There is terrible news about Kian Tajbakhsh, Iranian scholar with many friends in India. We are horrified to learn from sources familiar with his case that he was
“unexpectedly hauled before a separate IRGC court over the weekend [November 21-22], evidently because a hardline SEPAH (IRGC military intelligence) group is determined to pin the post-election unrest on a foreign scapegoat and is demanding Kian’s execution. The Deputy Chief of Staff of SEPAH supposedly identified ‘new evidence’ among Kian’s emails showing that he is a spy and the IRGC is supposedly lodging new charges of espionage against Kian that carry the death penalty and is transferring him to another prison.”
Kian, an Iranian-American who had moved back to live in Teheran some years after obtaining a doctorate from Columbia University, was arrested in July 2009 in the wake of the pro-democracy uprising in Iran. On August 1st, he was among the numerous political prisoners dragged out for a staged mass trial, where he was accused of collaborating with outside governments to orchestrate the post-election protests that have rocked Iran. At that point he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He had been previously arrested in 2007 by the regime on grounds of being an American agent, and imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison for four months. On his release he resigned from his job in an American research foundation and focused on his own academic writing, avoiding any activity that might be frowned upon by the Ahmadinejad regime. He had not in fact participated in the pro-democracy protests in any way.
Kian Tajbakhsh is a scholar and Iranian patriot who chose to continue living in Iran even after his previous arrest, because of his love for his land, its culture and its people.
Those of us in India who have been consistently anti-imperialist and critical of the US, and who respect Iran’s anti-US imperialist position, have been deeply disturbed by the Iranian regime’s crushing of the pro-democracy protests and its attempts to characterize these massive uprisings as fomented by the US. It’s tragically ironic that the US should be dubbed as “pro-democracy” by the Iranian regime!
Scholars at Risk wrote:
“The suddenness of Dr. Tajbakhsh’s arrest and the lack of any clear basis for his detention and conviction raise grave concerns about the ability of internationally recognized scholars and intellectuals to safely visit Iran…
Scholars at Risk therefore joins with the many national and international academic associations, scholarly societies, human rights organizations and individual scholars that respectfully urge the Iranian government to examine the circumstances of Dr. Tajbakhsh’s arrest and conviction.”
His friends here in Delhi, including myself, who know him from his vists here since the 1990s, who know his wife Bahar and baby daughter Hasti, who know him as a scholar and academic, are shocked, bewildered, and feel utterly helpless.
Siddharth Varadarajan who interviewed Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki for The Hindu on his recent visit to Delhi, before we had this most recent piece of appalling information, said to him:
“Among well-wishers of Iran in India, there is concern about the recent secret trial of the Iranian scholar, Kian Tajbakhsh, for his alleged involvement in the post-election protests. Now he has been sentenced to 12-15 years. We hope his case can be reviewed because he is a scholar and not someone involved in subversion.”
Mottaki replied:
“All judicial verdicts can be reviewed and the opportunity of appeal is there for him. I am not aware of the details of his case. But our great effort is to see that those entering court can use all their rights, including appeal or using the capacity and potentiality of pardon.”
We can only hope that the Iranian regime will take seriously the plea of well-wishers of Iran and friends of Kian in India that Kian Tajbakhsh be released.
Visit the Free Kian 2009 website for more information.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
I join democratic forces all over the world protesting against prosecution of Kian Tajbakhsh a leading humanist, democratic and anti-imperialist voice of our time. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Social Change published by Sage on behalf of Council for Social Development , New Delhi of which I am the Editor. We pledge our solidarity in this campaign and demand his release.
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Kian is a scholar and musician. I spoke to him just a few days post-elections to check if all was okay as there were random arrests. He assured me there was nothing to worry about. That he had not participated in the protest. That his baby took much of his time. He was calm and cheerful.
Within the next week, he was arrested. What the Iran Government is doing is barbaric. It is to be unilaterally condemned. Kian and those like him deserve justice and a right to live with dignity and truth.
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As I do not know much about the case and affair, which is of far reaching national and international importance, I feel unable to put much comment on.
However I always and everywhere respect the Human Values and Basic Human Rights, hence any such violation of human principles are against my basic tenets.
At the same time, may I take this opportunity to high light an important and equally serious issue of our own national concern with international remifications. I hope it is quite in place.
We have just crossed the anniversary of 26/11 attack on Taj, Mumbai. I am pained to learn that this solemn occasion passed silently in the Kashmir Valley without attracting even single comment from top to bottom. I think this should have been taken up by the media seriously. It is a matter of National dignity and pride, not just a small matter to let it pass quitely. I also feel that this wicked thesis should be given as wide publicity as possible, specially to international concerned dignitaries to draw their attention for needful and information.
It is sad and shameful but true. Please visit the following URL for more information:
http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a96121.html
With my regards to you all,
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
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“Today’s Iran is the victim of one of the ugliest, most anti-human, most anti-culture, most anti-woman, most anti-beauty, most anti-smiling, most anti-happiness, most anti-everything systems of government in its entire history.”
Esmail Kho’i (Iran’s pre-eminent poet & philosopher)
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Manas,
I not only agree and endorse your observations, but attempt to take it a step further to analyse its origin. Ever since, Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, it seems to have started it all in Iran too. Khomeini is the chap who proclaimed Fatwa on Salman Rushdie to kill him. I am glad that it miserably failed and evoked an anti-thesis against the hardline Islamic practices of Jehad and Fatwas. He also tried to establish the hardline ‘Islam’ in that state.
I am also glad that Salman Rushdie escaped because he was shielded by the bloc of powerful western armour. Compare the situation of India in the case of poor girl from Bangladesh – Tasleema Nasreen.
Do you not think that there is seriously somewhere down the line, something amiss with the current Islamic practices misguiding and fundamentalising the masses, in stead of preparing them to face the challenges of highly competitive world. They seem to first outnumber the population, then pursue the violent means subsequently. The trump card of religion is becoming more and more outdated and obsolete. In my opinion, there is no single religion in the light of current global turmoil that can match its diverse problems. Islam appears to be worst on this scale.
I very strongly feel that any religion that is trying to pursue its aggressive agendas is only because of it being on its weak pedestal. The olden days of such virulent policies and advancements are long over but the present leadership still wants to bask in those very old dreams, styles and glories.
It is time for a wake up call to all concerned, irrespectively:
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
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Dear all! I`m an Iranian ,living past 3 years in India. I know Kian and many other scholars as well as students who are in danger or arrested and some of them sentence to death by government to death! unfortunately this Ahmadinejad government is against everything related to humanity,science, social science and international relationship! for them anyone whom have any kind of connection with this institute is a spy n must be killed!
its open society!!
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This post was put up because I am a friend of Kian Tajbakhsh, and this was all I could do to draw attention to his case at my level, to register my protest, and my solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in Iran.
In other words, this post was not meant for people to come in with general critiques of my politics, or with disengaged comments at a general level.
Please come in on this particular post only if you have something to say that might help the campaign for Kian’s release.
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We all met Kian Tajbaksh during Hind Swaraj Seminar held this year February at IIC New Delhi. His talk at the seminar was really very interesting in which he focused on Islamic Revolution of Iran. I support the demand of his immediate release.
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For all the anti-imperialist credentials of the Iranian regime, targeting critical scholars and dissenting intellectuals is a matter of grave concern. Even earlier, dissenting intellectuals were jailed by the Iranian government. (My own class-mate in JNU, Masood Pedram who did a commendable Ph.D. work on democracy and the notion of the public sphere in Habermas was jailed after he returned to Iran.)
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