Iran Comment Reloaded: The Power of the Gradual (8 June 2010)

There are no proclamations of the final outcome in these contributions, no ringing of the bell to say that all is complete. Instead, the victory is in the process, the pursuit of the “gradual”. As long as the search for rights is persistent in these words of sorrow or hope, then rights cannot be denied. As long as the vision of fairness is offered in these reflections, then others have not succeeding in making us --- inside or outside Iran --- blind.

The power of the vote may have been taken away on 12 June 2009. Some may try to pronounce that Iranians --- repressed by their Government, bedazzled by false hopes of Twitter --- are reduced to the powerless. But Aa long as the power to express is put in the simple but effective phrases by these authors, then the power of expression remains.

A marathon, not a sprint.

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Iran Opinion: How Obama Can Help the Iranian People (Abdi and Parsi)

On March 20, President Obama marked Norooz, the Iranian New Year, with his strongest words to date in solidarity with the people of Iran. "Though times may seem dark," he told Iranians, "I am with you."

Days later, with significant US backing, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a human rights monitor on Iran, answering the call of Iranian human rights and democracy activists.

There are a number of crucial measures to build on the monitor effort. Though they may not appear sweeping enough to some, they actually make a difference. The absence of a silver bullet should not prevent us from taking these small but important steps to stand with the Iranian people.

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Iran Video: Journalist Fathi, Congressman Ellison on Human Rights

Nazila Fathi and Keith Ellison speak at this week's conference, hosted by the National Iranian American Council, on human rights in Iran.

Fathi was the correspondent for The New York Times in Tehran but was forced to leave soon after the 2009 Presidential election. Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, is the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress.

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Iran Live Stream: "Answering the Iranian People's Call for Human Rights"

The Live Stream of the conference has finished. We will post the archived video as soon as it is available.

The National Iranian American Council in Washington is hosting a one-day conference, "Answering the Iranian People's Call for Human Rights". The morning session, beginnng 8:45 a.m. local time (1345 GMT), will feature addresses by Suzanne Nossel, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; Jonas Hafström, Sweden's Ambassador to the United States; Representative Keith Ellison; and Nazila Fathi, the New York Times correspondent in Tehran who was forced to leave soon after the June 2009 Presidential election.

In the afternoon, there will be a panel discussion on "The Human Rights Crisis and Iran’s Democracy Movement" with academic and author Nader Hashemi, analyst Alireza Nader, and Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa Director of Human Rights Watch.

The Live Stream will began at 1345 GMT.