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Haddad Adel Promises to Turn Majlis into the Leader’s Will

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:16:00 +0200

Shirin Karimi

With the ninth Majlis now in place, semi-state Fars news agency published an interview with the parliament’s former Speaker Haddad Adel that throws light on the news agency’s preference to return him to the leadership of the assembly. This interview took place just a day after the son of the famed ayatollah Motahari, who is a conservative, outspoken and influential Majlis member, openly spoke of a role that Revolutionary Guards played in installing some individuals in the ninth Majlis. Adel won votes to become a Majlis representative from Tehran but some reports in the conservative media point the finger of Motahari’s claims on him. Adel is the father of Khamenei’s son’s wife and last week, Fars published one of its longest interviews with him. This interview is revealing as it comes at a time when the heat in the battle for the leadership of the ninth Majlis has been picking up. In the interview, the Fars reporter, a news organization that is closely linked to the Revolutionary Guards, calls the seventh Majlis – which was led by Adel – “one of the best” and relays the praise that the supreme leader of the country, ayatollah Khamenei had for that assembly. When asked to share a story from those days, Adel said that perhaps that was the only time when there were no fist fights in the assembly, adding “of which I am proud.” The Ninth Majlis Adel is in competition with the current Speaker of the Majlis Ali Larijani for the position of the Speaker of the assembly. The outgoing Majlis will hold its last session on Wednesday this week. In the Fars interview Adel said that he had two goals if he were elected Speaker: one was to further coordinate the affairs of the assembly with the guidance and calls of the supreme leader and that he would work to make the Majlis “velayi” i.e., in line with the supreme leader, and the other would be to make the assembly the place of “pleasant and rich in work and efforts,” to support efforts for national production and Iranian capital. National production is the theme that the leader of the Islamic regime has chosen for this year. In response to a question about his competition that he has with Larijani to lead the Majlis, Adel said that he “strived not to be destructive against Mr. Larijani in this race and I tell my friends to not be destructive against others because regardless of who becomes Speaker, we will both remain in the Majlis and will work together and so our competition should not turn into animosity to make a friendship impossible.” But despite these remarks, even conservative sites such as Raja News and Jahan News who are against Larijani retaining his Speakership position have been criticizing him in rather harsh terms. Raja News which is close to the administration posted a report titled, “The days of using unity have ended for Larijani’s supporters,” in which it said that it was not clear whether there was agreement to reelect him as Speaker. Jahan News also had published stories to convey that the majority of the elected representatives favored Adel to be the new Speaker. Larijani’s opponents have charged him with not being harsh enough against the leaders of the 2009 protests that challenged the official results of the presidential election that reinstated Ahmadinejad as president. Adel’s Battle with the Green Movement Just a day before one of the massive Green Movement demonstrations in 2009, Haddad Adel insulted the leaders of the movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, by comparing them to a denounced historical personality – Hatam Tai who is said to have urinated in a sacred well to gain fame. His remarks were so fiery that some Majlis representatives called for the death of Mousavi and Karoubi. The controversy about Adel’s race in Tehran this year revolves around reports that while he did not get a single vote in the 25 precincts (of 4168) in the city of Tehran he was officially announced to have won the race. Adel is supported by the Jebhe Paydari (Steadfast Front) affiliated to ulta-conservative cleric Mesbah Yazdi while Larijani’s supporters belong to the United Front close to ayatollah Mahdavi Kani. The ninth Majlis has many new faces whose affiliations have till now not been made clear. Bulletin News belonging to the ministry of intelligence recently published a commentary on the Majlis and said that it resembled a boxing ring with many fighters all of whom would be fighting each other, while confirming the main contenders for the Speakership to be between Larijani and Adel.

A Lesson for Iran From Rwanda

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:35:00 +0200

Narges Tavasolian

Canada is one of the largest and among the most refugee-accepting countries on average accepting about 250 thousand immigrants every year from all over the world. Some immigrants get there easily while others not so. But Canada is not just the second home and a refuge for students or individuals who go to the country with hopes for a better life or because of safety for their life. It is also the second home of many human rights violators. They come from all over the world, which includes Iran, China, Rwanda, etc. Rwanda is a country with one of the world’s most atrocious human rights violations and a commander of its civil war had at one time been living in Toronto. His name is Désiré Munyaneza who ws also an impressive investor from the Hutu tribe, the group that fought against the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus during the country’s civil war causing the death of over 800 thousand people in just 100 days of the war. In 1997 Munyaneza entered Canada on a forged passport from Cameroon and subsequently requested asylum claiming his life was in danger in Rwanda. In its review, the Canadian police found evidence of his involvement in the war crimes of the civil war in Rwanda and therefore rejected his petition. Years later in 2005 Munyaneza was arrested in his house in Toronto and tried in a court in Montreal. He was tried under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act 2000. This law had been passed by the Canadian parliament based on its international commitments under the rules of the Rome International Criminal Court. According to this law Canadian law, the country’s authorities had the right to try individuals against crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of genocide. To have jurisdiction over such crimes, it is not necessary for the crimes to have been committed in the country where the individual resides or even that the victims of these crimes reside there. In other words, the mere presence of a suspect of these crimes any where provides the country of his presence with the jurisdiction to try the person. These crimes of course have their own specific definitions and a person cannot be tried merely for any type of human rights violation. A person to be tried under these rules must have committed any of the following crimes: 1-Genocide, which is defined as any of the following acts that aims at annihilating the whole or a part of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of that group; inflicting serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group through deliberate acts crating difficult conditions for life for a group aimed at eliminating the whole or part of that group; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 2-Crimes against humanity which include any of the following inflicted against civilians: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity. 3-War Crimes, which are defined as violations of the articles of the Geneva Convention of 1949 which include, willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement, taking of hostages, and other serious violations of the law applicable in international armed conflict. Based on this law, Munyaneza was sentenced to life prison with no change of parole for 25 years. This trial was a consolation for the hearts of thousands of Rwandan war victims, in Canada and in Rwanda and other countries. This is a lesson for other violators of human rights who in recent years have fled to Canada and other safe heavens with the wealth they accumulated through plundering the people of their countries. Some of these violators are Iranians the names of 70 of whom have been identified by the European Union and the United States. These individuals have no right to enter Europe or the United States and whose property will be confiscated if they have any in the countries of these regions. The important point that I want to make is that Iranian security officials among whom are torturers, have more than one name and passport that they use to enter Europe and the West. The duty and responsibility of alert Iranians living abroad is to identify these individuals, whether they are passing through or residing in these countries and alert the local police of presence. The world is getting smaller and smaller for violators of human rights. We must all work so that the justice that is not implemented in Iran will be implemented in international courts or local courts that have jurisdiction over such matters. On this path, gathering evidence, documents etc is of prime importance because simply introducing a violator of human rights to the police is not sufficient and evidence must be presented so that an independent judge can follow up with the arrest and trial of the individual. Organizations that have for years been collecting such evidence and documentation on human rights violators can be of great help. All those who have been victims of human rights violations should report their cases to these organizations, creating the foundation for the implementation of justice.

Revenge on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in Baluchistan

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:26:00 +0200

Kaveh Ghoreishi

The unrest in the town of Rask in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan in the last few days has left one dead and a number of injured. News sources have attributed this violence to demonstrations of residents against the arrest of Abdolghaffar Naghshbandi which took place in front of government and police offices. Abdolghaffar is the son of Rask town’s Friday prayer leader who was arrested a few weeks earlier. The unrest follows the dismissal of the Revolutionary Guards commander of the province and the arrest of clerics and residents which have taken place over the past few weeks. Abdolsattar Dooshoki, the head of the Baluchistan Studies Center (Markaze Motaleat Baluchistan), spoke with Rooz about the replacement of senior military authorities in the province, the recent tensions between the Islamic republic and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the request by the more extremist elements in the province to enforce more restrictions on Sunnis in Iran as a response to the crackdown of Shiites by Bahraini authorities. Roots of the Recent Clashes in Rask According to sunnionline, the official news site of the Sunni community in Iran, following the arrest of Abdolghaffar Naghshbandi, the son Rask’s Friday prayer leader, people gathered in protest in front of the military and security agencies in the town which resulted in clashes leading to the death of one person and two the injury of two others. Abdolghaffar Naghshbandi was arrested as he arrived in the city from Zahedan. About three weeks ago, Fathi Mohammad Naghshbandi, the Friday prayer leader of Rask town was arrested along with Molana Abdullah, the Friday prayer leader of Parood, along with 13 others. News sources in Baluchistan told Rooz that conditions in the town of Sarbaz were tense after a cleric close to the regime was killed. The arrests that followed were related to the killing of the cleric who were accused of having a hand in the assassination. Mostafa Jangizehi, the government appointed cleric of Rask in the province of Baluchistan, was assassinated on January 19 earlier this year by unknown armed men. He had been the target of an earlier failed assassination attempt. He was also the commander of an ethnic group Basij force and had on many occasions claimed to be pleased if he was martyred for the Islamic revolution. Raja news had earlier announced that Jangizehi had been threatened to death by Jondollah, the armed group that has taken responsibility for many attacks in the region and whose leader was captured and executed last year. It claims to fight for the defense of the Sunni population in Baluchistan. The group is viewed as a terrorist organization by Iran and the United States. Dooshoki, the head of the Baluchi think tank said, “Jangizehi had been among the few clerics who viewed himself as a solder of the Imam. He was the commander of a regional ethnic group. Even though Jondollah has declared responsibility for the killing, government authorities have used the incident to arrest other clerics.” Dooshoki added that anti Sunni violent sites affiliated to the government’s security forces such as Zahedan Press have been spreading propaganda against the Baluchis and Sunni clerics. These sites claim that clerics affiliated to the regime are assassinated by Wahabi elements, why should clerics who are critical of the regime be free. Officials of the Islamic republic have till now not announced the arrest of Naghshbandi to be related to the demonstrations and armed clashes of last Monday when one person was killed. According to Dooshoki, “government agents could have arrested Naghshbandi when he was still in Zahedan, but instead chose to do it provocatively in Rask which questions their motives, particularly as tensions had been high in the region for the last three weeks.” Baluchi activists have said that the region had been generally quiet for about 16 months after the bombings during the Tasooa commemoration day. Dooshoki adds, Apparently there are those (in the government) who want the region to return to tension and clashes, which may be why the Revolutionary Guards commander in Sistan and Baluchistan province was recently dismissed and replaced with commander Hassan Mortezavi.” He concluded that authorities made these arrests in order to get fake confessions from them to be aired as a way to control public opinion and take control of religious schools and Sunni mosques. He called such a “coup very dangerous” with unknown results.

