He was living in Canada for several years and apparently made some free open source software that was subsequently used in a porn site (without his further involvement or knowledge), as is oft the case and the reason FOSS exists.
He then was arrested on a visit to Iran.
Disregarding the ridiculousness of this specific case, it sets a dangerous precedent: anyone who has written open source code that is used by sites, and possible porn sites, could be just as guilty as this guy according to Iranian law.
I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now.
Precedent is irrelevant because Iran is not under the rule of law. Iran can imprison or kill you if that's what they feel like. The exact reason (if they give one) is just a fig leaf, and your confession is likely to be the result of torture.
Exactly. The US can just brand you a terrorist and assassinate you if it feels like it -- even if you're an American citizen -- no need to even extract a false confession under torture or have a sham trial (though there are plenty of those in the US as well). They could just kill you outright.
Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice.
> Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice.
You're quite right. From these cases, the only real differences would seem to be 1) basis: terrorism vs. insulting Islam and 2) extremity: different bars for capital punishment.
Yes, the erosions in US justice over the past decade and change are rightly cause for great concern, but they are orders of magnitude from the total absence of the rule of law in Iran.
There's certainly more to the story. He lived there as a citizen for many years and probably had enemies. Iran doesn't seem to be working their way through github.
Remember, prosecutions start with who they want to get, and then try to find some laws they broke. So often the stated charge is something incidental like tax evasion.
> I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now.
They don't give a crap what an average tourist does in his homeland. Repressions are addressed toward their own citizens and foreign journalists/activists because they are a threat to the regime.
But then again, not visiting a country is the tourism equivalent of a boycott. Thus why there are travel restrictions between the US and Cuba. So perhaps it isn't a “they could arrest me” (though it's not like Iran has never arrested foreign citizens and accused them of espionage), but simply an “I don't want to show any form of support for a regime like that”.
Naturally, there are counterarguments, like how visitors provide a view into the outside world, for example.
I frequent travel discussion boards, so I am familiar with this point of view, it's a common topic (should I travel to [insert your favorite opressive country]). However, I'm on the side which doesn't share this way of thinking. Contrary to what popular media makes us think, countries are made of citizens, not politicians. Citizens who are by general usually nice people and happy that you came to share your interest in their culture, common life, and leave some bucks in their stores/restaurants, not only seeing them through foreign interest of their governments. Iranian people have an awesome opinion of their friendliness to travellers, btw.
I've never subscribed to the "citizens are actually good, it's the governments who are evil" argument, it just shifts the blame, e.g. "the Nazis did it" by reification: governments are made of people and they, more or less, are populistic, following the majority's wishes. There are many parts of the society in Iran that back the current regime, don't think that everybody's against it.
So, my reply to the grandparent comment would be: read more about the people and regime and if you are convinced, then, yes, do not visit Iran, boycott them by withholding your money.
I didn't say that this article is manipulation, just that most people see such countries only through the news. I'm just saying that many countries with cruel laws have interesting and colorful cultures worth exploring from a tourist's point of view. If someone is not comfortable with that, ok, I just don't thing people should be discouraged by that because in the end, it's not the politics that suffer but natives (current example: outage of tourism in Syria, and a few years ago, in Nepal).
Persepolis was great, check out other modern Iranian and Iranian/Kurdish productions, there's a bunch of awesome cinema there, to mention the most known ones: About Elly, Separation, Time of drunken horses, No One Knows About Persian Cats, Women without men, and lots of other. If you want to read something lightweight where culture and regime meet, check Lipstick Jihad.
> I've never subscribed to the "citizens are actually good, it's the governments who are evil" argument, it just shifts the blame, e.g. "the Nazis did it" by reification: governments are made of people and they, more or less, are populistic, following the majority's wishes. There are many parts of the society in Iran that back the current regime, don't think that everybody's against it.
(Godwin's Law alert)
No doubt, but such events as nazis comming to power or the islamic revolution are subjects too complex to discuss here in a comment (at least I don't have the intention at the moment).
To clarify: I wasn't referring to how the Islamic Regime came to power (although, as you point out, that would be an interesting and complex topic in itself). I was commenting on the fact that in most cases (except perhaps in extreme cases such as North Korea where governments hold their citizens captive) governments cannot be isolated from what the majority thinks or feels. Many people are uncomfortable by this so advocate the "it's the government that did it" argument.
Using the Nazis as an example was perhaps lazy (although they did get quite a bit of support from the general population, one shouldn't forget, they were voted in, unlike the Islamic regime in Iran). How about other examples: Many Chinese people in the mainland, due to an array of complex nationalistic, historical, and financial reasons back many of the deplorable aspects of China's regime. Same in Saudi Arabia, people turn a blind eye as long as they get their hefty unemployment benefits. Even France's government acknowledged Algerian atrocities very recently, because you know what, the general public still has grandiose ideas about the empire and don't want to hear that sort of thing. Turkey is going through a similar process with its Armenian history.
Another, longer example: I was always told that the animosity between Turkey and Greece was a thing that the governments created, that there existed a "brotherhood of these two peoples on two sides of Aegean". Well, when I traveled to Greece on a couple of occasions, I found the hard way that this was not completely true, people did hold the historical grudges), it wasn't something that he governments made up (same on the Turkish side, too, of course. In fact it was just the reverse: the governments noted this trend and were responding to it in populist ways to get more votes.
By your logic, the US under GWB were full of evil people who just loved to bomb other countries.
I personally always try to remember that politics are not binary in nature, that history is complicated and especially that the volksgeist does not exist.
You think they looked at someone who coded a piece of free software for image uploads, that was used by porn sites, and thought "he's a threat to our regime"?
And the more randomly the tool is applied the more effective it is in terrorizing people. IRI is basically broadcasting to Iranian expat community that: don't even think about technically contributing to software that can be used to topple us.
Regarding precedent, your statement is absolutely true and happening now. Many brilliant iranian (even foreign born) technologists do not participate in open or entrepreneurial endeavors bc of their ties back home and fear of repercussions on self or family.
This case shows exactly how far and what the regime is capable of.
He then was arrested on a visit to Iran.
Disregarding the ridiculousness of this specific case, it sets a dangerous precedent: anyone who has written open source code that is used by sites, and possible porn sites, could be just as guilty as this guy according to Iranian law.
I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now.