Punished for Sex

contributed by Meredith Morrison

Saudi gets 5 years, 1,000 lashes for TV sex talk
Comments by ‘sex braggart’ led to hundreds of complaints from viewers

AP Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi court on Wednesday convicted a man for publicly talking about sex after he bragged on a TV talk show about his exploits, sentencing him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said.

Click here to read the entire article on MSNBC.

Kim Jong Il the Spaceman

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Oh. Wait a moment. There's nothing to read.

Human rights organizations, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea, are repeatedly denied access to North Korea, which is notoriously reclusive yet provocative. The state-run news outlet, North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA), is not only North Korea's only news outlet but is also (unsurprisingly) censored and nationalistic. Far from critiquing the government it speaks only in awe of it, giving it its absolute support and admiration. Consider its reporting on the 'Trial of American Journalists' who illegally entered North Korea this summer, "Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it."

As a result of its closed- doors policy, the international community, NGOs, and news stations have been forced to make things up about the country of secrets that is North Korea. The Onion has been especially successful at this:

(Actually) In Conversation with: Wael Abbas

Contributed by Sarika Arya and Meredith Morrison

The first time we tried to interview the internationally famous Egyptian blogger, Wael Abbas (WA), he was returning from a conference on global interdependence on Sweden. A week later, back in Egypt (and with a vengeance to blog), Wael sat down with the YJHR. His style is not to complain. It is to expose, clarify, provoke and, ultimately, inspire. He's pretty good at it - especially the provoking part.

Q: Why do you blog?

WA: I blog because I am. This is going to sound cliché but no that’s not the answer. I blog because I – well I started blogging for totally different reasons but then I discovered another reason. I have a voice and I wanted this voice to be heard. I wanted to discuss issues that weren’t discussed in the traditional media about religion, society, politics, stuff like that. That’s how it started. But afterwards, I decided that I’m blogging for change. I want change in this country. At least I want to leave a little impact, make a small change in three specific areas which are: the civil society, political parties, and the media.



Q: Who accesses your blog? Is it banned anywhere in Egypt? I read an article in which the reporter indicated that some blogs are banned to certain business and publications (like news outlets), according to a "state security apparatus"?

WA: It’s banned in China, that’s what I heard, but it’s not banned in Egypt. Well, they used to use this policy before 2005. They used to block some blogs and websites. This was mostly for the radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood. But not anymore; sometime they block websites, but only tactically, for one day, or two days, or a few hours. Like on the 6th of April where they blocked Facebook for only one day, the day of the general strike. Other than that, they have other ways that they attack blogs to get them shut down or report them to the hosts, saying they have a lot of inappropriate material. They did that with my YouTube account, my Facebook account, my email – they’ve shut down my email several times, like five times.


Q: Why? Are they allowed to know what’s in your email?

WA: They don’t have that technology yet, but there is a technology called packet inspection – they can inspect every single packet of data that comes into or out of your computer. I think the Chinese are doing that but I’m not sure the Egyptians are doing it yet.

But this is not the only way they attack bloggers; I can tell you about other ways – they’re not only electronic. They arrest them and torture them, like the owner of the Facebook group of the strike. They target reputations; this is what they’ve been doing about me for some time, spreading rumors saying I’ve converted to Christianity or I am a homosexual or something like that.


Q: Is that what happened last week at the airport?

WA: No, what happened at the airport was a direct attack. Well, I traveled a lot in the last three years, like my passport was almost full, and I’d never been in a situation similar to this one. I took a late flight from Stockholm, and there was a short time transit in Frankfurt, then I took a flight to Cairo. In Cairo, I arrived in the airport, in Terminal 3 at around 3:00 am. So as you can imagine I was really exhausted, tired, hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten. I also took a bus right from Talberg to Stockholm for four hours. When I arrived in Cairo, I thought, “I am finally home.”

So I approached the passport control desk, and I gave them my passport, and one of them he checked my passport on the computer, and he asked me these questions: “Do they always stop you when you arrive in Cairo?” I said, “No, it has never happened before.” And he said, “But this time you’re going to have to stay for a while.” So I said, “Okay.” I thought would be five minutes or something like that. So I waited. One hour, two hours, three hours, and nobody is telling me what is going on. And they stopped other people, like people with big beards, people who came from Yemen, but they let them go after five or ten minutes until I was the only one who was staying there.

I kept asking questions, but nobody would give me any answers, until one of them told me discreetly: “Your passport is, at the moment, with State Security.” When I asked, “Why?” he told me, “I don’t know, I’m not with State Security; I’m just with passport control.”

So I waited and kept asking the officers for my passport back, but they wouldn’t give it back to me. So I decided to start a sit-in. I took a big piece of paper out of my bag and wrote, “THIS IS A SIT-IN; STATE SECURITY TOOK MY PASSPORT,” and I sat on the floor and faced people coming from the planes. And at first they were ignoring that, but then it started to piss them off, after a while one of them started trying to persuade me to end this, and then he started harassing me, saying, “This isn’t good. It’s going to end up ugly.”

