The Human Rights Book Review

Human Rights Book Review – ‘Death to the Dictator! – A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran’s 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price’ by Afsaneh Moqadam

Posted on June 20, 2010. Filed under: Books, Events, Human Rights | Tags: 2009, civil and political rights, elections, Human Rights, human rights book, human rights book review, human rights books, imprisonment, Iran, Iranian elections, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Middle East, politics and corruption, rape, torture |

Iranian Elections 2009, June 12th. Mohsen Abbaspour, a typically youthful fellow in his 20′s — not especially politically opinionated, or driven to great successes, or sophisticated — takes part in the very first election of his lifetime in Iran’s 10th presidential vote in Tehran.  Sick and tired with soaring joblessness and rising cost of living, he supports the reformist party and their nominee, Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mohsen feels his vote can make a difference.

It won’t. Practically the moment the poll closes, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares himself the winner with a clear majority (supposedly 62%)  and therefore President. As the West moves quickly to comprehend the brazen fraudulence involved in the election, Abbaspour, together with his relatives, acquaintances and neighborhood friends, shall go through a feeling of complete despair, and after that another thing: an ever more clearer and perhaps more raw human emotion—the beginnings of fury. They march and protest, just like millions of other Iranians who streamed onto the street,  protesting loudly yet peacefully with words such as, “Down with the tyrant!” and  “Death to the Dictator”. Mohsen Abbaspour shall be embroiled within the irrepressible and eventual disastrous sequence of occurrences. Moshen himself is imprisoned, brutally beaten and raped.

Along the lines of Phillip Gourevitchs ‘We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families’ and Ryszard Kapuscinski’s insightful dispatches, Death to the Dictator! shocks the reader using its tragic and heart wrenching  propinquity. The author, who goes by a pseudonym to safeguard his real identity,  became an eager and extremely brave eye witness to the events in Tehran throughout these tumultuous times of 2009 and after. Within this courageous and genuine accounts pages, we view what we’re not meant to view, and discover what we aren’t presumed to be aware of.

For those who were so shocked by these events on the nightly news and wish to know more of the human rights abuses, which add to Iran’s already appalling record, you will find this a compelling read.

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