The establishment and activism of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), also known as Human rights Activists (HRA), began in February 2006. Since then, HRA has been subjected to great hardships and has endured enormous pressures over the past 15 years. Yet, it has had a positive impact, and its share of weaknesses and mistakes that call for criticism. As the founder and director of HRA, I will share my experiences and discuss the less-mentioned aspects of the early history of this organization in order to create more transparency.
After being repeatedly imprisoned because of civil rights activism, a group of like-minded colleagues with idealistic demands seeking change decided to start a grassroots group. Frustrated with political activism and the increasing loss of hope in the ability to impact the surrounding world, we learned to focus on human rights. By adopting this approach, we could continue our activism in the hope of achieving our goal, a society defined by humanitarian values.
I spent several months wrestling with challenges, concerns and doubts. This time also gave us the opportunity to learn about human rights and its related concepts. Then, with a clear resolve, we issued a statement announcing the birth of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA).
The election of Mohammad Khatami as president represented a time of unprecedented change in the world of communication in Iran. With an already severely restricted amount of freedom and security under threat, we commenced our organizational activities.
It is especially important to keep in mind that in the early years of HRA, the speed and the influence of the internet in Iran was not comparable to what it is today, as the internet was not available as it is today.
For the few who had internet access, the extremely slow speed of uploading and downloading information (a few hundred-kilobytes per second) was a challenge. It seems comical today, but social media, which is now a revolutionary element of communication, did not have a significant presence in 1997 and had not been an established medium of communication.
For instance, Facebook had only been operating for two years and naturally did not have a considerable place in Iran back then. During the initial phase of HRA’s operations, our communication and information dissemination (considering our limited knowledge and resources) was restricted to email; later, we added a free web blog. It took at least two years before our website (in the modern sense)was launched. Even then, we had no access to Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla and WordPress. To keep the website up to date, the posts had to be changed to HTML format using special software and subsequently uploaded directly into the server. I remember the days when we had to keep an old computer in use overnight just to update the website with a few simple news items. In the middle of the upload, if there was a power fluctuation or the internet was disconnected, we had to start over and repeat all these painful hours of waiting.
The early years of our activities were also marked by the limited cellular network and basic communications tools in Iran. There was only one phone company provider, “Hamrah-e Aval,” which was not widely used at the time. I believe the past 10 years of development in communication have been equal to 100 years of steps forward in technological advancement.
At the beginning of our activism, we were inexperienced, and trial and error was and still is part of HRA’s growth strategy. While political activists could reduce errors through studying and learning from the experiences of former parties and revolutions, there was no such equivalent for us. The viable human rights activist community in Iran was very young and limited at the time. The few groups with experience, seemed unavailable to a novice group of young activists. We could only rely on our own analytical abilities. As the director of the team, I relied on books written during the 1970s and the 1980s to educate myself on collective work and learn more about creating, maintaining, and developing an organizational structure; the result was the establishment of a complex structure for a civil-rights group. While our set-up promoted the growth and development of the group, especially under the high-security conditions, it also limited our communications and made it difficult for our audience to see the essence of our activism: human rights. Creating a vertical structure for a civil rights organization that would traditionally follow horizontal management structures was indeed an innovation that impeded our growth, but it was necessary to guarantee our continuing activism.
The early years of our activism were filled with learning experiences, creating a structure and developing necessary teamwork environment with a touch of idealism that would guide our burgeoning organization. We realized that without planning, discipline and a coherent structure, there was no hope for our survival. By studying and by gaining experience, we were able to develop certain principles as well as positive attributes. The lack of any of them would have meant the end of our activism.
The following is a summary of our most prominent organizational and personal attributes:
Youth-led: The average participation age of our organization members was low This was likely the main reason we were able to attract young people with enthusiasm and strong ideals. This gave the organization the opportunity to benefit from strong executive members and creative minds. The young members acted more daringly and idealistically, taking on more risks. The downside was that the lack of experienced members by our side increased our error percentage.