I told him, “I know my rights. What I’m doing, according to the laws and institutions, is right.”

So they told me, “Just end the sit-in and we’ll give you back your passport.” And I said, “No, give me back my passport first and I’ll end it.” They brought my passport back to me after 5 minutes.

So I passed the passport control and went to the baggage carousel to get my bag but unfortunately my bag had disappeared; it had been over four hours at this point, and somebody had moved it. I asked a guy at the airport what I should do and he said to exit customs and go to Lufthansa and ask them for your bag. So I went through the customs, but they stopped me and said, “No, just wait here and we’ll get it for you.”

I waited for two hours, and he pretended they were trying to get my bag. During this time, they had my passport with them, and they wouldn’t give it back to me. And they kept talking to each other discreetly, like kneeling with each other and saying something I could not hear, until suddenly they tell me, “Okay, now we have to search your bag.” I was carrying this laptop bag of mine.

They started searching the bag. At first, I thought it was a joke – they took out every single thing that was in the bag, no matter how small, like the medicine. They kept asking me questions about the medicine and talking about the medicine. Then they took all the conference papers to a room inside, and I don’t know what they did with that, but I suspect they were photocopying the papers. They took out my camera and the laptop and put it inside.

Eventually, they brought back the papers and the camera and asked me to go inside for something similar to a strip search. I went inside and they searched every pocket of my clothes and almost every curve of my body. He took my wallet out and searched everything inside my wallet – credit cards, ID cards, driver’s license, stuff like that – and then put everything back in the wallet. This is something that is really weird for customs people to do; they’re supposed to be looking for goods.

They gave me back my passport and my wallet, but they told me they had to keep my laptop because they want to show it to this agency we have here, which is responsible for copyright software and piracy and stuff like that. But this is totally irregular. They never do this to anybody, never to me before; I’ve flown hundreds of times and they’ve never done this to me.

And I said that taking my laptop was illegal, and I know it’s illegal, and I know by customs law that I am entitled to carry one laptop for personal use, and they cannot take it away from me, and they can’t make me pay customs for it, and they’re not authorized to open it or inspect the software inside unless they have approval from a judge. But still, they insisted they are not giving me back my laptop, so I sat there for two or three hours more demanding my laptop back, but they refused. I demanded to talk to the head of customs, and, after negotiating, he told me, “We have orders from a higher entity, and we cannot give you back your laptop.”

After this, I decided that staying in the airport was useless, so I decided to leave. I met friends who were waiting for me outside, met lawyers, and we went to Lufthansa to look for the bag. And they obviously knew about my bag, they knew my full name, and the whole situation. They told me my bag was with storage in the other Terminal, in Terminal 2. So I went to this other company that is supposed to be handling the baggage, and they told me that you need permissions to go to the storage room to get your bag back.

We had to go through a lot of red tape to get permission to get my bag, and during the process there was a permission that was supposed to be from state security. This one alone took 2 hours. They claimed that they have my name on the list that belonged to State Security. This list of the names, was totally new. It was never there before, they never had reason to stop me.

I finally managed to get the permission and got my bag back and then I filed a report in the police station about the illegal detention and confiscation of my laptop, which I didn’t get back till now.


Q: Why do you think that this happened to you?

WA: I don’t know, but I have inside information from the state that says that somebody filed a report about me from Sweden that I said stuff that was harmful to the Egyptian government state. But I know for sure that there were two people from the National Democratic Party that were there.


Q: Was it something you said – what kind of stuff?

WA: I said a lot of stuff, of course. I criticized the regime and I criticized the European position on our regime. I said that it was hypocritical that they know what the regime does to the opposition but they are aiding this regime and this is totally different from their approach to the “iron curtain” or the Eastern bloc during the Soviet Era... so this is probably what pissed of the National Democratic Party.


Q: Is that what you blog about – what do you blog about?

WA: I blog about that and other stuff too. Stuff that doesn’t get enough coverage in media.


Q: Why do you think this happened this time?

WA: I don’t know. I think there is a state of panic in state security right now. I think something is going on. I don’t know why but they have arrested people in the Muslim Brotherhood – maybe President Mubarak is dying. I think they are preparing a military tribunal for the Muslim Brotherhood, something similar to what they did last year. [Last year], they sent some Muslim Brotherhood members to jail accusing them of funding an organization or something like that – terrorist attacks, an illegal organization, stuff like that.


Q: How do you find your material?

WA: In the beginning all the material I got was mine. They were like pictures I took myself, videos I took myself. But after I started gaining some credibility people started sending me their old material: stuff they shot on the street or stuff that leaked out from police stations. People sent me videos of train accidents, terrorist attacks, car accidents.


