The life and [troubled] times of the IslamicRepublic...
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The United Nations Human Rights commission has once again condemnedthe Islamic Republic for its gross violations of human rights and fundamentalfreedoms. A resolution condemning Tehran for its human rights record waspassed by 78 countries, including many of the regime's "friends"in the European Union.
Understandably, the Islamic Republic rejected the UN resolution. ForeignMinistry spokesman Mohammad Mohammadi claimed that the United Nations "willdamage its reputation by turning the issue of human rights into a politicalmatter."
The November report by UN Special Rapporteur for Iran, Prof. MauriceCopithorne, came as a sharp blow for Tehran, since the authorities werehoping after Copithorne's visit in February that he would give them a cleanbill of health.
"The West wants us to base our human rights values on their laws,but we believe we should take into account our religious and cultural beliefs,"Foreign Minister Velayati complained. He claimed that Iran is an Islamicstate practicing Islamic regulations. "This report has no value fromour point of view," he concluded. [Jomhouri-e Eslami 11/11]
Kayhan, which is close to MOIS, criticized the government for havingallowed Copithorne visit Iran in the first place. "Our authoritiesmust have been naive to believe that by accepting to deal with the representativesof human rights organizations, including the UNHCR, they could explainthe virtues of the Islamic legal system and the legitimacy of the Islamicjudiciary. The truth is that international organizations are Western creations,and abandoning all humanitarian and Islamic values is the only way to satisfythem... Therefore the authorities should not allow these people abuse andinsult the sacred values of Iran's Muslim people, on the pretext of monitoringhuman rights conditions in Iran. [Kayhan 11/10]
The opposition Iran Nation's Party, in connection with three other outlawedorganizations operating inside Iran, has called on its backers to conducta ceremony on December 5, to commemorate a 1953 clash at Tehran university.
Three demonstrators were killed when students had gathered to protestthe Dec. 5, 1953 visit of Vice President Nixon to Iran. The demonstratorsaccused the United States of having backed the Shah's ouster of Prime MinisterMohammad Mossadegh, and were routed by paratroopers.
Since 1980, December 5 has become known as the Day of the UniversityStudent, and has been used by the Islamic Republic authorities as an occasionto mobilize pro-regime students on university campuses.
In previous year, the INP has held "private" ceremonies onDecember 5. But for the past two weeks, the INP and its coalition partners- the Iranian People's Party, the Movement for Freedom in Iran, and theLabor Party of Iran - have been distributing joint leaflets, calling fora public ceremony to be held at the Imamzadeh Abdollah graveyard in thesouth of Tehran. This is the graveyard where the three students killedin the 1953 clashes - Mostafa Bozorgnia, Mehdi Shariat Razavi, and AhmadGhanjdi - have been buried. [INP statements & leaflets]
Iran Azad University, also known as "Rafsanjani U" since itis controlled by the clan of the President of the Islamic Republic, maybe one of the first victims of Mr. Rafsanjani's departure from office nextsummer. The University, which has more than 100 campuses and 120,000 students,is one of the largest private universities in the world.
In the past, Iran Azad University has been tolerated by other branchesof the ruling clerical elite, despite the high fees and constant protestsby students over mediocre academic levels, crowded classrooms, and primitivelaboratories.
But now there are signs that the Ministry of Culture and Higher Educationis trying to slash enrollment at the school, which has a virtual monopolyon private higher education in the country.
Mohammad Reza Hashemi-Golpayegani, minister of Culture and Higher Education,believes that "Azad University has deviated from its original goalwhich was to promote and elevate higher education in the country."
"Now this university has become an impediment, that has underminedthe state-run higher education system," the minister went on. "Wehave suffered in many ways from the predominance of Azad University. Ithas caused a shortage of professors at state universities, and has reducedthe chances of state university graduates of finding good jobs," hetold a press conference in Bandar Abbas. [Kayhan, 11/10]
Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i has been pressing Azad University to segregateits largest campus - the Roude-e han campus near Tehran - into separatefaculties for men and women.
In an effort to crack down on viewers trying to pick up the Voice ofAmerica's recently-launched weekly television show, the Law EnforcementForces raided homes in Tehran last week, confiscating satellite dishesand related equipment.
LEF commander RG Brigadier Sefollahi told a Tehran press conferenceon Sunday, Dec. 1, that the LEF had succeeded in confiscating 10,000 satellitedishes in Tehran alone in recent days, along with 960 pieces of relatedequipment. The raids began at 4 PM on the afternoon of November 26, sourcesin Tehran said.