Having a social base inside the country: It was very important to be able to establish an organization based inside Iran without connection to any party or taking any political side so that we could continue our activism without raising the attention of the security sector. By operating within the country, we were able to work more closely with people and discuss any security concerns
they had. As a result, people were more willing to work with us and our recruiting efforts were not hindered. We were able to be present at events to have a more realistic analysis of ongoing affairs then.
The principle of equality and nondiscrimination:
Thought and organizational independence from any movement and any political, religious, or governmental parties made indiscrimination of all people (extracted from our understanding of the essence of human rights) a permanent fundamental principle and a dominant belief within the group. As people who started their activism outside the capital (Tehran), we had an inner desire to be the voice of the voiceless and to highlight their demands and issues.
Courage: The absence of fear, the desire to gain experience and the belief in innovation, gave us enough courage so that, instead of imitating others, we believed in ourselves. The type of organizational management, field of study and the kind of activities we engaged in were all the results of our own thinking; therefore, we were not frightened by being challenged in any field under the existing circumstances.
Innovation and creativity: We had creative, curious, and idealistic minds that enjoyed activism and took it seriously. We believe a group that is not creative and progressive is doomed to fail. Thus, we have shown our ultimate creativity, from innovating reporting methods, which were considered an undeniable transformation in the field of human rights in Iran during recent years, to acquiring new skills with the efficient use of emerging technology.
Independence: Independence for a civic or political organization is equal to its freedom. Certainly, this has its own advantages and
disadvantages. It is a disadvantage in the sense that without any empirical support and resources, the organization would be left to survive by its own innovation and ingenuity. The advantage is that, if the goal is long-term activism, this independence allows risk-taking and flexibility. One’s interest should not be any different from the organizational interests. This allows for continuity on the path toward the organization’s ultimate goal.
Being aware of our lack of experience: We benefited from being aware of our lack of experience and of practical and theoretical knowledge. By completely accepting this reality, we did not resist learning. Rather, we eagerly sought knowledge, experience and awareness. We welcomed criticism and tried to keep our knowledge up to date. Whether in prison or free, we spent our leisure time preparing educational materials for our colleagues and ourselves.
Diligently and tirelessly: The full-time members of HRA have been and still are mentally and physically active and working hard throughout the day. Some have even worked 20 hours a day at times. We have experienced imprisonment and tolerated the lack of basic conveniences. We knew at the beginning that we were inexperienced, and every failure for us was an opportunity to learn. We capitalized on our hopes and aspirations, motivating us to be diligent and tireless. Simply put, we were pertinacious in our work. We have been through the most difficult times and circumstances but our persistent resolve toward our mission and desire to survive has allowed us to continue on our path.
The experience of being victims of human rights violations: As the founder of the organization, when I was imprisoned due to my activism, I came across the rest of the eventual members of the group. The first members of the organization have a history of being victims of human rights violations as well, having suffered imprisonment for peaceful activism. We were able to maintain qualitative communication with the activists and communities that were prone to more human rights advocacy. Each of us deeply understood the process and cost of activism and, with a better understanding of the potential costs, we never wavered in accepting the risks. Because we were victims as well, it was easier for other victims and activists to trust us.
Selflessness: Sacrificing and putting aside one’s individual interests for the common interest of the others have always been two of our most important doctrines. Staying anonymous and being active without any thought to personal interests have always been considered key values in our minds. With the understanding of the importance and necessity of selfless activism and daily sacrifices, we have always tried to strengthen and elevate this spirit in our collective activism.
The higher the rank, the higher the pressure: As part of the principle of organized activism, we believed that those with more authority should have more responsibilities and show more effort, so that the ones under their management would be convinced to take on more responsibilities and put in more effort. Accordingly, the higher-ranking members of the organization, including myself, have always tried to shoulder the most pressure and to put in the most effort. For instance, I asked my colleagues to work long hours, only if I worked longer hours than I requested of them. This is how all levels of the organization work and define their relations with the members under their management. We tolerate the lack of sleep and exhaustion as well as other hardships and imprisonment. Even when we were forced to flee our country, we refused to stop our activism, often risking our families’ security. We have paid the price of this tenacity. To us, the authority in the group goes to the one who shows greater effort and endures deeper wounds; a great ship asks for deeper waters.
