Page 43 - Shahrvand BC No.1250

‹ English Section
431392 ‫ دادرم‬11 ‫ جمعه‬- 1250 ‫ شماره‬/ ‫سال متسیب‬ their citizen rights and a political space for
political dissidence. Rather, it needs only to
In touch with Iranian diversity43 refer to the imposed economic sanctions and
threats of war to solidify its discourse of na-
tional reconciliation and the necessity for the
political activists to postpone their criticism
of domestic affairs.
A thirty-three year-old female high-school
teacher from Mazandaran explains her expe-
rience as follows:
A few months ago, I had a continuous
sickness and I had difficulty finding my
medicine. I was told that this was the re-
sult of economic sanctions. These days,
one of my biggest worries is for a friend
or a relative to be diagnosed with cancer
or a similar illness. I used to care about
the number of newspapers and maga-
zines (critical of the establishment) pub-
lished daily in the country; I used to care come vulnerable by the violation or suspen-
for the rights of this or that group. Hav-
ing seen the suffering of my dear ones
due to the economic sanctions however,
my first and foremost priority is now the
removal of the sanctions.
The violation of human rights does not im-
prove the citizen rights
The representation of economic sanctions
as an inevitable tool of control over Iran’s
nuclear energy capabilities has disguised, or
naturalized, the deaths and ruinations that the
sanctions have caused. The destructive ef-
fects of the sanctions are understood as ines-
capable consequences of the Iranian govern-
ment’s potential future threat against Europe
and North America. [6] The global nuclear
disarmament and global green energy, pre-
venting disasters, are alternatives to sending
sanctions against people in Iran, yet they are
ignored and totally denied. Instead, in order
to prevent the potential threat, the lives of
Iranians and their society must be destroyed.
Hence, sanction-sending countries justify the
collective punishment against targeted people
(i.e. to establish their lives as dispensable and
Lawyers ICBC
Claims
604 - 982 - 4051
604 - 980 - 8571
Vol. 20 / No. 1250 - Friday, Aug. 2, 2013 ‫ﺑﺮﺍی ﻣﺸﺎﻭﺭﻩ ﺣﻘﻮﻗﻰ ﻟﻄﻔﺎ ﺑﺎ‬
‫ﺁﻗﺎی ﻛﺎﻣﻴﻞ ﻟﻄﻔﻌﻠﻰ‬
.‫ ﺗﻤﺎﺱ ﺑﮕﻴﺮﻳﺪ‬،‫ﻭﻛﻴﻞ ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻰ ﺯﺑﺎﻥ‬
Kamil Lotfali, lawyer
‫ ﺳﺎﻝ ﺗﺠﺮﺑﻪ ﺣﻘﻮﻗﻰ‬٣٠ ‫ ﻣﺆﺳﺴﻪﺣﻘﻮﻗﻰ "ﻧﻮﺭﺕﺷﻮﺭﻻ " ﺑﺎﺑﻴﺶﺍﺯ‬-
‫ﺩﺳﺘﻤﺰﺩیﺩﺭﻳﺎﻓﺖﻧﺨﻮﺍﻫﻴﻢﻛﺮﺩ‬،‫ ﺩﺭﻳﺎﻓﺖﻧﻨﻤﺎﺋﻴﻢ‬ICBC‫ ﺗﺎﺧﺴﺎﺭﺕﺷﻤﺎﺭﺍ ﺍﺯ‬-
ICBC ‫ ﺩﺭﻳﺎﻓﺖ ﻫﺮﮔﻮﻧﻪ ﺧﺴﺎﺭﺕ ﺟﺎﻧﻰ ﻭ ﻣﺎﻟﻰ ﺍﺯ‬-
NORTH SHORE LAW LLP
6th Floor, 171 West Esplanade, North Vancouver, B.C.
klotfali@northshorelaw.com
ungrievable [7]) in the name of preserving
and sheltering the lives in the West, depicting
them as grievable and worth saving. In real-
ity, however, many lives in the West, based on
race, social class, citizenship status, etc., are
also constituted as ungrievable.
