Selected Headlines

Haaretz | Oct. 13, 2009

The daughter of a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has applied for asylum in Germany, organizers of a film festival that she was attending said Tuesday.

Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Ahmadinejad's adviser on cultural and media affairs, submitted her asylum application to authorities in southern Germany, Nuremberg Human Rights Film Festival spokesman Matthias Rued said.

Her father, Mahdi Kalhor, has been seen as a close ally of Ahmadinejad since early this decade.

Video: Mehdi Kalhor, before the presidential election 4 years ago

In response to a question about how then unknown Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was going to pick his team (presidential election four years ago), Mehdi Kalhor advises certain advisers "to stay home and advise their children instead."

Videos: Azad University (Oct. 13, 2009)

Student protest turns violent in Tehran

For One Iran | Oct. 13, 2009

A protest at Azad University turned violent after paramilitary and Basij forces attacked students who had spontaneously gathered to object to the policies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

The gathering began around noon on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 when Basiji members on campus began chanting "death to seditionists."

Students chanted slogans such as "death to the dictator", "we don't want a military university" in response, prompting pro-government forces to attack them.

According to a reporter for the student run Amir Kabir news agency, at least 10 students were injured by paramilitary forces.

Ahmadinejad skips Shiraz speech

Facebook | Oct. 12, 2009

According to eyewitnesses, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered the city of Shiraz, police officers, Basijis and other plainclothes forces began to take over all major streets across the city.

From approximately 5 p.m. until late at night, the number of security forces increased considerably.

Though public speeches are Ahmadinejad's trademark, he failed to deliver one in Shiraz. Instead he only managed to make an appearance at the tomb of Hafiz under tight security.

Briefs

Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said Tuesday that opposition leader and cleric Mehdi Karroubi will be put on trial at the Special Court for the Clergy, for speaking about the detainee rapes that have occurred at Iranian prisons.

This is while many people, including Majles deputies and Majid Ansari, a leading member of the Expediency Council, have on multiple occasions confirmed that the rapes did in fact take place. Karroubi has responded that he will use the trial as an opportunity to present the documents for the rapes.

After about 2000 students at the engineering school of Tehran's Azad University demonstrated for several days against what they call the "coup government," members of the Basij militia attacked the students with tear gas on Tuesday. One student was arrested, but the demonstrators were not dispersed.

Mohammad Sayfzadeh, a leading attorney and human rights advocate, was barred from leaving Iran. He said that after passing through passport control at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport, as he prepared to board the aircraft, security agents confiscated his passport and told him that, on the order of the Revolutionary Court, he is not permitted to exit the country.

Hossein Marashi, spokesman for the Executives of Reconstruction, a leading reformist Party close to former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said that a group of Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) commanders may want "to move to the second phase of the crackdown" by arresting the leaders of the opposition Green Movement.

Marashi, who is also brother-in-law to Rafsanjani, said that people should "react strongly" in such an event, in order to prevent IRGC commanders from implementing their plan.

In a speech in his hometown, former President Mohammad Khatami, reaffirmed that he is standing by his protests against the rigged presidential election of June 12, and the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in the aftermath of the election.

He accused reactionary groups "who did not play any important role in the Revolution" of trying to eliminate all but their own supporters from all levels of power. The reactionary groups that he referred to are followers of hardliner Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual advisor.

Khatami said the worst insult to the public was labeling the post-election demonstrations as "riots." He added that the Green Movement aims to implement the Constitution, which grants civil freedoms, allows for a free press and democratic elections, and respects the rights of political prisoners. He said that the movement will continue, and people are prepared to pay a heavy price for it.

The Association of Combatant Clerics (ACC), a leftist organization chaired by former president Mohammad Khatami, released a highly critical open letter to Sadegh Larijani, the judiciary chief, accusing the Judiciary of bias and double standards in dealing with various cases involving the reformists and the conservatives.

The letter reminded Larijani of Article 32 of the Constitution, which states that by 24 hours after the arrest of a person, the detainee must be informed of the charges against him. Article 37 of the Constitution states that every person is innocent unless proven otherwise; Article 38 bans the torture of detainees; Article 39 prohibits making baseless accusations against imprisoned people, and Article 168 states that all trials must be open to the public and be conducted in the presence of a jury.

Iran's Poverty Line

Iranian Progressives in Translation | Oct. 13, 2009

At a recent press conference in Tehran, fraudulently elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that customary approaches used by economists to determine the poverty line are a "hoax" and cannot be used as a measure to prove that there is poverty in Iran. Existing facts, however, contradict Ahmadinejad's statement.