Out of the ashes of a great incident, something new will always be born—something that perhaps is part of the evolution of that incident itself. A phoenix is born from its own ashes. Although the new phoenix might be reborn with a different form each time, it will be the continuation and evolution of the same story, which has taken a new shape.
Years ago, at a time when the candle of the reformist government was about to burn out and the excitement and hopes of the days after May 1997 were waning to the autumn of a coalesced government structure and fully repressive atmosphere, some stood up and stepped in a path that is being walked on till this very day. In the final days of the Reformist government, with all its strengths and weaknesses aside, it had let a generation grow. A generation that was taught and believed in civility and modernity. In March 2006 (a year after the enthronement and announcement of Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran – a republic still shocked by this reality), the movement officially formed an organization named Human Right Activists in Iran (HRA) with the aim of human rights activism and its need reflecting the obvious and hidden violations of human rights in Iran. Despite all the calamity and struggles, HRA has continued its activism till this very day. In comparison to other independent non-governmental and civil organizations in Iran, it has done an amazing job.
Ahmadinejad’s years in office were those in which the independent civil institutions in Iran were put to the test. Many were closed officially with the force of the cudgels of the guardians of the system. Seeing the security atmosphere in the country, many organizations closed down on their own. Many others left the field and abandoned their novice institutions to follow other paths and fields. Yet there were a few independent civil institutions that stood and faced the wave of anti-civility that had found new life in the new government. Despite all the suppressions and the occasional encounters with the guardians of the government, these organizations insisted on transparency and civil continuation of their work.
During those years, there were many independent human rights organizations at the national level. But, in my opinion, three of them have stood out and had a more significant presence in the civil society of Iran. The Association of Human Rights Defenders has been an assembly of the great till this very day. However, I believe that, despite the precious human resources and expertise, it lacked connection to the substratum of the Iranian society. The Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), which started as the Students Committee of Human Rights Reporters and later removed the title of students due to the graduation of its members and based on the principle of honesty with the people, is another example of a human rights organization that, despite having a few members, was able to provide many services in order to broaden the human rights dialogues and publication of news on the violations of human rights in Iran. Human Rights Activists had also grown to become one of the most influential human rights organizations in Iran along with the two previously mentioned organizations and other institutions. These three organizations worked in parallel on human rights discourse, publishing the news on human rights violations in Iran, and defending the victims of human rights violations, sometimes as collaborators and sometimes as competitors.
Certainly, the presence and impact of other independent human rights institutions and organizations is unforgettable. Organizations such as the Association for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights which has been funded by our venerable professor, Emadeddin Baghi, the Arbitrary Detention Inquiry Committee and the Commission of Human Rights at the office for Strengthening Unity to name a few. But despite the active presence of these organizations in aiding prisoners whose rights have been violated (whether political or non-political prisoners), they were either barely active or not active at all in reporting. Having a news agency and “being the voice of the silenced and voiceless” is the very feature that distinguishes HRA and CHRR from other groups and organizations.
In the year leading to the presidential elections of 2009 and the uprising of the people, it was as if both groups (HRA and CHRR) had come to the conclusion at once that transparency had to be their priority. Therefore, both started publishing the names of their members online with the idea that with publishing the names of their members and activists, not only would they become an example of a transparent human rights organization, but they would also prevent people from misusing the names of their reputable and well-known organizations. But neither the fellows at HRA nor those like me, who at the time were working with CHRR, could ever imagine the tempest of 2009 and that the hungry beast of tyranny would show up and slaughter all the opposition and devour all those activists whose names had been published!
The independent human rights groups and organizations that have resisted and stood through all the storms from 2005 to 2009 could be considered among the founders of the uprising of 2009. The spreading of discourse on such issues in Iran is the result of the endless efforts of these young people who stood tall around the clock, day in and day out, without budging an inch. They stood firm, true and committed to their human rights duties, despite all the sporadic threats and occasional encounters of the guardians of the government. Indeed, from an analytical view, part of the preparation of the social body for such an uprising (informed on time at the public level, and later at the level of the leadership and experts), is the fruit of the efforts of these independent and novice human rights organizations that by publishing the reports on apparent and hidden human rights violations in Iran and giving a voice to the voiceless had made the society aware of what was happening within its substratum.