Sefollahi promised that the raids would continue. [Radio Israel, quotingIranian media accounts, 12/2]
Iranian women are making great strides toward equality - at least, that'swhat the Asahi newspaper in Japan has reported from its Tehran bureau.Iran daily found the report so enlightening that it reprinted it in full.
Following the approval of a new bill by the Iranian parliament, Asahireportedly said, a new committee is now studying the problems of womenand will write new laws to ensure the equal rights of men and women inthe Islamic Republic.
The Tehran authorities have recently been lifting restrictions on women'sactivities, Asahi added. Today, there are actually 20 women working atthe Justice Ministry, "and in future that number will increase."
"The authorities of the Islamic Republic are increasing the numberof women in official positions throughout the country," the Japanesereport, as quoted by Iran daily, said.
Question: Does that mean there are more than twenty?
Answer: "Recently the authorities even appointed a woman as mayorof a Tehran district." [Iran daily 12/2]
The French News Agency, AFP, sees things slightly differently. Its reporterin Tehran wrote recently that he had personally witnessed the LEF arrestten women because they were violating the "Islamic" dress code.Two of the arresting officers, operating in Vanak square, were themselveswomen and sported full chadors, AFP reported. Since then, a new wave ofarrests of women for dress-code violations has been reported.
Over the past two years, the Islamic Republic has encouraged Iranianwomen to wear black chadors , instead of colored scarves, as the most appropriateform of Islamic veil. [Iran daily 12/2, quoting AFP]
Government bureaucrats in Iran have been complaining that they simplycan't make ends meet on that government paycheck whereas those in the privatesector fare better.
Iran daily recently compared the average salary of a managing directorin the private sector (Rls 6,000,000 per month) to that of an ordinarygovernment worker, who earns only Rls 300,000 to Rls. 400,000 per month.At the official exchange rate, Rls 300,000 is less than $100. [Iran 12/2]
As if anticipating the criticism, Jomhouri-e Eslami reported the sameday that government salaries would soon be "repaired." [12/2]
The Director General for Political Affairs at the Interior Ministry,Mr. Som-Abadi, recently told a group of security and political officialsthat the Ministry has chartered the activities of 145 political groupsand associations.
Speaking in Bandar Abbas at a meeting of officials from governors generaloffices around the country, Mr. Som-Abadi said that 85 of the groups werescientific and "specialized" associations, whereas 35 were purelypolitical groups, and 25 were religious societies and associations. [Irandaily 12/1]
The Interior Ministry has frequently aired statistics such as these,but upon closer scrutiny most of the groups turn out to be sporting associations,religious or scientific groups, which do not engage in political activity.
The only groups officially allowed to engage in political debate arethe two clerical societies of Tehran (the Jameh-e Rouhaniat and the Majma-eRouhanioun), the Fedayan-e Islam (which used to be run by "hangingjudge" Ayatollah Khalkhali), the Islamic Coalition Society (closeto the Resalati faction), and the Mujahidin of the Islamic Revolution,a leftist-Islamic group. In addition, two students groups are active,:the Islamic Union of Iranian Universities, and the Islamic Associationof Islamic Universities.
Harassment against Iranian writers and journalists appears to be onthe rise. According to a report from the opposition Iran Nation's Partyin Tehran, the owner and several writers of a monthly magazine in Tehranhave been threatened following the publication of a critical article. Theauthor of the article, Abolghasem Golbaf, is also the owner of the magazine,Gozaresh. Other writers at Gozaresh were also threatened. They were identifiedby the INP as Mohammad Heydari, Ms. Alaleh Eimani Far, Jahangir Balouch,and Mehdi Jamshid Nia. [INP statement 11/29]
A listener calling in to 24-hour radio in Los Angeles on November 28,said that her brother, a former journalist with Kayhan, went missing inTehran one week earlier. The journalist, Koroush Babaii, had called hisfamily in Los Angeles from Tehran saying he was about to leave on a foreigntrip. Since then, they have heard no more from him and have been unableto contact him. His sister said the family "feared he is dead."[Radio Sedaye Iran 11/28]
The Islamic Students Society has called on President Hashemi Rafsanjanito ensure that journalists and writers are not imprisoned or punished fortheir ideas, Iran daily reported Sunday. They also asked him to guaranteefree speech and free elections before leaving office next year.
"Mr. President, before the end of your term make arrangements sothat the freedom and security of the press will be guaranteed," thenewspaper quoted a statement as saying. "Provide guarantees so thatnewspapers aren't closed down and telephone lines are not tapped."
