A letter to Miss Micheline Calmy-Rey, Foreign minister of Swiss

Miss Micheline Calmy-Rey,

Foreign minister of Swiss,

Recently you came to Iran in order to be observer of signing a natural gas deal between my country and a Switzer company of your country. The economic events of this kind are not any longer surprising for us, nor are joyous. Rather, considering present conditions in which our state is under UN sanctions, such big deals, of details of which we do not become aware at all, appearing to be a bad news. The politicians of my country are trying to pretend that their radicalism would not have any negative feedback in the economy and security of the people, then, they might tend to be more generous than before in such big deals. Probably that is why you were in Iran, an unfortunate event and deplorable for all of us Iranian, but not certainly for you. Because you came here in order to serve your nation. Welcome! What, however, impelled me to write this letter to you, is the way you were wearing in the aforementioned session, the point which was objected by your compatriots too. Let me address you here, not as a mere Iranian, rather as a man taking himself to be an advocate of women’s rights in Iran.

Replying to this criticism, you pointed out that you had to be observant of local customs of your host. Let me ask you whether when the politicians of Islamic Republic of Iran comes to an European country would show any respect, as an illustrative example, to the custom of “serving alcoholic drinks at table” of yours? As far as I know, the answer is absolutely no! Removing the alcoholic drinks from the dinner table of western countries has been always a precondition of their present requested by them politely, but obligatorily! In other words, they bring their customs to your countries, because they take their own customs as universal, not as local!

This is the case with us in Iran. The most part of what Islamic Republic Regime takes to be Islamic customs, just by a small minority of people are accepted indeed as Islamic ones. They, however, impose these customs upon all society. Having read this news mentioned above, I was wondering whether Miss Calmy-Rey knows that in the state of Mr. Ahmadinejad, as the first time in the history of Islamic Republic Regime, police has been officially allowed to arrest women in the street for several hours – and even beats them as in some few cases happened – just for not having enough Islamic veil. Do you know what regulations of Islamic veil are? Let me notify you, for instance, wearing boots so that they are showing is enough reason to arrest a woman; that is a rule! I am myself a witness of implementing that. I was wondering whether Miss Calmy-Rey knows that she has met a man who has tried to facilitate legally polygamy in his country through removing the precondition of the first wife’s permission in next marriages.

As a man and as an Iranian I appreciate that you have made an issue of human rights in that meeting. That was not your official task; rather, it shows your philanthropy well. That is really admirable. Having become aware of your concerns about women rights, I wrote this letter addressing you in the hope of making you more steadfast than before in your philanthropic positions. Unfortunately, all what are happening in America and Europe are not wholly, as you might know, according to the declaration of human rights. In France, for example, some girls are prohibited from entering to their school because of having Islamic headscarf. Although not agreed with Islamic headscarf, I do strongly disagree with imposing any special way of wearing upon men and women; something which – I am sure – you understand and confirm. But, we lose sometimes our immovable purpose when something appearing to be the matter of economic or the matter of national/religious identity, arise. It is essential that France state and Swiss state as well as Islamic Republic state of Iran prefer the fundamental rights of the man to their own economical and political interests. You might confirm that with dedications of this kind we would have a better world.

With all due respects

Nima Ghasemi