Just yesterday, an Iranian cleric was saying that promiscuous Iranian women cause earthquakes. He may have misstated the particular natural disaster.

An asylum seeker in Britain, Bita Ghaedi, conducted a hunger strike for more than a month because she was terrified of being tortured and killed if she is forced to return to Iran. Yet, despite more than 2700 petition signatures sent to UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Bita Ghaedi was violently detained this past weekend and set for deportation this coming Tuesday on April 20, 2010.

After her detention and subsequent escalation of actions from supporters, England ignored yet another hunger strike, demonstrations, and hundreds of letters, emails, calls, and faxes on behalf of Bita Ghaedi. But nature intervened as the volcano that has kept Heathrow Airport closed for five days belched out fresh ash, grounding all flights in and out of Heathrow Airport for the sixth day in a row.

Stranded travelers are fuming, especially since they need to get home to their families. But some are calling it an act of God or a divine intervention.

And since the press is covering the volcanic ash explosion, they could not avoid the hundreds of protesters gathered outside the airport for Bita and turn blind to this gross violation of international law.

Bita Ghaedi’s case presents a slippery slope that has global implications for Iranian dissidents in other countries. If England ignores human rights standards and violates the international principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits forcibly returning a person to a country where her/his life or freedom would be threatened, it provides less of an incentive to other similarly situated countries to uphold the law. Bita Ghaedi undoubtedly warrants recognition as a refugee and merits protections under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to which England is a signatory. We must hold England accountable.

In the meantime, Bita is still being held at the notorious Yarl’s Wood Detention Center and remains at severe risk not only from the Iranian regime due to her political activities, but also from male members of her estranged family if she is deported back to Iran.

Liz Hourican, of Phoenix CODEPINK, at the Phoenix rally on Global Unity Day Stand with Iran, July 25

Crazy talk? Nope. From Reuters:

Israel’s Arrow II missile defense system was tested at a U.S. range off the California coast on Wednesday but problems prevented the launch of the system’s interceptor, the Pentagon said.

Partly underwritten by Washington, Arrow is designed to defend Israel from missile attacks from Syria and Iran, which Western nations suspect of seeking nuclear arms despite its denials.

Seems to be much here that could make one uncomfortable: the fact that such advanced weaponry is developed and tested here in the States; the fact that American tax-dollars are funding U.S. military efforts not to protect Americans but Israel military efforts, or the fact that the U.S. is complicit, in fact, a partner, in a major military attack on Iran in the future — the very same country that President Obama during his campaign promised to talk with, without preconditions, to create peace.  Helping to fire missiles don’t sound like much of a move toward peace talks.

Anyone else feeling like this is insane??

:

Agha-Soltan, Ebadi, a 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and contributor to CODEPINK’s 2005 book, “Stop The Next War Now,” and Effat Hashemi, the wife of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who was among the first to call for public protests, represent the incredible strength of Iranian women and their hunger for justice. Demanding reform, regime change, more social freedoms and a fair election, women have sometimes outnumbered men at the demonstrations, and they’ve also fought back police and militia.

For more information, please contact Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, or Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, at 310-621-5635.

From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. “Stand, don’t run,” Nazanine told me as the baton-wielding police charged up handsome Vali Asr avenue on the day after the fraudulent election. She stood.

…

A friend told me he no longer recognizes his wife. She’d been of the reluctantly acquiescent school. Now, “She’s a revolutionary.” I followed as she led us up onto the roof. The “death to the dictator” that surged from her into the night was of rare ferocity.

…

Women marched in 1979, too. But when the revolution was won, women were pushed out. Their subjugation became a pillar of the Islamic state. One woman told me that she had been 20 when she fought to oust the shah. “It’s simple,” she said. “We wanted freedom then, and we don’t have it now.”

We have watched in awe of the strength, courage, and bravery of the women in Iran who have taken to the streets, despite the threats of violence, to stand up for freedom, equality, and justice.   If you haven’t already, please sign our letter to Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights lawyer, and Iranian Shirin Ebadi.  You can also add a message of inspiration and solidarity to our sisters in Iran.