Ghazal Omid’s speech in Vienna; speaking to journalists and politicians regarding OMV deal with Iran and why it should be stopped.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to be here at this press conference today.

My name is Ghazal Omid. I am an Iranian Political, Human Rights and Women’s Rights activist. I am the author of Living in Hell, my personal story of life in and escape from Iran.
I am spokeswoman for 19 political prisoners being held in several prisons in Iran.
I am a Shiah Islam scholar and a practicing Muslim woman who sees it as her responsibility to bring the crimes of the Iranian regime to the attention of people around the world. The lengthy human rights violation record of the Iranian regime makes it impossible to give you an in-depth briefing today but I invite you to visit Amnesty International website to confirm the facts I will touch upon.

I am not here to tell OMV or Austrians how to do business. I am not here to criticize the statement of Austrian Foreign Minister, Ursula Plassni that OMV has the right to do business with Iran. I am not here as either a policy analysts or politician.
If OMV chooses to enter into a business relationship with Iran, whether or not sanctioned by the United Nations, then at least the public should be aware of the true nature of this business partner. I am simply here as a surviving witness to the Iranian regime’s atrocities who sincerely believes this deal is not in the interest of Austria and the West. The Iranian people asked me to deliver this message and ask you, after hearing this presentation, to scratch your conscience. I am going to show you photographic proof of the brutality of the Iranian regime towards those it has declared an enemy of the state.
I ask OMV to balance profits against the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranian women and children.

If you care about human rights or if you have a child of your own, think how heart rending it would be to see your child always hungry or, worse, summarily hoisted on a public lamppost for a meaningless infraction of a mullah’s non-Islamic dictate.

I would want the government and people of Austria, and indeed all of Europe to ask themselves: by supporting the OMV deal or any similar business undertaking by European countries, am I doing something that will help the brutal Iranian regime continue to oppress its citizens?

These points are from OMV own mission statement page:
We supply millions of people with transportation and heating fuels and with goods and services to produce everyday consumer products.
How is that going to benefit the Iranian people when the government of Iran is rationing gasoline used by millions of car owners? Iranian gas stations have already been equipped with “smart gas cards” but only those cars less than 5 years old can use them. Beginning June 2007, rationed gas will cost 100 Tomans (9 cents US) per liter. This may not sound like much until you consider that in a nation where the average income is only $90 US per month. It also means will take 1/16 of their monthly income to fill heir gas tank each time.
We put people first. Our growth comes from a service led approach, and from a strong sense of responsibility to our customers, stockholders, employees, and to the environment and society.

Can we ask, OMV, which people are you putting first?
Do innocent victims of terrorists groups supported by Iran have less value? We shouldn’t forget the UK sailor hostage crisis. It ended bloodlessly this time but, as Persians say, “Luck doesn’t knock on your door twice.” Can we really think that this regime, with its track record of human rights abuse, is going to change?
We promote open-minded attitudes among our workforce and require them to respect universal values.
How is OMV being open minded when they know the money they invest in Iran will directly benefit the oppressive Iranian regime? It will be used to arrest Iranian men and women protestors, rape women protestors and prisoners and hang raped teenage girls for losing their chastity. To illustrate a few of these “crimes”, I want to draw your attention to a PowerPoint presentation and video clips, all placed on YouTube by the Iranians outside Iran because YouTube has been shut down in Iran.

---- Power point

Now, after watching this presentation, please consider: how is it possible to have a great deal with the Iranians on one hand and be a target on the other?

The OMV deal will create more enemies for Europe than ten times the profit will fix.
The money the OMV deal will supply the Iranian regime will not benefit Iranian women and children or education or advancement of the great culture of Persia. Instead, it will buy more ammunition and will harbor and support terrorists. Every terrorist, from Hezbollah to elite members of Al-Qaeda, will get a free pass to Iranian universities to learn the latest tricks of making street bombs. Iranian children will be brain washed daily to hate, not only the usual enemy, Americans and Israelis, but also Europeans and, yes, even Austrians. You may not have heard or heard of the Iranian regime publicly shunning or cursing you- but I have.

Your lives in Europe may seem safe and far away from the chaos of Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East but you can be sure that the ranks of Radical Islamists are growing daily in the heart of Europe. The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain have already suffered the result. When you help a regime such as Iran, perhaps not intentionally but you are helping wash the money soaked in the blood of millions, including Iranian women and children.

Do you know that, every day, millions of children in the schools of Iran, shout “Death to Europeans?” Do you know that at least ten thousand suicide bombers are ready, awaiting the order of Ayatollah Khamani, to wear their vest bombs into your midst. Home grown terrorists, followers of radicals, such as Khamani & Ahmdinejad, are poised, to attack selected targets in the heart of your countries. Do you know that the government of Iran teaches the very same hate and principles that Bin Laden does? Every religion, other than Islam, is ostracized in Iran.

