Thousands in Iran Protest Acid Attacks on Women

[pampango]

Source: New York Times


Demonstrators in the historic city of Isfahan on Wednesday shouted slogans against militants.

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of the historic city of Isfahan on Wednesday to protest several acid attacks on women. The attacks had coincided with the passage of a law designed to protect those who correct people deemed to be acting in an “un-Islamic” way.

A local official said on Wednesday that “eight to nine” women had been attacked over the past three weeks by men on motorcycles who splashed them with acid in Isfahan, one of Iran’s largest urban centers and the country’s chief tourist destination. Some of the women were blinded or disfigured.

The protesters — more than 2,000, according to the semiofficial news agency Fars — gathered in front of the local judiciary office and shouted slogans against extremists whom the protesters likened to supporters of Islamic State militants. They also called for the city’s Friday Prayer leader and the prosecutor to step down, witnesses said. Critics have long accused the Iranian authorities of playing down episodes that could embarrass leaders rather than investigating the cases.

“We do not want to propagate virtues by acid,” some of the protesters chanted, a reference to the Islamic obligation of “propagating virtue and preventing vice.” Others shouted, “Death to extremists.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/world/middleeast/thousands-in-iran-protest-acid-attacks-on-women.html

[leftynyc]

1. That's a beautiful picture

Men and women, young and not so young. This is what is needed to prove the moderates outnumber the extremists. It also wouldn't hurt to change the moronic laws.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. I am very glad to see this

What they are protesting is horrible. But does anyone else sense a touch of irony in the shouts "Death to Extremists?"

[MADem]

4. When shah was deposed, they rounded up and hanged a bunch of his "cabinet" if you will.

They left the bodies to rot, and above them they hung a sign that said

"Any Muslim who intentionally kills another Muslim shall be put to death."


A bit gobsmacking, that assertion....

The hyperbole is off-putting to the western ear, but they love those dramatic comments. Bonus points if you can include a "shatan" (satan), great or otherwise, in the mix.

[MADem]

3. This is all part and parcel of the tension in the country. The Virtues idiots also want to make it

harder for women to divorce (which they are doing in ever-increasing numbers, sick of the bullshit).

[Kelvin Mace]

5. “Death to extremists.”

[Qutzupalotl]

11. Ironic, yes, but I'm told a better translation is

"Down with extremists."

Likewise, "Death to America" should be "Down with America."

[Kelvin Mace]

12. Thank you for the clarification

It makes me feel a bit better about the human condition.

[Reter]

13. Well, ISIS members deserve death

No?

[Kelvin Mace]

14. As an opponent of capitol punishment

My answer is "no". You don't fight extremism with extremism.

[Reter]

15. Sometimes it's necessary for the killing to end

ISIS is completely free of good, and they keep raping and killing the innocent. Fuck 'em all. If every ISIS member on earth was in a stadium, you wouldn't want it blown up? You're the President. You have one chance. Order the pilot to bomb, or leave them alone. Which do you do?

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Simple answers to complex problems seldom turn out well

Who decides when murder is necessary? The ISIS people are making decisions like that and we disagree with their decision.

How did you manage to identify all the people are being members of ISIS and get them into a single location? Upon whose word do we make such a decision? If there is a single innocent person in the stadium, am I justified in killing that person in order to punish the rest?

Also, let's suppose I follow your advice and destroy the entire stadium, what will be the end result? History teaches us that within a short period of time I will have numerous similar groups filling the void, radicalized by my monstrous action.

We have spent the last half century in the Middle East backing various tyrants and passing out weapons like candy at Halloween. The only reason we have been playing these games is because of oil. Without oil, you wouldn't have seen hide nor hair of the U.S. If we would wish an end to terrorism, we should stop pursuing the failed foreign policy which creates them, and stop flooding the region with weapons.

[Reter]

21. The innocent person is collateral damage, especially if it's just one

Killing is necessary to stop the killing of innocents. I have no idea how many ISIS and Al Qaeda members there are world-wide. Let's just say it's 30,000. Even 1,000 innocents is worth the US blowing it up, because they will kill far more than 1,000. They already have killed several thousand innocents. Look at 9/11. A shame our Air Force didn't shoot the planes out of the sky. Sure, a few hundred would have died, but not 3,000. And we would still have our beautiful Twin Towers.

Let's say someone is breaking into your home, sees you, and is coming toward you with a knife. Is it ok to shoot if he's not stopping? And please don't say "Yes, but shoot the knife out of his hand" or "shoot him in the leg" because that only works in the movies or with the best in the world professional sharp-shooters.

[Kelvin Mace]

24. It's collateral damage until it is a member of your family, and then it is a blood vendetta

Al Qaeda and ISIS have a LONG way to go to catch up to our body count.

"Look at 9/11. A shame our Air Force didn't shoot the planes out of the sky. Sure, a few hundred would have died, but not 3,000. And we would still have our beautiful Twin Towers."