End Education Apartheid

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:46:00 +0200

Kaveh Ghoreishi

A student group active in defending the rights of those students who are denied higher education has criticized the policies of Iran’s minister of science research and technology Kamran Daneshjoo and declared that Ahmadinejad’s administration is pursuing a second cultural revolution by practicing “educational apartheid.” In its report, Shoraye Defa az Haghe Tahsil (Council on the Defense of Education Rights) reminds that the practice of educational policies that deny people the right to attend institutions of higher education, particularly during the last three years, has increased and hundreds of students have been denied access to education through the decrees issued by the disciplinary committees of universities and the central disciplinary committee at the ministry of science, and also through the “illegal” practice of marking students with stars at the national entrance exams for Master’s programs. Under the star program, a student who is deemed to be unfit to pursue higher education because of his political views or actions, is given one a number of stars by university authorities who monitor students with assistance from security and law enforcement agencies. The higher the number of stars the more likely that a student will be denied full or some access to higher education. Through the many years that Daneshjoo has been the minister of science, he has been often spoken of measures to Islamicize universities, segregate them by sex, prevent dissident students from pursuing their education, and, dismiss and pre-maturely retire professors. These programs have been called “planned and indicative of the administration’s determination to continue to violate existing laws and deny students their rightful rights” by a student who has been deprived of pursuing his higher education. Continuation and Deeping of Destructive Policies In one of his recent statements, the minister of education said, “the activists of the sedition movement, its leaders and those who insist on their wrong views” have no right to admission in universities. According to IRNA official news agency, speaking at the an event at Shahrood University on April 27, Daneshjoo said, “Individuals who have lost their path after the 2009 sedition and following the wise comments of the esteemed supreme leader insist on their path, have no place at universities. Our society and population does not allow us and we shall not commit treason.” Sedition is the term Iranian authorities use for the massive protests that were organized or supported by the Green Movement after the 2009 presidential elections were announced which re-instated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. They assert that the elections were rigged. This statement by the minister brought forth strong condemnations and criticism from student organizations across the country. In the most recent response, the Council on the Defense of Education Rights presented a detailed report and called the remarks “criminal.” In March/April too Daneshjoo repeated this message in Qom. Daftare Tahkim Vahdat, the principal student organization in the country condemned those remarks and said they “revealed the express violation of student rights.” A student interviewed by Rooz, who has been denied the right to pursue his education said that the timing of these remarks by Daneshjoo was important as they come two or three weeks before the announcement of the results of the national entrance exams to universities’ Master’s programs and “increase concerns about greater restrictions to higher education.” He also said that the recent expulsion of professors such as Alireza Beheshti, Ghorban Behzadinejad and Mohsen Mirdamadi were not unrelated to these remarks. “It appears that Kamran Daneshjoo intends to create the atmosphere of a cemetery in the universities and through the support and guidance from hardline institutions wants to implement the second cultural revolution,” he said. The cultural revolution of the Islamic republic, which is officially referred to as the “awakening of the Islamization of universities,” took place in the early years of the revolution and refers to educational initiatives which resulted in the dismissal and purging of many professors and students from institutions of higher education. In its report on the education bans pursued and implemented during Ahmadinejad’s administration, the Council on the Defense of Education Rights writes that the “apartheid educational policies, particularly in the last three years, have gained momentum in the country and hundreds of students have been barred from pursuing their higher education goals.” The report also criticized the “star marking of students” program through which students are deprived from continuing their education because of their political views or actions. In addition to being deprived of pursuing their educational aspirations, many “starred” students have also been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned, particularly after the 2009 presidential elections and in the course of the nationwide protests to that election results. Among this latter group are Majid Dari, Zia Nabavi and Mehdie Golroo who are now serving time in prison. Some students were also arrested and “starred” because of their protests to Ahmadinejad’s televised debates during the 2009 presidential campaigns. Other students who remain behind bars are Saeed Jalalifar, Majid Tavakoli, Emad Bahavar, Eftekhar Bozorgian, Kaveh Rezai, Arash Sadeghi, Ali Akbar Mohammadzadeh, Moin Ghamin and Ali Ajami.

Iranian Democracy Requires Patience and Intelligence

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:22:00 +0200

Taghi Rahmani

In my two earlier articles I wrote about the needs of the Iranian pro-democracy movement which can also serve as the uniting principles for its actions. To continue on that point, I believe that to build a democratic foundation requires the knowledge of three fundamental issues: 1-An understanding of the proponents of democracy and their target audience, 2-The identification of the effective forces inside the regime that can assist this process, and, 3-The potentials and capabilities of the pro-democracy forces in presenting achievable actions which will inspire its supporters to act and which have a specific outlook. Other factors related to economic and social conditions must also be added. The importance of understanding the power, position and qualities of pro-democracy supporters cannot be overstated. If we accept that pro-democracy supporters are central in the understanding, dialogue and agreements, then discussions and actions will in practice and theory unite and come close together. Those supporting democracy in Iran want a freedom package that includes civil liberties, professional freedoms, ethnic freedoms and gender justice. But the position, power and features of these supporting sections of society must be first understood and identified before a discussion of specific theories and actions - which belong to a later phase - is undertaken. In other words, a lack of understanding of existing conditions will result in a discussion of wants and desires rather than actual achievable possibilities and real goals. So while a long-term outlook is certainly necessary, it is not sufficient by itself. In short, one can say that sections of society that desire democracy in an oil-based economy lack the means to organize themselves independently. This is so because under the best of conditions such a government would only provide the means of survival to the population and would not tolerate an independent identity for the population. The pro-democracy sections of society have a very clear presence and relations in the country’s population but they do not have any tangible power. In other words, they lack a powerful and decisive physical presence that can independently engage the ruling political players and present and defend its interests. Examples of this are the doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc in Iran who are all professionals but lack an independent organization that can protect and advance their interests. These sections of society lack the classical influence that the middle class has in Western societies. But does this mean they also lack any power? Power has peculiar attributes that manifest themselves only under certain conditions and if they are properly utilized to either attain a secure social position or strengthen the young independent civil institutions. So, the potential and power of this section of society must be well understood first and this can be accomplished at two levels. 1-Its strengths, i.e., the role that this section of society plays in the bureaucracy, structures and social relations of the country as the educated and elite of this society who have the management of the country in their hands. 2-Its weaknesses, i.e., their constraints vis-à-vis the money that is available to the oil-based regime which can reduce the power of the middle class to mobilize itself by channeling money and resources to other sectors of society. At the same time, the dependence of the vast section of the middle class on cash from this oil-based regime must be understood. During the street protests, pro-democracy supporters were threatened with dismissals from the government or government sponsored jobs, prompting them to silence. So it is important to analyze the weaknesses and strengths of this sector of society to learn under what conditions it has its full potentials to withstand such pressures. Is it during election periods, times of economic or executive crises, weaknesses in the regime because of its internal differences or foreign pressures, etc? Learning about this will help the pro-democracy leaders to utilize this force more effectively. With this in mind, every action that pro-democracy leaders contemplate on taking must be evaluated in terms of whether they will or will not mobilize people. What specific slogans will produce the social wave so that a dialogue can take place between the various political groups and activists? This is how the lifeline of civil society bonds with the pro-democracy movement. This means binding politics with life, a coexistence of civil society with politics. This is when a wave can be created. Multiple waves can eventually exert pressure on dictatorship. If opposition plays one tune while society plays another, both will be exploited by the regime. With this said, it is now important to look and see which individuals and groups took up action during the Green Movement’s street protest and which did not. It is important for the Green Movement to investigate this to understand the best way to act and when so that if those events are repeated, they will continue until society attains democracy. The analysis of the ups and downs of the days when the pro-democracy movement was engaged in street action and the understanding of the capabilities of the regime, including the specific actions of the pro-democracy movement, can be a good guide for the future. We know that the future will bring more tension but the right response and the success of the civil society will depend on our patience and actions. We should not forget that it is not very difficult to start a protest in Iran. And even though the conditions for this are currently not very suitable, this has been done many times in the past. What is important is that when the pro-democracy movements starts moving, it actually establishes and institutionalizes itself. And turning something into an institution and “establishing” it, is the most difficult task in our society. This is what we need to think about and find a solution for.

