Monday, March 09, 2009

We must stand up for Hossein!

Hossein Derakhshan has been arrested over three months ago already in Iran, as I just found out. This piece of information was confirmed by a Toronto's Globe and Mail article on November 12. Hossein's blog was at the top of my Blogroll list until his website was taken down by his server due to a libel suit filed against him by Mehdi Khalaji. A few days ago, while doing my regular home page cleanup, it occurred to me to look around and see whether he did start a new blog in the meantime. To my dismay I discovered what happened.

Frankly, I am very concerned, as all of us should be. Surely he was often like a little dagfly, buzzing annoyingly around Iranian politics, more so in the beginning of his blogging career. As of late he toned down a lot, not unlikely because of intimidation, to the point that he even started to seemingly support Ahmadinejad's policies and Iran's military aspirations. It looks like that was not sufficient.

I do not understand it: why did he enter Iran in the first place? He was aware, as he expressed it many times, that he cannot even visit Iran because of his historical trip to Israel in 2006. Yet he did so. Why...?

A lot of his fellow Iranian bloggers right now are angry with him for his about face that he exhibited in the last couple of years. Yet now he stands accused of being a spy for Israel. Is he...? Is that at all possible? You can read a translated "confession" in Brian Whittaker's article in The Guardian, as it apparently appeared on the Tehran news website, Fahan News, on November 18, 2008. Brian is wondering whether this is a signal to Iranian bloggers to "cool it".

My concern is not worth too much, I am just a female senior citizen in Canada and my blog is not visited much. I wish I could be of help, though, because I always admired his spunk, even when he expressed opinions not exactly in line with mine. Therefor, if you happen to chance this way, I urge you to go to the "Free Hossein Derakhshan" site on Facebook. I don't know how successful they are in their endeavour, I will try to follow them from now on and contribute my efforts if and when possible.