Dr. Ladan Yazdian speaks at the memorial ceremony for Jamal Hosseini.
Organization: From the very beginning, we strongly believed that the secret to our permanence in human rights activism would be in teamwork—the kind that, in the security atmosphere of Iran, is better to be regarded as “organized activism.” That is, a coherent, unified, flexible and organized activism that could guarantee the existence and longevity of an organization. We genuinely believed in this idea, and with all seriousness, we’ve tried to build a disciplined operation.
In the security and socio-political circumstances of the time, Human Rights Activists in Iran, by relying on the mentioned principles—began its activism and has continued to operate through years of activism. I believe the important accomplishments events of HRA’s activism should be briefly shared and examined:
Farzad Kamangar, a Shooting Star
Farzad Kamangar had officially joined our organization before his arrest in July 2006. There is an audio file available on the internet as the proof. He was a member of HRA for months. However, we did not ever claim that his arrest was related to us or that he had significantly collaborated with us. Yet, our association created a strong trust between us which remained strong till the very end. I was Farzad’s ward-mate, and our connection led to his “Letters from the Prison,” which he placed at my disposal. The campaign to save Farzad, which could even be considered as a movement, publicly began with the publication of his “Letters from Prison” and his “Narrations of Torture.” Alongside Farzad, his family and his lawyer, HRA played a key role in media outreach and other efforts of the campaign.
I do not intend to elaborate on Farzad Kamangar’s story here. The purpose of this brief mention is to acknowledge that our communication with Farzad and associated work with the campaign elevated our work and provided us with the experience of working with marginalized parts of the country and oppressed regions. The experiences learned from activism in Kurdistan became key in engagement and involvement in other regions. Along with our activism in various regions and field sectors, HRA’s involvement with Farzad Kamangar’s Campaign, allowed us to be further recognized; thus, we established more connections, which helped us to earn more trust, and as a result, we became subject to more scrutiny.
When the head of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand, was unfairly imprisoned by Iran’s security apparatus, we were able to expand our operations into the Kurdish areas as a non-Kurdish group, and we were able to use this experience later in other parts of the country.
Committee of the Right to Education
Due to our organization’s overall approach and mindset on the principle of equality and justice for all individuals, we were able to find common purposes to collaborate with the minority communities of Iran. The Baha’i community, despite its small population, was a prime focus of human rights civil activism in Iran due to the atrocities that the Iranian government had imposed on it. This community’s young and educated members represented precious capital for lighting the path of improving the human rights conditions in Iran. By establishing our commitment and dedication to equality and honesty, we were able to gain their trust and make HRA a partner in collaborative activism. The tireless and motivated young members of the Baha’i community, who were facing educational discrimination in Iran, found that being part of our Committee of Right to Education was an effective way to demand their fundamental right to education.
The presence of these individuals in the organization provided an opportunity to gain more experience in broader activism. However, because of the difference of opinions in management style on the one hand, and the March 2, 2010 government attacks on HRA on the other hand, the committee was no longer able to continue. Nevertheless, this does not take away from the value of the constructive influence and the positive history of our collaboration with the Baha’i community, which is still ongoing strongly.
Jamal Hosseini
I previously published an article about Seyed Jamal Hosseini (Esfandiar Baharmas), his records and status; however, this writing would be incomplete without any mention of him. Certainly, the early history of our activism must include him as much as anyone else.
