It is time for the West to learn to say the names of Iran’s democrats.

December 20, 2009

Source: The Wall Street Journal

On Sunday bloody street battles in cities across Iran exposed the regime’s brutality for all the world to see. On Monday, the government restarted one of the darker arts it has mastered: grabbing its democrats and stuffing them in a hole.

Among the dissidents arrested was veteran democratic activist Heshmat Tabarzadi. On December 17, Mr. Tabarzadi wrote in an op-ed article on these pages that “If the government continues to opt for violence, there very well may be another revolution in Iran. One side has to step down. And that side is the government—not the people.”

Mr. Tabarzadi’s home in Tehran is under constant surveillance, so he knew the risks he took when he published an article in The Wall Street Journal under his own name. This is a man who appreciates the consequences of calling publicly for democracy: He spent nine years in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, including two in solitary confinement, for his activities as a student leader.

On Sunday evening, Mr. Tabarzadi was interviewed on Voice of America Persian. He said he had never seen such vast protests, and he cautioned the demonstrators against resorting to violence.

The regime’s response came early on Monday, when the Iranian intelligence service knocked on Mr. Tabarzadi’s door. When he asked to see their warrant, they barged into his home with force. According to a prominent activist who spoke with Mr. Tebarzadi’s family, the agents seized his papers, articles, books and computer, arresting him in front of his wife and son. Multiple calls to his home went unanswered, and no one knows where Mr. Tabarzadi is being held.

Mr. Tabarzadi’s Facebook page is covered with posts in Farsi praising his bravery and demanding his release. One man wrote: “We demand the immediate release of all freedom fighters in Iran. Blessed be all the freedom lions of Iran—down with the murderous tyrants.” A woman wrote: “Heshmat Tabarzadi, the tireless freedom fighter, was arrested along with other activists following yesterday’s events. . . . We demand their release.”

There are many others. Among the most significant are former foreign minister Ebrahim Yazdi, the secretary general of the outlawed Freedom Movement of Iran. During June’s protests, the 78-year-old cancer survivor was arrested by security forces directly from the hospital in Tehran where he was undergoing treatment. This time, they’ve reportedly rounded up his niece as well.

Prominent human-rights activist Emad Baghi was among those taken. This year, Mr. Baghi received the Martin Ennals Award—the Nobel Prize for human rights—and was banned from traveling to receive it in person.

Dr. Nushin Ebadi, the sister of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, was arrested in her home. So was women’s-rights activist Haleh Sahabi. So too were Morteza Haji, an aide to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, and several aides to reformist leader Mir Houssein Mousavi.

These names may be hard to keep track of. But so, once, were those of Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov and Sharansky. In an overdue and brief statement on Sunday, President Obama called for the “immediate release of all who have been unjustly detained within Iran.” It’s time for the White House and the rest of the U.S. government to start learning to pronounce the names of Iran’s dissidents.