Word: berahini
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Dates: during 1978-1978
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...speaker, who wished to remain anonymous, accused CIAFI of misrepresenting the Iranian people, and said Berahini is a CIA agent...
Speaking over a podium draped with a banner which read "Free Iran's Political Prisoners," Reza Berahini, Iranian poet and former political prisoner, said President Carter's recent reception of the Shah of Iran in Washington was "a stab in the back of every Iranian who felt he (Carter) was sincere about standing up for human rights...
...Berahini said there are more than 100,000 political prisoners in the Shah's jails, most of whom are constantly subjected to torture. He added that Iranian law treats women as "second-class citizens," regarding them as inferiors in society...
...Berahini and Chomsky rebutted the ISA speaker. Berahini said that neither he nor the ISA represent the people of Iran, "the people who were fighting in the streets of Tabriz." He defended his credentials as a poet and an activist against the Shah, and said his goal at MIT was to expose the "violation of human rights" and plight of Iranian political prisoners to the American people...
Chomsky added he thought the bickering of the ISA over the credibility of Berahini detracted from the main issues of the evening and "turned a lot of potentially sympathetic Americans off" to the issue of human rights repression in Iran...