Q: How did you get into blogging?

WA: I was always interested in journalism, ever since I was a kid I was reading opposition papers. I was interested in this new experience, because it was new in the 70s. It was new in the reign of Sadat. I always felt there was something missing from this opposition in independent media. I wanted to work in media but I found out its hard, you have to know somebody in a good position in order to get a job. So I quit for a while until I saw the potentiality of the Internet back in 1994. You’re able to interact with people from other countries in long distance, you can be anonymous and discuss anything freely in censorship. It all started actually in chat rooms, then forums, then reading groups, then electronic newspapers, which I wrote articles for and sent to. Then in 2004 I took the major turn and decided to start my own blog, because there was a lot of activity in the Egyptian state and I felt like they were not getting enough coverage in the traditional media, even from the opposition. So I decided to go to these police stations and take my camera and do interviews and my own stuff and put it on my own blog. The blog enabled me to post, photos videos, and links provide technology.


Q: Have you ever been scared to blog? (Especially because of the potential consequences?)

WA: Not really.


Q: Have you ever censored yourself?

WA: Maybe when there is something that doesn’t have to do with politics or the rights of people. If it is a personal scandal of somebody I abstain from posting it.


Q: Do you censor comments from people?

WA: Yes.


Q: Why?

WA: Because they are personal and offensive. I am my own authority, I am proud of that. I will be a fascist. I would never take a government position. I keep away from that because I know that I have a fascist quality.


Q: It seems that you’re suspicious of many people, professions, and things in general – who or what do you trust?

WA: I’m not suspicious!


Q: Okay, well you seem to find faults in a lot of things. What profession do you find most admirable? Journalism?

WA: Journalism has been really a dirty job in Egypt for fifty years now. Journalism is not honest at all its only after advertising and power and stuff like that. I hate that.


Q: So then what job is honest? What about human rights activists can you find something wrong with them?

WA: Yes, of course! Of course! There are people who dealing with double standards. Like human rights who don’t recognize the rights of gay and homosexuals, and people who don’t recognize the rights of people from other religions like Bahai’s. You have people like that in your Council. Don’t write that down it will piss of [your boss]. And you have people who do it to make money, there is a lot of money in human rights. Donations. They put in their pockets.


Q: So what is the admirable profession for you? What can change the world?

WA: Any profession you do with love and honesty and you are willing to serve people with. This is the profession I respect, even if it is a garbage collector.


Q: How do you react when Yahoo, Youtube, and Facebook close your accounts?

WA: I complain against them.


Q: How does that happen? Like why does Facebook shut off your account?

WA: Google and Facebook cooperate with the regime, which I know for sure they are. Or they get false reports like people reporting me for spamming or posting violent material or abusive photos or like kinky sexual stuff. Like I have videos of torture: the police officers who shot the videos of torture took pleasure in shooting them.


Q: Why do you think this happens specifically in Egyptian society – like what is going on the police officer’s brain?

WA: We have been living under a tyrannical dictatorial military regime for over 50 years. And this has empowered and enforced the position of army officers and police officers at the same time. They have unlimited power so they feel like gods. The motto of the police used to be, “The police are in the service of the people.” But now they changed it so that now it is, “The police and the people are in the service of the nation,” – whatever the hell that means. And by the way they give courses in police academy to be arrogant or to be superior to people. They tell them not to take public transportation like the ordinary people.

The soldiers are paid very little but the police officers are very good. And they have lots of good stuff: a good pension, good health care. They can buy cars, apartments, they have touristic villages where they spend the summer with the families, they have these like five star hospitals. So they are basically being bribed to be like the guard dogs of the regime. But the soldiers of course are basically being paid pennies.


Q: What is your relationship with the American government like? We heard that you have a certain relationship with the American government.

WA: Yeah I have relations with the CIA, FBI, MI5.


Q: Are you making fun of us?

WA: Of course.


Q: So, can you be honest?

WA: [Laughs.] No I don’t have any relationships with anybody. I go on scholarships and training programs that are organized by the civil society. Nothing to do at all with any government.


Q: So what do you think about the American government? This is something of interest to us, because we’re Americans.

WA: Would your government hire people like me or pay people like me? Do you really think so?


Q: Well yeah, because you’re exposing the humanitarian face of your country. You’re an insider with access to all this material. Look, we’re basically trying to find out if you’re a spy.

WA: Is that doing any good to the American administration? Like exposing the Egyptian regime or exposing Egyptian torture? Are you planning to invade my country and am I helping you? Are you angry with Mubarak are you going to impeach him?

GIVE ME A BREAK! The US government is sleeping with Mubarak in the same bed! I get stopped at the American airports every single time that I arrive and depart there.

(Q): I mean to be honest, that might not have anything to do with your profession, but because you’re coming from the Middle East. Right? And because you’re Arab… America has a policy of discriminating against certain people so… okay clearly you don’t seem very impressed with American politics because they’re “sleeping with the regime.”

