announce it.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has said the protests are not about hijab and blamed the U.S. and its allies for stoking unrest. He’s blamed “anti-government” media for manipulating the minds of Iranians, and the regime has even gone as far as threatening punishment for anyone working for or speaking with foreign press. The threat has had an impact: When I followed up with the woman who sent me a voice note with her experience at the start of the protests, her sister, who lives abroad, messaged me instead. She said the regime is monitoring the communications of civil servants and her sister is a teacher, so she can’t talk to me anymore.

The regime’s gaslighting is not holding, however, and Boniadi tells me the opposition — whether inside the country or among the diaspora — all agree no one is interested in interventionism. Change isn’t coming, it’s already here; Iranian women who don’t want to cover their hair just aren’t.


One morning I woke up to an Instagram DM from Iran, as I do most days. This one was from an Iranian man who was a skeptic when the protests first started and thought they wouldn’t amount to much. Now he is firmly convinced the regime in its current form won’t last. He’s been close to power in his profession. The DM was a photo he’d snapped in a food court at a luxury mall in north Tehran: women, casually dining, almost no one wearing hijab. Might as well have been in any mall in America.

“You can share it,” he wrote, with a smiley face.

In a way, the Iranian women have already won: They have the upperhand.

“The Islamic Republic has two options: Continue to brutally crack down on its people, which only compounds the anger and frustration against the regime — eventually, that’s a losing battle for them. Or, they take another approach: abolish morality police, give women freedom to not wear a hijab and introduce some kind of social reform movement inside Iran,” Boniadi told me.

But compulsory hijab is a pillar of the Islamic Republic — without it, the foundation is broken.


“To me, it’s a losing game for them. Whichever course they take, the Islamic Republic as we know it is no longer going to exist,” Boniadi said.

The Islamic Republic is trying to fashion today’s unrest as a political protest instigated by the West, because there are historical hiccups where the U.S. and the U.K. have meddled and botched the job — like the 1953 Mossadegh coup, when a democratically elected prime minister was overthrown. This upcoming year is the 70th anniversary of the regime’s favorite excuse for anti-Western sentiment.

But what’s happening in Iran is not a political movement as much as it is a civil rights movement. Women don’t have basic human rights. In many parts of their existence, a man must make decisions for them, according to the law. And yet they are highly educated. The slogan of the revolution — “zan, zendegi, azadi” or “woman, life, liberty” — is not about politics but about equality.

In the early days of the protests fueled by Mahsa Amini’s death, I was speaking with a U.S. intelligence official who said the regime would crack down on the protesters and they’d dissipate as in the past. But everyone I spoke with inside Iran said this time is different.

Even some people within the regime are privately beginning to budge, however conflicted they may feel.In October a regime source called me and spoke for 45 minutes. This source is close to the Supreme Leader and spent time in the West — a true revolutionary, but clear eyed to some extent about what survival for such a regime in a rapidly evolving world requires. In a seemingly face-saving suggestion for reform, he said he believes if hijab were to be optional, women would be more likely to feel compelled to wear it, because “the Iranian woman is Najeeb (pure and virginal).” Basically, if hijab were optional, more women would want to wear it — but because it’s compulsory now, women are revolting against it. He may not be wrong. The number of women wearing the ultra-conservative chador, a black head to toe veil, alongside those who’ve taken off their headscarves is striking. Ultimately, this is about choice and civil liberties — not the headscarf itself.


Choice was something Ayatollah Khomeini did allow at the birth of the Islamic Republic. In an interview with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci in which she called the chador a “stupid medieval rag,” he said she was not obliged to wear it. Now Western women do have to wear hijab in Iran —as Lesley Stahl of CBS did in September in her interview with President Raisi in Tehran, drawing criticism on Twitter.

The regime source I spoke with acknowledged there needs to be dialogue, there needs to be reforms, that “this generation is not like that of 1979” when the Western-friendly Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Republic was created. But by the time we got back in touch in late November, the protests had taken a bloody turn. Reform seemed to have been taken off the table and his tone was now aggressive.

“The alternative is ISIS,” he said — repeating the regime’s false narrative that hijab protests were to blame for an October attack on a religious shrine in the city of Shiraz that left 13 dead — a tragedy for which ISIS has claimed responsibility.

But the people aren’t all buying this narrative. When the Iranian soccer team lost a match in the World Cup, memes circulated on Instagram joking that ISIS was to blame.

