Hadi Ghaemi

June 1, 2011

Mourning the Death of Ezatollah Sahabi and His Daughter

Women's rights campaigner Haleh Sahabi, died of a heart attack this morning after a scuffle with plainclothes forces during the funeral for her father. Sahabi had been released on furlough in order to attend the funeral. She had been imprisoned since 2009.May 31, 2011 marked the death at 81 of Ezatollah Sahabi, a scholar, democracy activist, and former parliamentarian. Sahabi spent time in prison for his ideas both under the Shah and under the Islamic Regime. He was leader of the opposition party, the Nationalist-Religious Coalition (www.mellimazhabi.org/). The party had its roots in the political ideals of Prime Minister Mossadeq who was ousted by a coup in 1953.
January 16, 2011

Who is Speaking Out About Human Rights Abuses in Iran?

Writing in the Huffington Post, Hadi Ghaemi and Aaron Rhodes of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran write about the politicization of human rights and the equivocation of the international community when dealing with abuses of those rights. They discuss the conflation of those who advocate for more attention to the human rights situation in Iran with those who advocate for military action, arguing that the two are very different. The West, they argue, and many other countries as well, are squandering an opportunity to hold the government of Iran accountable for abuses. They write, "But with Iran, human rights are not bargained away, they are given away, since the international community gets nothing in return for its silence except scorn."
December 7, 2010

Punishing Students for Their Opinions

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has released a report detailing abuses against students for dissenting viewpoints. Many high achieving students have been expelled from Iran's universities. “Excluding students from universities based on their political and religious views is a totalitarian practice that ruins careers and removes reform-oriented young people from future professional cohorts,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.
June 2, 2010

Men of Violence: New Report from ICHRI

“Holding human rights violators accountable on the international stage sends a strong signal to the Iranian authorities that such individuals are not welcomed abroad and despite their unlimited impunity inside Iran, they are recognized around the world for their atrocities and cannot get away with their crimes indefinitely.”