At the beginning of my speech I said I am a practicing Muslim. I am not here to defame Islam but to lament its perversion, which slaughters the innocent of every religion and background in the name of God. Austrians surely remember the last man to kill millions of people in the name of his perverted notion of superiority. Take your enemy for face value. Take him seriously.

Every deal you make with Iran worsens the lives of Iranian women, children and political prisoners and makes it more difficult to save them from death and starvation.

There are other sound reasons to stop this deal. Your business partner, with your help, could be killing your own citizens and other Europeans; if not now, soon. I am so sure of this that I am willing to bet my life upon this statement. If you dismiss the expert witness statement and mine, I predict a day when you will look for a reason to explain today’s action. You will ask, “Why didn’t the good Iranian Muslims warn us?” You will tell the world, “We didn’t know….”

I am here today asking you, rather than doing business with this regime, why not continue on the non-violent path of economically isolating it instead of propping it up? Many countries in Europe are indeed scaling back business with Iran because they do understand that an extreme, fundamentalist regime with a nuclear weapon is in no one’s interest.

I am here as a living example of a child that grew up in Islamic Iran and was bombarded daily with hatred of the West. Fortunately, I questioned this message of hate at an early age. My resistance eventually led to my life saving escape to the free world. Unfortunately, Iranian children are still being brainwashed and too many are being turned literally into ticking time bombs.

I teach people that if they have something to say, it shouldn't be just a desire but a human duty and responsibility to speak out to help others. I teach that hate is not inherited; it is taught.

Not too long ago, on a tour of California when my first book, Living in Hell, came out, an Iranian man, calling a radio show on which I was being interviewed. He said, “Dear Ms. Omid, you have a good life. You are a published author. So, what about us? What have you done for your country? What have you done for the Iranian children, for the next generation?” It hit me hard. He was right. When I was a child, I dreamed of having someone to stand up for me. That hero never came to rescue me. I learned early on to scratch my own back. Now that I am in a position to do something for the children of the next generation and perhaps, hopefully, for the current one, I don’t see it as work. I see it as my responsibility, as a member of the human family, to serve; however small that service might be.

As an Iranian woman, I was brought up not to question but to obey. However, my mother, and later the government of Iran, found it impossible to turn me into just a follower.

After the revolutionary Islamic government came to power, the school texts taught us that Muslims were good and will go to Heaven, while all others won’t be saved and will go to Hell. That wasn’t a good enough explanation for me. After reading the Koran and doing the Arabic prayers starting at age 7, I did not agree with the explanation I was given because I knew God has not called the people of the book infidels. This phrase has been taken out of context and used over an over by the government of Iran to teach the Iranian children, “We, the Muslims are good and the rest of the world, the non-Muslims, is evil. Good and Evil will fight and Good will eventually win through human sacrifices.”
Like many young adults of today’s Middle East, I grew up in the war zone. During the war, children were told that if they get a Key to Heaven from a Mullah, they will receive his blessing and will go directly to Heaven when they cross the mine fields.

I was asked on more than a dozen occasions to sign up for Bessigi, the revolutionary militia. I refused. I was asked to join the army behind the war zone as a Zainab Sister. I refused and made some comments about the mullahs that they didn’t quite like. The Zainab Sisters did everything from cleaning up the injured Iranian soldiers brought to the hospitals in the so called “safe zone” to becoming their temporary wives and even strapping a bomb to their chest and going after whoever the Iranian regime called Enemy. The Zainab Sisters program still exists and since Ahmdinejad came to power as President, it is again being promoted; this time against the West.

As children and even in high school we were lined up at 7 A. M. every morning, rain or shine, before attending our classes at 8 A. M. to yell, “Death to America, Death To Israel, Death To United Kingdom, Death to France, Death to Germany.
As children, we were ordered to yell but when the cameras were rolling we were told not to yell Death to the European countries publicly! I remember vividly my friends being hushed in front of the cameras. The government of Iran considers the entire West their enemy. They simply are selective about whom to hate on public television!

I know most people who haven’t seen any shouting against Europeans have a hard time believing this is true, especially because, for the past decade, most of Europe has had an OK relationship with the Iranian regime. I assure you, it is true. I lived it. I am in touch everyday with contacts in Iran and the shouting is still going on. This medieval Iranian regime will never change. The regime’s watchdogs teach hate in their schools against you and the entire Western world.

Back in Iran, when I made it to high school at age 14, through reading more books on Islam, I realized that what the Government of Iran does to the mind of children is an unspeakable crime and a great sin. At that age, I didn’t know how to stop this crime. I went for more than a year trying not to show up for the morning prayers which always included anti-western slogans. After a year of playing with the minds of the regime’s watchdogs in the high school, the principal, who had been watching me in the school yard, finally found me in one of my classes. She forced me to go to morning prayers and stood in the line up next to me. I stood there but wouldn’t shout. Then she stood right in my face. I moved my mouth up and down but no voice was coming out. She screamed, “Why aren’t you yelling?” I said, “I have a sore throat.”
She said. “Apparently, you have had a sore throat for the entire year.” The angry principal, who had no shame in admitting that she was the government watchdog added, “You don’t think that we know what you are doing; we are watching you….”

