The C.R.I.M.E. Report

ISSUE #70 CONTENTS:


SPOTLIGHT CASES:

Dalia Ziada Briefs Congress on Civil Rights

CapHill“Women’s rights are for decoration - there is a disconnect between what is enacted into law and what is enforced by the authorities.” With this bold declaration, Dalia Ziada, director of AIC’s Egypt office, seized a unique opportunity to advance women’s rights before a high-profile audience on March 3.

The setting: a Capitol Hill brieifing hosted by California Senator Barbara Boxer and organized by Freedom House. The Washington symposium examined a new study by Freedom House showing limited progress on women’s rights in the Mideast over the past five years. Ziada appeared on an expert panel with other human rights advocates, including Jordan’s Rana Husseini, recently profiled in The CRIME Report for her work on so-called “honor killings.” Ziada pointed to a recent Cairo court ruling banning female judges and urged greater assistance for grassroots reform efforts.

On Thursday, Ziada presented to senior staffers from the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee on freedom of expression on the Internet in the Mideast. She was joined by a delegation of Mideast blogger activists. The next day the group briefed Under Secretary of tate Maria Ottero on grassroots reform efforts. “In Washington I saw that there is great curiosity about the activities of young activists in the Middle East,” observed Ziada. “My message to policymakers was that they need to provide greater assistance to civil rights activists working on the popular level. That’s where real change will come from.”



Wanted His Vote to Count: Ebi Shams

Shams

Ebi Shams is a small business owner in New Hampshire who left Iran in 1978. The June protests in Iran inspired him to organize a series of public rallies in Boston, coinciding with rallies in Iran. Three weeks ago, on a cold February afternoon, Shams organized a rally in downtown Boston in solidarity with simultaneous protests inside Iran. The CRIME Report interviewed the tireless volunteer organizer about his efforts.

How did you begin organizing rallies?
When the Iranian people are unhappy and they voice it, I feel compelled to echo their voice from outside the country. What the government did to the opposition after the recent election scandal was unfair and inspired me to take action. I began to contact some of my friends and we decided to hold public rallies in the U.S. to echo the voice of the protest movement inside Iran. It was a network of friends contacting friends, especially via Facebook, and before we knew it so many people in the area found out about our cause. When people inside Iran act, we follow their example and organize parallel demonstrations in the U.S.

How have you kept momentum alive after the burst of energy in the summer?
We knew the Green movement inside Iran was going to have a protest rally on the 31st anniversary of the revolution - so we synchronized ours with theirs. We were definitely not afraid that it was cold in February. Comparing what we have to go through and what they have to endure makes it easy. If we tried to organize a public rally in Tehran like the one we held in Boston, we would be subject to all sorts of harsh treatment. We might even get beaten, arrested, and held in solitary confinement. And the Iranian authorities could detain us for as long as they wish. So how can we let cold weather stop us when so many inside Iran are ready to rally in the face of much greater challenges?

What does a rally in Boston accomplish?
First, we want to remind Iranian youth that people outside stand behind them. If a young activist in Tehran knows the world is paying attention he or she will be less scared to speak out. Second, we want to strengthen the connection that second-generation Iranian-Americans, like my kids, have with their peers inside Iran. At our last rally, my son gave a speech that discussed what kids his own age are going through in Iran, and how we are free in the U.S. and what a difference that makes. Finally, we want the American public to urge their political leaders not to recognize Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president. Our vote was stolen and we should not recognize and negotiate with him. This maintains a pressure on the Iranian government, which helps the protestors inside.



Don't Fear the Newspaper

HanevyTaoufik Ben Brik sits in a Tunisian jail cell, his health decaying as part of a hunger strike protesting a six-month prison sentence for criticizing government officials. For years, Ben Brik’s independent journalism has rattled the ruling regime, which a few years ago banned several French newspaper and websites that published his writing.
Then, in November, Ben Brik was framed on a trumped up charge of assault and sent to the slammer.

Ben Brik’s case is just one of many that propel a growing campaign against media censorship in Tunisia. The latest salvo is a video by the Reporters Without Borders that serves as an emblem of the state of repression in Tunisia. The cleverly crafted video shows a man trying to pass through security, but he is not allowed to pass the security screen until he discards his newspaper.

On the grassroots level, Tunisian bloggers are pioneering a new technique to censor the censors. As Astrobal, a blogger affiliated with the Nawaat.org alternative news portal, explains, many opposition blogs are banned to Tunisian web surfers. Therefore, the only Tunisian IPs that can reach them are “those of the censorship bureaucrats who are spying on us.” The bloggers are therefore denying anyone with a Tunisian IP address from visiting their sites, effectively blocking the Tunisian net police from snooping on them without a proxy server.

AssadQUIZ: What blocked website is Syria's First Lady praising?

ANSWER: YouTube. Syria's First Lady, the British-born Asma Al-Assad, was recently filmed by a TV series during a visit to a Damascus girls high school. While encouraging the young women to become entrepreneurs, Al-Assad singled out several international companies for specific praise, noting that "developed countries are further along because they are making new things like Google, YouTube, space travel... If we want to be a leading community, we need to implant these skills at childhood." The irony is that YouTube is regularly blocked inside Syria, including one example a few years ago when officials blocked YouTube specifically over a video poking fun at Mrs. Al-Assad waiting with her husband at the airport.


BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here are quick ways to contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement: