Election Section

Commentary: Bobby Sands and Akbar Ganji By HOMAYON

Friday July 15, 2005

Over two decades ago Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA, was arrested and put in jail by the British government. He later went on a hunger strike demanding to be freed. Margaret Thatcher, holding the British prime minister office at the time, refused to ca ve in to his demand until Sands finally died in prison as a result. 

Sands’ courage and stand for his belief was viewed and praised by the newly formed Revolutionary-Theocratic regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact at a Friday noon prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (then the president and now the supreme leader) went on to portray Sands as a martyr—and rightly so—and highly praised him all he could and downgraded the British government and its political and judiciary system all he could. 

S ands, a Christian-Irish-Revolutionary became an Islamic-Iranian-Revolutionary idol for the mullahs and soon a street in Tehran was named “Bobby Sands Street.” 

Enter Akbar Ganji: a brave devout Iranian Muslim who voluntarily joined Iran’s revolutionary ar my to fight the Iraqi army in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. After the war ended about 17 years ago he gradually started his own war on tyranny by turning against the corrupt power-hungry rulers of the current Iranian regime and opening his arms to democra cy as opposed to theocracy.  

Seven years ago he started a crusade to reveal the identity of the high ranking government officials and of the Friday noon prayer preachers, who for several years had engaged in conducting “Mafia-like operations” murdering dozens of political dissidents and outspoken journalists.  

His daily and weekly articles in the reformist newspapers—which sprang up in the post-election era of the reformist President Khatami—focused on one thing and one thing only: the so-called “chain killings“ of the Iranian dissidents. Ganji had just started his fight to strip the theocratic tyranny of the mullahs of all its holy facade.  

Over five years ago when the supreme leader labeled the reformists’ newspapers as “foreign governments’ tools ag ainst the Islamic Revolution”, Ganji and many other journalists were imprisoned. Within a couple of years all were released. All but Ganji. He had gone too far! 

During the past five years of imprisonment he evolved as a true intellectual transcending revolutions, ideologies and even “the chain killings.” Ganji had started his new fight: the fight to pursue a true democracy. And the only way he knew how: non-violent, bold, transparent and relentless. 

While in prison he smuggled out more articles and two volumes of “The Manifest to Pursue Democracy,” in which he openly claims the regime of mullahs—lead by its supreme leader—to be a tyranny. Suffering from asthma, internal illnesses etc. he recently demanded to be released by going on a hunger strike. He h as gone without food for 35 straight days now! 

The head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic announced recently that Ganji’s hunger strike was illegal. His memory perhaps had failed to remind him of the time when his appointer—the holy supreme leader—had praised Bobby Sands’ hunger strike over two decades ago. Or perhaps he was just announcing the Islamic Republic’s philosophy of existence loud and clear: All struggles for freedom against tyranny around the world are praised except those in Iran, exc ept those against the Mullah’s tyranny. 

Now I don’t know what potion there is that makes people like Sands and Ganji. What gives them the stamina to stand up singlehandedly against tyranny and where do they get their courage to enter the “lion’s den”? Al l I know is that Ganji may soon become Sands! 

As an Iranian I used to feel proud to drive on “Bobby Sands Street” every time I visited Tehran, but the summer of 2005 may very well make me ashamed to be an Iranian. 

I don’t want to go any where in the wor ld driving on “Akbar Ganji Street!” 

 

Homayon is the pseudonym of a correpondent writing from Tehran. 

 

 

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