Father Arrested For Son's Facebook Contribution

[ritu 1]

There might have been incidents when posting on Facebook has landed people into trouble both with professional and personal lives.This time it was as horrifying as getting a father locked up in prison for his son's contribution to a page on Facebook.

 

Yasher Khameneh,a 25 year old youth who hailed from Iran originally and was studying in a college in Holland joined a page on Facebook.This page explains itself as one as an effort to relieve religion from superstitious beliefs.the page page basically could be seen as a mockery of a Shiite Muslim Imam,Ali al -Naqi al- Hadi.The Imams ho;d prestigious positions back in Iran and offensive comments passed on them are taken very seriously by the country's law,as the Imams are believed to be the successors of Prophet Mohammed.

 

The page on Facebook read "Campaign to Remind Shias about Imam Naqi" and it

 

features a robed man, presumably Naqi, with a face like Charles Manson's, flanked by a camel wearing sunglasses and the donkey from "Shrek." It also shows a picture of a Shiite tomb that has been pooped on by a flock of pigeons.

The contributors to the page felt that no human being was great enough to be spared from being made fun of .

 

Yasher Khameneh didn't use his real name while being on the page nor did the manager of the page, yet Khameneh,at times gave referral links to his personal Facebook page,because it wasn't that serious when it started.He although had the thought back in his mind that as the page gained popularity, the conservative lot back in Iran wouldn't find that pleasing.However,he continued to post as he believed that whatever he was doing was against religious taboos.

 

To Khameneh's dismay,by May, an Iranian rapper dared to rap forwarding mockery of the same Imam.Collaterally, the page on Facebook started to experience immense traffic.

 

The real shock came to Khameneh on May 23^rd when his father,Abbas Khameneh called him up and told him that Iran's Intelligence officials had dropped in their house and wanted Yasher's passwords for all his accounts on the internet.

 

As Yasher could smell the trouble, immediately started his efforts to chase the trouble away.He sent a message on Facebook for taking the page down, but all he received was the refusal of the manager---probably the manager took his message to be of a person working Iran's intelligence or simply to uphold the cause of freedom of speech.

 

Yasher's next step was the deletion of all his accounts , yet the page which gave rise to the havoc was still up.On the days following that he received calls from his mother and sister telling him that his father was arrested and taken to the infamous Evin prison in Tehran.

 

Yasher's desperationled him to publish an open letter online, which he explained all about his helplessness.The letter was spotted by an NGO named International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and then approached Yasher Khameneh for an interview.

 

Yasher Khameneh has been trying to fight for his father but he could hardly taste success with any information related to his father's arrest. The only options he is left with are worrying for the worst and hoping for the best.

 

This is not the only incident in Iran that has infuriated the administrators, journalists and others believing in free speech have always been scanned by the authorities and there will be no signs of mercy from the government's end to individuals and groups that can prove to be a threat to the country's social structure.

 

Come forward and share your views,experiences etc. on such issues. Who do you think is actually responsible for creating the trouble.

Replies awaited

[sheepdog 10]

What a sad situation! Thank god for freedom of speach in the good old USA.