Keyan Keshavarz
Abdollah Momeni, who currently serves on the central committee of the Advar-e Tahkim (student) Organization, has been imprisoned several times for his human rights related activism. He was arrested last summer after security forces stormed the offices of the Advar-e Tahkim Organization in Tehran. Momeni lost about 30 pounds while in custody, and became very ill. What happened to Momemi in prison that caused such a drastic weight lost and sickness is still a topic of debate among human rights activists. Momeni has chosen to remain silent, but has agreed to speak to Rooz about human rights violations in Iran. Below is an excerpt of his exclusive talk with Rooz.
In his interview with Rooz, Momeni recounts several instances of human rights violations in Iran: "Violators of human rights in Iran are organized in such a manner that those responsible are able to suppress any attempt at reform by civil activists in the social sphere."
Momeni's analysis of the condition of human rights in Iran starts with the university. He views students to be at the forefront in the struggle against authoritarianism: "In the past two years, government officials and security organizations have not shied away from using any measure to oppress student activists and terrorize students in order to extinguish the university's voice as the main breeding ground for political and social reform."
In Momeni’s words, "A pre-written scenario is being carried out to oppress and terrorize the student movement."
The spokesperson for the Advar-e Tahkim adds, "With utmost disappointment, presidents that are appointed by the administration to head universities, have themselves joined the front lines in the oppression of students, rather than defending the rights of students and protecting them against pressure from the outside."
Momeni also condemns the suspended imprisonment sentences that are issued for many activists, dismissing them as a Damocles sword hanging over the heads of social and political activists in an effort to terrorize and pacify them.
On the recent faculty firings enmasse, Momeni compared them to similar acts during the days of the so-called cultural revolution, in early 1980s, brought about by the security apparatus's hatred for student activists.
But Momeni clarifies that "These unprecedented and vengeful measures to terrorize and threaten student activists have had had no effect on the student movement body. The student's united protest against the presence of Ahmadinejad at the Polytechnic University and, less than a year later, at the Tehran University points to the courage of the student movement body as the most important freedom-seeking element in society."
Social freedoms are among the issues that Iranian political activists are less concerned about. While condemning the minimalist views of various political groups in Iran with respect to personal, political and social freedom, Momeni condemns the police force's actions in recent months. He also calls on Iran to ratify the international convention against death penalty: "Our expectation is for the Iranian government to stand by its international obligations with respect to observing and protecting human rights."
