- Shackles - Iranian Women Enchained -

[bahram]

Publicly Financed Enlightening Entertainment

- Shackles - Iranian Women Enchained - Press Release

For Immediate Release: - January 1, 2006

My Dear Fellow Humankind,

My name is Bahram Maskanian and I am a Persian American man. Early 2004 I became aware of a few alarming reports about the existence of a highly active slave trade within and around Iran / Persia. I began researching the issue and soon found out that not only the barbaric and tragic problem of human trafficking and slavery exists in Iran, but that the criminal mullah's regime profits on the sacrifice of defenseless young Iranian women and men. Based on my research, and also on the testimony of a few survivors of this heinous practice, I wrote a screenplay for a feature film entitled: - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - with the objective of shocking the world while shaming and exposing the bastards involved in this savage practice.

We can all agree that the need to publicly finance our social and political governing system and activities to prevent corruption are as realistic as the need to also publicly finance our truth-telling enlightening entertainment programming and film production. By the same token, we can all agree absolutely, that without public oversight, unchecked increase of economic and political power will certainly lead to greedy, criminal and destructive conduct, instigating corruption at all levels of our society. - Power Tends To Corrupt, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely -.

It is a well-known fact that our social, economic and political governing system and our mass media have been bought and paid for and are controlled by the greedy, selfish and corrupt ruling elites. All of whom are under the false assumption that not only they own the world, they also own the people as well, in their eyes we are all slaves with different degrees of freedom. The ruling elites whose attitude towards slavery, human suffering, and war is to make money from it, cover it up and never reveal the truth at all costs.

For nearly seven (7) months, since May of 2005, I have written - 4867 letters, to the gatekeepers of entertainment industry: lawyers, agents, corporate producers, electronic mass media and the editors of major newspapers about the - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - screenplay, to no avail. If you like to read the initial cover letter introducing - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - screenplay please click here…

Concerning - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - screenplay and movie treatment, I have directly communicated, contacted and wrote to, - 568 lawyers, - 482 journalist, - 1446 VIPs, - 2371 CEOs, EVPs, VPs, of giant nation-less corporations, such as Warner Brothers, HBO, MGM, Disney, NBC Universal, Sony, Paramount, Miramax, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom and many other production companies who have been gobbled up by the entertainment nation-less corporations. (I do have all correspondence.)

Those who did bother to read the - Shackles - Womankind Enchained -, screenplay and the movie treatment, almost unanimously made the following interesting, but sad statement below: - - A genuinely heartfelt, truthful and very powerful story, I learned a whole lot from it. It made me cry, made me think and I even laughed. A controversial and thought provoking story indeed, but due to today's political climate in the US it would be tad risky to produce - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - screenplay into a feature film. - - They all said.

Only through publicly financed production efforts one can attain the ability to freely create an original and uncompromising work of art, reflecting life's realities, without any fear of reprisal and censorship. I am hopeful and enthusiastic that we, the ordinary people, can all come together and make the production of - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - film possible, to shock the world into the realization of this widespread tragic problem, also expose and shame those who are shamelessly profiting from human misery, by supporting and encouraging slavery.

We, the humankind, must not allow - truth, human suffering and healing to ever become controversial. Only ordinary people, like us, who recognize that one's salvation as a human being is directly linked to the salvation of the world community in which we all live, can specialize in doing what seems to be impossible at the time.

If you agree and feel the same, please consider buying an advance ticket for ten dollars ($10) in order to help fund the production of - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - film. You shall receive your ticket(s) as soon as the film production is completed via US mail. Make sure to provide accurate information when purchasing your ticket(s).

We are going to need your name, last name, mailing address and e-mail. We do know and understand how valuable one's privacy really is, therefore we shall never share your private information with any third party, company, or anyone. For more information and to purchase your ticket - please visit… - click on the - Buy Ticket - button. Look forward to your comments, suggestions and questions.

Sincerely,

Bahram Maskanian

Founder of PBC Films

http://www.pbcfilms.com/


P.S. - Please forward the information found here to as many people as possible in this campaign against slavery and human trafficking. Those of you who own and operate website(s) could help by placing the - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - banner on your web pages, please click on the following link for more information. Visit Shackles…

Planet Blue Communications, Inc. (PBC Films)
P.O. Box 607 - New York, NY 10021-0013

- - Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. - -

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
_________________
- - Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance - -

[bahram]

Iran's Sex Slaves Suffer Hideously Under Mullahs

- By Dr. Donna M. Hughes

A measure of Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing and stoning to death.

Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teen-age girls in prostitution. The magnitude of this statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the streets, others are in the 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city. The trade is also international: Thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad.

The head of Iran's Interpol bureau believes that the sex-slave trade is one of the most profitable activities in Iran today. This criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists. Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling and sexually abusing women and girls.

Many of the girls come from impoverished rural areas. Drug addiction is epidemic throughout Iran, and some addicted parents sell their children to support their habits. High unemployment -- 28 percent for youth 15 to 29 years of age, and 43 percent for women 15 to 20 years of age -- is a serious factor in driving restless youth to accept risky offers for work. Slave traders take advantage of any opportunity in which women and children are vulnerable. For example, following the recent earthquake in Bam, orphaned girls have been kidnapped and taken to a known slave market in Tehran where Iranian and foreign traders meet.

Popular destinations for victims of the slave trade are the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. According to the head of the Tehran province judiciary, traffickers target girls between 13 and 17, although there are reports of some girls as young as 8 and 10, to send to Arab countries. One ring was discovered after an 18-year-old girl escaped from a basement where a group of girls were held before being sent to Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The number of Iranian women and girls who are deported from Persian Gulf countries indicates the magnitude of the trade. Upon their return to Iran, the Islamic fundamentalists blame the victims, and often physically punish and imprison them. The women are examined to determine if they have engaged in "immoral activity." Based on the findings, officials can ban them from leaving the country again.

Police have uncovered a number of prostitution and slavery rings operating from Tehran that have sold girls to France, Britain and Turkey as well. One network based in Turkey bought smuggled Iranian women and girls, gave them fake passports, and transported them to European and Persian Gulf countries. In one case, a 16-year-old girl was smuggled to Turkey, and then sold to a 58-year-old European national for $20,000.

In the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, local police report that girls are being sold to Pakistani men as sex slaves. The Pakistani men marry the girls, ranging in age from 12 to 20, and then sell them to brothels called "Kharabat" in Pakistan. One network was caught contacting poor families around Mashad and offering to marry girls. The girls were then taken through Afghanistan to Pakistan where they were sold to brothels.

In the southeastern border province of Sistan Baluchestan, thousands of Iranian girls reportedly have been sold to Afghan men. Their final destinations are unknown.

One factor contributing to the increase in prostitution and the sex-slave trade is the number of teen girls who are running away from home. The girls are rebelling against fundamentalist-imposed restrictions on their freedom, domestic abuse and parental drug addictions. Unfortunately, in their flight to freedom, the girls find more abuse and exploitation. Ninety percent of girls who run away from home will end up in prostitution. As a result of runaways, in Tehran alone there are an estimated 25,000 street children, most of them girls. Pimps prey upon street children, runaways and vulnerable high-school girls in city parks. In one case, a woman was discovered selling Iranian girls to men in Persian Gulf countries; for four years, she had hunted down runaway girls and sold them. She even sold her own daughter for $11,000.

Given the totalitarian rule in Iran, most organized activities are known to the authorities. The exposure of sex-slave networks in Iran has shown that many mullahs and officials are involved in the sexual exploitation and trade of women and girls. Women report that in order to have a judge approve a divorce they have to have sex with him. Women who are arrested for prostitution say they must have sex with the arresting officer. There are reports of police locating young women for sex for the wealthy and powerful mullahs.

In cities, shelters have been set up to provide assistance for runaways. Officials who run these shelters are often corrupt; they run prostitution rings using the girls from the shelter. For example in Karaj, the former head of a Revolutionary Tribunal and seven other senior officials were arrested in connection with a prostitution ring that used 12- to 18-year-old girls from a shelter called the Center of Islamic Orientation.

Other instances of corruption abound. There was a judge in Karaj who was involved in a network that identified young girls to be sold abroad. And in Qom, the center for religious training in Iran, when a prostitution ring was broken up, some of the people arrested were from government agencies, including the Department of Justice.

