Hassan Asadi Zeidabadi is a political prisoner in Iran, incarcerated since August 22, 2010, and has been sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment. He is a member of the Central Committee of the Organization of the University Educated of Iran (OUEI), a group of former university activists, many of whom, including its head Dr. Ahmad Zeidabadi, are currently in prison. Asadi Zeidabadi is in charge of human right division of OUEI. This article was originally published in Persian.
The slogan “Taxation without representation is tyranny” was the foundation of the broad-based opposition to the political and economic policies of the British Empire imposed on its North America colonists in the mid eighteenth century, an opposition that ultimately resulted in the independence of the United States from Great Britain in 1776. The Founding Fathers of America believed in their right to oppose a government that sought to generate revenues and more importantly govern from across the other side of the Atlantic Ocean by imposing taxes on stamps, tea, etc., for they were of the opinion that the "fundamental right to ownership of property" and its safeguarding were a manifestation of their "freedom," a value for which they had emigrated to the New World and were finally ready to fight for.
Today, two and a half centuries after American independence, the adoption of punitive policies and economic sanctions against Iran, this time by the same country that fought against the British tyranny, are threatening some of the fundamental rights of ordinary Iranian citizens, and more specifically violating their right to ownership of property. Despite being coined as "smart," such unilateral sanctions, which are illegal because they have not been approved by the United Nation Security Council] have, in reality, resulted in the deterioration of the lives of ordinary Iranians and a dramatic increase in socio/economic hardships. The adverse impact of unilateral sanctions on Iran’s domestic market and overall economy has been so severe that the mere mention of a new round of sanctions led to an overnight devaluation of the national currency and a 25% reduction in value of the capital and personal assets owned by Iranian citizens. It goes without saying that all citizens, regardless of their ideology, religious or political inclination are dependent on their national currency when "earning a living" in their domestic market. As a result, the devaluation of the national currency has a direct impact on the quality of the lives of ordinary citizens, and in particular their right to ownership of property. Much like the rejection of taxation from across the Atlantic by the British colonies in the 18th century, who viewed such policies as tyrannical, the economic sanctions against Iran designed to pressure the Iranian government into shifting its policies have only led to the violation of the right to ownership of property by ordinary citizens, despite the fact that Iranian citizens have had no role in the political decisions made.
Continue reading “The Tyranny of the Sanctions Imposed on the Iranian People”