Awfully cavalier with other people's lives aren't we? So exactly what is your ratio for lives here? 200 for 3,000 is okay, but what about 2,000 for 3,000? What if it is 3,000 adults to save 200 children? Help me out here with the cold equations.

Let's say someone is breaking into your home, sees you, and is coming toward you with a knife. Is it ok to shoot if he's not stopping?

Exactly when did any of these people "break into our homes" We are attacking Syria and Iraq. The 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and the UAE.

If someone is breaking into your house and attacking you with a knife, yes deadly force is justified. This is NOT that case. And please don't say anything about "surgical air strikes" because that only works in movies.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Here's my problem: You have to fight extremism with SOMETHING.

And I don't think you can win them over with kindness.

[Kelvin Mace]

20. You fight extremism

by not using tactics that foster extremism.

There are two ways to deal with terrorism:

1) Engage the terrorists in the political process, listen to their concerns and address their valid grievances (which tends to defuse their invalid ones)

2) Wage a campaign of violence which will just creates more terrorists.

The problems in Northern Ireland didn't go away until the British government brought the IRA to the table and addressed their grievances.

[snooper2]

22. listen to the concerns of radical fucks who want to rape your daughter and cut your head off

LOL-

Yeah, that will work

[Kelvin Mace]

23. I listen to radical fucks all the time

advocating stoning gays and establishing a Christian Theocracy in this country.

Again "killing them all" doesn't solve the problem, it just makes it worse.

Also, if we don't like terrorism, we should probably stop committing it. We overthrew the Iranian government and installed the Shah. We overthrew the Iraqi government and installed Hussein. We backed Hussein in his war against Iran, and directly or indirectly sold him the means to make chemical weapons for use against Iran. We then invaded Iraq claiming it was about to invade Saudi Arabia and that Iraqi soldiers were killing babies (It wasn't and they weren't). We sold weapons and provided training to the Afghanis against the Soviets, then invaded Afghanistan fighting the very same people. We have bombed Libya on 4 separate occasions. We invaded Iraq a second time claiming it was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks (actually it was Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and that it had NBC weapons or was developing them (it wasn't). We are currently actively bombing Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Syria. We have been "at war" in Afghanistan and Iraq for well over a decade, longer than any other war in American history and yet we are no closer to victory now than we were when we started. Oh, and actually we are not "at war" with any of these countries since we have never "declared war" on any of these countries.

Trillions of dollars spent, trillions of dollars in infrastructure destroyed and over a million dead and we can't understand why people in these countries are angry at us and our puppets.

Why are you all upset about a few beheadings in Iraq/Syria? What about the 8 beheadings that occurred in Saudi Arabia in just August? The Saudi government routinely beheads people for really terrible crimes like sorcery, apostasy, and adultery. When are we going do bomb Riyadh?

[pangaia]

6. I visited Isfahan once about 3 years ago "on business,"

but it really afforded me the chance just to go there. What a beautiful, historical city.. I also grow antique roses and there is a damask named Isfahan.
It has one of the most stunning fragrances of any rose and is said to have been grown there..maybe still. I was not there when they would have been in bloom.

[flamingdem]

7. How interesting, I'd love to go

.. any photos?

[pangaia]

9. You know, I am not a big photo taker any more.

I used to.
In fact, I never even bring a camera with me and don't have a smart phone.. just a dumb phone.
I just experience what I experience.
But if you google Isphahan you can find lots of photos.....

parks, architecture, mosques, a couple stunning bridges, wonderful people I met, and Ohhh the food......

I was there, actually, studying zarb, the dumbek-shaped hand drum used in Persian classical music. I had met a great zarb player on the West coast some years ago with whom I studied and had an introduction to players in iran.

[CJCRANE]

8. I have a friend from New Zealand who visited Iran

on his travels around the world (as is the Kiwi tradition).

He said Iranians were the most educated and friendliest people he met.

[pangaia]

10. I could certainly agree with that.

Although Norwegians might give them a run for their money.


Beautiful people in both countries..

[Marrah_G]

16. I have heard the same

[RussBLib]

18. It's the government of Iran that is the problem, not the people

Kinda like America (and I refer to the GOP primarily)

[The Magistrate]

25. Credit Where It is Due To President Rouhani, Sir

You will not often see me praise a cleric, but this is one of those times we all should....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/us-iran-politics-idUSKCN0IB1S220141022

Iran president denounces bill to empower Islamic vigilantes

'Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came out on Wednesday against a parliamentary bill to empower vigilantes who enforce Islamic morals, strongly re-asserting a moderate agenda that had taken a back seat since his election last year.

"The sacred call to virtue is not the prerogative of a select group of people, a handful taking the moral high ground and acting as custodians. It is upon all Muslims to exhort love, respect for other and human dignity," Rouhani told a cheering crowd packed into a stadium in northern Zanjan Province.

"Rue the day some lead our society down the path to insecurity, sow discord and cause rifts, all under the banner of Islam," he said, his voice shaking with emotion.'