Siamak Pourzand
Encyclopedia
Siamak Pourzand was an Iran
ian journalist and film critic. He was the manager of the Majmue-ye Farrhangi-ye Honari-ye Tehran—a cultural center for writers, artists, and intellectuals—and wrote cultural commentary for several reformist newspapers later shut down by the Iranian government. In 2001, he was imprisoned for his articles critical of Iranian leadership, a move condemned by numerous human rights and journalism organizations.
His notable assignments included covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy
as well as interviewing Richard Nixon
. He also reported on Hollywood and became one of Iran's "best known film critics", writing for the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma
.
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution
, however, Pourzand lost his job at Keyhan and began working at trade journals. Pourzand was reportedly "secular to the core" and viewed the new rulers of the Islamic Republic with suspicion. In the late 1990s, he began to write a series of articles critical to the government, placing them in opposition newspapers. Among them was a piece on the funerals of Dariush
and Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar
, victims of Iran's 1998 "Chain Murders
", in which a series of prominent dissidents were murdered in their homes by members of Iran's intelligence agency. Pourzand also reported the funeral live by telephone for a Los Angeles
-based radio station.
, also a critic of the Iranian government, was arrested for her participation in a conference at Berlin's Heinrich Böll Foundation
titled "Iran after the elections", at which various reform proposals were debated; she ultimately served a 52-day prison term. Pourzand's own arrest soon followed. On 29 November 2001, days after reportedly seeing men following him on motorcycles, Pourzand was forcibly disappeared
by members of the Amaken, agents of Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prohibition of Vice, shortly after leaving his sister's apartment. On 7 December, one of his sisters was requested by government officials to bring him a change of clothes, but was reportedly told that his whereabouts were "none of her business".
On 9 March 2002, the government-run newspaper Iran Daily announced that Pourzand would be facing trial. Immediately before the trial, Pourzand's daughter reported that her father had called her in the United States to say that the family should "treat him as if he were dead". According to Iran Daily, Pourzand confessed to nine charges, including working for the state security forces of the former Shah
and maintaining contact with the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi
, overseas. His trial was closed to the public, and he was reportedly denied access to his own legal representation. He was ultimately sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and a flogging
of seventy-four lashes. Amnesty International
reported that the group believed him to have been "ill-treated" during his interrogation and called for his release as a prisoner of conscience
. Human Rights Watch
similarly denounced the trial as a "mockery of the law", and "of a pattern of repression against reformist and independent figures that has gathered momentum since February's 2000 parliamentary elections".
He was briefly released from prison on health reasons in November 2002, and stayed with his sister for several months before being brought to Evin prison
in March 2003. After reportedly refusing the demands of Amaken agents to implicate other dissident figures, he was kept at the prison. At this time, he began to suffer from spinal stenosis
and became unable to walk.
In March 2004, Pourzand suffered a severe heart attack, following which prison officials allegedly delayed treating him until another prisoner demanded that they do so. In 2006, in light of his ongoing health issues, Pourzand was transferred to house arrest.
issued a press release mourning Pourzand's passing and calling the Iranian government "responsible for Siamak Pourzand’s death". Leili and Azadeh Pourzand appeared on the Voice of America
's Persian program Parazit
, explaining how they found out about their father's death.
The Telegraph
reported that Iranian authorities initially refused to hand over Pourzand's body to his family for burial, imposed restrictions on the eulogies at his funeral, and confiscated the cell phones and cameras of reporters.
is an internationally noted feminist and winner of National Endowment for Democracy
's Democracy award.
Pourzand was a first cousin of Persian poet Ahmad Shamlou on his mother's side.
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian journalist and film critic. He was the manager of the Majmue-ye Farrhangi-ye Honari-ye Tehran—a cultural center for writers, artists, and intellectuals—and wrote cultural commentary for several reformist newspapers later shut down by the Iranian government. In 2001, he was imprisoned for his articles critical of Iranian leadership, a move condemned by numerous human rights and journalism organizations.
Journalistic career
Siamak Pourzand began his career in journalism with the newspaper Bakhtar Emroz in 1952. In the 1960s and 70s, Pourzand served as an American correspondent for the newspaper Keyhan.His notable assignments included covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
as well as interviewing Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. He also reported on Hollywood and became one of Iran's "best known film critics", writing for the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
.
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, however, Pourzand lost his job at Keyhan and began working at trade journals. Pourzand was reportedly "secular to the core" and viewed the new rulers of the Islamic Republic with suspicion. In the late 1990s, he began to write a series of articles critical to the government, placing them in opposition newspapers. Among them was a piece on the funerals of Dariush
Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
and Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar
Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar
Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar, was an Iranian dissident and activist who was murdered during the Chain murders of Iran in November 1998.Dariush Forouhar's wife, she became a member of the Party of the Iranian Nation when she was a student, launching anti-Shah campaign shoulder to shoulder with...
, victims of Iran's 1998 "Chain Murders
Chain murders of Iran
The Chain Murders of Iran , or Serial Murders, were a series of murders and disappearances from 1988-1998 by Iranian government operatives of Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way.The victims included more than 80 writers, translators,...
", in which a series of prominent dissidents were murdered in their homes by members of Iran's intelligence agency. Pourzand also reported the funeral live by telephone for a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based radio station.