Jamal Hosseini played a valuable and outstanding role in the activities of the group; yet, before his death, not many activists knew about him. Therefore, we insist on introducing him broadly and accurately, while noting that there have been many more “Jamals” who anonymously and diligently made this activism possible. Seyed Jamal Hosseini’s tragic death in Turkey in 2014
serves as an everlasting reminder of what a real friend, praiseworthy brother and precious colleague he was, one who played an important role in the executive process of our work from the very beginning. It is hard to imagine that we would have accomplished all we have without Jamal’s around-the-clock endeavors and contributions as editor of “Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)” and in other tireless work on behalf of our organization.
March 2, 2010
March 2, 2010 marks the beginning of fundamental changes in HRA, as this was when the vast effort of the security apparatus of the Iranian regime to halt our organization became public. Although, many members of our group had been arrested and sentenced to jail before then; the planned and extensive attacks that began on March 2 showed the government’s clear intent of instantly halting our organizational activities. From March 2nd to close to the end of the month, about 46 people who were members, colleagues or had connections to HRA were arrested and detained at security prisons. The security apparatus took on a different approach for a few of us, myself included, who had already left the country. For us, they used tactics such as arresting our family members and keeping them as hostages. Ultimately, they issued about 60 years of suspension and imprisonment against our members collectively during the first year, as well as several open cases and a few members who had to leave the country.
The government’s actions on March 2nd made us realize that it would be impossible to be publicly or semi-publicly active as before, and we were forced to accept that we had to continue our activism under scrutiny while facing dangerous circumstances. This incident sparked major changes in our activities’ structure and practices.
The Accusation of Political Leaning
During these years, the difficulties imposed on the organization by the critics and oppositions of the Iranian regime were comparable to the pressure that it exerted on us. The reasons for the oppression are clear: the lack of a proper communication culture, instrumental use of human rights, and the lack of belief in the independent existence of a civil institution.
As an old strategy, when the security forces of the country wanted to alienate and distance us from the key areas, they started accusing us of wrongful acts and spreading rumors about our group. For instance, they would summon our Baloch members and tell them that our organization was collaborating with Jundallah or that our Kurdish members were collaborating with PJAK (Kurdistan Free Life Party). To the nationalist members, we were labeled a secessionist group and so on. Thus, the volunteers, even with knowledge of the falsity of such claims, ultimately would have taken these warnings seriously and either stopped their collaboration with HRA or at least tried to keep it hidden.
The aggressive reaction of the security forces that were confronting us was because of the potential impact of the protests which sprung up after the results of the controversial tenth presidential elections were revealed in March 2010. On one hand, some of our members were arrested and our facilities were destroyed, and on the other hand, they launched a soft war and propaganda against us. The security sector made outlandish claims. These claims were aired multiple times by the national media. One day, we were connected to the “People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK),” and the next day we were connected to its exact opposite, The Royal Assembly and the monarchists. On another day, they would claim that we were connected to the West or intelligence agencies, and the day after, they would talk about us being connected to the Tudeh Party, Baluch dissidents or others. The propaganda films that were made with false content about us had different motives. Films were shown in Farsi for the Iranian audience and in English or Arabic for the foreign-language-speaking audiences.
Yet we did not have much concern because we imagined this incorrect accusation would not be taken seriously by anyone, especially because the security apparatus had an atrocious history of this type of propaganda. However, it is not deniable we neglected to deal with the propaganda. As the famous saying goes: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Our failure to address the lies led to the dead atmosphere that surrounded us for a long time— an atmosphere that we were able to neutralize with years of hard work and insistence on principled activism.
As I mentioned earlier, the sources of these pressures were Iran’s security apparatus as well as contrasting yet complementary sources.
One example of this occurred in the responses when we created the prison network. For the very first time, we published the voice of a political prisoner Valiullah Faiz Mahdavi, who was on a death row, in the spring of 2006. The groups and people who claimed to be the opposition of the Iranian regime started propagandizing and spreading rumors, saying we were connected to the regime. The explanation for this is simple: Parties and groups aboard had been frozen in 1970s and ‘80s forms of activism and could not simply believe a new generation’s evolving methods and the increasing maturity of the civil society within the country. They even could not simply understand the fact that it is possible for the political prisoners to contact the world outside of prison. This lack of understanding sounds comical now that prisoners can even update their social media from prison. Even though time has worked in our favor to prove us honest and right, we are still subjected to this kind of misinformed pressure.
