Japanese Gay Youth Organize Protest for Pegah at British Embassy in Tokyo
I'm feeling quite honored and somewhat humbled to receive this message from one of Pegah's supporters in the UK. All I've done is share information, links to photos and videos, reports from the incredibly beautiful activists in Rome and Paris, action alerts to write letters to the UK Home Secretary, and my work all appears to be adding up to something of benefit to Pegah.
But there's also a secondary feeling of genuine accomplishment I have today, assisting the advocates around the globe who are staging actions and writing letters and giving them coverage on my blog.
After we (hopefully) win Pegah asylum in Britain, one of the wonderful things to come out of this international grassroots effort on her behalf is connecting with other activists around the globe. It is my deep desire that we all remain in touch, and coordinating future actions, once we know Pegah will not be returned to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A word of advice to Frances in Sheffield and all other persons concerns about Pegah: keep sending me your updates and emails!
From the UK:
In a message dated 8/28/2007 2:39:54 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, frances@fwaconsulting.com writes:Dear Michael
Even though we started Pegah’s campaign here in Sheffield we have to look at your blog to see what is going on worldwide. Thank you so much for all your support and work on Pegah’s behalf.
Here is some information and pictures from Japan
Best wishes
Frances Wells and other Friends of Pegah in Sheffield
It gives me great honor to share on my blog a report about recent actions in Japan for Pegah, along with photos of a demonstration held at the British embassy in Tokyo and links to a site with fantastic videos of our LGBT activist brothers and sisters preparing for and staging their protest. Click here to visit the Japanese pics and vids.
Many big thanks to the youth leaders organizing the embassy protests in Rome, Paris and Tokyo, and to all the LGBT everywhere involved in Pegah's campaign.
A report on the actions in Tokyo:
Subject: Support for Pegah is growing in Japan
Hi all,
I just want to let you know about our campaign in Japan and I would like this information to be published/mentioned wherever possible. (Please let me know if you do so and feel free to edit)
If you need more information please get back to me. I live in UK and I am translating news into Japanese on our Japanese campaign blog in order to
pass the information to Japanese people.
If you have any messages or news to Japanese supporter, please send me a message and I will translate into Japanese.
On August 27, a petition with 207 signatures calling for the British Government to grant asylum to Pegah Emambakhsh was delivered to the British Embassy in Tokyo, by a group of Japanese supporters. They also handed in a petition to the Foreign Ministry to ask the Japanese government to take action on this case. A visible appeal was made outside the British Embassy and Foreign Ministry by the group of supporters holding message boards.
Following the visit to the British Embassy, in a conversation the next day, it was confirmed to the group that the petition we submitted had been faxed to the Foreign Office in the UK. It was also confirmed that it would be brought to the attention of the British Ambassador in Japan.A spokesperson in the Foreign Ministry informed the group that the petition was passed on to the British Embassy along with a request for further details of the case.
The signatures were collected using the internet through a Japanese blog created for the campaign. Although it was very short notice, more than 200 people responded in 12 hours. A number of Japanese people have signed the online petition and sent faxes to the Home Secretary in the UK. News of the campaign was also reported in the independent Japanese press and in a number of personal blogs. Support continues to grow in Japan where many people feel passionate about this issue of human rights.
Yukiko Hosomi
No comments:
Post a Comment