Mohammad Ali Abtahi
“‘Worst than that, one of my friends who lives in Germany told me once that there they have a kind of sausage which is made of pork’s blood!! I didn’t let him continue the story since I was sure that I won’t like to hear the rest.’”
(From my Swedish blog, July 2004)
Muhammad Ali Abtahi, one of Iran’s vice-presidents under president Khatami but also a very active blogger has been arrested in Teheran. Nothing is known about his fate so far. On his bilingual site (Farsi and English) Abtahi used to provide unique inside information from Iran. But he also wrote about personal and everyday things in his own special English. I have quoted his views on “Blunz’n” or blood sausage above.
Abtahi obviously had to be very cautious and guarded in his writing. However, it was not too difficult to read between the lines. After the recent presidential elections he seems to have thrown his usual cautiousness over board and written this article from which the above heading has been taken. Obviously this was too much for the oppressive regime.
“Reporters without Borders” report that at least 33 journalists and “cyber-dissidents” haven been jailed and several others warned. Media attention will probably die down in a few days but we must never forget the brutalities of the Teheran theocracy.
If the EU had had a strong common foreign and security policy, we might have been able to do something. As it is now, EU leaders have to confine themselves to “express their concern”…
Recent comments