In some accounts, the violation of the citizen
rights of Iranian people has been mentioned
as another cause for economic sanctions;
arguing that sanctions restrict the power of
Iran’s government both domestically and re-
gionally. In other words, the violation of Ira-
nians’ human rights by economic sanctions
and threats of war is justified in the interest of tion of the citizen rights of the people in the
the eventual improvement of citizen rights in
Iran. However, the violation of human rights
contributes, or in some cases is indistinguish-
able from, the violation of Iranian peoples’
civil rights. The global violation of human
rights often occurs to people who have be-
sion of their civil rights. Balibar argues, “...
man is made by citizenship and not citizen-
ship by man”[8] and “If the destruction of
civil rights also destroys human rights, this
is because the latter are based on the former,
and not the reverse...” [9] The economic sanc-
tions remove the necessities that the targeted
state could formerly provide for the citizens
resulting in further destruction of the citizen
rights of the targeted people. The further vio-
lation of the civil rights of the targeted people
(through scarcity of basic needs, etc.) leads to
further destruction of their human rights. As
a result, sanctions make it harder for the citi-
zens to demand their already violated citizen
rights, and they are pushed further to a zone
of citizen rightlessness. Consequently, they
become more injurable and susceptible to the
human rights violations of the sanction-send-
ing countries and their state.The imposition
of hyper-economic vulnerability on the peo-
ple in the targeted country reduces the lives to
a struggle for day to day economic survival.
The state repression can result in formation
of various forms of resistance and politiciza-
tion of the citizens, the economic sanctions,
‫ﻭﻛﻼ‬
٦٠٤- ٩٨٢- ٤٠٥١
٦٠٤- ٩٨٠ -٨٥٧١
however, push the people to a daily struggle
to remain alive and consequently there will
be less possibility to struggle for a politically out of the mouths of the citizens {Iranian
qualified life.
The violation of human rights of the people in
the targeted country, in the name of preserv-
ing the rights of the people in Western societ-
ies, indicates the non-universality of the dis-
course of human rights in the practice of the
global powers. Consequently, it indicates that
the human rights are not pre-politically given
to all people equally. The violation of human
rights, in the name of protesting the viola-
targeted country, indicates the false notion of
the complete duality of citizen rights and uni-
versal human rights. Furthermore, the harsh
living conditions imposed by economic sanc-
tions, threats of war and the state’s increasing
repression and corruption have resulted in a
vast new wave of Iranian refugees all over the
world, deprived of their basic human rights.
As Balibar explains:
What destroys their legitimacy from the
inside is also the fact that the same pow-
ers who carry on or decide most of hu-
manitarian interventions (mainly in the
space of ex-colonial empires) are also
nowadays waging a latent war against
refugees and migrants on or outside the
borders of their sovereign territories.
In the targeted country, rights are reduced to
the right of medicine, nutrition, and security.
And, every single aspect of the
political life has to assume a stance with re-
gards to such imposed conditions. The eco-
nomic sanctions push the targeted people to a
zone of ungrievability [10] and indistinction
between life and death.[11] Hence, if eco-
nomic sanctions lead to a humanitarian war,
the targeted lives are already destroyed and
do not fully count as living. Moreover, the
economic sanctions push the targeted people
(with already violated citizen rights) to a zone
of further vulnerability and rightlessness. [12]
The Politics of the Removal of Food and
Medicine that Receives No Proportional
Attention
A forty year-old (male) owner of a publishing
company from Tehran describes his experi-
ences:
The government of Iran unequally
distributes wealth among the Iranian
people. The sanctions have decreased
the budget of the government and have
deteriorated the financial system in Iran.
The insufficient share of the country’s
wealth that we ordinary citizens receive
is being justified by the sanctions. The
economic sanctions also help the gov-
ernment to justify its violent policies and a way that the violence of sanctions becomes
corruption. The effect of economic sanc-
tions at work for me as a publisher has
been very negative. The price of paper
and publishing services has gone up and
less people buy books, as they struggle
to pay for their daily basic necessities.
As a result, the shops that deal with food
products might be in better conditions
than my job. The well-to-do are going
crazy with buying commodities, antici-
pating to sell them later at a profit. The
worth of Iran’s currency is going down
and the prices are skyrocketing. All I
worry about these days is whether I will
be able to pay for my rent next year.
