Iran and its Prisoners at Home and Abroad

Marina Nemat has just published her book The Prisoner of Tehran on her time as a political prisoner in Iran in the 1980s. In her time there she was arrested for having negative views of the Revolution of 1979 and was put in prison for many years. Her perspective is an interesting one, as one of her interrogators, who was a political prisoner himself under the Shah became her husband in the end. While she was forced to marry him, there was some respect between the couple and the views he held as a prisoner himself. In the end Marina was released from prison and while all these years she has refrained from telling her story, in her book she reveals for the first time her life as a political prisoner. Marina now lives in Canada.

With the problems in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, the influence of Iran on communities and individuals linked with Iran is growing, and while many Iranians are members of some of the most successful and peaceable communities abroad, the effect of the Government has often impacted many Iranians inside Iran like Marina Nemat as well as Iranians and other people outside of Iran in a negative fashion.

Like Marina, Zahra Kazemi a Canadian journalist who was born in Iran, was also arrested during her time in Iran. Despite her being a foreign national, she was taken as a prisoner for reporting the wrong information about the government in Iran. She was consequently raped and killed in a way to disrespect her in the most brutal manner and then publicized to have perished due to an illness during her time in prison. While her son pushed for recognition and action to be taken in honour of his mother, very little was done in regard to the issue.

This week the International Herald Tribune published an article concerning the Jewish Community of Argentina's troubles with the ever growing relationship between Argentina and Venezuela. The concern is one involving economy and terrorism as President Hugo Chavez, who provides much of Argentina's energy in the current energy crisis there, has made overwhelming gestures towards the Iranian Government in order to increase ties with another oil producing nation as well as spite the United States. What worries Argentine Jews is the fact that the bombing of the Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires a few years ago which killed more than 50 people and wounded 200 was sponsored by the Iranian Government and members of Hizbollah according to the article. The influence of Iran via Venezuela towards Argentina who has the largest Jewish population in Latin America is a great worry to the victims of the bombings in Buenos Aires and Argentines as a whole.

In a final article from the New York Times, American soldiers in Iraq increasing claim to find support of insurgents by Iran. While there have been many small stories and rumours about Iran's involvement in Iraq, the support of Hizbollah in Lebanon and political difficulties in that country may be a reflection of the ever growing influence of Iran abroad. While the true actions of Iran in Iraq and abroad are never clear to observers, it is something that the region and world community will eventually need to address in the near future.

While Iranian people in Iran and in the Diaspora have contributed greatly to communities all around the world in which they live, some aspects of a future Iran should be considered in the context of their ever-growing influence. It is unknown what responses people in Iran and abroad may take to actions by the Iranian Government, but with the positive and negative presence and influence of Iranians and Iran abroad the result is sure to be one of great interest.