- Amir A. Fakhravar Wins Annie Taylor Award, Nov 16, 2007
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- "Understanding Iran's Threat & VOA", December 2, 2007, PalmBeach Florida. Jim Woolsey, Amir Fakhravar and Frank Gaffney were speaker at this event.
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Jim Woolsey told the audience, "The young hero who spoke to you at lunch time, and I don't use the word "Hero" lightly, but Amir is, the young hero that spoke to you, speaks for a generation of Iranians who do not want to follow the course of events as set out by people of Mesbahe Yazdi and his collegues."
More than 400 people attended “Understanding Iran’s Threat,” a conference hosted by Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), along with the World Affairs Council of the Florida Palm Beaches and other local organizations in December 2007. Featured speakers included Jim Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and co-chair of the U.S. committee on present danger; Amir Abbas Fakhravar, Iranian student leader and former prisoner of the Iranian regime; U.S. Rep. Ron Klein (D-Florida), vice chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Middle East; Philippe Vinogradoff, consul general of France in Florida; Frank Gaffney, president and founder of the Center for Security Policy; and Victor Comras, former United Nations Security Council monitor of anti-terrorist sanctions and a leading expert on international law and terrorism financing.
- PBS Documentary, "The Case for War" in Defense of Freedom preview
- PBS Documentary,"The Case for War"; Amir A. Fakhravar talks with Richard Perle in Dubai
Forbidden IRAN, By Jane Kokan, December 2003
In July 2003, Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and murdered by Iranian security agents after she attempted to report on the growing opposition movement in Iran. FRONTLINE/World correspondent Jane Kokan risks her personal safety to follow in Kazemi's footsteps, traveling undercover to Iran to investigate the clerical regime's latest crackdown on students, journalists and dissidents. "I want to find out what happened to [Kazemi]," says Kokan, "and the story she died trying to tell."
Iran is a theocratic republic ruled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and a council of mullahs, who control the prisons, courts and security forces. Students and dissidents pushing for change want the mullahs out of power and replaced with a more democratic government. But the Islamic regime has come down hard on political opponents, deploying security forces and packs of Bassijis, Islamic vigilantes, against dissidents. Ten Iranian journalists are currently jailed for writing critically about the regime, and foreign journalists are seriously restricted in Iran.
Kokan's journey starts in London, where she meets members of the Iranian diaspora. They share with her their personal stories, as well as amateur videos and other evidence they've smuggled out of Iran documenting attacks against students and dissidents.
At a peaceful demonstration at the Iranian Embassy in London, Kokan meets a young leader of the Independent Student Movement, Iman Samizadez. "I'm looking for [a] free Iran, without religion," Samizadez tells Kokan. "People, they can have religion as a private thing. But in a political way, we are looking for a free country."
In London, Kokan uncovers photographs documenting the bloody aftermath of a raid on a student dormitory in Tehran in the summer of 2003. The raid was carried out by vigilantes armed with machetes, metal pipes, chains and butcher knives.
Kokan also learns that some 4,000 Iranian student activists were arrested after protests in Tehran and other cities in June 2003 and at least 500 remain in prison for their democratic beliefs. Amir Fakhravar, a student movement leader and hero, is among the men and women Kokan will attempt to make contact with while in Iran. Punished for writing a book promoting democracy and free speech, Fakhravar is serving an eight-year prison sentence at Qasr Prison in Tehran. In a video recorded before he went to prison last year, Fakhravar prepares his mother for his execution, which he believes is imminent. "I don't [want] you to have that sad face. I want [you] at that moment they're hanging me, to stand proudly and say, 'I'm proud of my son,'" he says. In prison, Fakhravar has suffered regular beatings and torture.
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Amir Abbas Fakhravar Witnesses Testimony before U.S.Senate committee on Homland Security and Government Affairs:
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- Amir A. Fakhravar in The Heritage Foundation, Why Iranians Do Not Think Like the Iranian Regime?