I said, “OK, do you want me to tell you the truth?” She said, “What is that?” I said, “I can’t hate someone I don’t even know. I can’t hate the westerners just because you don’t like them.” She said, “You will pay a price for your attitude.” I gave her my advice in Farsi, which in translation is: “When a drowning person’s head goes underwater, they don’t care how deep the water is.” I knew I would find myself in trouble but I wanted to let her know that her brain washing was not working on me.

She was true to her word. I paid a heavy price for a very small phrase coming out of a teenager’s mouth. But, her reaction made me realize that the government of Iran is weaker than many think. We just have to know how to press them in the right spot.
I didn’t realize that sassing the government was such a horrific crime until I tried to get into a university. When I finally made it to a private university, I began to discover the extent of my youthful folly.

The theory of the Iranian regime is: Anyone opposed to the government must be pulled out of the crowd, isolated and, most often, taken to prison so others wouldn’t follow his or her example. This was a too common occurrence during Khatami’s regime; the most liberal president Westerners thought Iran had. I would like you to remember the photo of Khatami looking at the tortured man with a pleasant smile on his face!

During the war, when Iraqi planes were dropping bombs on us in the school yard, the government watchdogs told the children to just pray and if we died we would end up in Heaven. I asked, “What if we don’t die and are just injured, who will be responsible for our lives? Why should we follow you to the Depths of Hell when you are not even sure about your own afterlife?”

I despised the Iranian regime even more when the child soldiers were taken off the streets without their parent’s consent. Each child soldier was given a key and told that if they step on the mines, they will end up in heaven in the arms of 72 virgins. Soon, a letter along with a “key to heaven” drowned in their child’s blood was delivered to their families. The children, recruited directly from schools by the regime, were sent to the border, fed for two weeks and supposedly given military training. The truth of matter was: Most of these children were from extremely poor families. The children were not in military camps but were brain washed by excessive prayers to persuade them to walk into the mine fields to clear a path for the soldiers to follow.
After graduating from high school following the end of the Iran-Iraq war, I set my ambitions on medical school. However, despite high scores on my entrance exams, I was denied enrollment in medical school or any public university because of my rebellious youth. I enrolled in a private university, studying French Literature to prepare for a law degree.
In October 1990, I was abducted from the street by the Iranian secret police. When I realized what was happening, I escaped by jumping from the kidnapper's speeding car into a busy street. I was seriously injured but was temporarily rescued by the crowd. Although I was the victim, I was re-arrested on trumped up charges that typically resulted in a rapidly orchestrated death sentence. I was taken to prison and released only after agreeing to non-disclosure and signing away my rights to pursue the case.
As I left the prison, I promised myself that I would write and speak out and stand up to the regime to avenge those who were much braver than I. They endured torture, rape and long sentences and many were hung from the cranes on the streets.
Closing paragraph:

I have always believed that we don’t have to love one another. We don’t have to even like one another but we do need to respect each other. I am not Austrian, white, Christian, but I am part of the human family. I care deeply about every man, woman and child from every background and religion because I believe that is what the fore fathers of democracy and humanity wanted us to practice for future generations. And, that is what my conscience tells me.

Despite the best efforts of the government of Iran, I, along many others, did not become a suicide bomber. Instead, I decided to turn my hate training and anger against the Iranian regime itself.
You may think this is a hard task for one person. I am not going to be alone in this fight. I take some of the responsibility off my shoulders and place it on yours. From today forward you no longer can say you didn’t know.

An Edmond Burke quotation says it well, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”

May 09, 2007

PRESS RELEASE – APRIL 23, 2007


The hunger strike by thirty-nine political prisoners in Iran, protesting deplorable prison conditions, continued Monday.

On April 22, 2007, two prisoners, Khalid Hardani and Nasser K_____, were ordered to the medical clinic at Raji Shar prison due to their worsening physical condition on the sixteenth day of hunger strike. Both men were ordered by clinic officials to end their hunger strike prior to receiving medical care, with no inquiry as to the reason for their strike.

When they refused to end the strike, they were savagely beaten inside the clinic, in full view of medical staff, by professional torture master Aslan Beghi. Neither man received any medical care, neither for the hunger strike's physical effects, nor for the effects of physical torture. They were, instead, dragged back to their filthy cells to recover on their own from the savage beatings.

Mr. Hardani, whose cardiac condition requires medication, has received no medication for his heart condition from prison medical officials in months.

Repeated letters and calls to officials of Amnesty International by Ghazal Omid (www.ghazalomid.com), Iranian dissident and official spokesperson for these 39 political prisoners, have not been returned. UN Human Rights Commission member states have also not responded to repeated calls for intervention.

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