These organizations greatly insisted on their principles, to the point that, for expanding transparency in the social and civil atmosphere they started from themselves and by publishing the names of their activists, they became an example of transparent activism for the public and civil society. Perhaps regarding this impact there needs to be further explanation; if the uprising of 2009 is considered through Hoda Saber’s approach as one of the peaks in the history of liberty, equality and fraternity movements in Iran, this uprising could be modelled in two ascending and descending curves and a point at the peak of the curve. In the ascending curve and on the acclivity between the previous peak and the peak ahead, the social, civil and political democrats, the harbingers of human rights, equality and fraternity are standing in the minority compared to the bulk of the society. Yet, they were leading the rest towards the peak by bearing the torch and protecting principles and accelerating the society towards the point of liberation. These efforts, despite dispersion in a common ground or on a specific incident, were turning the accumulated potential energy in the ascending curve to kinetic energy. And Incidents and Events (in this case, elections of 2009) in the descending curve and in declivity of the curve at once bring about the storms of incidents and events in the society. In the course of this descending curve and by the release of this accumulated energy, it’s the duty of the leaders of these movements, uprisings and masses to see if they can, alongside and with the convergence of vectors, achieve their demands, or with late awareness and by not focusing this released energy on a specific goal and with dispersing and pointing vectors at different directions decrease the impact of it. The mentioned human rights organizations and groups are a few of the carriers of that stone that is supposed to be pushed towards the peak, so the declivity brings change to the society.
It is by the mentioned analysis and approach that organizations such as HRA and CHRR and other groups are considered effective in the background for the uprisings of 2009.
Later the system of Vilayat-e Faqih fully and at the cost of Iranian society tried to entirely disable these human rights organizations. Indeed, although after the uprising of 2009, these human rights organization and groups were subjected to violence, conflicts, persecutions torture, and imprisonment, the rapid process of 2009 had not made them crippled and vulnerable. But it was the hungry beast of tyranny that, by targeting those groups whose activism was leading towards broader human rights, civil and rational discourses in the Iranian society, wanted to nip the uprising in the bud before it would blossom into a movement. The gigantic security apparatus tried to devour and vanish these organizations and groups, but the triumph was for the human rights organizations and not the security apparatus.
March 2010 marks the time when, while dealing with the civil rights activists, finally, the security forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ran out of patience with HRA. In harsh and widespread crackdowns, they arrested all the members and those in any way related to HRA, including all those whose names had been published in the organization’s charts regardless of their collaboration levels and ranks. The IRGC abused the transparency of HRA and started arresting its members and activists. This series of arrests were harsh attacks meant to disable HRA and prevent its activism, which was never achieved, and the security forces were defeated by the honesty, perseverance and strength of HRA.
Although that kind of transparency and announcement of the names of the activists were not possible after the 2010 attacks and perhaps HRA and CHRR’s doing so was premature and based on shallow understanding of the surroundings and status quo, HRA is still standing strong and firm. They’ve done so despite all the misfortunes and back-breaking tragedies such as the loss of the late editor of HRANA, Jamal Hosseini.
Perhaps in a general view, a few points could be mentioned as the strengths of this organization. Certainly, the points are not limited to the ones being mentioned.
In my opinion, the most notable strength of HRA is over 10 years of existence. The experience of group work with Iranians has shown a decade of standing and working together within Iranian society. This, in itself, is a great achievement and is almost a miracle. Iranian individualistic traits and our failure to successfully work collectively is no secret to anyone. The historical, cultural and psychological critics of Iranian society, from Seyyed Mohhammad-Ali Jamalzade to Mehdi Bazargan and Hassan Naraghi and “Attempts to Criticize the Collective Conduct in Iran” by Taghi Rahmani, which is an edited series of his online meetings with activists in Malaysia, all have tried to detect the origins of this attribute and habit in collective work in Iran. They have sought to learn how, in other countries, in the Eastern and Western world, people come together in teamwork. By empowering the collective force, they can carry out great results. But in Iran, only a few coherent groups have been able to succeed in achieving their goals in a timely, cohesive, rational and procedural way. This was accomplished by collective and structured work (not by traditional delegations or individualism), which is the precious achievement of HRA. Perhaps it is a good suggestion to the fellows at HRA to write and publish as much as it is permitted security wise about their 10 years of experience in collective activism and vicissitudes. Historiography has been generally an oral act, and the word-of-mouth nature caused many changes and distortions. Perhaps writing these experiences down could help to preserve their authenticity against the eyes of those with presumptions. Maybe it is possible to reach a structural model and graph of the possible permanence of a collective structured Iranian work from the 10-year process and performance of this organization.
