Jamal Hosseini is one of the founders of the human rights activists group in Iran, and currently serves as the coordinator of the organization, continuing his activities. Mr. Hosseini is one of the members who, despite attacks by security forces, does not have a desire to appear in the media; however, due to his special case, we have made him our target and had an open conversation about the organization and himself, which is presented below:

We ask Mr. Hosseini as our first question, how do you remember February 29th?

The memory of the morning of 11 Esfand 88 is accompanied by numerous phone calls from Iran and other places, all carrying terrible news of the arrest or detention of a colleague, member, or even family members of a member. I honestly admit that I was taken aback and caught off guard; not just me, but other members of the group who were spared from the arrests, were in the same situation. Nevertheless, from the very first hours that we were able to understand the full extent of what was happening, we made great efforts to protect the other endangered forces from detention. In short, let me say that 11 Esfand 88 was a difficult and sorrowful day…

Did you expect such treatment towards human rights activists in Iran?

Like most activists who work in the civil or political sphere, we also monitored and analyzed the actions of security institutions and their confrontation with civil society. Based on this, I must say that yes, we thought they would deal with us, but not in this way and magnitude. We knew that a wave was coming; because before us, almost all human rights, student, political, and other groups had been targeted, and we were also active during those sensitive days of protests after the presidential election, relying on our extensive human resources. We even had some members arrested in this regard and knew that our turn would come soon. Also, during that time, news from our own imprisoned members had reached us, reinforcing this assumption. Based on these predictions and with increased vigilance, a few weeks before February 11th, we unilaterally announced the cancellation of all public memberships, as we did not want to increase the security risks in those conditions. We also decided to keep the new structure of the

In your opinion, why should such an approach be taken towards this organization and, as they say, why this organization?

One side of the issue, as I mentioned, was that the security apparatus considered civil institutions as the instigators and perpetuators of the widespread protests after the elections, and for this reason, had launched a campaign against these organizations. If you look at the second half of 2009, almost no independent group remained without any members being arrested, but I must mention that we were the only group that, while being independent, meaning without any backing or defense, had publicly introduced all of our officials, who deliberately stayed inside the country, with their photos and names and details, about a year and a half before. We also had a larger number of active and talented human resources compared to many other organizations; meaning we were public, our hands were open, our goal was simple, and we had a large number of human resources throughout the country. Also, the composition of the group was not favorable for the security system; we were able to bring together, for example, an Arab federalist

After four years, is it now possible to talk about the extent of damages inflicted on the organization?

Although the goal of the Sepah (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) was to stop us, despite the mobilization of all their forces and capabilities, it was not achieved; nevertheless, due to the weak organization of a young and independent group, we paid a heavy price. In the days leading up to February 11th, we had a total of 6 imprisoned colleagues, on February 11th there were 30, and at the end of February there were 12 more; meaning that by the end of 2009, we had a total of 48 affiliated individuals in prison, some of whom were members of our organization. Our limited resources, such as websites and cyber facilities, were also damaged. But the most difficult part was that a group that was completely public, was now forced to operate in secret, which hindered our ability to attract human resources, gather financial assistance, and operate in ways that we had adapted to over the years. Additionally, the heavy volume of

What path did the human rights activists in Iran take after this volume?

The first thing we did was to move from quantity to quality, or as they say, to tighten our belts. Reconstruction, recruiting new forces, and finding new financial resources were among our priorities. As I mentioned, all the forms and structures that we had adhered to over the years, such as financial arrangements, human resources, and areas of activity, had been taken away from us. We had to innovate and replace all of these things. The cost of security had also increased significantly, and even our colleagues outside the country felt insecure. It was necessary for us to make efforts to increase security. Rebuilding our cyber capacities was another part of this path, and we tried to make the capacities outside the country more active in the current security situation. In any case, the 11th of Esfand (March 1st) was a wave that brought about many qualitative and fundamental changes in this organization.

What happened to the status of the detainees on 11 Esfand? Are they still in custody?

In late 2009, we had a total of 48 people in prison; when I say “total,” it is because some of them had been separated from the group before their arrest. For example, Mr. Khanjani or Shahidi, who were arrested due to the same lack of information from the security apparatus. Some were mistakenly arrested, and we also had cases where a family member was arrested instead of the person under pursuit. In any case, out of this number, 42 were arrested in December 2009 and 6 were arrested before that date. Gradually, most of them were released on bail or other conditions until June 2010. Some were sentenced and served their full 4-year prison terms and were released. However, Mr. Mehdi Khodaei, Abolfazl Abedini, Nasr Noghipoor, Mohammad Yousefpoor Saifi, Navid Khanjani, and Eghaan Shahidi, who

How much truth is there to the accusations made by the Revolutionary Guards? Especially regarding you; the focus is mostly on your political activities…

Unfounded accusations by the security apparatus against us, which were repeatedly broadcasted from the so-called national tribune and continue to be, make anyone familiar with the alphabet of politics laugh. How is it possible for a public human rights organization to be simultaneously affiliated with several countries and dozens of political organizations, some of which are opposing each other? Clearly, our people are familiar with the illusion of conspiracy and the spread of accusations by the security apparatus during these three decades of activity, and as our experience has shown, they do not pay attention or believe. Let me simply ask, what was the document for these claims? For example, how do we become affiliated with organizations associated with foreign countries? Simply making claims and showing a few edited or even real personal photos that do not prove anything; in any case, the illogical and baseless nature of these claims is not hidden from anyone.

Regarding myself, I can say that the most advertisements about my political activities have been made by the security apparatus. I respond in the same way. Of course, at that time, some of our friends, due to the circumstances and the chaos within the group, and because of lack of coordination and information about me, gave explanations that were not true. After that, because our friends were under pressure in prison, to prevent tension, we postponed clarification to an appropriate time, which may be now. In any case, I believe that a person who denies their beliefs is actually denying themselves. If the criterion for my beliefs is my own claims, I must say that I have never been actively involved in politics and have left it aside for the past ten years, and have fully devoted myself to human rights work. This change in perspective was formed in me even before I started working in the organization, and I have never blurred the line between politics and human rights in my work. In fact, it was

Where is the group of human rights activists in Iran standing today?

The human rights activists in Iran today stand in a place where every organization must stand in the shadow of relentless effort and belief in their goals and seriousness. Despite bearing the heaviest possible cost in contemporary Iranian history among human rights organizations, we have not succumbed to pressure and difficulties. We are proud to have the largest share in reporting human rights violations in both Persian and English through our news agency, HRANA. Our statistics center, which is a unique source of information on the state of human rights in Iran, is now available to researchers and other reporters. We are still actively fighting censorship and filtering through our participation in the Fourth Committee and its services. We provide free internet and technical services to numerous organizations and groups, whose names I cannot mention for security reasons. We publish the monthly magazine “Peace Line”, which is currently the only public and specialized human rights publication in Iran, and its performance has been very positive according to statistics and reception. We are actively supporting victims of human rights violations, political

Thank you for accepting this conversation and the opportunity you have given to the peace line…