W: No, they’re very hypocritical. Sometimes they are supporting the regime. I refuse this kind of support. I consider it interference. It is hypocritical because they are supporting my country just to save face but on the other hand they are handing millions and billions to our regime.


Q: Right, but in America it would be very very rare, especially under Barack Obama, for someone to be detained for blogging. There is a pretty well respected policy for freedom of speech, at least under President Obama.

WA: I don’t think so, I don’t think so. So far, Barack Obama has not been doing anything about freedom of speech in other countries.


Q: Do you think that there is censorship in America?

WA: There is censorship in America because the media is controlled by a few corporations. There’s very little effective private media not like in the 70s. After Reagan came to power these corporations are buying all of the local stations and newspaper making them all a part of one huge network; turning into one network abiding by one policy. So censorship is very easy.


Q: We read on your blog that you basically compared Barack Obama to the Muslim Brotherhood.

WA: Well yeah, because he was, like, addressing the religious sentiment of the people not their mind, not their thoughts. So it is basically the same thing; reciting verses from the Koran and reciting the hadiths [oral stories] of the prophet. Oh my God. What the hell? Is he going to fool me like reciting stuff that? What is he thinking? What is he thinking? Yeah, there are some people who will be fooled by stuff like that but not me. Not the people like me who use their minds. Not the liberals, not the secularists, not the leftists.


Q: Well, that’s a valid point but don’t you think that some people might respond by saying that there is a religious –

WA: Fuck that. I don’t want that. I want that to be eliminated actually. I want a civil state.


Q: But don’t you think you can have a civil state with religion? You don’t think so?

WA: We can have a state with religion, but for everyone to be free to be able to practice their own religion. They are arresting Shia Muslims, because they don’t accept that there are Shia Muslims. They are arresting Christians, and they are persecuting Baha’is.


Q: So, did you watch Obama’s speech? Or did you attend it?

WA: I was there yeah.


Q: You weren’t one of the people in the back screaming “I love Obama!” where you?

WA: [Laughs] No. I was sitting next to someone who loves Obama. He is a famous actor actually.


Q: Were you appalled by him [the actor]?

WA: Everyone is free and entitled to his own opinion. He loves Obama, he was happy that Obama was there and recited verses from the Koran as if it’s adding honor to the Koran. Some people have this mentality. Some people need to be slapped in the face for thinking this way. It feels like there is this ugly old woman that men don’t approach at all, and then suddenly a man started flirting with her. (The Muslim world is the ugly old woman.)


Q: For you, what would be the ideal way for America to approach Muslim politics?


WA: I’d like America to start addressing mentality, to stop dealing with double standards, to stop aiding tyrants and dictators.


Q: What do you mean by “addressing mentality”?

WA: In the Cold War, there was a whole different approach towards the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union and a lot of criticism in the media. I don’t see that anywhere at all in the Muslim media. Saudi Arabia is the biggest ally of the United States and the biggest funder of terrorism in the world. It is building schools in the jungles of Africa, in the jungles of southern Thailand, and the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is where the Taliban came from. This is where the people who explode embassies come from. From these schools. And all of these schools have pictures of the King Abdullah, the king of Saudi Arabia, and his son. The United States always yields to pressure from Saudi Arabia. Hollywood bows to pressure from Saudi Arabia- all the time, the perception of Arabs in the media. They want to sell the most movies in the Gulf countries, the oil- rich countries. So they rarely attack Saudi Arabia, and the traditions, and the religion there.


Q: Do you vote in your country?

WA: No, because we don’t have voting. We don’t have real elections.


Q: A lot Egyptians are very impressed by Obama –

WA: Because he looks like us. He is the first black guy to be president and so he is the embodiment of a dream. We want something similar here in Egypt like where anyone can be president of the country.


Q: We met a taxi driver who like Obama because he thought he was Muslim.

WA: Some people are ignorant stupid people and think he’s a Muslim


Q: So, you’re not impressed by Obama?

WA: I was impressed by Obama before he came to power, but when he started giving those stupid speeches like he thinks he’s smart, and he thinks he’s fooling people around the world. I don’t like it. I’m simple, I’m not like him. He’s patronizing people around the world.


Q: So who is your favorite political leader in the entire world?

WA: Anwar Sadat, Mahatma Gandhi.


Q: Someone who is alive? If you had to choose – someone with real power, so you can’t say the Queen of England.

WA: No, I don’t like her. I hate monarchies. How about that guy – what’s his name? The guy who was in prison? … Nelson Mandela.


Q: Okay but someone who is in power RIGHT now.

WA: NONE! Really! No country is perfect; even Sweden, even Norway, even Finland- even those countries that have those kinds of democracies because they have their own problems. So nobody is perfect. I can only choose from the dead, from the people who are no longer in power because I can see their achievements and their contributions to politics. So these are the only people I can judge.