We had long been in a position where the security apparatus directly or indirectly pressured us by asking us to take a stance against the opposition political parties and groups. For instance, we have been asked directly to take a position in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, to take a stance against the Mujahedin, or take the Revolutionary Guards’ side in the conflict between them and PJAK and so on. Although we do not have any ideological or organizational affiliations with these groups, we believed we could not capitulate to the security apparatus demands, which fundamentally were in conflict with our charter, objectives and framework. So far, we have acted with dignity and in accordance with our principles. But, in the long term, such conditions make us potentially more vulnerable to the pressure and bullying of the security apparatus. Accordingly, we never caved into such demands, which have been mostly relayed to us by our imprisoned
fellows, and indeed, we have paid the price for insisting on our principles, making us the target for the revenge-thirsty security apparatus. This brief’s focus is not on describing a decade of suffering exerted on us by the groups for or against the Iranian regime. As time has proven, the accusations of the Iranian regime and those who consider themselves the opposition of it (yet have inadvertently or deliberately repeated the accusations) are wrong. I will merely emphasize that HRA has no affiliations with any other political, religious, or governmental organization or group.
Finances
The revenue of HRA from 2006 to 2011 at its highest has been only a few hundred dollars a month. The money mostly came from core members’ personal funds. However, the March 2nd incident and its aftermath caused severe damage to the organization and its facilities. We lost many experienced members due to arrests and some leaving Iran. After that, we understood the importance of using capacities outside Iran. We wanted to be active and exist outside of Iran while maintaining full independence. Therefore, HRA expanded its network and decided to start receiving financial aid from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a non-governmental and non-profit organization based in the United States.
The annual turnover of the organization including all its subdivisions totals less than the average earnings of a simple day laborer in the USA. Most of these funds are spent on various services. This organization has never hired any paid staff and, unfortunately, the only financial support it has been able to offer its full-time staff has been in the form of grants to a few. These grants are just enough to cover basic needs and necessities of life so that colleagues would be able to dedicate more time to the organization.
HRANA News Agency
HRA essentially started its activism by reporting on the human rights situation in Iran, and this remained our main focus. Before 2009, HRA only published reports on its own website. However, the lack of media outreach by some other human rights organizations and our willingness and interest in expanding our activism, led to the establishment of HRANA, the first specialized human rights news agency in Iran, launched in February of 2009. This news agency was established with the main goal of creating a human rights reference news library. In addition to preparing original reports, HRANA also collected human rights news and reports published by other organizations and media outlets. HRANA is still active in the same manner.
Due to repeated and deliberate damage to the organization’s database by the Iranian regime, it is hardly possible to collect the exact stats of HRANA’s activities and reports, especially for the first four years of its activism. However, during 2012-2016, HRANA either exclusively or from other sources gathered at least 24,000 reports on human rights in Iran.
Over our years of activities, tens of administrative members and hundreds of volunteers have collaborated in various ways with this news agency, Seyed Jamal Hosseini was the first editor of HRANA, and from March 2015 until the end of 2017, Ali Ajami took on the role of editor.
HRA Timeline:
- 2006-2007:Getting started, trial and error, experimentation.
- 2007-2008:Focusing on structuring, recruiting and organizing members.
- 2008-2010:The peak of our organizational maturity. At this time, more than 30 specialized committees were created, and the number of registered members (not necessarily active) had reached over 2,000volunteers.
- 2010-2012: Theattacks of 2009, led to the reconstruction of the group by defining new policies and strategies in accordance with the changing situation.
- 2012-2016:Developing and strengthening the group by the strategy of “reduced quantity and increased quality.” Finally, five specialized sectors of the organization were established.
