Italy: Iranian student leader to thank Rome mayor

[Marcus Marulus]

Italy: Iranian student leader to thank Rome mayor

Rome, 8 July (AKI) - Ali Afshari, one of Iran's prominent student leaders, will arrive in Rome on Wednesday to thank Rome's Mayor, Gianni Alemanno, for his support for jailed student activists.

He will also meet members of the media at a press conference organised by Giuseppe Marra Communications at its Rome headquarters and moderated by deputy-director of Adnkronos International, Ahmad Rafat.

Afshari's visit marks the tenth anniversary of mass protests that took place in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on 9 July 1999.

Afshari was the secretary for the Central Council of the Islamic Student Association at Amir Kabir University from 1995 to 1999.

He was later elected as a member of Iran's largest student organisation.

Two of seven detained student activists in an Iranian prison who sent a letter to Alemanno, appeared before a Tehran court last week.

In mid-June, seven jailed activists from the student movement sent a letter to Alemanno thanking him for his support and for his readiness to rename a street in Rome as symbol of the fight for democracy in Iran.

Hedayat Ghazali and Sabbah Nasri appeared before the 13th section of Iran's Revolutionary Court after they sent the letter sent to Alemanno, sources from the Iranian student association Daftar Tahkim Vahdat said.

The students chose Adnkronos International (AKI) as the intermediary to deliver the letter to Alemanno in mid-June, thanking him for backing their cause.

The Union of Jewish Youth of Italy have proposed renaming the street where the Iranian embassy is located 'July 9th Street'.

On 9 July, 1999, Iranian students rioted in the streets, calling for democracy and freedom after a reformist newspaper, Salam, was shut down on 8 July.

In their letter to Alemanno, the jailed student activists spoke of 9 July 1999 as being a "turning point in history for the fight for freedom and against the repression of the Iranian student movement."

The jailed students said the decision to rename the street in Rome where the Iranian embassy is located "would give new life to those who fight for democracy in Iran."

"We consider this generous gesture an important step. We hope that this noble gesture can be replicated by other world capitals," said the letter.

[source]

[Marcus Marulus]

How lovely is this concern for "democracy" in Iran by Rome's mayor! Whereas the continent in which Alemanno resides is sliding towards a totalitarian dictatorship (EU).

In mid-June, seven jailed activists from the student movement sent a letter to Alemanno thanking him for his support and for his readiness to rename a street in Rome as symbol of the fight for democracy in Iran.

The Union of Jewish Youth of Italy have proposed renaming the street where the Iranian embassy is located 'July 9th Street'.

The jailed students said the decision to rename the street in Rome where the Iranian embassy is located "would give new life to those who fight for democracy in Iran."

LOL, it is just cheap copying of the Iranians who back in 1980 renamed the street in Tehran where the British embassy is located from Winston Churchill Street into Bobby Sands Street.

And what has the Union of Jewish Youth to do with all of this, is beyond me.

This whole student thing reminds me of the Serbian organization Otpor, as well as of the Georgian "Rose revolution".

[CorneliuCodreanu]

By the western definition, Iran is as "democratic" as say, the United States. It has two principle parties, one supposed to be conservative and the other more liberal. However, unlike western nations, in Iran spiritual leaders are in charge for balancing the powers of political leaders, rather than some faceless congress made up of greedy, traiterous half-men. When things go wrong in Iran, religious leaders personally have to account for it, when they go wrong in Western nations, nobody is accounted for it (except for the accountants of the politician who handles his money when his stocks go due to war profitteering). So what are the students "rioting" for? Macdonalds? Blue Jeans? Homosexuality? Corruption?

Well, atleast Alemanno can go to bed proud knowing he has the blessings of the Jewish Student Movement. They're Europe's version of a cleric