Q: Why did you turn down a meeting with President Bush in 2008? It was an opportunity to talk to a political leader.

WA: I wanted to talk to him as a journalist, but not as an activist that he was supporting because he was not. Bush was like leaving office and he wanted to give a message like okay I was supporting these movements. He was using me, and not just me, others too! People from South America, from former Soviet Republics. All these people praised Bush, and I was expected to do that? HELL NO. I was offered to meet Rice in 2007 and I refused that. I also hated people who met with Hilary Clinton. I don’t believe in meeting with officials from any government, especially like controversial figures. I can meet with the Prime Minister or President of Israel but only as a journalist or as an interviewer. That’s it.


Q: If you had the opportunity to tell Mubarak anything, what would it be?

WA: Lots of bad things. Lots of very horrible, horrible, nasty, ugly, obscene stuff you know. I cannot think of anything rational that I would say.


Q: If you don’t believe in working through the established method of power, then how do things get change?

WA: Things are going to change if they change their ways. The government are not fighting for their rights or to do the things they are supposed to do. If we accept censorship and security then civil society must accept all of the regulations that are forced upon them.


Q: When you say no to these meetings, do you ever feel like you are missing an opportunity to tell government officials what you think?

WA: No. I can say whatever I want through the media and through meeting with other people from civil society. The governments are working only for their own interests.


Q: What’s the best way to rule a country?

WA: By the people themselves. I believe in democracy, but I believe in enlightened democracy. People should be aware first. I don’t want people to choose Mubarak. I don’t want people to choose Hamas. I don’t want people to choose Taliban. I don’t want people to choose businessmen because they bribe them. I don’t want people to choose someone because they are oppressing them. I hate people who use people, who use democracy for their own interests. I want people to be able to realize that democracy is for their own good and they shouldn’t give it up for bribe, for a promise, for anything- just because these guys are religious, or having religious sentiment. People should think before they vote.


Q: Who has influence on you? Any writers, intellectuals, or political theorists?

WA: Charles Dickens and the x-ray machine. The x-ray machine because it doesn’t provide a cure. Some people accuse me of not providing solutions. That’s what Charles dickens and the x-ray machine do. Like, Charles Dickens was like pointing his fingers at the problems of society, the problem with institutions, the British institutions, the abuse of children and women, but he never gave answers to that. But eventually the British society was able to reform itself, to reform its institutions. So, I don’t have to provide answers. I don’t have answers. There are other people to think about it. I can only point out the problem. I point it for people to solve it.

I’ll give you an example. I published a video of torture inside a police station, of a truck driver who was physically sodomized with a stick. The video was circulated for over a year and the people didn’t care, they were so apathetic. They exchanged the video as if weird or absurd, not a crime that needed to be reported. I took this video and I posted it on my blog and I made a scandal out of it, and I said somebody should do something about it. And it was taken to court and the officer sentenced to jail. So people have a problem in awareness. People don’t know what is a crime and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Police torture was acceptable for a long time and now it’s not because people are talking about it. And I didn’t propose a solution but it’s better now. The problem is not totally solved, but the people became aware. They came forward, and they became more use to exposing that kind of torture.


Q: What do you think is the biggest humanitarian problem facing Egypt today?

WA: The biggest is a collection of all of these. I cannot say that there is a specific main problem. There is a problem of awareness – awareness of many things –people’s awareness of their own rights: what is right to do, what is right not to do, what is right to choose, what is not right to choose. So it is, basically, awareness.


Q: Do you think it’s the same for the rest of the world as well?

WA: Maybe so. This is something that our leaders and government and media and businessmen exploited. They know how to exploit very well. This is the thing that frightens me.


Q: When did you realize you were being exploited and how?

WA: After I graduated. Well, the government was like having all this propaganda all the time on television that the youth are not doing anything, that the youth are worthless and useless, that they are only into drugs. And they never thought of empowering them. And I always thought that you have to develop yourself and gain more knowledge and gain more training and stuff. I found out I had a university degree and I spoke, like, two to three languages, and certificates, and couldn’t get a job for God’s sake. So they were telling us lies. It’s not about having qualifications, it’s about, like, being corrupt and knowing somebody who is corrupt who can get you a job. I found somebody who has less qualifications than mine and just because he knew some people he had some very good jobs. I was always very critical, even before I graduated.


Q: So you’ve always been critical of your country?

WA: Not my country. The people who are running my country.


Q: Do you think you’re more patriotic for criticizing your country and trying to improve it? Would you consider yourself patriotic?

WA: That’s for other people to call me.


Q:How would you describe yourself?