The ruling fundamentalists have differing opinions on their official position on the sex trade: deny and hide it or recognize and accommodate it. In 2002, a BBC journalist was deported for taking photographs of prostitutes. Officials told her: "We are deporting you ... because you have taken pictures of prostitutes. This is not a true reflection of life in our Islamic Republic. We don't have prostitutes." Yet, earlier the same year, officials of the Social Department of the Interior Ministry suggested legalizing prostitution as a way to manage it and control the spread of HIV. They proposed setting up brothels, called "morality houses," and using the traditional religious custom of temporary marriage, in which a couple can marry for a short period of time, even an hour, to facilitate prostitution. Islamic fundamentalists' ideology and practices are adaptable when it comes to controlling and using women.

Some may think a thriving sex trade in a theocracy with clerics acting as pimps is a contradiction in a country founded and ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. In fact, this is not a contradiction. First, exploitation and repression of women are closely associated. Both exist where women, individually or collectively, are denied freedom and rights. Second, the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not simply conservative Muslims. Islamic fundamentalism is a political movement with a political ideology that considers women inherently inferior in intellectual and moral capacity. Fundamentalists hate women's minds and bodies. Selling women and girls for prostitution is just the dehumanizing complement to forcing women and girls to cover their bodies and hair with the veil.

In a religious dictatorship like Iran, one cannot appeal to the rule of law for justice for women and girls. Women and girls have no guarantees of freedom and rights, and no expectation of respect or dignity from the Islamic fundamentalists. Only the end of the Iranian regime will free women and girls from all the forms of slavery they suffer.


Dr. Donna M. Hughes is a professor and holds the Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She wishes to acknowledge the Iranian human-rights and pro-democracy activists who contributed information for this article. If readers have information on prostitution and the sex-slave trade in Iran, contact Hughes at dhughes@uri.edu. Read more at: www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/.

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/hughes.htm

Publications by Donna M. Hughes

Research Reports

Trafficking, Slavery, and Sexual Exploitation


P.S. - Please forward the information found here to as many people as possible in this campaign against slavery and human trafficking. Those of you who own and operate website(s) could help by placing the - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - banner on your web pages, please click on the following link for more information. Visit Shackles…
_________________
- - Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance - -

[andre 4000]

Just asking this because I couldn't be bothered to read beacuse of got coursework I should be doing but, is your screenplay prejudice towards islam in general or just those in Iran/persia/whereverthehell who are apparently trafficking people?

[Huston]

[bahram]

Dear Huston,

Thank you for helping out - lending a hand and mentioning a few of the barbaric laws of Islam towards women. - If anyone is interested to read and learn more about the - Shackles - Womankind Enchained - ScreenPlay and women’s general prescribed position / treatment in and by the - Adam and Eve based religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam - please visit - http://www.pbcfilms.com/

Sincerely,

Bahram Maskanian

Founder of PBC Films

http://www.pbcfilms.com/

_________________
- - Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance - -

[Mr_Vlad_III]

[capner]

[bahram]

Would it be possible to stay focused on the issue of barbaric slavery that is going on as we speak? If you are not interested to help, what are you trying to do? You are effectively distracting people, who might other wise be helpful?

Sincerely,

Bahram Maskanian

http://www.pbcfilms.com/

_________________
- - Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance - -

[bahram]

Iranian / Persian Women Portrayed As Whores And Apes / Monkeys,
On An American National Television Network, FOX Television

http://www.venusproject.com/ethics_in_action/Persian_Women_Portrayed.html

_________________
- - Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance - -

[anthsco]

To quote General George S. Patton:

"It seems to me a certainty that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammed and the utter degradation of the Arab women are the outstanding causes for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have been developing."
General George S. Patton
American general in World War I and II, 1885-1945

Enough said.


_________________
Treat all that you meet with common courtesy and dignity. Integrity and justice come from within, not without.
-From Bushido
"Will you cut the culture crap and get to the hotels?"-Big Joe to Little Joe

[guidance]

This is false!!!!!!!!! Complete B.S.

Sex slaves are not allowed in ISLAM. And how about go actually purchase a Quran instead of reading from sites that do not have valid information. SOURCES are important.

Also what ever the MULLA'S are doing in Iran/ Persia what ever are not mentioned in the Quran to be permissible!

Do not blame a Religion for one country's doings.
_________________
! Guidance ~

[bahram]

[amit]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ancient Iranian Pre-islamic Women Warriors

[anthsco]

[Orenda]

guidance wrote: