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September 2, 2010

As soon as you can see Norway’s magnificent forests and lakes from your aeroplane window, you get a sense of a freshness and natural beauty. You won’t be wrong either, it is a beautiful country, it is efficiently run and the only oil producing country which has not fallen victim to despotism, corruption and mass poverty. Norway is prosperous, its people are beautiful, hospitable, courteous and very civilised. This was my first visit to a Scandinavian country but I wasn’t going there as a tourist. I was going to Oslo to be alongside the famous Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, in what turned out to be a roller coaster of emotional anxiety and waiting but fortunately a very happy ending.

Mostafaei got in trouble with the regime in Iran after he helped publicise the stoning case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Unable to get hold of Mostafaei, the Iranian intelligence ministry had resorted to the despicable act of taking his family members as hostages. Mostafaei’s wife, his brother-in-law and even his elderly father-in-law were all taken into Evin prison. They were being held as hostages to get their hands on Mostafaei. The regime’s desperate act of taking family members as hostages however, only exposed the backwardness and illegality of Ahmadinejad’s administration. As someone once told me, Islamic Republic’s worst enemy is itself. They accuse everyone who disagrees with them as ‘threats to national security’ but the real threat to national security is none other than their own backward laws, their intolerance and their disregard for human rights and normal behaviour.
This morning however all those terrible times were put behind the Mostafaei family. Finally common sense prevailed and a loving wife and daughter joined their dear husband and father.
I am not going to write much more, I let the mass media that were there to cover this joyful event, do a better job than me. Just one note however to finish this post. There was not a single Iranian journalist there, no one from BBC Persian, VOA Persian, Radio Farda or any of those well funded organisations. An observation that once again confirms what I have said, we do not have good reporters outside Iran. We have lazy journalists who at best like to interview people.

Watch the footage of the reunion here:

Cry No More Parmida. No One Will Arrest Your Mum or Dad Now.