قهرمانان دوران ما

Amidst the bustle of winter holidays, we trust that you will not lose sight of the political prisoners in Iran, whose numbers grow amidst widespread, heroic protest. Please mark your calendars for the January 9, 2022 event (seebelow), and join in the urgent campaign to Free Them All!  To help us with technical planning for Zoom and FBLive broadcasts, pleaselet us know how you plan to join in this event: REGISTER online, or  email us (the IEC)  or email the Social Forum.of the  Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco.

With eyes on a brighter 2022,
Dolly Veale, for the International Emergency Campaign (IEC)

Dear fellow social justice activists and organizers,

We invite you to join us and organize a fitting “kick-off” for social justice in 2022: The International Emergency Campaign (IEC) to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners NOW and the UUSF Forum will co-sponsor:
Heroism For Our Times — An Afternoon of Solidarity to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners

Featured Speakers:

• Mariam Claren, daughter of German-Iranian dual citizen and political prisoner Nahid Taghavi held in Iran since October 2020.  Mariam will speak about the case of her mother and how it is related to struggle to free all of Iran’s political prisoners.
•  Lawdan Bazargan, former political prisoner, family member of victims of the 1988 massacre of Iran’s political prisoners, and human rights activist. A graduate of Cal State University Fullerton, she has written extensively on the 1988 massacre of Iran’s political prisoners, movements of mothers and family members who lost their children, and grief.
• Larry Everest, a spokesperson for the IEC; author of the book “Oil, Power and Empire”;  journalist and contributor to revcom.us.
• Dr. Azam Niroomand-Rad, emeritus professor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC;  honorary faculty member of the Dept. of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin at Madison.

There will be music, a Q&A and more.

The program will generally be informed by the content of the Emergency Appeal: The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance—We Must ACT Now. 

People from a broad range of viewpoints have endorsed this call published as an ad in the summer issue of the New York Review of Books. Signers include former Iranian political prisoners and relatives of current prisoners such as Mariam Claren, Elika Ashoori, and Taghi Rahmani; prominent voices of conscience Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Gloria Steinem, and Daniel Ellsberg; writer Ariel Dorfman; 1997 Nobel Laureate Jody Williams; Jeff Kaufman and Marcia Ross, producers of the documentary film NASRIN; Raymond Lotta, NY Revolution Books and advocate for the new communism developed by Bob Avakian; as well as academics, activists, people of faith and over 3,000 others.

Sponsors and participants from diverse political perspectives will join together for this event.  We urge you (individually or as an organization) to co-sponsor this exciting January 9 program, to sign the Emergency Appeal now and to donate to its further publication.
We aim to reach out to UUCs and other faith denominations in the U.S., the Burn the Cage/Free the Birds movement in Europe,  family members of Iranian political prisoners, and to reach an international audience from Europe and Canada, and beyond.

In the words of world-renowned Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman:
“If I have signed on to the Emergency Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran, it is because I know that this initiative will effectively call attention to the situation of men and women in that country who, if enough pressure is brought to bear on its leaders, could tomorrow be liberated from terrible conditions and extraordinary injustice…I am convinced – from personal experience – that the prisoners themselves are given strength to survive and persevere …They know others, faraway, care what happens to them, and we should not let them down.”

Register on EventBrite