Tehran Updates: Security Ramps Up; Green Mothers Speak Out

Video of heavy security presence along a Tehran boulevard, purportedly shot on Thursday, February 24. Along with reports of situation in the capital, weather and apparent temperature match: it was sunny to partly cloudy in Tehran Thursday, 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit between noon and sunset.

[ comment ] Reports indicate that the security atmosphere has been intensified in Tehran. In many areas of the capital, security forces have collected privately owned satellite dishes and destroyed them. At spots around the city, fences have been installed to separate the sidewalks from the streets.

A group of mothers of political prisoners and those whose children have been killed since the 2009 presidential election have issued a statement calling on people to take part in the marches on Tuesday, 10 Esfand/March 1. Calling themselves the Green Mothers, they has called on people to support Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi and his wife, Fatemeh Karroubi.

Journalist and documentary film maker Mohammad Nourizad was returned to jail. After writing several highly critical letters to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he was prosecuted in a show trial and given a sentence of three-and-a-half years. He went on hunger strikes in jail and became severely ill, to the point that he needed surgery.

Dr. Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, government spokesman in the administration of former president Mohammad Khatami and member of the central committee of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), was returned to prison. He was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 election and after a show trial was given a six-year sentence. He had been given a furlough, but was asked over the past two weeks to issue a statement declaring that the statements that had been issued by the IIPF were fake and to take part in a television interview. He refused to go along and, therefore, was returned to jail.

Fifty-four urgent care medical doctors have written a letter to the judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani asking him to order the release of Dr. Mansoor Nasiri Kashani, a professor at the University of Medical Sciences of Tehran. He was arrested a few days prior to the 25 Bahman/February 14 marches. The group observed that Nasiri Kashani worked at the combat front during the war with Iraq in the 1980s and has served the nation honorably.

Naser Hashemi, a nephew of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was physically attacked and injured by plainclothes agents in Abdolazim shrine in Ray, south of Tehran. His mother passed away and Hashemi had gone to her grave on the third day after her death for the traditional mourning rite. The attack happened three days after Faizeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani's daughter, was verbally assaulted by Basij members.

At least 200 students in Shiraz University have been suspended for at least two semesters. Last Wednesday, the students gathered in the campus to protest the death of Hamed Nour-Mohammadi, a biology student at the university who was killed during the 1 Esfand/February 20 demonstrations.

Asadollah Badamchian, Majles deputy and member of the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, predicted that Rafsanjani will be reelected as chairman of the Assembly of Experts. The election is to take place on March 7, and there have been persistent reports that hardliners will try to prevent Rafsanjani's reelection. They have been promoting Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, the influential conservative cleric who was prime minister in September-October 1981 and currently leads the reactionary Society of Militant Clergy. Kani has been a vocal supporter of Khamenei. Badamchian said that "out of respect for Rafsanjani," Kani would not be a candidate for the chairmanship. Fars, the news agency run by the intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that Khamenei is neutral with regard to Rafsanjani's candidacy.

Former president Abolhassan Bani Sadr said in an interview that all Iranians, and even non-Iranians, who believe in the defense of human rights must support Mousavi and Karroubi. It is their right to be free, to hold the opinions their consciences dictate, and to express their positions regarding important issues, he said.

Hojjat Nazari, son of Sardar Nazari -- an important military commander killed in the Iran-Iraq War -- has written a letter to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani asking him to protest the detention of Mousavi and Karroubi.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that no one in Iran goes hungry. He defended the cuts in the subsidies for basic commodities and food stuffs, and claimed that the Iranian people are happy to receive the cash handouts that the government has been paying as partial substitute for the lost subsidies.

Copyright © 2011 Tehran Bureau