WA: Not optimistic, but still if I was not I wouldn’t be working on changing stuff. If I were pessimistic I could have stopped working altogether and left the country and emigrated and started a family somewhere else. But I’m still here; that must mean something. Even if I deny it, I do desperately hope things will change. I hope at least. There is still hope.


Q: What do you want to tell our generation?

WA: You are the problem, the United States. You guys are all studying now business and engineering and chemicals, and stuff, stuff that are really radical. But nobody’s studying literature and philosophy and these arts, these kinds of arts. This is really horrible in my opinion. People are studying things that will get them jobs and get them money. This is what your regime really wants, people that are running your country want: your regime, your government, the government you choose, the government you vote for. Your democracy! They’re controlling you! The media, the corporations, and business, the corrupt people in politics. They want you to be practical and not to think and not to criticize them, not to be philosophical, not to make your mind work. They had this is in the 70s and this made them really worried: the hippies and the beat generation, people who thought and were really critical of the government, and thought the Vietnam war was wrong, and started these sit-ins and demonstrations and Woodstock festivals, and music, and rock, and stuff like that. Maybe it sounds funny now but your government made them look like that. They made them look funny. They made them look like people who were only after free sex and smoking and LSD and stuff like that. But this is not the truth. Most people were really thinking about their country and the future of their country now. There is something really wrong, it’s odd. This is not the case now. Most people are not studying philosophy, arts. I think by studying these arts, we can change the world.

Young people should study the history of the world so as not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, and then the Iraq- these are mistakes that are being repeated deliberately because some people are making money out of it, believe it or not. Some people are making HUGE bucks out of it. So people should learn history, should learn philosophy, should make their mind work; not be like lab rats and be like cogs in a machine that only move the machine that never works, that never stop to think, that never stops to think or reflect. Maybe I am using, like, communist terminology here, but I am not a communist.


Q: So we have this blog right? It’s a human rights blog, and human rights issues actually from a creative standpoint: so we have people who submit literature, and photos, and poetry, and songs? What tips do you have for this blog?

WA: My approach was to address the young people, no matter how trivial I think they are and no matter how I think that their education or knowledge is inferior. I try to talk to them in their own knowledge. I try to attract young people in their own language and tell them that first we understand them, and second that we are interested in having a conversation with you. Don’t make them feel intimidated, don’t make them think that you are an elitist. You know, this is a problem here in Egypt because some people were speaking in classical Arabic, and they have this sophisticated language, and using these expressions all the time that young people maybe don’t understand and they don’t care to understand those issues that they are discussing. That’s why I’m using obscenity and slang language in my blog. It’s actually what provokes people to interact, and understand, and absorb what I’m telling them. Also, always try to support what you’re saying with pictures and videos and stuff like that – multimedia, it gives you more legitimacy. And never censor people or opinions – you can always censor offenses; like towards your mother and so on and sister and so on and so on.


(Q:) That hasn’t happened to us yet.

WA: Well, maybe people have more respect for your mother, and your mothers’ sexual organs. [Laughs.]


(Q:) Well, we won’t censor that. We don’t censor.

WA: [Smiles] Inshallah. [Arabic for God willing.]

Uh... China?

by Oscar Pocasangre

There's something fishy going on in China and it's not the sweet and sour fried fish rolls. Over the last month or so the country's government has been surreptitiously censoring websites and blocking access to the internet and even to telephone lines in some places.

I started noticing this through the great informative tool that is Facebook (I promise I also read other news feeds!) when several friends posted on their profile status that China had blocked access to blogspot, the website the YJHR uses for its blog. That was about a month ago, but just this day I saw that many people who are doing summer programs in China were complaining that the government had blocked access to Facebook (How dare they!?) and the only way they could access it was through VPN Client software that modifies the computer's IP address and makes it seems as if it is coming from somewhere else in the world.

But for those that thought that the blocking of Facebook was the ultimate censoring scheme, there is more. Last month, the Chinese government announced that it will require that every single computer sold in China to have a special software, conveniently named Green Dam, that filters certain web-content. The Chinese government claims the software will only block "violent and obscene material," but, come on, we know better than that.

To make matters worse, in the province of Urumqi, where violent clashes are going on between the Han Chinese and a minority ethnic group that is predominantly Muslim, China has blocked internet, cell phones, and international phone calls. Fortunately though the Chinese government is being somewhat understanding and respectful of human rights (emphasis on somewhat) by allowing the foreign press access to the internet, but only from one of the city's main hotels from which the government can filter anything they find objectionable and can control what websites the journalists who are covering the ethnic clashes can visit. How very generous of them.

At a Peace Rally for Iran on June 25th, 2009

by Kenneth Reveiz

NEW YORK - June 28, 2009

I found out about the rally through an old high school acquaintance’s Facebook status:

“PEACE RALLY FOR IRAN NEW YORK Candle Light Vigil for NEDA and all those who have been so BRAVE in IRAN. Please come and support them. Wednesday, Jun 24 - 7:00pm New York Metro Union Square NYC www.freeiranbracelet.org”

The website sells, as the Live Strong campaign did, bracelets. It plans on “donating the proceeds to Reporters without Borders, who have continuously put their lives at risk in various countries throughout the world, so that the truth can be shown to all the citizen’s [sic] in the world.”