In a country where the Persian language prioritizes the female in its sentences — instead of “husband and wife,” “men and women” or “brothers and sisters,” Persians say: “wife and husband” (zan o shawhar), “women and men” (zan o mard) and “sisters and brothers” (khāhar o barādar) — the women are finally demanding their rights be prioritized. Looking to the future, questions remain around the viability of a revolution without a leader who has not yet emerged.

“I do think the fabric of the future of Iran as a state will be weaved by the people who have risked the most for a better future,” Boniadi said.

And whereas some make the argument that the protestors do not make up the majority of the country, they’ve been loud enough to make the regime realize the status quo is not sustainable. This genie cannot and will not go back in the bottle.

Iranian Climbers Arrested Amid Protest Crackdown



Delaney Miller
Wed, January 11, 2023 

This article originally appeared on Climbing

Last December, Iranian authorities arrested at least five athletes, including several climbers, from the southern city of Shiraz. Their arrest came amid the widespread anti-regime protests, which have been ongoing since September 16, 2022.

Hesam Mousavi, a prominent rock climbing and highline instructor, was among the detainees. Others were Eshragh Najaf Abadi, a former member of Iran's national cycling and mountain climbing teams; Amirarsalan Mahdavi, a rock climber and snowboarding coach; and Mohammad Khiveh, a mountaineer. According to Iranwire and the Center for Human Rights in Iran, other climbers from Shiraz have since been arrested, including Marjan Jangjou, Hamid Ghashghaei, and Hamed Qashqaei.

The Tasnim News Agency (TNA), which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, released footage on December 13 showing the Shiraz detainees taped to chairs, a dark gray background behind them. All of them confessed to playing various roles in a planned bomb attack, which was allegedly foiled by a state intelligence organization.

"We gathered at a friend's house during the first days of the protest," says one of the arrested, Dena Sheibani (translated by Kayhan Life). "The plan was to explode a bomb somewhere in the city. We aimed to spark unrest by detonating the bomb remotely, and we never thought we would get arrested. We believed we were safe and could escape."

Eshragh reportedly says: "I got explosive material for creating this bomb. We had everything we needed for this crucial operation but were arrested before we could carry out this critical operation."

A source told BBC Persian "The forced confessions were made under torture" and added that it was to deter athlete participation in the protests. This has been a consistent trend since the beginning of the anti-regime moment.

***
The Cost of Climbing

Nazanin Roshanshah met Mousavi six years ago during an outdoor climbing workshop, after which she booked a private lesson with him. She recalls her fear of heights, but he was patient, intrepid, and endlessly reassuring. "Just so positive!" Roshanshah tells Climbing in a video chat, pausing for a moment to consider the memory. It was the moment they began to fall in love. They were together for years, until Roshanshah immigrated from Iran to Canada.

"I felt I couldn't make my life in Iran," says Roshanshah. "It’s impossible. I don’t want to say it’s hard. It’s impossible."

Women in Iran face daily restrictions, harassment, and condemnation.The anti-regime movement has yet to turn the tide, but it's nearing a critical tipping point. While prompted by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being arrested for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, the protesters are demanding so much more than a free dress code--they want wide-spread reform.

"Sentence after sentence, ruling after ruling are imposed on our bodies in terms of our dress," says Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading human rights lawyer, in an interview with Time. "And not only that, but rape and other transgressions. They hit you and hurt you and bruise you, and wrap you up in the veil once again that conceals the harm that's inflicted on you."

Climbers face restrictions in the gym, too. Currently, female climbers cannot share the gym with male climbers; they must train during separate, limited time slots while adhering to strict dress codes. Roshanshah has hopes for a future without those limitations. Plus, in a reformed Iran, climbers would have, among other things, easier access to gear.

"Buying climbing shoes costs around the total income of one person for one month," says Roshanshah. "So it’s very expensive. For a lot of people, it’s almost impossible. When I was in Iran, I never had climbing shoes. I climbed for about like six years, but I couldn’t afford to buy a pair."

Although they got engaged, Roshanshah left Iran in 2019. Mousavi floated the idea of going with her, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to leave.

"He always told me Iran is a good place," says Roshanshah. "He said, 'I love my motherland.' And he believes that it’s not that bad ... I was telling him that there are too many restrictions. He said, 'You should be positive.' He did a lot of things in [climbing and slacklining], but you know... Now we see what happened to him."

