Stand for Freedom in Iran!

Today, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum stood with elected officials, religious leaders, human rights activists, and thousands of attendees at the Stand for Freedom in Iran rally, protesting the UN visit of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Public Advocate Gotbaum said:

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to all the different groups standing today in solidarity with Iranian-Americans and Iranian citizens who disputed the results of June’s elections. I would like to thank all the speakers – in particular Governor David Paterson, Comptroller Tom Di Napoli, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, as well as the Iranian womens’ rights activists – for their powerful words. 

Throughout my career I have stood for women’s rights and always sought to represent the women who had no voice. The participation of women in the political process is one of the causes of my life.When I witnessed the video of Neda Soltan’s murder, I was heartbroken. Neda’s crime was to attend a rally in support of freedom, like so many other women – and men – in the weeks after Iran’s elections.

Yet like so many others, she was punished—by a brutal military apparatus determined to crush dissent and install its favored candidate, a Holocaust-denier and pariah in the world community. He is not welcome in the great city of New York. The Iranian government miscalculated. It lost the trust of its people and revealed its true nature to the international community.

A government that prohibits criticism of its actions violates basic human rights. A government that responds to criticism with violence is illegitimate. Today we stand in support of the rights of Iranian citizens and of freedom: the freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

Thank you all for being here today. Let’s Stand for Freedom!

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[Fashionable Earth]

We also support human and women’s rights in
Iran. Fashion, environmental responsibility and social justice can all be combined to change the world, please read our post for more info: http://fashionableearth.org/blog/2009/10/13/cause-of-the-season-iran/