“Giving voice to the voiceless” is another strength of HRA. The ability to successfully do that exists in this organization and a couple of other similar organizations in Iran. (Unfortunately, those other organizations have been frozen in time) HRA has been able to reach and communicate with people in prison, the most rural citizens and those far from the capital areas. It has come to be the voice of those who have not had a voice, due to their distance from the capital (due to the nature of the capital-oriented media in Iran). The successful development of ethnic media in Iran, which is the result of suppressions and pressures on the HRA by the security forces and by an organization’s ties to the local people of their specific region. This has also helped to give voice to the voiceless yet HRA’s efforts continue in order to communicate and persist on the principle of “giving voice to the voiceless.” That ability has been one of the main reasons behind the hostility of the Iranian regime toward HRA and similar groups.
Another strength of HRA would be its organization and structure. Although not free from bureaucracy, HRA has shown exemplary discipline that helps the organization move forward in a creative way and not a mechanical one. Iranian groups traditionally are authoritarian ones in which one person has absolute power and makes all the decisions, and the rest of the members without any specific rank and consideration given to abilities start working.
Authoritarian management often contradicts a modern organization’s purpose and at times leads to terrible internal conflicts and subsequently collapses or paralyzes the organization. This can happen when one person with the mindset that he is the founder of the organization gives out orders that members reject and go public about the conflicts.
HRA, despite the vicissitudes and hardships, has relied on being structured to survive and continues to be creative and progressive.
The security apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran has several times attacked HRA with baseless allegations in attempts to destroy the group morale and reputation of its members. Unfortunately, not only have the security forces of the regime done this but so have even some hasty friends of HRA. However, the performance of this organization, despite all the mistakes it certainly has made and will make and with Einstein’s quote “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new” in mind is not only defendable, but it’s also praiseworthy. HRA by way of its news agency. in the theoretical aspects extolled in the monthly publication Peace Mark and in Fourth Column Committee’s efforts on fighting filtering has promoted and developed human rights discourse and dialogue in Iran.
Ten years have passed since the establishment of HRA. I hope that this organization will continue to stand firm and strong on its principles and will also continue to be creative and effective for another ten years to come, and that it would be possible to discuss the 20 years of activism of this human rights and civil organization in Iran. There is hope that there will be no sign of the security system’s suppressions so that this organization and others, as the contributors to development of the discourse of democracy and civil society, are able to be active within Iran.
On the 23rd May 1997, the seventh presidential election of Iran was held. More than 80% of those eligible voted, which marked a new era in Iranian politics because of the unexpected with nearly 70% of the votes going to the reformist President Mohammad Khatami. In the previous presidential election, only 50% of those eligible had participated.
Iran’s 10th presidential elections created many controversies and surprised the Iranian public by the announcement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president. Millions of Iranians across the country and the world took to the streets in # protest, and many Iranian figures directly supported the protesters and declared that the votes were fraudulent. The opposition, Green Movement, emerged from this uprising.
Hoda Rezazade Saber was an Iranian intellectual, economic scholar, journalist and social-political activist. He served several prison terms since 2000 and died while on a hunger strike in prison.
The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, also called the Governance of the Jurist (Vilayat-e Faqih), is a post-Age-of-Occultation theory in Shia Islam that holds that Islam gives a faqīh (Islamic jurist) custodianship over people. The constitution of Iran calls for a faqih, or Vali-ye faqih (Guardian Jurist), to serve as the Supreme Leader of the government. In the context of Iran, Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist is often referred to as the “rule of the Islamic jurist.”
A coup d’état or simply known as “coup,” is the illegal and overt seizure of a state by the military or other elites within the state apparatus. Some of the Iranian political figures, groups and media consider the government of Ahmadinejad after the elections of 2009 a coup government. As some oppositions believe in this election, Ahmadinejad falsely named himself the president of Iran and was supported by Ali Khamenei (the supreme leader) and the guardians of Islam.