Strategy, Sectors and Approaches
HRA organizes its field members and its operational scope in five sectors and with five distinct approaches. The full explanation of these sectors and approaches needs another article, but for a better understanding, a few of them are briefly mentioned:
HRANA News Agency: HRA’s News Agency, HRANA, despite all the restrictions and limitations, has been responsible for gathering and publishing nearly half of the entire reporting of human rights violations in Iran.
Peace Mark Monthly: This specialized publication on human rights was abruptly halted for 2 years after the incident of 2009; however, from 2012 till present, it has been published monthly without any interruptions as the theoretical front in human rights with a focus on the atmosphere and activism inside of Iran. This monthly journal, in addition to being published online, is printed and distributed within Iran in small quantities.
The Fourth Column Committee: Is focused on fighting against censorship and internet filtering. This committee began distributing proxies in 2011 and, from 2012 to 2014, has been distributing free VPNs to Iranians. Due to financial issues, this committee was forced to halt the service in August of 2014. In the last months of the service, it provided a secure and free internet connection to anywhere between 2 and 3 million Iranians. Ever since, this committee has focused on education, information and research. and will soon start providing new local services to deal with censorship.
The Center for Statistics and Records: From 2012, by creating special software, The Center for Statistics and Records archives human rights violations in Iran daily. Thousands of reports are entered into the special software, which makes generating statistical outputs and analysis possible. The data is available to Human Rights Watch among others.
Conclusion: Today
A decade after its establishment, HRA was in 2016 still standing and continuing on its path with enthusiasm, hope and a bag full of experiences. It had been forced to find new ways to be active due to the security atmosphere in the country. Therefore, instead of collaborating with large numbers of volunteers and amateur members, we began collaborating with fewer but more professional members.
Indeed, we became eager to collaborate and cooperate with other experienced and professional organizations defending human rights to advance and grow, and of course, we tried to maintain our activism’s focus on Iran.
We hoped to increase our ability to report on the human rights situation in Iran and to provide legal services to the victims of rights violations, to strive for the production and distribution of educational material, to succeed in “making violation of human rights costly for its violators” by the development of civil society within the country and to benefit from the international community in the context of improving the human rights situation within Iran.
In conclusion, I was the person in charge and responsible for most of the shortcomings of this organization during the past decade and a half. I pay tribute to Farzad Kamangar, Jamal Hosseini, and Taher Elçhi[7] for their selfless efforts to support this organization; today, more than ever, we miss their presence. I bow down to the many former and current fellows who anonymously, without any expectations and with fullest honesty and dedication have paid costly prices. In spite of their experiences, they did not desert their ideals, doctrines and beliefs. I also appreciate all those dear and noble people who have stood by our side and shined a light on our path during the most difficult and darkest moments.
1. The seventh presidential election of Iran, where more than 80% of those eligible voted, which marked a new era in Iranian politics because of the unexpected win with nearly 70% of the votes going to the reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
2. Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran, commonly known as “Hamrah-e Aval,” is the first and largest mobile operator in the country.
3. Rafiee, K., (2015, August 9). A Short Description of Seyed Jamal Hosseini’s Life and Death, HRANA. Retrieved from https://hra-news.org/en/articles/short-description-seyed-jamal-hosseinis-life-death-keyvan-rafiee
4. HRANA Website. (2011, March 3). 60 years of Imprisonment and Tens of Victims–One Year Summary of Security Sectors Scenario against HRA. Retrieved from (in Farsi): https://hra-news.org/fa/uncategorized/1-6130
5. Human Rights Activists in Iran. Charter of HRA. Retrieved from http://www.hra-iran.org/en/exposure/charter
6. Human Rights Activists in Iran. Retrieved from http://www.hra-iran.org/en/
7. Tahir Elçi (1966 – November 28, 2015) was a Kurdish lawyer who was killed in the Sur district of Diyarbakir in the southeastern region of Turkey on 28 November 2015. He was shot in the head while giving a press statement calling for an end to violence.