After work—still dressed in suit and tie—I took the subway to Union Square and watched as, at around 7:10PM, under a slowly graying sky, scores of Iranians and non-Iranians stretched columns of green across the plaza. Green, of course, is the color of Islam.

“This is solidarity for Iranian people,” one woman explained in a British-schooled accent to her daughters, who were dressed like twins but weren’t twins. The shorter girl held an unlit candle, a perfect white circle.

At the edges of the expanding display of color, a bearded man held a large sign. It read “DEATH TO DICTATORS,” around which words he had pasted black-and-white computer-printed pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, among others I did and didn’t recognize.

I was surprised to find opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi on the poster. In fact, the bearded man was speaking to a tough-looking, white-haired police officer, complaining that he had been “pushed away” from the general demonstration. The others—one woman was near tears: “This is hurting! This is not our message!”—had been incensed by his “message of violence.” Claiming he had every right to be there as they did, it was determined that he should stand a little off to the side.

He spoke to a young woman with a tape recorder, explained that all those pictured on his poster were “basically the same,” explained that Mousavi was a hard-line dictator, no different from Ahmadinejad. I had heard one student call Ahmadinejad a “monster,” an “inhumane form of human being,” as “not deserving any kind of respect,” and “not part of Iran anymore.” I wondered if this man felt the same way about Ahmadinejad as she did, and still thought the comparison to Mousavi valid, I should have asked. In any case he spoke into the recorder with conviction, gently affirming his opinion, answering questions with the self-assurance of a serene and special truth.

An older, visibly distressed woman tried to interrupt the interview. “So aggressive—why is he so aggressive?” she asked after he and the reporter ignored her. Her husband cautioned her to not “entertain him.” I realized that, with black pen, he had scribbled into the eyes of his dictators.

There had been other rallies, in front of the United Nations building, at Union Square. This is what one tall, bespectacled redhead told me as she stretched a paper bag filled with pins to the crowd of at least a hundred.

One pin read, “NEDA Your voice will never die,” referring to a girl who was shot dead, allegedly by a Basij soldier. Videos and pictures of the brutal killing of the Iranian—now a martyr—circulate all over the Internet. “Neda” is Farsi for “voice.” A computer graphic of a dove, whose ruptured heart had plummeted centimeters below its body, accompanied the words.

The other pin read “WHERE IS MY VOTE?”

Sure enough, at the center of Union Square, which slowly grew darker, was, surrounded by a perimeter of young, white roses, a perimeter of white candles slowly being lit, which itself held down a banner, green and large: “WHERE IS MY VOTE?” with a splatter of blood; above the words were pictures of a brutalized Neda and more words: “Rest in Peace;” “Free Iran.”

As I walked back to the subway a man drew, with a compass, inky circles into a notebook.

Tweet 4 Iran

Get a taste for the tweet on Iran: http://twitter.com/persiankiwi

Wanna #help# IranElection? Twitter is our media. Make a xul-runner app from TwitterFox!!! 200px TwitterFox is a disaster! #Mozilla43 minutes ago from TwitterFox

Logging off - must keep phone line open - will update asap #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

reliable source Isfahan hospital - many injured from last 24 hours- #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

Shiraz university reports of unrest and governor resignation #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

Gov is planning ANejad rally also today afternoon - close to Valli Asr - new tactic #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

we cannot confirm that university exams cancelled - you must check with your uni directly - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

unconfirmed rumours - army generals arrested - many rumours of coupdetat by army - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

Saeid Hajarian - rumour - arrested last night - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

are hearing that all foreigner visas are being cancelled by gov - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

confirmed - today 5pm Valli Asr sq - supporters of freedom - wear black in respect of fallen - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

حمیات از آزادی - میدون ولی‌ عصر - امروز ساعت ۵ بعد از زهر - همگی‌ با لباس عزا - تائید شد - #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

I must log off now - will log on when I have more info - need phone line - no mobile cover, no sms, no satellite, no radio #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

anyone with camera or laptop is attacked in street #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

Tehran hotels under high security to stop Iranians from contacting foreign press #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

rumours that foreign embassys preparing to leave Iran #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

most roads out of Tehran blocked #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

confirmed - Tabriz - Baseej headqurters set fire - 'many' dead #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

Abtahi reported arrested - concerns for Khatami #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

security in Jamaran is unbelieveble - hundreds of Baseej guarding Khamenei #Iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

All last night we hear shooting accross Tehran - everyone is full of rumours and stories - many arrests in night #Iranelection

Where Are Their Votes?