The daily said the group hoped that writers would be allowed to workfreely without having to live in exile or fear persecution at home. [Iran12/1]
Earlier this year, the Islamic Students Society's own newspaper wastemporarily banned by authorities for criticism of officials, the Associatedpress reported from Tehran. [12/1]
The Associated Press report continued:
"Protests and other signs of public discontent have risen as moreand more Iranians feel that the ruling clergy has feathered its own nestwhile doing little to improve the lot of most citizens. More than halfof the country's 60 million people live in poverty.
"A survey in May by Freedom House, a New York-based group thatmonitors political rights and civil liberties, rated Iran as among the20 countries with the worst record of press abuses. The organization saidthose countries have virtually no press freedom and the government maintainsa high level of control over the news media, including physical threatsagainst journalists. [AP, 12/1]
Minister of Information and Security Ali Fallahian is on the hot seat.Indicted by a Berlin court for having allegedly ordered the slaying ofKurdish leader Sadegh Sharafkindi in September 1992 and wanted by Interpol,it is Fallahian's head that is on the block in the current spat betweenTehran and Bonn.
On Monday, Dec. 2, Fallahian addressed the issue in a speech beforestudents at Tehran's Defense University. The international attention accordedto the Mykonos case "reveals that the Americans and the Europeanshave decided to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said. ("L'Etat,c'est moi!).
Then he suggested that the German government had recently informed theIslamic Republic through a secret backchannel that it would delay the finalverdict of the Berlin court trying Sharafkindi's assassins, if Tehran wouldrelease Israeli aviator Ron Arad. [Kayhan 12/2]
That last statement brought angry retorts - first from Bonn, and laterfrom Tehran.
Radio Israel reported the next day that a German government spokesmanstrongly denied that Germany had made any offer of trading the Mykonosverdict for Ron Arad. The German government would not in any way delaythe Berlin court proceedings, the German spokesman said. [Radio Israel12/3]
Salam daily, which is close to former MOIS boss Hojjat-ol eslam MohammadReyshari and Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, said they had received a call from MOIScomplaining that Kayhan "has not printed the entire statement"by Fallahian, and that they had asked Kayhan to correct his statement inTuesday's evening edition. [Salam 12/3]
Kayhan obliged, attributing this additional comment to Fallahian: "Thegovernment of the Islamic Republic of IRAN from the early days of Ron Arad'sdisappearance had stated that it has no information or relation regardinghis case" [Kayhan 12/3]
Salam also published an angry comment by one reader wonder "whatIran received in exchange" for having release three German citizenswho had been imprisoned in Iran on spying charges. {Salam 12/3]
A pro-government paper, Kar va Kar-e Gar (which is owned by the Jomhouri-eEslami group) quoted Abdollah Mazandarani, the head of the Organizationfor Victims of Chemical Weapons in Iran, as saying that Tehran had documentsshowing that 84 German firms had supplied chemical weapons production gearand technology to Iraq used during the Iran-Iraq war.
"Germany cannot hide its role in supporting the Iraqi industrialpotential to produce chemical agents and weapons which were used by Iraqiarmed forces during the imposed war against Iranian soldiers and civilians,"he said. [12/3]
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'iand a key backer of Ansar-e Hezbollah, criticized German prosecutors lastFriday for bringing terrorism charges against Iranian leaders and warnedthem to remember Salman Rushdie, the author Tehran ordered killed for insultingIslam.
"You saw what fate befell Salman Rushdie after his insults andimpudence," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a sermon at Tehran Universitybroadcast on Iranian radio. Jannati said German prosecutors did not appearto understand the consequences of "offending the sacred authorities"of an Islamic society, and implied that they would be hounded by assassinationthreats, just as Rushdie has been. [Tehran Radio 11/29]
The opposition Constitutionalists Movement of Iran has called on theGerman government to "stop coddling" the Islamic Republic, followingthe overwhelming evidence presented in a German court of involvement ofhigh-ranking IRI officials in the 1992 killing of Kurdish leaders in Berlin.
"We urge German leaders to stop supporting the Islamic Republicwith trade and loans. We believe that, as a leading democracy, Germanycan have an important role in supporting the movement for democracy andhuman rights in Iran."
The CMI joined calls by other democratic opposition groups, in remindingthe German government that "A democratic Iran will restore the goodrelations that Iran enjoyed with other civilized countries before the IslamicRepublic..." [CMI statement 12/1]