"Dear Intelligence Agent, What Are You Searching For?" is the title of a letter by Narguess Tavassolian, the daughter of Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi, condemning the recent state television smear against her mother.
In the letter (as translated by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran), Tavassolian says the report re-instilled her pride in her mother's work and demonstrated that her advocacy work is having an impact:
-- Golnaz Esfandiari
In the letter (as translated by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran), Tavassolian says the report re-instilled her pride in her mother's work and demonstrated that her advocacy work is having an impact:
I saw your newly produced "confessions" video. Well done! You have managed to complete yet another "project," bravo! Say, you didn't tell me you had changed the style of your films. Your confessor this time was not a political activist, but a simple engineer who never claimed to resist prison and torture. Thus, your task must have been much easier this time. Well, thank God you didn't have to exert yourself too much and get exhausted. I would like to thank you. Thank you.
After seeing your film, once again, I was proud of my mother, because after all the explorations you did in our lives, from searching the office and the house from top to bottom, to eavesdropping on our telephone conversations (say, do you remember how many times while I was talking to my friends I apologized to you for boring you with our chatter?), and after all that search and surveillance, you couldn't find anything. So you had to arrest and abuse my father in order to build a new confessions scenario.
Why don't you use your imagination a bit more? You see, my dear Agent, defending religious minorities is not a crime. Doesn't Islam itself emphasize observation of human and citizenship rights? Hasn't Imam Ali been quoted to say: "Treat people well, as they are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in creation?"
After seeing your film, once again, I was proud of my mother, because after all the explorations you did in our lives, from searching the office and the house from top to bottom, to eavesdropping on our telephone conversations (say, do you remember how many times while I was talking to my friends I apologized to you for boring you with our chatter?), and after all that search and surveillance, you couldn't find anything. So you had to arrest and abuse my father in order to build a new confessions scenario.
Why don't you use your imagination a bit more? You see, my dear Agent, defending religious minorities is not a crime. Doesn't Islam itself emphasize observation of human and citizenship rights? Hasn't Imam Ali been quoted to say: "Treat people well, as they are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in creation?"
-- Golnaz Esfandiari