Kootchakzadeh: Asking Questions is Out of Place

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:07:00 +0200

Fereshteh Ghazi

The complaints and confrontation that two Majlis representatives brought forth against journalists and media graphics professionals in Iran in recent days has resulted in a quick and united response from the cartoon community in the country. The story is that a cartoonist, Mahmoud Shokrabe, draw a cartoon of a Majlis representative, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani from Araq, who responded by filing a legal complaint against the artist. A judge found Shokrabe guilty and sentenced him to a specified number of slashes. Mehdi Kootchakzadeh, another representative, from Tehran publicly cursed the reporters from Asseman weekly in the parliament’s cafeteria when a reporter asked him about the issue. Rooz spoke with both representatives and here are their responses to Rooz’s questions... When asked about the cartoons and the court complaint, Ashtiani refrained from providing an explanation and did not want to talk about the issue altogether. But in response to the question whether he would also file complaints against the other cartoonists who have drawn cartoons of Ashtiani in support of their sentenced colleague said that he had not seen the other cartoons. When he was asked whether he personally thought that whipping the artist was the right response to a critical cartoon, Ashtiani hung up the phone. The incident prompted cartoonist Mana Nistani to ask other cartoonists to support Shokrabe by drawing caricatures of the Arak Majlis representative and posting their drawings. She herself did the same and on her site wrote, “As a symbol of empathy to my colleague and to protest this fabricated sanctity that has been created for this political official, I ask all of my colleagues not to remain indifferent. There is no need to create an uproar and fall into political traps. Just pick up your pens and draw a cartoon of Arak’s Majlis representative without being insulting, and publish them in their blogs and web sites.” Nistani told Rooz, “I wrote that note and asked my colleagues not to be indifferent because I am concerned that the situation with press cartoons in Iran will get worse. It is clear that the few cartoonists who are active today will stop working because of the current laws governing their trade. In fact my note was to defend the current narrow breathing space that cartoonists have in Iran. We are not even talking about rolling back existing restrictions and breaking current taboos.” I asked Mr. Nistani what impact his action would have, to which he replied, “The least impact is that cartoonists demonstrated that they feel responsible and are emphatic to their colleagues, even though while they were not organized, or better put those who are better than us decided that we should not have an organization. The other effect of this response is that it showed to that judge that he is not a superior authority and that cartoonists will easily defend their rights. What is the meaning of this government action when a cartoon biennale is held every two years with the support of the government in Iran and cartoonists are not only allowed to draw portraits of prominent political and non-political personalities but even receive official awards of accomplishment for their works, while another part of the government threatens a cartoonist who is punished for drawing an image of a Majlis representative?” Other cartoonists quickly responded to Mana’s call of solidarity, and the following cartoonists posted cartoons of Ahmad Lofti Ashtiani on their own or other available web sites or blogs: Tooka Nistani, Jamal Rahmati, Nikahang Kowsar (whose appear in Rooz), Vahid Nikgoo, Payam Boroomand, Hanif Bahari, Shahabodin Alavi, Morteza Khosravi, Soheil Shakeri, Sepehr Ali Mohammadloo, Ali Tajadod, Kasra Abbasabadi, Sasan Khadem, Mohammad Tajik, Vahid Jaafari, Khayam Movidi, Saeed Sadeghi, Hamed Shamloo, Mohsen Irani, Jahangir Darmani and Naeem Tadvin. When I told Mana that the representative from Araq had said that he had not seen the other cartoons, he responded, “When we collect all the works, and if Mr. Vakil requests, we will publish all of them in a booklet and present it to him as a souvenir. I hope he understands the point that when a cartoonist selects a subject he is in fact presenting a part of his own spirit in his work. He is doing him a favor. Something that I wish Mr. Lotfi understood.” Mr. Shokrabe is a cartoonist for the Name Amir publication in Araq. This is not the first time that a cartoonist ends up in a court in Iran because of his work. Hassan Karimzadeh, Tooka Nistani, Nikahang Kowsar, Mana Nistani and Keyvan Zargar are among those Iranian cartoonists who have had to deal with the judiciary because of their work. Earlier, Hassan Karimzadeh too had been sentenced to receive slashes for his work, and Mahmoud Shokrane is the second cartoonist to receive such a sentence in Iran. Kootchakzadeh Curses Journalists Mehdi Kootchakzadeh, the Majlis representative from Tehran verbally attacked Saeed Shams, the reporter from Asseman weekly and cursed him when he asked the lawmaker about the issue. According to Baztab website, Kootchakzadeh cursed and insulted Saeed Shams and Mohammad Ghoochani, the reporter and editor of Asseman weekly in the Majlis cafeteria. While screaming at the journalists, Kootchakzadeh yelled that Ghoochani was less worth than (controversial judge Saeed) Mortezavi’s dog. When Rooz asked this Majlis representative whether his behavior was worthy of a Majlis representative, his response was, “It is none of your business. You should not be asking me.” When the reporter pressed for a response, Kootchakzadeh said, “You seem to have little intelligence. You do not understand Persian. I do not like you and I hate those who adore foreigners.” The Rooz reporter then said, “But you belong to the cultural committee of the Majlis and more than this is expected of you,” to which he replied, “If I had to learn my language from you foreigner lovers my situation would be really bad.” And when the reporter asked, “Is your situation today good that you verbally attack a reporter in the Majlis?” Kootchakzadeh hung up the phone. It should be noted that the cartoon that is the subject of this attack is a relatively benign image of the Majlis representative without any political undertones.

The Three Decisive Elections in Iran, Israel and the US

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:46:00 +0200

Farzaneh Roostaee

Even the gold and foreign exchange market in Iran awaits the results of the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1group of countries in Baghdad later this month. The initial assessments of the Istanbul talks were that a breakthrough was on its way over Iran’s nuclear crisis, but the multiplicity of players in the US and the chaotic political situation in Iran are factors that may be shaping changes to the agreements in Istanbul. The recent news story in LA Times (April 27^th, 2012) revealed aspects of the battle in Washington over Iran’s nuclear dossier. The newspaper made a reference to a possible agreement with Iran by which Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium up to 5 percent purity if it adhered to the Additional Safeguard Protocol and accepted more intrusive international inspections. While earlier sources in Iran and the US had also mentioned a possible agreement for a 5 percent uranium enrichment in Iran, US Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Noland refuted any such agreement with Iran, in response to the LA Times story. In response, Iran’s representative at the IAEA Ali Asqar Soltanieh probably signaled that developments were taking shape contrary to what had been agreed upon in Istanbul. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was the first person to object to any agreement with Iran and had called for an end to any flexibility on the issue. Haaretz’s article a few days ago titled “Israeli Elections Must Become a Referendum on Iran” shows the other aspect of the nuclear issue that is developing in Israel. According to this story by Ari Shavit Netanyahu is preparing the ground for dissolving the Knesset in preparation to attack Iran. According to Haaretz, Netanyahu does not have much hope in support for Israel’s attack on Iran but is trying to put the US in a fait accompli situation. Some informed sources have said that in his meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, US President Obama had stressed that he should drive out even the idea of attacking Iran. Despite this, based on Haaretz’s stories, Netanyahu is well aware of the developments on something as sensitive as Iran’s nuclear issue in the US and therefore intends to elevate the issue to a national level in Israel. A dissolution of the parliament and his reelection will mean that a military attack on Iran will no longer be his personal decision or that of the Likud party alone, but a national issue indicating that the country has accepted the consequences of such a move. At the same time Netanyahu is concerned that if Israeli elections take place after the US presidential elections, Obama may support the Labor party against Likud in the forthcoming Israeli elections in order to end the possibility of Israel’s lone action on Iran. The history of Israel has on a number of occasions demonstrated such a US move. Just as George Bush used his influence in 1992 to replace Yitzhak Shamir with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1999 helped bring in Ehud Barak over Benyamin Netanyahu. In all cases, an extremist Prime Minister was replaced with a moderate one. Now, after the conclusion of elections in Iran for the ninth Majlis and the message that nothing is expected to change in Iran - with the reform movement having been crushed – it is time to sit and wait for the results of the elections for Israeli Knesset and US presidency. Once those take place, Iran’s nuclear dossier too will be closer to its conclusion.

Administration and Leader’s Office Fight Over Nuclear Talks

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:32:00 +0200

Arash Bahmani

As the next round of talks between Iran and the international community approaches, the battle between Ahmadinejad’s supporters and those of ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, reaches new heights. While the supporters of the supreme leader support the upcoming talks scheduled for May 23 to be held in Baghdad, the media close to the administration has interpreted the talks to be a decision to remove Ahmadinejad from office. The first round of talks this year was held on April 14, after a 15 month lapse between the so-called P5+1 group and Iran in Istanbul. Both sides called the talks positive and constructive and announced their readiness for a second round in Baghdad in May. Supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written in Iran, the government mouthpiece that the Istanbul talks were guided by Hashemi Rafsanjani and his allies with the purpose of putting aside Ahmadinejad from the talks. In its most recent response to the talks the newspaper criticized those who looked at the talks hopefully and reminded its readers that according to the orders of the leader the problems stemming from international sanctions should not have been discussed. But the response of the principlists, the ideologues who support ayatollah Khamenei, have resulted in a new round of verbal exchanges between the two main ruling factions. In recent weeks, some officials had expressly said that the economic sanctions had deteriorated the economic conditions in the country. These groups believe that the failure of the talks in Baghdad can result in an economic catastrophe and criticized Ahmadinejad’s administration for not properly directing the talks. Responses to the first round of talks between the P5+1 group and Iran with the hope of rolling back the international sanctions against Iran come as officials had continued to proclaim that the international sanctions had no impact on the country since new and harsher international sanctions were implemented against the country last summer. These claims were augmented by Iran’s insistence on continuing its nuclear stance. Now, with some conciliatory remarks from those around the supreme leader and his personal supportive remarks, many analysts attribute the change in tone in Tehran to be because of the economic pressures on the country. Just a few days after the conclusion of the Istanbul talks, officials of the Islamic republic announced that they would pursue the relaxation of international sanctions as their goal in the next round of talks in Baghdad. The US and its European allies however have said that they have not made any such promises to the Islamic republic. At the same time, Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak has reiterated that Israel does not commit not to attack Iran. Speaking at a press conference after the Istanbul talks, Saeed Jalili, the secretary general of Iran’s national security council had said that Iran’s goal was to get the sanctions against the country lifted. This was supported by some Majlis representatives as well. Allaeddin Borujerdi, the head of the national security committee of the Majlis and Hossein Ibrahimi another member of the same committee said that the goal of the next round of talks in Baghdad would be lift the sanctions. But despite these calls by Iranian officials, Western countries have followed a different direction. Democrat senators in the US for example, have been recently calling for more sanctions against Iran to pressure the country to give up its nuclear program. The Europeans too have said that until Iran takes steps to meet the demands of the international community regarding their nuclear concerns, sanctions against Iran would not be eased. In its main editorial, Kayhan newspaper recently wrote that the P5+1 group of countries were ready to provide great “concession” to Iran, which if not fulfilled would jeopardize the next round of talks. Newspapers close to the administration on the other hand have kept their distance from the talks, while reporting on developments related to them.