Arrest and trial
In 2000, Pourzand's wife Mehrangiz KarMehrangiz Kar
Mehrangiz Kar is a prominent Iranian lawyer, human right activist and author of the book Crossing the Red Line, as well as many articles.Mehrangiz Kar is a celebrated activist of women's rights in Iran....
, also a critic of the Iranian government, was arrested for her participation in a conference at Berlin's Heinrich Böll Foundation
Heinrich Böll Foundation
The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was originally founded in 1987 and rebuilt in 1997...
titled "Iran after the elections", at which various reform proposals were debated; she ultimately served a 52-day prison term. Pourzand's own arrest soon followed. On 29 November 2001, days after reportedly seeing men following him on motorcycles, Pourzand was forcibly disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
by members of the Amaken, agents of Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prohibition of Vice, shortly after leaving his sister's apartment. On 7 December, one of his sisters was requested by government officials to bring him a change of clothes, but was reportedly told that his whereabouts were "none of her business".
On 9 March 2002, the government-run newspaper Iran Daily announced that Pourzand would be facing trial. Immediately before the trial, Pourzand's daughter reported that her father had called her in the United States to say that the family should "treat him as if he were dead". According to Iran Daily, Pourzand confessed to nine charges, including working for the state security forces of the former Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
and maintaining contact with the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi may refer to:*Reza Shah , aka Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Persia from 1925 until 1935 and Shah of Iran from 1935 until 1941* Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, son of Reza Shah...
, overseas. His trial was closed to the public, and he was reportedly denied access to his own legal representation. He was ultimately sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and a flogging
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
of seventy-four lashes. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
reported that the group believed him to have been "ill-treated" during his interrogation and called for his release as a prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...
. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
similarly denounced the trial as a "mockery of the law", and "of a pattern of repression against reformist and independent figures that has gathered momentum since February's 2000 parliamentary elections".
Imprisonment
Pourzand appealed his sentence, but it was upheld by the Tehran Appeals Court on 9 July 2002. In a confession on Iranian television broadcast a week later, Pourzand confessed to charges including "having links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries", "spying and undermining state security", and "creating disillusionment among young people". Amnesty International reported that he looked "frail" and "seemed to have lost at least 30 kg". At around this time, Pourzand tried to hang himself with his belt, but failed.He was briefly released from prison on health reasons in November 2002, and stayed with his sister for several months before being brought to Evin prison
Evin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
in March 2003. After reportedly refusing the demands of Amaken agents to implicate other dissident figures, he was kept at the prison. At this time, he began to suffer from spinal stenosis
Spinal stenosis
Lumbar spinal stenosis is a medical condition in which the spinal canal narrows and compresses the spinal cord and nerves at the level of the lumbar vertebra. This is usually due to the common occurrence of spinal degeneration that occurs with aging. It can also sometimes be caused by spinal disc...
and became unable to walk.
In March 2004, Pourzand suffered a severe heart attack, following which prison officials allegedly delayed treating him until another prisoner demanded that they do so. In 2006, in light of his ongoing health issues, Pourzand was transferred to house arrest.
Suicide and funeral
Pourzand died on 29 April 2011. According to his daughters, he committed suicide by jumping from the sixth-story balcony of his apartment in Tehran. His daughter, Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, stated after his death that "He leapt to his own death to prove his disgust for a regime that is inhumane and un-Iranian”, while another daughter, Azadeh Pourzand, commented that “I would like to think of his death as a way for him to finally find freedom.” Banafsheh also alleged that state security forces continued to threaten the family by telephone, saying "Now that we’re rid of your father... don’t go thinking you can fill his place. We know how to deal with you and the rest of your family." The journalist-protection organization Reporters Without BordersReporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
issued a press release mourning Pourzand's passing and calling the Iranian government "responsible for Siamak Pourzand’s death". Leili and Azadeh Pourzand appeared on the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
's Persian program Parazit
Parazit
Parazit is a weekly half-hour Persian-language satirical television show broadcast on Voice of America's Persian service. The show pokes fun at Iranian politics and culture. Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi, Iranian expatriates living in Washington, DC, started the show as a 10-minute segment in...
, explaining how they found out about their father's death.
The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
reported that Iranian authorities initially refused to hand over Pourzand's body to his family for burial, imposed restrictions on the eulogies at his funeral, and confiscated the cell phones and cameras of reporters.
Family
Pourzand's wife Mehrangiz KarMehrangiz Kar
Mehrangiz Kar is a prominent Iranian lawyer, human right activist and author of the book Crossing the Red Line, as well as many articles.Mehrangiz Kar is a celebrated activist of women's rights in Iran....
is an internationally noted feminist and winner of National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
's Democracy award.
Pourzand was a first cousin of Persian poet Ahmad Shamlou on his mother's side.
External links
- Mockery of Justice: The Framing of Siamak Pourzand, a report by the Iran Human Rights Documentation CenterIran Human Rights Documentation CenterThe Iran Human Rights Documentation Center is a registered non-profit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut. HRDC was founded in 2004 by a group of human rights scholars, activists, and historians to document the patterns of human rights abuse in Iran and to promote accountability, a...