Desperateness, depression, anxiety, and
debt are the conditions of these days.
Economic sanctions are often framed as tar-
geting only those responsible for the conflict.
This framing conceals the reality of the sanc-
tions, and portrays them as effective and an
ethical form of violence. It also prevents the
issue from gaining attention in the global me-
dia as a form of war. As discussed above, the
reality of sanctions has been widespread vio-
lence against civilians. Although economic
sanctions are often framed as the least violent
instrument, their truth of collective punish-
ment (i.e. being sanctions of mass destruc-
tion)[13] is sometimes articulated by politi-
cians, such as US Senator Mark Kirk. In an
interview with a local Chicago radio station,
Senator Kirk was asked about the effects of
economic sanctions on the citizens of Iran
and he responded, “It’s okay to take the food
citizens} from a government that’s plotting an
attack directly on American soil.”
Similar arguments regarding the starvation of
citizens for political purposes are made, such
as the following by an Israeli official, “Iran’s
citizens should be starved in order to curb
Tehran’s nuclear program,”... “North Korea
is halting its nuclear program in order to re-
ceive aid in food, and this is what should be
done with Iran as well.”
The violence of the imposed economic sanc-
tions spreads itself over all everyday activities
of the targeted people. Hence, the economic
sanctions become naturalized for the outside
observers through the everyday characteristic
of sanctions. The economic sanctions do not
kill with bomb explosions. Rather, they kill
gradually through the lack of medicine, im-
poverishment, and the general unavailability
of life necessities. Throughout the process,
the targeted people are faced with a day to
day struggle to survive, and are consequently
restricted from leading a politically qualified
life.
Conclusion
The imposition of death and destruction
on the targeted population is framed by the
global media and establishments of the sanc-
tion-sending countries as a tool to prevent the
potential death of people in the West. This
framing produces a sharp division between
people under sanctions and those protected
from a future threat. Moreover, it constitutes
the imposition of destruction on the targeted
population as the only solution to protect the
lives in the West against a future threat, de-
spite the egalitarian resolution of global dis-
armament offered by numerous Iranian and
American groups, activists and scholars. This
interpretation of conditions, through restrict-
ing the political imaginations and division of
lives, posits the lives of the targeted popula-
tion as obstacles to the lives in the West.
One could ask the question why the impris-
onment of Iranian citizens for political issues
by their state is legitimately considered an act
of violence committed by the state through-
out the world, yet the removal of food, medi-
cine, 1224 deaths within eleven years due
to the airplane crashes, and considerable
deterioration of living conditions by the
economic sanctions are merely mentioned
as violence, and often justified for various
political goals. The equation of economic
sanctions with the weakening of the targeted
state and the ruination of the living conditions
of the targeted population with that of the pro-
tection of the lives in the West, regulate the
affect for the audience of the global media in
seen as legitimate or unavoidable. Moreover,
the targeted population is often othered to a
point that its suffered pain, injuries and vul-
nerabilities are outside the responsibility of
the citizens of the sanction sending countries.
To resist against this policy of imposition of
destruction therefore, is to oppose the reality,
or in this case fantasy, produced by the fram-
ing[14] of the policy makers of the economic
sanctions sending countries and emphasize
the reality that is left outside their frame and
dominant interpretations.
There is an ongoing political struggle in Iran
in which some of its conductors are currently
imprisoned and many others are exiled. Iran’s
prisons are a major site of political resistance
and a space for hope, transformative criti-
cism, and imagination of what-is-not-here-
yet. The voices from Iran’s prisons are under
attack from both Iran’s state and the sanction-
sending countries. News of prisoners’ hunger
strikes, analyses of econo-political condi-
tions, and statements in condemnation of
maltreatments of Iran’s political dissidents
and prisoners come out of Iran’s prisons
almost on a weekly basis. Economic sanctions
and the threats of war are marginalizing these
voices and their causes in favor of the state’s
discourse of national reconciliation for gath-
ering all (i.e. the ruling class, state-elites,
and the people from different econo-political
backgrounds) over protecting Iran against