3,000 Laid Off in One Week

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:08:00 +0200

Kaveh Ghoreishi

Figures published after the first of May indicate unprecedented conditions for workers in Iran and point to the deteriorating state of affairs on a daily basis. While Tehran is the scene of political battles among its power mongers, a situation that has embroiled the establishment in its deepest political crisis, workers in the country continue to be laid off, production units to be shut and their owners are abandoning their production plants at disturbing rates. Official news agencies have reported that at least 3,000 workers were fired from production units across the country last week or became unemployed because their contracts were not renewed. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of problem that is the topic of discussion in various government forums in the presence of security and law enforcement officials. Reports also indicate that workers in various parts of the country have demonstrated against these conditions in their work places in the last two days. In one instance, tens of retired workers from Isfahan Steel Plant gathered in front of the Majlis in Tehran to protest the non-payment of their wages and retirement benefits. These reports of more lay off come a week after the remarks by a member of the board of directors of the High Center for the Workers Associations of Iran (Kanoone Alie Anjomanhaye Senfie Kargari Iran) about a 10 percent rise in the unemployment rate during the past year. On the eve of the international Labor Day, May 1, Abolfazl Fatholahi had said, “The administration’s economic policies during last year have resulted in the elimination of jobs.” Rise in Unemployment With the expulsion of more than 350 workers in the Madnoosh Sugarcane factory in Saghez, and the non extension of the contracts of 800 other workers, 1,150 workers from this plant joined other workers who have been laid off since March this year. Mohammad Saleh Hosseini, the executive secretary of Khane Kargar (House of Workers) of Saghez told ILNA labor news agency on May 6, “The Madnoosh Sugarcane factory in this town is in trouble and on the verge of closure because of a shortage of primary material and the fluctuations in the rate of foreign exchange.” According to a workers official, many workers of this plant cannot get their work insurance benefits because their workers insurance fees were have not been regularly paid. At the same time, 2,000 seasonal workers at Neybar plant in the Karoon agro-industrial plant in Shoosh demonstrated because they were laid off prior to the termination of their contracts. Rahm Khoda-Abbasi, a member of the Islamic Workers Council of the Neybar plant told ILNA, “Workers normally remain at work throughout the season but this year workers have already been told not to show up for work even though some 3,500 hectares of land remain to be utilized.” He added that these workers had labor contracts till the end of the season. The officials of the plant justified these lay off by saying that another contractor was being brought in for the work. Seyed Hossein Bagherian, the secretary of the Workers House in the Shahriyar region also announced that 50 workers from Shahr Daroo pharmaceutical company were laid off prior to the termination of their labor contracts and the owners of the plant want to give the work to another contractor. Bagherian added that some of these workers had been there for over 13 years. “Most industrial and farming units in the Shahriyar region reduced the number of their hired workers since the first days of this year – March 21^st,” he announced. Other reports indicate that 100 workers were laid off at the Kowsar Pharmaceutical plant because their labor contracts were not renewed. In Tehran, a member of the Center for the Islamic Councils of the province announced the layoff of 200 workers in the Nab vegetable oil company. Ali Akbar Eyvazi told ILNA news agency, “This vegetable oil producing plant has been shut since the beginning of this year (March 21^st).” These layoffs have resulted in protests by workers at various plants and towns. Last Saturday, 100 laid off workers from the Mazandaran Textile plant gathered to protest in front of the governor general’s offices in Mazandaran province. Demonstrations have also been reported in front of parliament in the capital.

Heavy Defeat for the Islamic Coalition

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:46:00 +0200

Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah

As the results of the runoff elections for the ninth Majlis were announced in Iran, it became clear that the Hezbe Motalefe Islami (Islamic Coalition Party), the oldest traditional right-wing political group in the country, had suffered a heavy defeat. From amongst the secretary general and six other senior leaders of the party who ran in the race, only two succeeded in winning seats in the incoming parliament, and both were women. The first woman, Fateme Rahbar won a set from Tehran with 327,958 votes. She had joined the central council of the Islamic Coalition in 1998. She founded the women’s wing of the party in 1996. In her latest bid she was supported by the conservative United Front of the Principlists, in addition to the Islamic Coalition party. The other woman candidate who won a set is Laleh Efetkhari. Among those that did not make it were the secretary general of the party Mohammad-Nabi Habibi and his deputy Assadollah Badamchian. Habibi got 215,865 votes in the first round of voting, ranking him in the 39^th position. He did worst in the runoff and was placed 46^th. Badamchian won 256,220 seats in the first round, placing him in the 33th position, but fared worse in the runoff vote and being placed in the 37 position. This is his second defeat, the first one when he ran for the sixth Majlis. After the first election round, the deputy secretary general of the Islamic Coalition had predicted his final defeat and had said, “I am so busy that I do not follow the number of votes.” But he had also promised his victory to a reporter from Etemad newspaper after the first round and had cautioned, “Be patient.” But when asked why he ran if he was not interested in the race, he had replied, “Because of religious duty. I do not seek to be a representative. What use does it have for me? The position does not make me more important and I do not receive any money for it.” Hassan Ghafoorifard, another veteran Islamic Coalition member did even worse. Having failed to be supported by the conservative grouping United Front of the Principlists, he won the support of the Sedaye Mellat, but failed to win. He was a member of the presiding board of the outgoing eight Majlis and has been a cabinet member in several administrations, including that of reformist Mohammad Khatami when he was a minister of state. Javad Arinmanesh, the representative from Mashhad and Ali Abbaspour Tehranifar, representative from Tehran in the outgoing eight Majlis, also both veteran members of the central council of the Islamic Coalition and active parliamentarians, also failed to get into the ninth Majlis. But despite these setbacks, Hamidreza Taraghi, another central council member who did not run himself, says that 40 party members succeeded in winning seats in the ninth Majlis. Speaking with Hamshahri Online newspaper, Taraghi said “The main goal of the Islamic Coalition was for the principlists to win in the elections because whether our candidates won or not did not make a difference in our views of the principlists.” Comparing the Coalition’s positions in the eighth and ninth Majlises, Taraghi said that they initially had only 20 members in the beginning of the eighth Majlis, while this increased to 70 by the end of its 4 year term. There are more than 40 members of the Coalition that have won seats in the incoming ninth Majlis, which when compared to the beginning of the eighth Majlis shows a two-fold increase.” Victory of the United Front is a Victory for the Coalition In a separate interview also with Etemad newspaper, the head of the party Badamchian presented the same argument and said, “We are members of the United Front of the Principlists and have worked together. Sometimes this group (the Coalition) gets votes and at others it does not. Hamshahri Online site also mentioned the failure of the Islamic Coalition in the elections and wrote, “The secretary general of a grouping that has a record of 45 years of activity and which can be called the oldest remaining political group in the country, failed to win sufficient seats in the incoming ninth Majlis from Tehran.” The head of the political section of the Islamic Coalition party had told the same site, “That the secretary general of the party did not get sufficient votes in the elections for the ninth Majlis did not mean a defeat of the party.”

