British-Iranian woman gets 1 year in jail for attending male volleyball game

[davidn3600]

Tehran (AFP) - A Tehran court has jailed for one year a British-Iranian woman who was arrested after trying to attend a volleyball match, a decision that left her family in shock Sunday.

The case of Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old law graduate from London, has drawn considerable attention because of her dual nationality and lengthy time in prison before trial. Britain said it was concerned after hearing reports of her jail sentence.

Ghavami was detained on June 20 at Azadi ("Freedom" in Farsi) Stadium where Iran's national volleyball team was to play Italy, after female fans and even women journalists were told they would not be allowed to attend, leading to a brief demonstration.

Women are also banned from football matches in Iran, with officials saying this is to protect them from lewd behaviour among male fans.

--

So far, Ghavami has spent 127 days in the capital's notorious Evin prison. Last month she went on hunger strike for a fortnight in protest at the conditions there.

A Facebook page where her friends and family have campaigned for her release features photographs of her against the slogan: "Jailed for wanting to watch a volleyball match".

http://news.yahoo.com/british-iranian-volleyball-woman-sentenced-one-071703473.html

Amnesty International calls the case, "appalling."

[JI7]

1. watching Anthony Bourdain in Iran right now

there was a part where they talk about some rights women have/don't have and compared to places like saudi arabia. said women can vote, drive and some other things in iran but they can't watch some sports game . i think they said football(i'm guessing they meant soccer).

[True Blue Door]

29. Since the religious authorities have absolute power to block candidates

the right to vote in Iran for both men and women is nominal at best.

[Rhinodawg]

2. If that's the only bullshit in Iran, I could deal with it.

Iran is now the " throw acid in a woman's face if they do not follow shariah law " state.

[demosincebirth]

3. I'm speechless

[ZombieHorde]

4. I guess we have something in common with them.

We like to lock people for bullshit too, like not mowing their lawns.

[Rhinodawg]

5. Baaaaaahaha

Seriously ?

[hobbit709]

6. Seriously!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5747212

[Rhinodawg]

7. Do you really want to compare the US with Iran?

[hobbit709]

8. If the fundies get their way, we would have a theocracy here.

Look at everything they want to stick their religious beliefs into.

[leftynyc]

21. Except for the part

of the constitution that expressly forbids such a thing happening. Bill Maher was absolutely right in saying some liberals are loathe to call out Islam and make moronic comparisons that have no basis in reality.

[hobbit709]

23. You have heard of amendments haven't you?

All it would take is 3/4 of the states to get an amendment passed that would allow them to do so.

remember when slavery was legal and women had no vote? And a few other amendments that changed things for the better. All it takes is enough idiots to change it for the worse.
what do you think would happen to the Constitution if 40 states were run by the likes of Brownback or Walker.

[leftynyc]

26. "All it would take"

Well, that and super majorities in both houses of congress. Have I missed a vote in either house of congress on making this a theocracy? No, I don't think I have.

Meanwhile, you continue to ignore (while trying to deflect) about laws THAT ARE ON THE BOOKS that allow people to throw acid in women's faces, arrest people for merely having a Christian bible, a death penalty for leaving Islam - shall I go on (and on and on and on)? And great job proving Bill Maher right. He couldn't have scripted this conversation better to prove his point.

[Skidmore]

9. I would.

There is a serious amount of abuse of the population here by law enforcement that has been let slide. It is okay now to be murdered by law enforcement without having done anything criminal and while not possessing a weapon. We incarcerate people by the millions for minor nonviolent offenses into privately run prisons and then do not restore the rights of citizens to them when they have served their time. We condemn them to the status of pariahs by refusing them rehabilitation and, if these people have mental health problems, they do not receive the proper medical/psychiatric treatment. People are as likely to die in these prisons at the hands of guards as they are from conflicts with other prisoners.

We have politicians right now seeking to remove rights from women and minorities. How many politicians do you need to hear making demeaning statements and demanding a status for women of units for reproduction at any cost? How many legislators do you need to see stand in front of crowds claiming that it a-okay for women to earn less than men to support their families?

As for the clergy, we have fine Christian ones here who are barely held in check and, if you listen closely to what they say, are in full throated support of establishing a theocracy here. Some have called for the use of violence against those who do not agree with their teachings. How is that different from any akhun in Iran?

And as for the individual actions of citizens in the US, how many articles do you need to read of domestic violence and abuse of children? How many articles do you need to see in which slavery has been uncovered, labor and sexual? What level of hypocrisy are you willing to tolerate?

