Saturday, November 21, 2009

One Case, Two Murders: Niloofar Beizaie remembers Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar

Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of the brutal slaying of Dariush and Parvaneg Forouhar. Dariush Forouhar, a Mosaddeghist, Minister of Labour in the provisional government after 1979 revolution, and the leader of The Nation Party at the time of his assassination (22 Nov 1998), was confronted at his house by 18 fundamentalist renegades of the Intelligence Ministry (During the reformist government of Khatami). They entered the house to investigate the case of a theft involving their car. Then, they separated Dariush and his wife Parvaneh, and stabbed them to death! The killers, who were later interrogated, but never prosecuted, considered themselves the "obedient soldiers of Valiye Faghih (i.e. Khamenei); that carried out orders to eliminate these blasphemous enemies" thus claimed "innocence" ... The religious fatwas for elimination of these political opponents were issued by some of the most stern supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Mesbah Yazdi; Jannati; Khaz'ali and via Mohseni Ejeh-i to Ali Fallahian (all mullahs!) ... Accounts of interrogations of this murder (as one case from the chain murders of Iranian writers and intellectuals) were made available by Khatami's ministry of intelligence that admitted to the involvement of its employees. However under pressure Khatami could not see the case through to thorough justice. Although those responsible for the killing were known, their sentence was commuted by a judiciary system that kills teenagers for accidental crimes they commited in self defense. A key witness by the name of Sayeed Emami was killed in prison, and his death blamed on suicide!

The play below that was staged in Germany (Frankfurt) on Nov 1, 2009 is an enactment of Foruhar's murder case. It was directed by Niloofar Beyzaie.



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