Seminar on the 1960s Massacres on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Killing of Political Prisoners
The contemporary history of human society has always been accompanied by political, racial, ethnic and religious massacres and killings. Although these killings have occurred for various reasons, the nature and root of all of them have been in the struggle of the ruling classes against the condemned classes and in the continuation of inhuman and oppressive class relations. Relations in which the masses of the people have been victims and have had no role or interest in them. The history of Iran has gone through bloody periods in this regard. Iran is the only country in the world whose dark pages have never been recorded in history and the cries for justice of the Iranian people have been met with complete disregard by world rulers.
The Islamic Republic regime’s rule is the darkest and bloodiest period in Iran’s contemporary history. The peak of the Islamic Republic regime’s crimes was the killing of political prisoners in the 1960s. The scale of this crime and the type and method of execution of the killings, especially the mass killing of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1967, were very different from their historical examples in other contemporary societies and were more extensive and brutal.
During its thirty years of bloody rule over Iran, the Islamic Republic has always tried to erase its crimes from the memory of history and to make the people forget them by imposing repression and suffocation. Iran has always suffered from a lack of historical memory due to the existence of tyranny, dictatorship, and repression. In confronting this situation, the masses of the people, despite the ups and downs of history, have repaired a small part of this deficiency, especially in the last hundred years during their struggles for justice. The process of social struggles in Iran in the last two decades has added to these efforts, and extensive activities have been carried out to keep historical memory alive and record crimes during the rule of the Islamic Republic, especially the killing of political prisoners in the sixties.
Recounting and writing down the memories of those who lost their lives, writing articles and stories, holding memorial and memorial ceremonies, seminars and other protest and disclosure actions, and above all, the families’ struggle to keep this human tragedy alive in the memory of history and the effort to preserve and preserve the most documented document of these crimes; the mass graves in Khavaran, are among the actions that have been taken to help remember and record these crimes in history.
However, not only Iranians, many of whom are still unaware of these horrific crimes and their extent, but also the people of the world are unaware of them. In continuation of these efforts and in order to examine what happened to us and our glorious history in the sixties, we are holding a two-day seminar in Stockholm with lectures and the presence of former political prisoners, researchers and international lawyers. In this program, a panel in English and Swedish will be held at Stockholm University and a panel in Persian will be held at the Hussey Bitterf Assembly Hall.
Speakers: Shahla Talebi, Ahmad Mousavi, Payam Akhavan, Kaveh Shahroz, Susan Bahar, Hamid Haghshenas, Hans Linde, Maria Modig.
Musical performance by the band D-Rebel, featuring Chilean singer Beatriz and Shamim and his musical companions, Yara and Masoud.
Screening of the film “The Tree That Remembers” directed by Masoud Rauf.
When: Friday, August 22, 2-5pm, Stockholm University
Universitetsvägen 10B, Plan 3, hörsal B5.
Saturday, August 23, 6-10 PM, Lust Without Fear
Iranian Political Prisoners Association (in Exile) – Swedish Branch
www.kanoon-zendanian.org