THE GUARDIAN: Thirty-one years ago this week, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years in exile. The anniversary is usually marked by triumphant rallies. Not this time: protesters are planning mass demonstrations against a regime they say has betrayed Islamic ideals.
For three decades, the image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini arriving on Iranian soil to a tumultuous homecoming after 15 years in exile has been a centrepiece of Iran's revolutionary iconography.
It is an event best captured in a famous picture of the late spiritual leader being gently led down the steps of an Air France jet by a man dressed as a pilot or an air steward. The picture embodies the heady mixture of pride, compassion and religious hero-worship the revolution is supposed to evoke among Iranians.
Khomeini was returning to be hailed as a saviour by his fellow countrymen after a wave of popular uprisings that had toppled the regime of the western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. His guide was playing a mere walk-on part in the historic drama that engulfed Iran that day in February 1979.
But last week, at the start of the annual Fajr festivities marking the revolution's anniversary, that image was the subject of a strange story that seemed symptomatic of the increasing uncertainty surrounding the country's revolutionary legacy, amid the continuing turmoil over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.
The Islamic Revolution Documentation Centre, a state body linked to a pro-government MP, claimed on its website to have traced Khomeini's chaperone as one Gerard Jean Fabian-Bataouche, who it said was living almost destitute in Tehran. The report, based on an interview with Fabian-Bataouche, described him as a former French policeman of Algerian origin who had been Khomeini's personal bodyguard while he was living in the village of Neauphle-le-Château, outside Paris, waiting for the shah to fall in the months before the revolution.
Having taken a liking to the man after learning that he had an Iranian wife and spoke Farsi, Khomeini had invited him to be on board his triumphant flight to Tehran. Fabian-Bataouche had remained in Iran afterwards but had fallen on hard times. He was said to be homeless and forced to flit from one friend to another in an endless quest for a place to sleep.
It seemed an improbably shabby postscript to an association with the revolution's founding father. Predictably, the story was immediately denounced as a hoax and within a day, the Islamic Revolution Documentation Centre removed it, citing "serious doubts" about Fabian-Bataouche's authenticity.
True or false, the fact such a tale even saw the light of day betrayed an uncharacteristic lack of official sure-footedness as the revolution approaches its 31st anniversary. The prospect of revolutionary festivities is usually a cause for triumphalism among the Islamic republic's establishment. Instead, with the storm over Ahmadinejad's hotly disputed poll victory last June refusing to abate, it appears to be making them jumpy. >>> Robert Tait and Noushin Hoseiny | Sunday, February 07, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has called on her fellow Iranians to defy the security forces and take to the streets this week on the anniversary of the revolution.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mrs Ebadi described her despair at the regime's brutality but urged Iranians to show peaceful defiance.
"I believe people should take part in the demonstration," she said. "They should ask for their rights, but they should do it peacefully. Obviously the regime wants people to be violent because it gives them an excuse to crack down. People must not give them that excuse."
Mrs Ebadi, 62, a revered human rights lawyer who was awarded the peace prize in 2003, fled Iran during the turmoil after last June's disputed election. She was speaking from London where she is in exile, ahead of planned opposition protests this week.
Democracy campaigners are preparing to hijack state-organised rallies on Thursday, traditionally a day for Iran's leaders to show their strength. Rattled hardliners within the regime are attempting to intimidate protesters to stay at home: 10 days ago they hanged two men for their supposed role in the post-election unrest, and another nine have been sentenced to die.
Mrs Ebadi also spoke of her frustration at the regime's brutal treatment of Iranian protesters and described its chilling threats against her. Her family have remained in Tehran and both her husband and sister have been arrested and briefly jailed.
She told The Sunday Telegraph that threats have been made against her by her enemies within the regime through her friends who are still in the country. >>> Angus McDowall | Saturday, February 06, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Shirin Ebadi, 62, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her long career as a human rights lawyer in Iran. She spoke to The Sunday Telegraph during a stay in London.
Sunday Telegraph: "Have you spent much time in London since fleeing Iran last summer?"
Shirin Ebadi: "Since the election I've almost been living at airports. Not because of my safety, but so I can travel to talk about Iran.
"I stay in hotels wherever I go because the people who invite me always put me in hotels. I have been living in hotels since I left Iran in June. Obviously I'm tired, but I don't let it affect my work."
ST: "Are you in any danger from the regime?"
SE: "I've never been contacted by the regime directly. But they contacted my family and friends and said 'wherever she is, we can get rid of her'.
"I don't take the threat seriously. If people want to do something they don't talk about it beforehand. Their main aim is to scare me off doing my work properly.
"Obviously, I don't want to make my enemies happy, so I continue with my work inside the law.
"They threatened my husband and my sister that if I continue with my work they will arrest both of them. My sister was detained for three weeks. They were not tortured physically, but to arrest people because of something someone else has done is a form of emotional torture." >>> Angus McDowall | Saturday, February 06, 2010