The Majlis Departees

Sun, 06 May 2012 18:26:00 +0200

Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah

With the runoff Majlis elections concluded on Friday, the status of the 288 Majlis seats out of the 290 total is now settled. The two remaining seats will be decided in mid-term elections. The composition of ninth Majlis has greatly changed compared to the outgoing eight Majlis. The ruling principlist faction of the regime succeeded in winning the majority of the four-year parliamentary seats in the absence of the largest reformist groups which have normally been their traditional rivals for the legislature. Principlists are the hardline conservative ideologues who proclaim to adhere to the original ideals of the 1979 revolution. And so the principlist majority in the outgoing eight Majlis has now given way to the absolute majority in the incoming ninth parliament. According to the official figures, 196 incumbent Majlis representatives did not make it to the parliament. This number does not include those eight Majlis deputies who did not run in the most recent elections or those whose credentials were rejected by the vetting agencies of the Islamic republic. The ninth Majlis will see 169 new representatives, thus relegating the majority of the chamber to new comers. Those that did not make it to the incoming assembly include a number of prominent Principlists as well as a number of reformists from the eight Majlis who gathered around a faction known as the Khate Imam (Imam’s Path). Nine women succeeded in getting into the incoming ninth Majlis. The Principlists That Did not Make It Asadollah Badamchian. He is a well known veteran of the central council of the Motalefe Islami (Islamic Coalition) party. He was elected to the eight Majlis from Tehran. He has been the candidate of the Jebhe Motahed Osoolgarayan (the United Front of the Principlists), a conservative outfit that staunchly supports supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei. He was an MP in the second Majlis also. Zohre Elahian. She is the woman who the Majlis research center labeled as the most active woman representative in the eight Majlis. She too was a candidate on the United Front of the Principlists ticket. Hossein Fadai. He was in the seventh and eight Majlises. He is also the secretary general of the Jamiate Isargarane Enghelab (the Society of Devotees of the Revolution). He is a former senior commander of the Ghods Force, the international arm of the Revolutionary Guards. His name has been implicated in the atrocities of the Kahrizak prison that was shut on orders of ayatollah Khamenei. In the eight Majlis, he was the deputy chairman of the Article 90 (of the constitution) committee. He failed to get votes to get into the incoming ninth Majlis even though he was a member of the central council of the United Front which supported him. Hassan Ghafoorifard. He was a Tehran representative in the eight Majlis, having also served in the first and fifth Majlises. He is on the governing central council of the Islamic Coalition party and was the minister of energy in Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s first administration and minister of state in seyed Mohammad Khatami’s government. During the ninth Majlis elections, he did not appear either on the United Front of Principlists or its rival the conservative Jebhe Paydari Engleb Eslami (Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution). Ali Abbaspour Tehranifard. Another member of the central council of the Islamic Coalition party he has been the head of the education and research committee in the seventh and outgoing eight Majlises. He is also a member of the supreme Cultural Revolution Council. Abbaspour is Abdollah Jasbi’s brother, the former chancellor of Azad University who has been accused by Jasbi’s opponents to have lobbied for the ex-chancellor in the Majlis and other government agencies. He too did not appear on the United Front of Principlists’ list in this election. Efat Shariati Koohbanai. She was the representative from Mashhad and Kalat in the outgoing Majlis. Prior to that she was a member of the press jury that ruled on charges against media outlets. She also used to be the advisor to Abolghasem Khazali in the Ghadir International Foundation. She was supported by the United Front in the elections for the incoming ninth Majlis. Javad Arinmanesh. As another member of the central council of the Islamic Coalition party, he too did not make it to the incoming ninth Majlis. He represented Mashhad and Kalat in the seventh and eight Majlises. He did not make it into the ninth Majlis even though former Majlis speaker Haddad Adel publicly threw his support behind Arinmanesh during a speech in Mashhad. Mohammad Mehdi Mofateh. He has a three term record in the Majlis – fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth – and was the chairman of the planning and budget committee. He is the son of a prominent revolutionary cleric Dr. Mofatteh who was assassinated soon after the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution as he was entering Tehran University. That day is annually commemorated in the Islamic republic as the day of unity between the theological centers and universities. Hossein Ebrahimi. He is the former head of the organization on mosque affairs, and a member of the central council of the conservative Jame Rohaniyate Mobarez (Combatant Clergy Association) and a representative from Birjand. The supreme leader at one time called him a “trusted” individual. In the course of the campaign for the ninth Majlis, he was supported by the United Front. Omidvar Rezai. As the brother of Mohsen Rezai, current the secretary of the powerful former State Expediency Council and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, he has served in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eight Majlises representing Masjid Soleiman in all terms. He ran for the ninth Majlis from Tehran, which may explain why he lost his bid. Outgoing Reformists Mostafa Koakibian. He was the most controversial member of the Khate Imam faction (the Imam’s Path) in the outgoing eight Majlis and the secretary general of the Hezbe Mardomsalari (Populist Party). He was among the staunchest supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s presidential bid in the 2009 elections but after the race turned against him and the Green Movement and announced his support for the leader of the Islamic republic and the velayate faghih (rule of clerics). Mohammad-Reza Khabaz. He is a member of the central council of the Hezbe Etemad Melli (National Trust) party lead by Mehdi Karoubi – the 2009 presidential hopeful who remains under house arrest. He represented Kashmar in four Majlis terms – fourth, fifth, sixth and eight. He supported Karoubi in his 2009 presidential bid but joined other MPs, principlists, reformers and independents, in their calls for the “death to Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami” after the pro-Green Movement demonstrations on Ashoora Day soon after the elections. Ghodratollah Alikhani. Known as the power sheikh, he was the representative of Ghazvin and Booin Zahra in the sixth, seventh and eight Majlises. He became famous for his fiery speeches from the parliament’s floor. Daryoosh Ghanbari. He represented the province of Ilam in the seventh and eight Majlises and was the spokesperson for the minority faction. He was the first person to have won a second Majlis term from Ilam. That election resulted in riots in his constituency which resulted in the death of three people and over fifty others injured. Mousa Ghorbani and Ibrahim Nikonam from principlists and Ali Akbar Olia from reformists are three prominent members of the eight Majlis who did not sign up as candidates to the ninth Majlis. Ghasem Ravanbakhsh, Elham Aminzadeh, Mohammad-Nabi Habibi , Naser Saghai Biria and Soheila Joloodarzadeh - all candidates from Tehran for the ninth Majlis - are the most prominent personalities who did not get the votes to get into the ninth Majlis. The ninth Majlis will convene on May 28, 2012. Four-year term. 9 women also made it to the Majlis.

The Administration Must be Confronted

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:49:00 +0200

Hossein Mohammadi

The verbal war among the Principlists – ideologues in power who split into supporters and opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year after the eruption of differences between the president and Iran’s leader ayatollah Khamenei – erupted again at new levels. Following the verbal exchanges between the Larijani brothers and Ahmadinejad against each, an influential Majlis representative Ali Motahari raised his own criticism of Ahmadinejad. Speaking with a reporter from Fars news agency, Motahari said that Ahmadinejad’s administration was “negligent and submissive” on cultural issues and had to be confronted in this regard. Speaking about Ahmadinejad, he said, Normally his looks for special people for his appointments: people who are foremost completely obedient and then not very well known without a clear record.” At the same time, and following Majlis speaker Ali Larijani’s criticism, the public relations office of parliament provided an explanation of his remarks asserting that the main goal of the speaker’s remarks were to reduce hype and tension. The news communiqué issued by the office wrote, “Unfortunately, some media reflected Ali Larijani’s remarks in a special manner and so it appeared as if he was complaining about the need to battle the sedition and deviation,” (sedition is the term Iranian officials use for the Green Movement protests that erupted after the 2009 presidential elections that reinstated Ahmadinejad). “An accurate look at the contents of the speaker’s message indicate that he has stressed the need to address people’s problems in view of the supreme leader’s calls for the need to reduce hype and political tensions, following last year’s and this year’s events. The speaker also reiterated his clear and categorical position regarding the two issues of the sedition and deviance. The media is therefore requested to reflect this news of the speech with care,” the statement read. During the eight seminar on philosophy Larijani had said, “Look at the literature of recent years: Are they enlightening? Instead of identifying the problems of people, which are unemployment and inflation, they repeatedly raise other issues, i.e., sedition and deviation.” Larijani said they repeatedly talk of the seditionists and then asked, “How long do they intend to continue talking about this? What do you gain by this? How much do you care for people? Aren’t you after tribalism? Martyr Motahari (a cleric thinker in the early years of the Islamic revolution who staunchly supported it) was opposed to this kind of tribalism.” The speaker’s brother, Sadegh Larijani also responded to Ahmadinejad’s criticism of the court proceedings regarding the government’s embezzlement case and said there were “hidden strands of corruption” in the country. At the same time in pursuit of these verbal clashes, some Principlists and Kayhan newspaper (whose editor is directly appointed by ayatollah Khamenei) criticized the heads of all three branches of government. Reza Akrami, a member of the conservative Jame Rohaniyat Mobarez organization (Combatant Clergy Association) said in this regard, “Differences among officials should under no circumstances be mentioned in the media because they only create tension in society.” Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of Kayhan, also wrote that such open arguments created tension in society and provided fodder for the enemy. “They can also erroneously indicate as if the heads of the three branches of government are merely engaged in these kinds of arguments and not doing their jobs.” Kayhan has reported that the public is dissatisfied and concerned about the political battles of the heads of the three branches of government.

Shariatmadari Writes Garbage

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:45:00 +0200

Hossein Mohammadi

As a group of Principlists (ideologues defending the ideals of the 1979 revolution in Iran who split up last year into those that support ayatollah Khamenei and those that support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) intensify their criticism of Ahmadinejad, the president’s allies respond in harsher language to such remarks to the point where one of them even said that the writings of supreme leader’s representative at Kayhan news group Hossein Shariatmadari, amounted to “garbage” in its criticism of the administration. Such direct attack on a person directly appointed by the supreme leader is rare in the Islamic republic. In recent weeks, as the second phase of the government’s subsidies program has been announced, prices have also risen sharply. Defending his program, Ahmadinejad had said that the second phase of the plan would continue as before, something that was immediately attacked by opposing Principlists by a letter that Majlis speaker Larijani sent to the supreme leader on the subject. He called the president’s measure to be a violation of the express law. At the same time, Alef website – belonging to influential conservative former lawmaker who heads the Majlis Research Center – wrote that in addition to Larijani, Iran’s top inspectorate agency had also written to the supreme leader about the subsidy program. “We have prepared many reports, particularly regarding the subsidies and one of the places that has received them is the office of the supreme leader,” he said. Opposition to the implementation of the second phase of the subsidies has gained momentum. The head of the special council set up to resolve differences between the heads of the three branches of government, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroodi, also joined this criticism. Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the influential Qom Seminary Teachers Association had also written a letter to Ahmadinejad warning the president of the increase in prices because of the plan and added that “senior ayatollahs – marjae taghlid – had expressed their concerns about the rising prices of daily products.” Ahmadinejad has rejected this criticism and said that the price increases had nothing to do with his subsidies programs. The Central Bank of Iran also published a report that pinned the price hikes to the administration’s subsidies program, adding that it resulted in a decrease in people’s welfare, a wider income gap and ultimately rendering the cash awards of the program ineffective. In recent weeks, the representatives of the supreme leader in various towns across Iran have also publicly criticized the government for the price hikes calling on the administration to address the calls of the public. Ahmadinejad’s allies have responded to this criticism with their own attacks on government officials and opposing Principlists. One site attached supreme leader appoint Shariatmadari at Kayhan while a website called the Larijani brothers, who hold key positions in the Islamic republic, the “Three Musketeers” whom it called to be in a race to outdo each other in discrediting the administration.

