Urgent Request for Support of the Iranian People

IRANIAN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION (USA)
YOUNG IRANIAN WOMEN'S SECTION
P.O. Box 5461 Chatsworth, CA 91313, USA
Telephone: 818-888-3389 E-mail: iranabdi@hotmail.com

June 22, 2009

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary of State Clinton:
As the representative of your great nation, we plead with you to support the Iranian people who have poured
into the streets of Iran and to help stop the violence against them. These demonstrators' only "crime" was to
demand their basic human rights and freedom from repression. Nothing can protect these men and women
against the despotic Islamic Republic, except their courage and the moral support of nations like yours that
respect freedom and the sanctity of human lives. We implore you, therefore, to publicly support them and to
help them secure a free, secular democracy in Iran.
Please do not turn a blind eye to their pleas for help. Like the rest of the world population, Iranians can no
longer endure more bloodshed, ruthlessness, and fallen heroes. Nor can they submit to the tyranny that has
besieged their country for 30 years. Since its inception, the Islamic Republic brought the rule of terror to Iran
and has succeeded in spreading its cancerous extremism to other countries. The world, including your country,
will never be safe as long as the violence and terrorism of this fascist regime continue to thrive. This hateful
oligarchy is based on plunder, total submission, and destruction of anyone or anything that obstructs its brutality.
It is an established fact that the terrorist-breeding Islamic Republic has plundered the nation of Iran of its human
and economic wealth. It has destroyed a thriving middle class and in turn has created a society of "haves" and
"have-nots." While the cronies of this regime live in luxury around the world, the majority of Iranians suffer in
poverty and destitution. Even the handpicked President of this renegade regime cannot hide its double-digit
inflation rate, estimated as high as 30% to 40%. Do you wonder who these young demonstrators are? Many are
among the millions of talented college graduates who cannot find jobs and have chosen to die rather than to
continue living under a repressive theocracy.
And, lest you forget: this tyrannical regime has robbed Iranian women of all basic human rights. When it
imposed its fanatical ideology 30 years ago, this regime turned back the clock on all women by a period of 1400
years! It stripped them from the equal rights they already enjoyed before the revolution. Today, women are
forced to cover themselves in a shroud and to submit to a strict dress code under threat of severe punishment.
The primitive laws of the Islamic Republic reduce a women's value to just half that of a man. Accordingly, a
woman's testimony is only worth half as much. Women are not allowed to be judges, because they are proven
"irrational beings" and thus are classified in the same group as the insane. Even if her husband abuses her, a wife
has no right to divorce. But the same abusive husband can practice polygamy and can instantaneously divorce
her. Women are not granted custody of their minor children. Yet, custody is automatically granted to the father,
even if he is a drug addict. Do you wonder who the women are marching in the streets today? Many are collegeeducated
women who cannot walk in a street with a man, unless they carry proof that the man is either her
husband, brother, or father. Punishment for defying this absurd law is incarceration. We plead with you to
respond to Neda's call for freedom. Please do not allow her blood to have been shed in vain.
IRANIAN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION (USA)
YOUNG IRANIAN WOMEN'S SECTION
P.O. Box 5461 Chatsworth, CA 91313, USA
Telephone: 818-888-3389 E-mail: iranabdi@hotmail.com
June 22, 2009
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
June 22, 2009
Page 2
IRANIAN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION (USA)
YOUNG IRANIAN WOMEN'S SECTION
We ask you not to disregard the religious fascism practiced in the name of God by this decadent theocracy. It is
common knowledge that the Islamic Republic persecutes all religious minorities from Jews to Baha'is to Sunni
Muslims. It accepts no one except those who practice its un-Islamic violent definition of God. As recent as two
months ago, it imprisoned seven (including two women) leaders of the Baha'i religion under a bogus charge. In
the first quarter of 2009 alone, it publicly hanged, before the eyes of children, more than 50 Iranians under
fabricated charges. Your country might have been the scene of one of many chain executions by the Islamic
Republic's squads, which have savagely beheaded expatriate Iranians.
Please keep in mind that the Islamic Republic capriciously defines whatever it pleases as a crime, and sentences
the people to severe punishment for defying that whim. For example, this government can charge people with
"corruption on earth" and summarily hang them. No one can deny that this regime of terror stones people, cuts
off their hands, or blinds them. It jails minors until they reach adulthood and then executes them without any
show of mercy. It immediately silences any voice that even remotely challenges its repression. We want you to
remember the jailed Mansour Osanlou, whose tongue was cut off for daring to speak against workers' dismal
conditions. We want you to remember the two world-renowned physician brothers, Arash and Kamiar Alaei,
who are imprisoned to this day on a fabricated charge of fomenting a revolution. There are thousands more
who are held in captivity on similar fabricated charges.
This same terrorist regime has forced the Iranian nation to suffer international sanctions caused by its own
underhanded actions. To buy time for its corrupt survival, it imports illegal drugs for its jobless, exports illegal
substances to raise money, and exploits its women by selling them abroad for prostitution. No one can deny that
Iran has the highest rate of heroin addicts in the world. While continuing to squeeze the life out of its citizens,
this brutal theocracy fabricates one crisis after another to stay in power. The American hostage crisis,
kidnapping and killing of foreign journalists, and bombing embassies and a Jewish center in Argentina are just a
few incidents to bear in mind.
And, please do not forget the Islamic Republic's terrorist training camps and hubs established all over the world,
maybe even in your homeland. In the quest to spread its religious fascism, its officials specialize in training
terrorists. This includes the so-called reformist former President Khatami who spoke of dialogue among
nations, yet presided over the creation of the Hezbollah terrorist networks. It is well known that this despotic
regime audaciously denies its own citizens food and shelter, while at the same time spending millions to spread
terrorism outside its borders and sheltering terrorists, such as Bin Laden's son and Al Qaeda members, inside its
borders.
We insist that you acknowledge the recent statements of Iran's supreme leader, Khamenei. He openly admitted
that his handpicked opposition leaders, Mousavi and Karoubi, share the same deep commitment to the decadent
religious fascism that sparked Iran's bloody revolution. No one can ignore that as the speaker of a sham
parliament, Mr. Karoubi sanctioned into law many of the atrocities being committed by this regime. Nor can
one deny that under his premiership, Mr. Mousavi was the father of the nuclear program and directly responsible
for the cultural purge that eradicated thousands of Iranians, including the mass execution of over 6,000 political
prisoners in 1988.
In today's brutal repression, you are witnessing only a tiny sample of what the Iranian people have routinely
experienced over the past 30 years under this bloodthirsty theocracy. We beseech you to support the millions of
loyal Iranian citizens who wish simply to regain their human rights. We appeal to you to help them end the
violence, brutality, and corruption heaped upon them. These proud descendants of Cyrus the Great just want
basic human rights, freedom, a secular democracy, and an end to the Islamic Republic. We urge you to use your
considerable voice and influence to help them secure these precious goals that are common to all humanity.
Respectfully,
Dokhi Abdi, Secretary General