Navid Stayed in Sweden, and So Shall Mitra!

Based on a post by the author in International #414

Today, 18 August 2011 at 17:00 hours, Peyman Najafi wrote on Navid’s campaign page on Facebook, “Good news, Navid stays!” The joyful air which covered the page is indescribable. Imagine wanting to sing or dance on Facebook!

The Swedish government had planned to deport Navid to the hands of Islamic murderers. It had planned to deliver Navid back to the same barbaric regime which had persecuted, arrested, tortured and jailed Navid …to the same barbaric tyranny that had murdered Navid’s older brother Hamid Reza a few years earlier under most savage torture …the same Navid who had since his first day on Swedish soil fought against the barbarity and savagery of the Islamic regime.

The Swedish government has gone deep into its anti-asylum politics in past few months, and has even tried to deliver well-known anti-regime activists to the headmen of Tehran! The latest among these was Peyman Najafi, who was rescued and brought back to the relative freedom and security of Sweden. Before him, it was Sasan and Marzieh and Mehdi and Sirvan and Keivan… these too were also rescued, while the next in the “queue” to be deported is Mitra Kahrom. Mitra was arrested and moved to the Migration detention center while protesting against Navid’s deportation outside the Migration headquarters in Solna, Sweden! Well, you might say it is not only the murderers and rapists and gangsters of Ayatollah who are closely watching us and gathering detailed information! This act of the Swedish police is appalling, but we, here and now – as we did on the day of Navid’s arrest – say to Mr. Billström, the migration minister of Sweden’s rightwing coalition, that Mitra Kahrom stays in Sweden!

We will not allow his inhumane bureaucracy to deliver Mitra Kahrom to the Islamic regime of thugs and rapists! We promise that Mitra stays, thanks to hundreds of fantastic, selfless activists supporting Mitra’s human rights, activists like Parvaneh from Canada and Ryan Christiano from England; thanks to the sleepless nights of Abe Asadi and the long work days of Andisheh Alishahi from the International Federation of Iranian Refugees; thanks to Maria Rohaly and Mission Free Iran’s network of tireless activists; thanks to Sissel from Norway and to the blogger Arian Mir-Zolfaghari, thanks to our dearest friend Joanne Michelle who has supported us regardless… thanks to the Swedish activists from Socialist Justice Party, for their brotherly support thus far and the role they can play in our struggle, not only to defend the rights of individual asylum seekers but to defend the Swedish society’s humane values, to defend the society itself against the barbaric offensive of the right and far right; and last but by no means least thanks to the organized international support by the French union CGT Addsea and the National Teachers Union, which helped us pass “national boundaries” in an struggle which is by its very nature international. We promise, and you can mark my words, Mitra stays in Sweden too!

We congratulate Mission Free Iran’s own Navid! Navid’s success in enforcing his rights upon the government of Sweden is, in more than one way, our success too. It is Mitra’s success too. It is our success because with every rescue, organizing the next campaign becomes much easier, additional activists enter the scene, self-confidence rises, pressure from the streets becomes more intuitive, and the grounds for an essential political offensive to push the advocates of inhumane policies back from the corridors of power becomes more possible. This is the bigger picture portrayed by our individual successes in defending Mitra and Navid and Sasan and Marzieh and Mehdi.

We are now, today, reorganizing our forces to battle for Mitra’s human rights, and today we are better equipped, better organized, higher-spirited, and more than yesterday …Mitra stays!

Ahmad Fatemi
2011-08-18