What Happened at the Election Commission in 2009?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:17:00 +0200

Fereshteh Ghazi

The 2009 presidential elections in Iran were a turning point in the history of the Islamic republic. They created a crisis in trust for the regime, which continues till today. Specifically, the results of the vote count that reinstated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were challenged on a large scale resulting in massive demonstrations that eventually put the two leading candidates who challenged the sitting president under house arrest. They are still confined to that today. But details about how the elections were rigged leak out occasionally while much speculation continues as well. This week, Rooz spoke with Ehsan Mehrabi, a journalist who was at the Ministry of the Interior on that fateful election date; but not monitoring the election results at the Election Commission in the agency. He, and other journalists there, were sort of locked-up at the ministry’s conference hall, prevented from having any access to the election commission at the agency on the actual voting day, where conflicting announcements were made at the last hours of the day. This is the second part of Rooz’s interview with Mehrabi, the first part covering his days at the infamous wards 209 and 240 of Evin prison, and the proceedings at his trial. Now, Mehrabi talks about the atmosphere that was dominant at the powerful election commission of the ministry of interior on election day, and also in ward 350 of prison, where he spent a year. In this interview, he talks about the pressure that the regime has applied on his family members after the publication of his first interview, the executions that took place, the death of Hadi Saber and more. Mehrabi was the parliamentary journalist and wrote for such newspapers as Hambasteghi, Tose’, Etemad Melli and Farhikhtegan Ghalam, all liberal and non-state publications. Rooz: You were at the election commission on election day in 2009, what was going on there? Mehrabi: I was there then and did not know much about what was going out outside the building. I was surprised when I came out. At the commission, the news went around by word of mouth. One news was that Mir-Hossein Mousavi was planning to come to the commission. But no real news came into the headquarters. Even prior to the voting, the ministry appeared to be poised to win the election. We sensed that they seemed confident that they (i.e., Ahmadinejad) would win in any way. When we told the other reformist kids who called us from the outside of the atmosphere inside the building, they brushed us off as being influenced by the events inside. We had no idea that they planned to rig the elections at this scale. When we spoke with reporters from the other side (i.e., supporting the administration), they told us that Ahmadinejad would win with 24 million votes. We stayed at the commission all night but had no idea of what was going on. We did see the equipment and reconnaissance motor-bikes at the ministry, but did not know their purpose. And nobody would explain either. It was only later when we came out that we realized that the very same bike-riders had been used against the gatherings of people. We heard that Mousavi’s campaign offices in Gheitarieh district of Tehran had been attacked. As night fell, Genera Radan came to the election commission. When we told him that we had heard rumors of kidnappings, he laughed it off as a joke. Rooz: So you did not know about the protests and clashes when you were inside? Mehrabi: No. On the day of elections, they took us to the ministry’s conference hall, which was adjacent to the commission, but the doors of the hall were locked, and so we were not in the exchange of the news that was going on. It was only the next day, when we came out, that we learned of what had taken place outside. Rooz: So you were not in the election commission offices when the vote counting was going on? Mehrabi: Yes, and we had no access to the commission or anybody. It was as if the commission had been dismantled. The only place with which we had contact was the Central News Unit (of the official IRNA news agency). The reporter from the unit was Ranjbaran and he was confident that Ahmadinejad was the winner. We were kind of locked up at the conference hall because we had no way of communicating with the election commission next door or the other offices of the ministry, or any person. We occasionally saw some representatives from the candidates, but only after 5 or 6 pm. But from the time when the presidential candidates began to protest and we heard that people were not allowed into the voting boots and that there were no ballots left, we saw nobody. I remember well when Mr. Torknejad, Mousavi’s representative at the commission announced at 10am that in some provinces including East and West Azerbaijan, voting ballots had run out, but nobody cared. He said that he had complained about this to even Mr. Golpaygani, the head of the supreme leader’s office, but he too did not pay attention. The head of the election commission, Daneshjoo too did not respond to our questions. The only communication we saw from him was when he came in at night with a piece of paper in his hand from which he read out the results, and then left. They had created such an atmosphere that nobody dared ask a question. When some did, Mr. Mardookhi would begin to shout and protest and chant slogans against the Greens. Rooz: After you came out of the ministry and saw what was going on outside, did you return to the ministry? Mehrabi: No. Never. I had covered other elections, but after Kardan and then Mahsooli came to the ministry, things had changed dramatically were shut off, climaxing during the 2009 elections. Rooz: In your first interview you had said that your experience in ward 350 of Evin, where you spent a year, was very bitter. Can you explain? Mehrabi: Yes, when I was put in ward 350, I noticed a bitter incident. A man was sitting in the yard, smoking, and a group sat around him crying. When I asked what was going on, they said that he was going to be executed shortly and that he had not accepted to write a petition requesting a pardon. This was a man who was executed the next day with Jaafar Kazemi. This was a very bitter incident for me. The next day, Ali Ajami was exiled to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. Rooz: How was the year you spent there? Mehrabi: As Bahareh Hedayat wrote in her last letter, a person finds himself in a different world in prison. People acquire and share similar feelings. You sometimes crave for things that you would not in normal life. Even our night dreams change and become confined to the prison. There were times when I could not remember the names of prominent people or colleagues outside. Rooz: You had said that on the days of visitations you felt the strongest psychological pressure. Mehrabi: When prisoners returned from visits, you would normally expect them to be happy to have seen their loved ones. But in reality, those that smoked would immediately go to a corner and smoke a cigarette. Those that did not smoke would go to bed to sleep. I remember in Ward 209, if you were left alone, you could stay asleep for two days continuously (ward 209 is an interrogation ward, while 350 is a post-interrogation ward). Pressure was so high in ward 350 after visitations that people slept a lot and it seemed as if prisoners could not communicate with their loved ones and could not understand the news that family members brought during visits. One journalist had said that at first he looked forward to the regular visits with his family members, but later he only wished for the visitation hour to end quickly. Many such as Abdollah Momeni (a prominent student activist who reported on prison abuse) would say they had no hope of being released. But despite the pressure, ward 350 was different from 209 or 240. When Hossein Marashi came, things changed for the better a bit, especially in the area of doing exercise. Arash Alai was a doctor who tried to change daily routines. Some artists tried to make conditions more tolerable for others. When on Bahman 25 they brought in about 350 new prisoners, the atmosphere in ward 350 changed as prisoners saw that people were still protesting. It gave them hope and improved their spirits. Rooz: When you were in ward 350 some political prisoners were executed. How did you deal with things then? Mehrabi: When prisoners were paged to be taken to be executed, other prisoners would say, “They have started again. They are taking them up to be executions.” Everything would go chaotic then. Rooz: When Mr. Saber died you were in ward 350 and saw the events. Mehrabi: I remember when Hadi Saber and Taghi Rahmani were in ward 350, news came that engineer Sahabi was not feeling well. The two had strong emotional ties to Sahabi, so it was very difficult for them. When Haleh Sahabi died, things became even worse for all of them. Some prayed because there was nothing else they could do about these bitter events. When Hadi Saber began his hunger strike Arash Alai watched on him. Alai said that in fact the strike comforted Saber, who wrote a letter to his children explaining why he was doing it and that it was not merely emotional. Some influential people outside prison had written to Saber to stop his strike, but prison officials withheld these letters. One Friday morning we heard that Saber had been taken to the prison clinic because he was not feeling there. At the clinic, the doctor hat hit him and then returned him to the ward. When they came to take Saber to the clinic again he refused and said they beat him up the last time. They took him to a hospital outside the prison, but it was too late then. Arash Alai and other doctors in the ward said that if the first doctor at the clinic had attended to Saber and sent him to hospital, instead of beating him, things may not have ended the way they did. When the news of Saber’s death came on Sunday, the atmosphere in the ward changed completely. Even those who normally did not display their tears to others could not stop crying. Then 12 others started a hunger strike. But prison officials disregarded even these.

Administration Supporters are not Worthy of Being MPs

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:18:00 +0200

Hossein Mohammadi

A Principlist site declares pro-administration members of parliament to be unworthy of being in the Majlis and charged them of engaging in “lobbying” and “half-dreaming.” This description resulted in a verbal brawl between representatives that support Ahmadinejad’s administration and other Principlist delegates (Principlists are representatives that proclaim adherence to the original ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution and have split up between those that support Ahmadinejad’s government and those that oppose it and are staunch supporters of the supreme leader). Jahan News website close to conservative MP Ali-Reza Zakani posted statistics to present the performance of the eight Majlis (2008 – 2012) and wrote, “Some representatives act as if they have no questions for any cabinet ministers and naturally have not objected to any of the executive problems in the country, opting instead to focus on other issues.” The site accuses unnamed Majlis representatives of “being interested to just be physically present in the Majlis to engage in lobbying with their circle of friends or to be day-dreaming. Others have not defined any other role for themselves than to “shout” (in defense of their party and group interests) in the Majlis” According to the figures posted by Jahan News, Roohollah Hosseinian, Hamid Rasai, Ali-Asqar Zarei, Mehdi Koochakzadeh and Morteza Agha Tehrani are some of the pro-administration representatives in the Majlis who are also on the list of Jebhe Paydari (Resistance Front) grouping. In addition to the verbal exchanges caused by the Jahan News story, Roohollah Hosseinian’s warnings to Ahmad Tavakoli and Ali-Reza Zakani also were the cause of another verbal showdown. In his talk, Hosseinian criticized Ahmad Tavakoli and his website Alef for inviting US Department of State spokesman Alan Eyre for an interview. This pro-administration representative also complained of Zakani’s absences in the Majlis and wrote, “Mr. Zakani has seldom appeared in the Majlis since it conveyed this year and every time we asked for him we were told his is busy with his PhD efforts. I realize that running Fakher and Majles online newspapers requires money and time which require greater efforts outside the Majlis, but we have a commitment to the public as well.” These remarks brought a harsh response from some MPs and principlist media. One MP responded by saying, “If these warning were to satisfy God, then they are welcome but if they are election campaigning and about the problems of the Resistance Front then I am sorry to hear them.” In the meantime, a news story in another website close to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf addressed Moosavian and wrote, “The uproar that cleric Hosseinian caused today in the Majlis by attacking respected and revolution-committed individuals is rooted in the questions that “young revolutionaries” have asked of him in various publications and sites.” In another related development, just a few days after the announcement of the launching of an internet TV site by the Resistance Front, principlist media embarked on criticizing the channel. A website close to the United Front of Principlists wrote that a rough estimate of the costs of operating Internet TV sites such as Raja News, Bibak, Hamandishi, etc indicated where the khoms of 450 millions belonging to Sadegh Mahsooli were spent and who was in fact making such large expenditures and for what political purposes.

