Kamangir (Archer)

Reader's Comments

1. mustapha | July 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 am

   Sorry buddy, but as an expert, I can assure you that it’s a fake.

   The men to be executed seem proportioned like dwarfs (a normal human being’s head is 1/8th of his body height), and you can’t say that the whole picture is squished because the armed man seems well proportioned. Also, the standing men don’t cast any shadows on the floor and there is a discrepancy in quality between different items in the picture, as some elements are more pixellized than others. Besides, some of the dwarfs look too happy to be executed.

   Kamangir: The picture is most likely to be authentic. I just updated the post.

2. Roman Kalik | July 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 am

   Actually, Mustapha, the people do look well-proportioned, if you take into consideration that they’re not standing straight, and that the camera lens wasn’t made to take a picture of this kind.

   About the rest I’m not sure. I think you’re wrong about the shadows because, if you’ll look carefully you’ll see that all the shadows are going backwards. Which is to say, away from the flash. The shadows of the stands almost reaches the walls, and I’m not sure what we can deduce from what little we see of the walls.

   I think you have a point about the pixellation and quality variances on the objects, though that may be a result of the format in which the picture was originally saved digitally.

   Kamangir: The poor quality is because this is taken off a TV screen. I just added a comment at the end of the post.

3. Roman Kalik | July 23rd, 2007 at 12:28 pm

   Ah, righto. Horrible picture, by the way. Wholesale execution implies total disrespect for human life.

4. ella | July 24th, 2007 at 2:18 am

   Arash

   I am not sure if you know that last Tuesday journalists Adnan Hosseinpour and Hiwa Boutimar were sentenced to death, accused of subversive activities and contacts with illegal organisations.

   As well as the two, another Kurdish journalist, Ejlal Aghvami, editor of Payam Kurdistan, is also in custody.

   Also detained by the security forces are Sadegh Kabudvand, director for the Centre for Human Rights of Iranian Kurdistan, and trade unionists Mahmoud Salehi e Loghman Mohri.

   If it goes like that IRI prisons will soon be full.

5. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » World Record in Execution | July 25th, 2007 at 4:15 pm

   [...] Executing twelve men in one day is a good record, but it is not enough. If we are willing to add our country’s name to Guinness World Records, we need to go further than this. Although, as most countries are going towards ban of execution, we are going to have a much better chance. One of the people who is pushing hard for the inclusion of the name of Iran in the Guinness [referring to Saeed Mortazavi (سعید مرتضوی) the General Prosecutor of Tehran] recently talked about seventeen more to be executed very soon. God willing, when their verdict is finalized, their execution in one day will enhance our record. In other news, as Uzbekistan bans execution, no country in the central Asia is competing with us. [...]

6. MisterP | July 26th, 2007 at 4:05 am

   I’m not sure what exactly Mustapha is an ‘expert’ in but perhaps he could point out the following:

   Where is the ‘armed’ man?
   Where are the ‘happy looking dwarves’?
   Has he measured the images? (they are perfectly properly proportioned)
   Why does he think an object illuminated from below should cast a shadow beneath itself?

   Perhaps he’s referring to a completely different picture?

7. Some Iranian bloggers can be very cynical (in the sardonic sort of way) « Full Metal Cynic | July 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

   [...] Iranian bloggers can be very cynical (in the sardonic sort of way) Executing twelve men at once in one day is a good record, “but it is not enough. If we are [...]

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