-- Sarika Arya

"Ahmadinejad called us dust, we showed him a sandstorm." #iranelection About 14 hours ago, Twitter

Iran is on fire. Text messaging and phone calls have been suspended, the internet is barely functioning, and the only media outlets still running are the state news network and radio station. Despite attempts by those in power to cast the protests of Iranians into darkness, civilians, especially Iranian students, are burning. And their flame is bright. The students are leading the revolution, sending messages on Twitter like the one above, starting Facebook groups supporting Mr. Mir Houssein Mousavi, whom they believe is the actual democratically elected President. While the polls suggest that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the true winner with 66% of the vote (leaving Mousavi with a mere 33%), the number and scale of recent demonstrations and escalating violence suggests that the country has been deceived by poll rigging and corruption. Now Iranians, led by their young people, are utilizing an inalienable right of man: freedom of expression. They are taking to the streets, and paying the price.

Exhilarating and terrifying reports are escaping Iran via the internet of clashes, dormitory raids, five deaths, and even "a massacre" at the University of Tehran between students and militiamen. In the 1970s, students had the power to overthrow the Shah in the Iranian Revolution. The students, depending on their determination, organization, and strength and unity of their voices, may carry the same weight this time around too.

The protesters may be outnumbered and overpowered by the pistol-carrying and baton-waving officers who unreservedly use their weapons, but nonetheless, the protestors persevere. Driven by their progressive spirit and thirst for freedom, this young, embittered, and impassioned crowd is standing defiant in the face of unjust authority. It is outrageous that as a young person, as someone with the most personal stake in the well being of one's country, the opportunity to cast a vote has become a farce, that supporting a particular political candidate can mean one's death, and that intellectual freedom and societal well being is stifled and prevented because of one man's tyrannical greediness for absolute power.

Students all over the world should unite behind these young Iranians. In moments like these, clichés are often overused, but they wield great truths: The future is in our hands. It is impossible not to empathize with the fear, excitement, and hope of these young Iranians.

As Robert Fisk reports for The Independent:

"Moin, a student of chemical engineering at Tehran University – the same campus where blood had been shed just a few hours before – was walking beside me and singing in Persian as the rain pelted down. I asked him to translate.

'It's a poem by Sohrab Sepehri, one of our modern poets,' he said. Could this be real, I asked myself? Do they really sing poems in Tehran when they are trying to change history? Here is what he was singing: 'We should go under the rain. We should wash our eyes, And we should see the world in a different way.'

He grinned at me and at his two student friends. "The next line is about making love to a woman in the rain, but that doesn't seem very suitable here." We all agreed."

It is especially remarkable to follow the Twitter feed. Twitter itself has even acknowledged the importance it bears in the Iranian elections, forgoing scheduled maintenance work (apparently under the request of the US State Department) so that activists may salvage the last outlet they have to make their voices heard. The live updates are invigorating and remarkable: it is unbelievable to follow at every instant a victory or a defeat, whether it is one for the students or one for the army. The latest tale of protest, the latest tale of trickery, is known to one and all - "only official march today is valli asr. others may be a trap- avoid others-#iranelection 7 minutes ago." But there it is. The live mobilization of young activists. Each "tweet" carries with it the weight of the mantra many Mousavi supporters have adopted: One Person = One Broadcaster. That is, each of us has a voice, and each of us has the right to use it responsibly.

This generation must remember that responsiblity, and must take advantage of this right.

For we are a modern generation: fighting our battles both on the street and online. We are also a young generation: we like to show off our intellect and liberal attitude to change the minds of those older and more powerful than us, and to persuade those younger than us to follow our lead. We are all Iranian students today. We must be if we believe in human rights. Use the internet to post on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news outlets, anything – even talk to your friends – demand a call for freedom of expression, the right to democracy, and a recount of the vote on behalf of Iran. Even if you are not in Tehran, baring the physical brunt and brute force of authority, mending the broken bones and bloody wounds of your fellow classmate, there is another way to nurture and channel your revolutionary spirit.

If you are a student and if you value your freedom, then get educated, feel enraged, and take action.

More Reading on the Iranian Election Uprising:
Live Iran Updates on the Huffington Post (Contributed by David Schlussel)
The BBC follows the Iranian Election
The Daily Dish: Images and Videos from Iran
Claims of Student Massacre Spread

The Right to Write

North Korean Journalists in Prison

By Ashley Gutierrez

As a student journalist, for me this is both terrifying and appalling. The US administration must insist on Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s release from prison and North Korea.

Arguments have countered that Ling and Lee deserve this - that it is the price they should pay for going after a story that they wanted for fame, that they should have known what they were getting themselves into. Not all journalists are in the field for fame. Journalists put themselves at risk for stories all the time to allow us, the public, to learn the truth. It is our right to know, and it is their right to write- to speak.

North Korea must release these journalists on humanitarian grounds.