Spontaneous Demonstration on International Labor Day

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:46:00 +0200

Nazanin Kamdar

As the first of May, the international Labor Day, approaches, and while labor unrest is ever present in the country, labor groups in Iran have announced plans to hold demonstrations on this date and noted that if the official permit for a national demonstration is not issued, they will launch a “spontaneous” demonstration. The ministry of interior has discussed the requests for the demonstration in a meeting and officials have said the issue is “under discussion.” Workers have said that they plan to raise their current living conditions during the demonstrations. Alireza Mahjoob, the secretary general of Khane Kargar (House of Workers) told ILNA labor news agency yesterday, “If the ministry of interior does not issue the permit for the labor day demonstration, workers will gather to display their support for domestic production and opposing foreign products in Khane Kargar. The organization that Mahjoob represents has been the subject of criticism by independent and non-affiliate workers organizations for what they call are its cooperation with conservatives and also for confronting independent labor syndicates. “The most important demand of workers from the government in the current year is to the end the curtailments on domestic production in favor of a growth in imports. This is trend is taking place despite the statements of the supreme leader regarding taking effective measures against foreign imports.” Mahjoob’s conservative remarks about the gathering on the international Labor Day have met with negative remarks on Facebook and Twitter and many labor activists have criticized him for his “conservatism and flattery of ayatollah Khamenei”. According to ILNA, these remarks by Mahjoob who did not join the post election protests in 2009 resulted in Ali Akbar Eyvazi, a member of the board of directors of the Islamic Workers Council in the province of Tehran to take a position that is different from Mahjoob’s, and talk of “spontaneous demonstrations” in opposition to the call for a gathering in the Khane Kargar. “By not issuing the necessary permit, the government has been acting contrary to its obligations under the International Labor Organization by not issuing and if the permit is not issued this year s well, then ILO will intervene. Some government quarters are preventing the demonstration on international labor day even though article 27 of the constitution provides that the ministry of interior must issue the permit for the demonstration,” he said, and added, “If the ministry of interior does not issue the permit, workers will hold their march spontaneously as provided in article 27 of the constitution.” Abdollah Mokhtari, another member of the board of directors of the Islamic Workers Council in the province of Tehran echoed the same sentiment. “Article 27 of the constitution obliges the government to issue the permit for the assembly and march of professional workers. Workers not only do not need a permit to demonstrate on labor day, but they can do so any time across the country and express their trade demands, and the government’s obstacles are illegal,” he said. Rasta Ali Rastgoo, a worker activist in Shiraz told ILNA news agency, “The voice of workers who have lost their positions because of the government’s economic policies must be heard during the demonstrations on international labor day. The ministry of interior has to pay attention to the requests of workers to hold a march on labor day and issue the permit for the march.” Tabnak website also wrote a piece on the issue under the title “Why workers had to be given the demonstration permit,” in which it argued for the need for this action. “We are not only dealing with a principle that is a legal right, but which is also needed for social-political fulfillment. If we refrain from looking at it from a political perspective then people have the unique opportunity to improve their conditions. This is when a protest in fact an example of (the Islamic principle) supporting the good and refraining from evil. The constitution of our country too has paid attention to this.” The government has denied such a permit for the last five years. Last year, it announced that it would issue a permit if the demonstrations were held in the deserts around the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran. Workers rejected the condition. This year the ministry of interior has said, till now, that it is “looking into the request.” According to Mehr news agency, minister of labor Mostafa Najjar has said that if a group announces its intention to demonstrate, the issue will be discussed in Article 10 committee and its decision will be announced. ISNA student news agency also reported that seyed Mohammad Ali Pourmousavi had said, “The request for a permit to demonstrate on international labor day is under consideration. The request has been passed on to the ministry of interior. More details should be pursued from Tehran municipality.” With less than a week left for the May 1 labor day observance, it is still not clear whether the weakened administration in Tehran will change its record past or continue on the same path and deny the requested permit.

Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad Sit at the Same Table

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:19:00 +0200

Nima Farahabadi

Ahmadinejad’s participation at a meeting of the State Expediency Council led by Hashemi Rafsanjani after a three year absence has been widely reported in Iran’s media. He had stopped attending the Council’s meetings in 2009 despite being an ex officio member of the body, following his publicly aired differences with Rafsanjani in the course of the-then presidential elections. On Saturday however he sat next to Rafsanjani, a completely unexpected public move. This change took place just a few days after Gholam-Hossein Elham the advisor to the president, told reporters that the leader of the Islamic republic appointed a number of political personalities to the council to prevent them from being “unemployed.” These remarks, which were published by Raja News and came after seyed Ali Khamenei delivered a message to the new members of the Council, brought about quick and harsh responses by key principlists and senior authorities in the regime. In his remarks Elham said, “Membership of unemployed individuals in the Expediency Council was to prevent them from creating mischief for the regime.” In his remarks to the new members, Khamenei defended the Council and its chairman, Hashemi Rafsanjani who has been reported to have been out of favor by the leader, and also called on all of its members to actively participate in its sessions. Remarking on Ahmadinejad’s return to the Council, Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghadam, a member of the Majlis economic committee and the conservative Combatant Clergy Association, told ISNA that he had done it on “advice from the leader” and “had listened to him.” While expressing the “expectation and hope of all Council members” that Ahmadinejad would participate in the future meetings of the body, he pointed out that the president had not said anything about this. Rafsanjani Thanks Ahmadinejad According to Iranian news reports, Rafsanjani thanked Ahmadinejad for his participation in the Council and said, “I hope that the president will continue to be present at the Council.” Rafsanjani also said that he hoped “new and former members of the Council would have a serious and effective participation” in the body, “On the insistence of the supreme and great leader of the Islamic revolution and because of expediency.” Earlier this year when Rafsanjani was asked why Ahmadinejad did not attend the meetings of the Council, he had replied that the latter had attended only two or three sessions in the last 6 or 7 years, adding, “ … in other meetings that the president attends he quickly makes decisions after brief a discussion, which is different here,” implying the president may not have the patience for the drawn out deliberations. In an interview with De Press website, Rafsanjani had also said, “I have not heard Mr. Ahmadinejad say this, but Mr. (Habibollah) Asqar Owladi had had a meeting with him and the president had told him that his remarks were not listened to in the Council. He also said that the president normally did not participate in meetings where somebody else was the chair, because he was officially the second highest person in the country. In the same interview, Rafsanjani had said, “Perhaps it was because of time, he must have plenty of work and so does not see the need to come here. But not coming regularly cannot be good. In reality, he is depriving himself and the government of participation in the issues.” Prior to the Council meeting but after ayatollah Khamenei had called on its members to participate in its meetings, Alef website belonging to Ahmad Tavakoli, an influential conservative Majlis member from Tehran and former labor minister under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, had written that “Ahmadinejad had two choices: participate in the Council’s meetings, or remain absent at the expense of disregarding the orders of the leader. Raja News on the other hand wrote that it appeared that “despite the differences that the executive branch had with the State Expediency Council, the president must have concluded that his non-participation in body’s meetings worked to the detriment of the administration and its policies for the public, rather than the expression of his protest.”

Review of the Week:
The Iranian Curtain

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:08:00 +0200

Houshang Asadi

The events of the last week of the first month of the Persian year (mid April) can be better understood through Oriental discovery and explained in political terms rather than using the traditional method of lining up the factual events around the world. Sometimes some inside information or events inside this complex regime simply leak out. During the whole of last week, eyes were set on Istanbul, the host of the nuclear negotiating teams. The team for the international community was led by Baroness Catherine Ashton, the British woman responsible for the foreign affairs of the European Union. While being flexibility in her ways, this time she wore a white scarf around her neck to prevent her images from being manipulated by Islamic republic Photoshop manipulators. Still, she is resilient enough not to heed to the pressures of the Iranian team to lift the sanctions against Iran. The apparent head of Iran’s negotiation’s team is Saeed Jalili who like many other Iranian officials is riding on the credit he gained from his participation in the 8-year Iran-Iraq war, the same place where seyed Ali Khamenei hunted his future associates. But even being wounded in the leg is not sufficiently qualified in the Islamic republic. In the tradition of Oriental government, it is the Sultan who runs all affairs through members of his own family. Saeed Jalili, who does not speak English, is only the nominal head who obeys the orders of Ali Bagheri, the husband of one of Khamenei’s daughters and so comes directly from the household of the supreme leader. Having graduated from a key university that trains the elite in the Islamic republic and knowledgeable in English, Bagheri represents the new breed of Iranian decision makers and managers. He has access to the ear of the supreme leader while at the same time is equipped with the tools of modern politics. Imam Sadegh University where Bagheri studied was created prior to the 1979 revolution to host a branch of Harvard University in Tehran. On the eve of the Istanbul meeting and at the height of the cold war between the leaders and media in Iran and Turkey, Ali Bagheri first travelled to Baghdad to prepare the grounds for the possible 2^nd meeting of the nuclear talks, and then, after a short return to Tehran, went to Beijing to talk with Chinese leaders. In between his trip to Baghdad and Beijing, and prior to his visit of Istanbul, Bagheri once again talked with Yevgeni Lukyanov, the assistant secretary of the Russian national security council about the recent developments affecting the nuclear talks. Lukyanov was in Tehran on March 14 at the invitation of Bagheri and stayed in the country for three days. According to Helga Schmid, Catherine Ashton’s deputy, Ali Bagheri was the official party in the talks between the senior diplomats of the EU. In an extensive interview with the official gazette of the Iranian government, the Iran, Ali Bagheri talked about the nuclear talks and the foreign relations of the Islamic republic and also announced his repeated visits to Brussels and his talks with representatives of the EU. Parallel to the talks of the son-in-law of Iran’s supreme leader, Hossein Mousavian, the former Iranian negotiator at the nuclear talks who now lives in the US and enjoys no official position today, has also become active in another way. In addition to the many articles and interviews that have been published on and by him, reports have been published in Iran’s private political climate indicating that he too has been engaging US officials on these issues. These reports were made public after the Istanbul talks when the semi-secret trip by Hassan Rowhani, the head of Iran’s nuclear negotiation team during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency were also revealed along with his political contacts, all of which were denied by him as expected as part of the policy of the Islamic republic. But more than anything else, it was Hashemi Rafsanjani’s public reemergence and his defense of talks with the US that validated the change in the political atmosphere regarding the nuclear issue, something that he attributed to the “flexibility” of the supreme leader. The Istanbul talks, the published news on the subject and the reemergence of tension just two days after the talks indicate two important points, both of which indicate the same conclusion. The two points are these: · The nuclear dossier in Iran is now completely in the hands of the supreme leader and it is only through negotiations with him – which is now taking place indirectly – that they will come to a conclusion. A situation that is surprisingly similar to the foreign policy of the Shah. · Sanctions have in fact been very effective and the Islamic republic, which basically operates with the logic of “open coercion”, is now seriously worried, if not desperate. The combination of the supreme leader’s approach, i.e., resistance to the West and non-compromise, and Rafsanjani’s approach, i.e., softness with a smile, look like a Persian carpet which behind its pretty façade is knitted with very strong knots. Behind the soft words of Rafsanjani’s team during the private and behind the scenes dinner party one can see the views and thoughts of ayatollah Khamenei. During the decade of confrontation over Iran’s nuclear issue, the two approaches of softness, pursued by Rafsanjani-Khatami, and bullishness, pursued by Ahmadinejad, have been rejected because of Khamenei’s US phobia. Because of this phobia, Khamenei has been perpetually concerned about the opening of relations through channels other than his own which could ultimately result in regime change. Today, the very president who the supreme leader once proclaimed was closer to him than Rafsanjani, has been politely eliminated from the nuclear dossier altogether as Khamenei pursues his approach through his son-in-law through Rafsanjani’s approach. The “step-by-step” policy, whose first step is the beginning of the lifting of sanctions against Iran which Saeed Jalili has privately told Ms Ashton a “hundred times,” in Jalili’s words, and which is officially announced after the talks, can be extracted to be the Iranian interpretation of events. The Iranian perspective of democracy and human rights, views the Islamic republic move towards the ballot box for a national election under complete regime control, including the nuclear issue. From this perspective, this latest movement is taking place with a single and benign nuclear wing lacking a strategic content. In the words of political prisoner Abolfazl Ghadiyani who came out of prison for a short visit, “Mr. Khamenei is the key responsible person for the catastrophe that has befallen on the country.” But who shall be held responsible for misunderstanding the deeper intensions of the Islamic republic and trusting the “nuclear fatwa” which has a thousand ways to be revoked at will?