This nation is no better or worse than any other nation in the world when it come to the actions of the humans. Too many are willing to turn a blind eye because of the wrapping of the package.

[Nye Bevan]

10. "Iran executes three men on homosexuality charges"

Three Iranian men have been executed after being found guilty of charges related to homosexuality, according to a semi-official news agency.

The men, only identified by their initials, were hanged on Sunday in the south-western city of Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's Khuzestan province.

"The three convicts were sentenced to death based on the articles 108 and 110 of Iran's Islamic penal code, for acts against the sharia law and bad deeds," the Isna agency quoted a judiciary official in Khuzestan as saying.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/07/iran-executes-men-homosexuality-charges

It's OK to point out that the US is better than Iran. It really is.

[Skidmore]

11. And the US executes people, some of them

with limited mental capacity and/or innocent of the charges filed against them. Neither country is innocent. I am simply saying that there is a willingness to not face the fact that we are not immune to systemic violence--that somehow the acts of "the other" are more egregious. Every day on this board there is some fresh complaint about police brutality/overreach or the miscarriage of justice based on bigotry. It exists here too.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. But the way you say 'we are also flawed' seems to suggest that executing gay people is not worth

the mention. As a human being, I advocate justice for humans under all governments. Calling out one is not in any way a vindication of another. They can both be shitty. Negative Nationalism is still nationalism.

[Skidmore]

13. That is not my point at all.

I just have a real problem with the people of this nation always castigating the inhumanity of others while ignoring its own. I don't care what group is being abused or misused, it is all the same, nor is it vindication. It should be a call for those people in all nations who are interested in justice, equality, and fairness to stand up and demand that those principles guide humanity. Hatred and the acts it engenders flourish in the presence of apathy.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. And where is the apathy in the LGBT community toward injustices in the US?

Have we been quiet about it? Hell no. What in this thread is ignoring that which happens in America? Mention of abuses in other places is not ignoring our own flaws, it is calling out an injustice toward a fellow human being by an oppressive government.
You say you have a real problem with this. But what in the OP or in the thread specifically is problematic? I see no one ignoring anything nor distracting from anything, except for you. You seem to introduce this theme without any actual cue from the thread. You have a real problem with what? Something you imagine? I just don't see in this thread that which you claim to be so upsetting to you. Can you point it out?

[CJCRANE]

15. That's true. But there are about 200 countries on this planet

most of which we rarely hear about in the media.

That's partly why people are suspicious when the MSM focuses on certain countries and ignores others.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. I'd been to about 23 of them before I turned 18. I'm way older than that now.

And what you are saying is utterly irrelevant to the subject matter.
I'm not going to tell you that something I see as homophobic bigotry is something else. It's bigoted to downplay executions of minority members. It is bigoted to claim that killing gay people institutionally is somehow mitigated by things done by other countries.
If you can't simply stand and call a wrong a wrong, what's the point of saying anything at all? Call it wrong and then start whining about the 'MSM'. Try that method out for size. What would it hurt you?

[Bluenorthwest]

17. And of course the Privilege that streams from the Straights, when called out, makes them fall silent

and demand that we talk about something else. Comparing institutional killing of a minority group with even poor due process for accused violent criminals compares gay people to violent criminals.

[CJCRANE]

18. True. Good point.

[stevenleser]

20. Why is it necessary to say "But the US..." when talking about injustice elsewhere???

Particularly since no one at DU is unaware of the challenges here.

[leftynyc]

22. To prove Bill Maher right? (n/t)

[Skidmore]

25. Steve, I draw from my personal experience of

Iran and the fact that I have a couple of kids who are half Iranian and many friends of that nation. By in large, there are many good people in the world who are Iranian. There has been a constant hammering away at the peoples of this region now for the past 40 years as if they hold the market on injustice and that acts of violence in the ME in general are somehow more intensely unjust that some of the brutality seen elsewhere. The prejudices created by the constant hammering on the ethnic communities here and the implication that, by extension, all Muslims are evil and to be suspected of nefariousintention are something people here deal with everyday. I fully understood what the young lady on Maher's show was trying to get across this week. I find frustrating too.

[ZombieHorde]

19. On the subject of locking people up

for reasons I think are silly, yes. I compared the US with Iran.

[Rhinodawg]

24. Wow...you really feel that way.

I don't know what to say.

[hobbit709]

27. If you were locked up for spurious reasons here, I bet you'd change your mind quick.

[True Blue Door]

28. But it's Bill Maher that gets protested.