The juxtaposition of the two images of former Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi – one before his arrest and the other at his hearing- show the absurdity of the trials taking place in Iran. Abtahi, best known as the “blogging mullah,” is the ebullient cleric interviewed in the Daily Show. In the interview, as Jason Jones says, Abtahi breaks every conceivable stereotype of a cleric we in the west might have. Watching the same cleric, now looking panic-stricken and withdrawn, make statements about staging a “Velvet Revolution” is heartbreaking. Though as Laura Secor points out in this New Yorker article, the Iran Show, some “Iranians are turning the show trials into a kind of black comedy, by mocking the predictability of their ugliness.” The most prominent among them is Ebrahim Nabavi, an exiled Iranian satirist. After Abtahi’s arrest, rightly predicting that Abtahi will be forced to make false confession, Nebavi posted a YouTube video imagining what Abtahi’s confession might look like:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/1zVx64sB6TA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
For all the people who do not understand Farsi, here is a concise summary provided by Laura Secor:
Perhaps no one has done more to undermine the effect of forced confessions than Ebrahim Nabavi, an exiled Iranian satirist who has released a parody confession video. Dressed in striped pajamas and wearing bandages, he confesses to meeting with a C.I.A. agent, importing green velvet, and having affairs with Carla Bruni and Angelina Jolie (“She had a very ugly and terrible husband”). He apologizes to the Supreme Leader and to the paramilitaries who “kindly” beat him.
Here is a full English translation of the satire.
Another group highlighting the ridiculousness of the Iranian government is the “Watch Me Confess!” project. They have set up a blog mocking the Iranian government for forcing people to confess lies on national TV.
Hopefully, some one in the Iranian government will realize that these ignominious trials need to stop.
Image taken from the Christian Science Monitor.