Growing Social Unrest and Violence in Kurdistan

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:56:00 +0200

Kaveh Ghoreishi

The discovery of the body of a 17-year old girl in the Kurdish town of Bookan in West Azerbaijan, the child kidnapping attempts in front of a school in Saghez and the suicide of a student in Ilam have prompted socialogists in the Kurdistan region of Iran to conclude that social violence here is out of control and on the rise. This comes as human rights activists also have expressed their alarms over a rise in child kidnapping incidents in Kurdish towns. Rooz spoke with Khaled Tavakoli, a Kurdish sociologist to learn more about the situation. He believes that conflict of values, curtailment of social freedoms and the rise of groups with fundamentalist views are the causes of a rise in social disorders which have resulted in greater violence in the region. According to him the “lenient and convenience” driven approach of judicial authorities in the towns is another cause for the disorders and violence. Makrian news agency last week reported the discovery of a 17-year old woman under the Amirabad Bridge in the town of Bookan in West Azerbaijan province according to which belonged to Somaye F. who had been reported missing a few days earlier. The coroner’s office confirmed that the woman had lost her life some days earlier but law enforcement authorities have till now not concluded on the causes of the death of the woman. In a related development, Human Rights Watch which has published a number of reports on child kidnapping Bookan reported that the residents of this town have been “complaining about double standards and disregard of officials over political and personal security issues” that have been taking place in there. During the same week, news agencies have reported that a futile attempt was made in front of Ferdowsi School in the town of Saghez to kidnap a primary school student. The reports indicate that a person who tried to stop the kidnapping was injured by a knife by the assailants. Khaled Tavakoli, the researcher and professor of sociology in the town of Saghez told Rooz that statistics related to social violence in recent months indicate an abnormal rise in social violence in Kurdish populated areas and have resulted in a public outcry. Tavakoli said that such violence was normally the result of a growth in urban population, unplanned migration from rural areas to towns, conflict between traditional and modern values, disregard for individual freedoms have all contributed to the rise in violence. “In recent years some Kurdish towns have witnessed a notable growth in fundamental groups on the edges of towns and some have succeeded in attracting outcast and impoverished youth. Furthermore, modern values propagated through the Internet and satellite transmissions on a daily basis, push society towards greater secularism. The clash of these two sets of values can increase social violence,” he said. Tehran in recent years has held some fundamental Islamic groups in various Kurdish towns to be the cause of political and social unrest in these regions. Tavakoli now says that their activities at the social level cause gender violence. Talking about the legal punishments for such crimes, Tavakoli said, “The approach that judiciary officials take in dealing with urban violence varies between large cities such as Tehran and Isfahan, and smaller towns. In large cities, officials display little tolerance and crackdown on social crimes very severely and execute harsh punishments on violators. But in areas such as Kurdistan, authorities take a more lenient approach and some judges even make personal judgments on cases. One reason for this could be to prevent the youth from political activities, but no matter what, judiciary officials take a softer attitude, rather than a strictly legal approach in small rural towns such as those in the Kurdish populated areas.” Tavakoli advocates more research and investigations into the causes and various aspects of these social issues and cites the expansion of economic opportunities and better urban planning as ways to confront this rise in violence. 200 Suicides in One Year Last year, Kurdish populated areas where among the regions with the highest social violence in the country. At the same time, according to statistics published by the ministry of health, in 2006 the lowest indices of hope in life in the country were among the residents of Kurdish areas and Ilam. Law enforcement officials however have announced that they are treated social violence more severely now. The head of the public security police in Kurdistan announced in October/November that anyone who disrupted public order in his region would be confronted very seriously. Mohammad Shah Mohammad named “hooligans” to be the cause of the terror atmosphere in the province and threatened to arrest them. In the same month the head of the police had announced the presence of 69 individuals whom he called “hooligans and hoodlums.” He said 39 of them were spread out among the public who “undoubtedly engaged in various crimes.” One of the most prominent cases of violence in Kurdish areas over the last few years was the one involving an armed Bank Sepah robbery in Kermanshah in which four individuals including three officers and an assailant were killed. In December/January three people were hung in public as accomplices in the same case. In the 2011, several reports were published indicating a rise in crime in the province of Ilam, another Kurdish populated area which included armed robberies, family feuds and in some cases armed domestic clashes in the public domain. Last year, Ilam topped other Iranian provinces in its high number of suicides. Last October/November the Majlis representative from Ilam said, “Unemployment in Ilam is so high that it has created psychological issues for the youth which has resulted in highest number of suicides in the province.” Last year, this province lead the country in the number of suicides with 1,200 cases who took their lives which were attributed to financial, unemployment, and inability to marry issues.

Respond to People’s Needs or be Condemned

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:20:00 +0200

Kaveh Ghoreishi

The criticism over the transfer of water from the Caspian Lake to the province of Semnan as a measure to safe the drying-up of the Orumieh Lake brought about harsh remarks by Majlis members from West Azerbaijan province. The plan to help Orumieh Lake through such a water diversion was raised two years ago but has again made headlines in Iran even as environmentalists believe the project is “unscientific and impractical” with little economic value. Some MPs, including the one from Orumieh, asked Ahmadinejad, “Why instead of reviving Orumieh are we spending money to transfer money from the Caspian to the desert? Is this a good way to spend public money? It is possible to transfer money from the Central Province to Isfahan but not Orumieh.” MP Salman Zaker even went further and issued a warning to the government: “Orumieh Lake is the heart of Azerbaijan. I say this because I care that the drying up of Orumieh Lake will have dangerous consequences. Respond to the cries of the great people of Azerbaijan or be condemned by them.” Ahmadinejad Inaugurates the Project This issue began when the minister of power unexpectedly announced on April 16 that the project to transfer water from the Caspian to the province of Semnan would begin soon. Mohammad-Reza Attarzadeh, the deputy minister of power on water issues told IRNA state run news agency that according to the plan fresh water would be transferred to three parts of central Iran from the Caspian Lake, the first part of which is from Sari the capital of Mazandaran province has begun and it would transfer water to the towns of Semnan, Qom, Kashan and Isfahan. The next day, other news agencies provided more details of this project which was launched in the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to the ISNA student news agency the first part of this massive project is to search for a precise location through which water will be going through to end up in the middle regions of Iran. This phase also includes a desalination plant and the laying of pipelines, taking into account environmental issues. The other phases include electricity generation, several other desalination units, pumping stations, and pipelines. On April 18, the president of Iran’s chamber of commerce Ali-Asqar Jomei applauded the project and called for its immediate execution proclaiming that the endeavor would result in industrialization in the province of Semnan. Majlis Deputy: Will Not Allow Orumieh Lake to Dry-up But in the three days since the announcement, a wave of protests and objections to the plan have been aired from all quarters, politicians and technical specialists. Majlis deputies took advantage of the issue and raised the problem of Orumieh Lake which is drying up. Ali-Akbar Aghai, the representative from Salmas objected to the project charging that the ministry of power had not undertaken any studies on the project and had no specific plans for it, while the ministry had claimed that the ministry of oil had done the feasibility study. Soleiman Zaker, the MP from Orumieh had some harsh words for the government and accused it of in fact disregarding the issue of the drying up of Orumieh Lake. He called on his colleagues in the Majlis to allocate funds for supplying water to the lake indicating that the government had allocated some 2,500 billion for Isfahan but disregarding the problems of Orumieh Lake in Orumieh province. The outgoing member of parliament warned that even though he was not elected for the next Majlis, he would “not allow this lake to dry-up.” Legal and Practical Issues In addition to the political wrangling over the project at the Majlis and within the government, the project has been publicly criticized on technical grounds as well, which has caused its implementation to be suspended. In fact the criticism has been so widespread that the project may be killed completely and removed from the government’s goals. Sabz Press, Iran’s environmental news agency, has charged that the project is “impractical and unscientific” with little economic benefits. Environmentalists have argued that the costs of transferring water to distant regions entails very high costs to maintain the quality of the water. They have advocated spending the project’s money on improving the irrigation projects around the country, which would produce much better effects while improving the environmental qualities of the region as well. Jame Jam website also criticized the project and raised a different issue. It said that since the Caspian Lake is shared by 5 littoral states, channeling water out of it could create legal problems with these countries bordering the lake.

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Review of the Week:
The Iranian Curtain