[speechlesstx]

Iranian-American Haleh Esfandiari, ambushed by three masked, knife-wielding men that stole her luggage and passports after visiting her 93 year old mother, was interrogated, arrested and held in an Iranian prison last year. Iran is at it again:

A journalist who works for a U.S.-funded radio outlet has been convicted by an Iranian court of spreading anti-state propaganda and sentenced to one year in prison, her company said Monday.

Iranian-American Parnaz Azima was not in Iran during the court action Saturday. She now has the difficult choice of deciding whether to return to Tehran, where she had to forfeit the deed to her mother's home to raise the bail needed to be released from custody.

Azima, who is based in Prague, was found guilty by Tehran's 13th Revolutionary Court of "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic" by working for the "anti-revolutionary" Radio Farda, the Persian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the broadcaster said.

In an e-mail statement sent to The Associated Press, the broadcaster said three other charges against Azima had been dropped: acting against Iran's national interests, earning illegitimate income and owning a satellite receiver.

"She is guilty of nothing more or less than doing her job as a professional journalist," said Jeffrey Gedmin, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Azima traveled to Tehran last year to visit her sick mother and was kept in Iran for months after Iranian authorities seized her passport in January. Four months later, Azima was charged with security-related offenses, an accusation she denied.

The journalist had her passport returned in September and was allowed to leave Iran after posting bail using her 95-year-old mother's house.

Azima now must decide whether to return to Iran to serve her one-year sentence or to forfeit the deed to her mother's home, which was turned over to Iranian authorities in lieu of US$550,000 (€360,000) in bail, said Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"Now, the very real possibility exists that her mother may be put out onto the street by the Iranian government," Gedmin said.

Azima's lawyer in Tehran, Mohammad Hossein Aghassi, has 20 days to appeal the verdict, the media company said.

Let's hear the outrage, big time. I'm especially interested to see if whatever women's rights groups still around can get over their hatred of Bush and take the lead on this and against oppression of women by Islamofascists everywhere. Or will they just follow in Gloria Steinem's footsteps and mock McCain? It seems to me feminists have been eerily silent in the battle for women's rights in the Muslim world, and they left in general has been so obsessed with Bush that Islamofacists are getting a pass.

[s_cianci]

Sure sounds that way to me, unfortunately. The leftists are masters of the double standard.

[speechlesstx]

I'm beginning to wonder if hypocrisy is mandatory in order to be a good "progressive."

[NeedKarma]

Same kind of stuff happens in the USA and Saudia Arabia. You don't seem outraged at that.

[speechlesstx]

Same kind of stuff happens in the USA and Saudia Arabia. You don't seem outraged at that.

I can't recall an instance of a journalist - foreign or otherwise - being required to forfeit the deed to their mother's home or face jail in the USA for doing their job, or of anyone here being charged with the "crime" of owning a satellite receiver.

I also don't recall any instances of the US arresting, interrogating and imprisoning anyone for the crime of visiting their mother. I haven't heard of any instances of the US torturing, raping and beating journalists to death for taking pictures or being imprisoned for communicating or associating with Europeans.

Perhaps you can furnish some examples?

[excon]

Hello speech:

Yeah, they suck. Let's invade... We got plenty of reasons. Are you for it, or are you a cut and runner?

Wait a minute... Didn't our friend, Mushariff just put the WHOLE DAMN SUPREME COURT in jail?? Isn't that a tad bit worse than jailing a stinkin liberal reporter?? Why don't we invade him? Are you for it, or are you a cut and runner?

excon

[Galveston1]

Hey, Ex, did you miss something? Didn't the article say that the reporter is a US citizen? Or is that slight distinction of no consequence to you?

[Dark_crow]

Like “Good Progressives” everywhere (Code name for anti-American) they will never face a question squarely, but rather throw “Red Herrings.”

Like s_cianci points out…they always operate on a double standard.

[NeedKarma]

Actually it's the republicans that are anti-american.

[excon]

Hello Galveston and you too, DC:

I don't like them Iranian bastards. In fact, that should have been our 2nd front - not Iraq. I've said so from the git. I'm actually a lot tougher than your weenie, the dufus in chief. You shouldn't mistake my criticism for the wrong war in Iraq, with thinking that I'm anti war.

Indeed, after all the tough talk, your dufus in chief left Bin Laden alone...

He wouldn't be alive if I had my way. We wouldn't be holding hands with Saudi kings while they continue to fund wahabbi mosques where they teach terrorism. Mushariff would be toast. Hezbollah and Hamas would on the run... And, that's just for starters.

I don't like being attacked. But I'm smart enough to know who attacked us, and who the bad guys really are. Your right wing hardliner dufus in chief is the actual weenie “progressive”. Bwa, ha ha ha.

excon

[Dark_crow]

Won't disagree with you here, excon; terrible mistakes were made, but we can't pile all that on Bush alone, he had lots of help including a bunch of Senators and Congressmen…both Republican and Democrat. People who vote should keep that in mind when elections take place.

But that is off topic and does not speak to the issue in the OP

[speechlesstx]

Hello speech:

Yeah, they suck. Let's invade..... We got plenty of reasons. Are you for it, or are you a cut and runner?

Wait a minute.... Didn't our friend, Mushariff just put the WHOLE DAMN SUPREME COURT in jail?????? Isn't that a tad bit worse than jailing a stinkin liberal reporter???? Why don't we invade him? Are you for it, or are you a cut and runner?

Ex,

I didn't realize this topic had anything to do with invading Iran, and cut and run implies that we're already there.

Yes, there are a lot of bad guys out there - but at the moment I'm really more interested in why American feminists and other liberals are more interested in making sure every female college student has the opportunity to attend a production of The Vagina Monologues than doing something to end the oppression of Islamic women.

[speechlesstx]

Actually it's the republicans that are anti-american.

Is that your first example to prove your previous charge?