Mousavi's love for his community is irrefutable. He, alongside friends, started the Shiraz public climbing gym. Later, he began a private climbing gym, the HCC. Mousavi served as the chief route setter at Iran's National Mountaineering competitions. He helped coach a gold medalist paraclimber. He donated his time to students who otherwise couldn't afford lessons, despite his own sometimes-challenging financial situation. He was tirelessly devoted to helping others enter the sport.

***
The Arrest

Roshanshah first heard about Mousavi's December arrest from close friends. "At first, I didn't believe it," she says. "But then I saw it in the news and I asked some close friends. They all confirmed it, but it took me a few days to accept." She cried at first, devastated, but later created an Instagram page asking followers to speak openly about the arrested and let the Islamic Republic know that actions against detainees would not go unnoticed.

"Hesam is the kind of person that you know too much about," says Roshanshah, a smile spreading across her face. "When you walk with him, he’s always telling you not to step on flowers… He won't kill cockroaches but instead carries them to the garden... He once offered his liver to a little girl he knew who needed one."

Speaking of some of the other climbers arrested, Roshanshah adds that all who knew them were shocked to learn of their detention. "They are the last people who would relate to these things. Most of the time they are out in nature, in the mountains, and they are very far from society, and politics..."

Despite the confessions to the planned bomb attack, there have been conflicting reports about why the athletes were actually arrested. Videos published by state media have acknowledged that, "We didn’t have a bombing. No explosives or TNT were seen." According to Iran International, this statement directly contradicts an earlier report saying the authorities had arrested someone carrying "a bag of explosives with strong destruction power" who was planning to set it off in Shiraz's Ma’aliabad neighborhood.

Another inconsistency, says Roshanshah, is that Mousavi hadn't even been living in Shiraz for several months leading up to his arrest.

***
Raise Your Voice

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 519 protesters have been killed and over 19,291 people have been arrested. This past Saturday, two protestors were hanged following "unfair trials based on forced confessions," according to the UN human rights office. HRANA estimates four prisoners have now been executed, and 111 are likely to follow.

On January 10, Volker Turk, the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement saying that the death penalty was being weaponized to deter protestors, adding that the executions amounted to “state-sanctioned killing." Those still in prison are in grave danger. As far as Roshanshah knows, Mousavi has not had access to a lawyer.

Despite the executions and the regime crackdown, resentment toward the Ayatollah is at an all-time high. "[Now] we have the internet and we have social media," says Roshanshah. "People in Iran are watching the human rights in other countries, and they’re comparing. Now they know: our rights are not the same as in the other countries. People have the right to choose their own religion, lifestyle, and clothes. Why shouldn't we have that?"

To support Hesam Mousavi, the other arrested athletes, and the movement at large, sign this petition. Also check out the Instagram page Roshanshah created. Consider making a video and tagging the page.

This Iranian Canadian's cousin was arrested suddenly in Iran. He wants you to know her name to protect her

Story by Yvette Brend • Friday

On Monday, a group of eight security police showed up at Semiramis Babaei's home in Tehran with a blank warrant, then used her brother's phone to send a text urging her to return home, according to her family in Canada.

No one has heard from the award-winning author and playwright since.

Her cousin, who lives in Vancouver, learned the news when he awoke at 4:30 a.m. PT and checked Instagram. He saw a message from family in Iran about the arrest.

"I was horrified," said Amir Bajehkian, 38, who lives near False Creek in Olympic Village.

He's one of many Iranian Canadians who live with a sickening fear for family members back in Iran, as they watch ongoing uprisings end in violence and mass arrests — and now, at least one execution.

Bajehkian wants the world to know his cousin's name to keep a spotlight on her situation. He believes that will help protect her.
'Change-makers' a target

Iran has been rocked by a nationwide uprising against the Islamic regime, touched off by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in the custody of Iran's notorious morality police on Sept. 16, 2022.

There have been multiple reports of demonstrators disappearing after they are tracked and arrested by security forces.

Bajehkian says family who saw the arrest warrant say it did not state his cousin's name, and that the charges she may face were unclear.

"I feel powerless in this situation," Bajehkian said.

He says he's been fearful for family back in Iran, especially his flame-haired cousin, whose plays and writings are rebellious. He says Babaei produced award-winning theatre and translated Western classics into Farsi.

"She was this very sassy, funny character," he said.


People hold up a photo of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini as they participate in a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside of the United Nations on Sept. 21 in New York City.© Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

"They are going after those who are change-makers — lights in the darkness," said Bajehkian.


Security forces have cracked down — killing hundreds and injuring thousands, according to Amnesty International.

On Dec. 3, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hailed Iran's Islamic Republic for protecting rights and freedoms, defending the ruling system as justified in cracking down on anti-government protests, which have cost more than 300 lives, according to Reuters.

But international human rights groups say that death estimate is low, and that Canada needs to push back.

The Canadian government imposed new sanctions on Friday, one day after the execution of protester Mohsen Shekari.

Shekari, 23, was accused of blocking a street on Sept. 25 and wounding a member of the pro-regime Basij militia in early protests triggered by Amini's death.

Iranian Canadian human rights advocate Nazanin Afshin-Jam condemns the execution calling Shekari's trial a "sham."

She says Iran hanged him after he was found guilty of "waging war against God."

Related video: Gravitas: Iran Supreme leader's family slams crackdown (WION)

View on Watch

"The moment his mother found out there is video of her on the street wailing at the top of her lungs. It is absolutely heartbreaking," said Afshin-Jam, who founded the volunteer organization Stop Child Executions, from an interview in Nova Scotia.

"This is completely a political execution in order to send a message to peaceful protesters to halt their uprising," she said.

"If the international community doesn't act with a strong response, it gives licence to carry out further executions. At least 10 others are at imminent risk of execution, including a physician and his wife who were aiding a wounded protester."

Numbers are unclear

Arrest and death counts related to the Iranian uprising remain highly contentious.

Amnesty International UK says a leaked audio file obtained by BBC Persian estimated there have been around 15,000 arrests with many "subjected to enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture and other ill treatment, and unfair trials."



Naz Gharai, from Tehran, is covered in red paint as protesters call on the United Nations to take action against the treatment of women in Iran during a demonstration near UN headquarters in New York City on Nov. 19.© Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images

Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights says the country's security forces have killed at least 458 protesters, including 63 children.

On Dec. 9, Amnesty International reported it had confirmed the deaths of at least 44 children killed by Iran's security forces since September.The deaths were attributed to shots, metal pellets, beatings — and in one case, a girl was struck in the head by a tear gas canister.

Amnesty International confirms 21 at risk of death penalty

A list of 21 Iranians at risk of execution has been confirmed by Amnesty International.

The list included six men charged with "enmity against God" or "corruption on Earth," of which five were already sentenced and referred to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran for a group trial.

They include Mohammad Ghobadlou, Saman Seydi (Yasin), Saeed Shirazi, Mohammad Boroughani, Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou, and Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou.

Three others — Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh, Mahan Sedarat Madani and Manouchehr Mehman-Navaz — face separate trials. According to Amnesty eight of these cases involve "no accusations of intentional killing," and stem from alleged vandalism, arson, property destruction or disturbing public order."

Eleven more people — including married couple Farzaneh Ghare-Hasanlou and Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou — are accused of "corruption on earth" before a Revolutionary Court in Karaj, Alborz province, according to Amnesty.

And 26-year-old Parham Parvari, who was also charged with "enmity against God" after being arrested as he was returning home from work during protests in the capital Tehran.

Afshin-Jam believes the estimates of how many have died or are at risk of the death penalty are low.

She says 28 people are facing charges that could carry the death penalty, including two children and Iranian rapper Saman (Yesin) Seyedi, 24.

She says the Center for Human Rights in Iran is reporting 475 people have been killed and 18,000 arrested since September.

She is urging world nations to cut ties with Iran and freeze the assets of regime officials and their families including 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi.

"This is a red line that must not be crossed," she said.

Iranian Canadians with family at risk

For Amir Bajehkian, naming and publicizing as many people at risk as possible holds power.

"It is very important because what the regime wants is for people to forget about who's behind the walls of prisons. You have to talk about it," he said.

But he knows there's fear in the Iranian community.

Bajehkian has been advocating for human rights in Iran on Canadian streets organizing rallies and protests since 2009 knowing it would put him at risk. He hasn't returned to Iran in 17 years.

After vanished, the Iranian Playwrights' Association issued a statement condemning her arrest, demanding her release and denouncing "all forms of intimidation, violence, and restriction on freedom of speech in the society."

Bajehkian wants his cousin released from Evin prison in Tehran, where he believes she is being held.

He knows that's where Iran's regime often holds political prisoners and where Iranian Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi was tortured and killed back in 2003.

So he's shouting his cousin's name.

"Silence is not the answer," he said.

"Definitely what's brought us to this moment was four decades of the world looking the other way."