The Azerbaijani minority of Iran which totals roughly 30,000,000 people, is being mistreated as a result of advocating broader language and cultural rights. The demonstrators in Parliament Square wanted to draw attention to this, and in particular a journalist for the Azeri-language weekly Yarpagh, Said Matinpour. London, United Kingdom. 18/03/2010.
Azerbaijani journalist and cultural rights activists who support liberties and access to schooling in their language, Azerbaijani-Turkic, are taking a heavy amount of maltreatment in Iran. Their cultural and linguistic rights are being violated despite the fact that they are protected under articles 15 and 19 as set out in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Said Matinpour was arrested on May 25th 2007. He was held with no charge and was tortured and imprisoned in section 209 of Evin prison for 205 days. Some suggest that he was made to give a false confession of his activities, as on June 11th he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Said has a masters degree in philosophy from Tehran university, and is known for his writings protesting human rights violations by the Iranian authorities, whilst calling for political, cultural and linguistic rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran.
