February
19, 2023
A
UK-based Iranian TV channel has had to stop broadcasting from its headquarters
in London, after British police warned staff that it could not protect them on
UK soil.
Iran
International has been advised to relocate from London to Washington DC by UK
counterterrorism specialists, following a string of foiled plots to target the
channel’s journalists.
These
include an incident last weekend reported by the Times in which an Austrian
national flew into the UK and was allegedly caught filming outside the
channel’s premises in west London, where around 100 staff work.
Mahmood
Enayat, the channel’s general manager, said in a statement: “I cannot believe
it has come to this. A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to
the British public on British soil that we have to move.
“Let’s
be clear, this is not just a threat to our TV station, but [to] the British
public at large. This is an assault on the values of sovereignty and free
speech that the UK has always held dear.”
'Rifts' to surface within Iranian regime, says son of last shah
AFP
February
18, 2023
Rifts
already exist within the Iranian regime and they will become more apparent,
eventually contributing to cutting down Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's power, Reza
Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of Iran, said Saturday.
"The
full control of Khamenei makes it almost impossible for those who are closely
associated with him to take position against him," said Pahlavi, who is
one of several forces opposing the Iranian regime.
Nevertheless,
according to "testimonies that we receive and leakage of information...
there will be some rifts that will become more apparent", he told
journalists at the Munich Security Conference.
Pahlavi
was among key players of the Iranian opposition invited to the gathering of
world leaders in the southern German city.
Pahlavi
said Khamenei was "trying to push for his son (Mojtaba Khamenei) to
basically replace him" -- a move that could eventually backfire.
"At
that point, the clout that Khamenei has had over his own internal mechanism
will weaken tremendously," Pahlavi said.
Iran
has been rocked since September by nationwide protests after the death in
custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for an alleged breach
of Iran's dress code for women.
Since
then, the regime has come under unprecedented pressure.
Even
Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami and former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi
have come out to call for political changes.
Nevertheless,
according to "testimonies that we receive and leakage of information...
there will be some rifts that will become more apparent", he told
journalists at the Munich Security Conference.
Mousavi,
80, said the protest movement began in the context of "inter-dependent
crises" and proposed holding a "free and healthy referendum on the
need to change or draft a new constitution".
He
also called the current system's structure "unsustainable".
"What
Mousavi said two weeks ago was different than what he said earlier,"
Pahlavi said.
"Back
then he was still considered a loyal opposition, still within the context of
the existing constitution."
Several
factions of the divided Iranian diaspora have embarked on assembling common
ideas for a transitional council to prepare elections and to draw up a new
constitution.
The
son of the shah, who was overthrown in 1979, pointed to a "grey
spectrum" of government officials tempted by the opposition wave but who
are reticent about publicly expressing their backing.
"The
question is how many of them will start defecting," Pahlavi said.
While
it was not possible to predict a timeline, "right now the momentum is to
more and more separations or defections", he said.
"What
we are trying to do is to have an open-door policy, of maximum inclusion,"
he said.
"If
that grey spectrum adopts these values and principles as a basis of
cooperation, we can broaden the spectrum to include more of these people,"
he said.
On
the question on how to deal with the vestiges of the regime, Pahlavi said that
"everybody deserves a second chance".
"There
are formulas that already been established in terms of traditional justice,
what do we do with people who have been acting criminally in a position of
governors... We can't refuse people that solicit justice."
Referring
to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Pahlavi said: "We have
to be able to say you can be back in the military, or some kind reserve force
or other form of roles in the civilian sector".
Such
issues are currently being discussed, he said, emphasising that there is a
"strategy, a plan" to prepare for a post-Islamic republic.
-
Democratic dream -
Yet
Pahlavi himself has not commanded universal admiration within the opposition,
with some wary about a failure to distance himself from the authoritarian rule
of his father, to show transparency about his family's wealth, or to halt the
often aggressive posturing of pro-monarchy supporters on social media.
But
Pahlavi's stance in the protests has won plaudits among even left-leaning
opposition figures, while sparking attacks in hard-line Iranian media.
Pahlavi
has repeatedly said he is not seeking the return of the monarchy but wants to
play a part in creating the first secular democratic system in Iran's history.
"To
say that my father was the king, and whatever happened then I have to assume
responsibility for that, is a kind of irrational proposition," he said in
Munich.
"If
I had the option between a secular republic and the monarchy, I would choose
the republic," he said, while acknowledging that "you cannot
eliminate an option if part of the nation may want to discuss it".
"What
will happen at the end, I leave it to the constitutional assembly to debate
over this," he said.
His
preference, nevertheless, is "to be out there in the full debate, with
absolute freedom of expressing my views."
Iran freedom struggle stars at Berlin film fest
AFP
February
18, 2023
The
Berlin film festival, long a champion of Iran's embattled independent
directors, is spotlighting its citizens' fight for basic rights with a series
of screenings, events and a red-carpet protest.
French-Iranian
actor Golshifteh Farahani, who is serving on the jury for the top prizes with
president Kristen Stewart, said as the festival kicked off Thursday that cinema
was a crucial fuel for the freedom movement.
"In
a country like Iran that is a dictatorship, art is not only an intellectual or
philosophical thing, it's essential, it's like oxygen," she said.
Farahani
made her name in Iranian movies and became an international star in productions
such as Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson" opposite Adam Driver.
She
and Stewart joined the red-carpet demonstration for women's rights in Iran on
Saturday with festival chief Mariette Rissenbeek, who told AFP the Berlinale
stood with Iranian directors who "weren't allowed to travel to the
festival".
The
Berlinale, Europe's first major cinema showcase of the year, has awarded its
Golden Bear top prize to many of the leading lights of Iranian cinema including
Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation"), Jafar Panahi ("Taxi") and
Mohammad Rasoulof ("There Is No Evil").
Iran,
rocked by months of anti-government rallies, this month released Panahi and
Rasoulof from prison along with several dozen other well-known detainees in an
apparent attempt to appease critics.
This
year, the festival is showing several documentaries, including Steffi
Niederzoll's "Seven Winters in Tehran" and "My Worst Enemy"
by Mehran Tamadon, which expose the brutal conditions in Iran's jails as well
as rampant executions.
Niederzoll's
harrowing film, which includes material smuggled out of Iran, tells the story
of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was hanged in 2014 at the age of 26 for killing a
former intelligence officer she maintained had tried to rape her.
Featuring
wrenching interviews with her family, who agitated for her freedom and appealed
for mercy to the murdered man's son, the film recounts how an international
campaign for Jabbari's life arose.
Zar
Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award at Cannes last year, narrates the
film with letters, journals and text messages Jabbari wrote from jail, where
she became a role model for many fellow prisoners.
"We
hope that, hand in hand, we can change something with cinema," Amir
Ebrahimi told AFP.
"My
Worst Enemy" also examines state interrogations, as director Tamadon
invites members of Paris's large Iranian exile community to question him using
pressure techniques they themselves experienced in custody.
Half
expose, half group therapy session, the film asks whether anyone can become an
instrument of state oppression, given the chance.
Amir
Ebrahimi appears as one of the interrogators and reveals that she was sexually
assaulted while in custody by a female doctor during a purported medical exam.
"I
couldn't walk for three days," she says.
-
'Shine a light' -
Tamadon
told AFP it was "time to forget that the Islamic republic will reform
itself".
He
hailed the role of Western platforms such as the Berlinale to "shine a
light on the violence perpetrated against the Iranian people".
"Iranians
in Iran are exhausted -- this gives the energy and motivation to continue to
hit the streets."
Milad
Alami's drama "Opponent" stars Payman Maadi from "A
Separation", as a closeted gay man seeking asylum with his wife and two
daughters in northern Sweden.
Alami,
who himself moved from Iran to Sweden as a child, said he aimed with his second
feature to explore how official repression penetrates even the most intimate
relationships, including a marriage.
"There
are walls between them (the couple) that created this feeling of not being able
to talk to each other," he said in notes for the film.
The
wife Maryam senses her husband's inner conflict even as he keeps it under wraps
for fear of reprisal. "That's a big thing in Iran," Alami said.
For
those who have left Iran, the struggle to find out who they really are begins
anew, he said.
"When
you come to another country, when freedom is there, how difficult is it to take
it?"
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