ماه منير رحيمي، مصاحبه با چند جوان تهراني
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceMonday, July 15, 2002 - Police arrest 45 at birthday party - Reaction to Bush's Call for Democracy - Reformists' option of resignation - Judiciary chief in Syria - Expediency council's supervisory role - Legislative crisis - Aftermath of Esfahan prayer leader's resignation - Kar holds Majles accountable for Pourzand's mistreatment - Plainclothes forces and the Pasdaran - Third five-year development plan's failure - Guardians Council rejects child abuse bill Police Continue Crackdown on Youths * Forty-five guests at a birthday party held in Qeitarieh, a northern Tehran neighborhood, were arrested even though no alcohol was found on the premises. The host apologized to a court to obtain the release of himself and his guests after a night in jail, even though he said they did nothing wrong by celebrating his son's birthday with friends and family. * Ali, a young Tehran resident, tells RFE/RL that in a separate incident police took 25 young men and women to jail a night raid on a party. They were released a few days later after paying heavy fines and after a connection of Ali's uncle who knew people within the system interfered. * Hasan, another young Tehrani, tells RFE/RL that a friend of his was shot dead by the police while he was riding on his motor bike because he apparently did not notice that police ordered him to stop. * Another young man, Ali, tells RFE/RL that the police picked up his brother and other guests at a party. His brother received 90 lashes. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Regime's Factions React to US President's Call for Democracy in Iran * Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council, accused the US President of flagrantly supporting the regime's reformist faction. The officials and newspapers of both factions criticized the US president's call for democracy as interference in Iran's domestic affairs. But one important exception was the new reformist website, www.emrooz.org, edited by Khatami advisor Said Hajjarian, which interpreted Bush's statement as a positive indication that the US would not negotiate with Iran's unelected authorities. (Ardavan Niknam) Reformists Use Resignation Threat * President Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza, deputy speaker of the Majles and general secretary of the Participation Front party, said today in an interview with the student news agency ISNA that the only way the government reformists, including President Khatami, can keep their jobs is to press for reforms within the Islamic Republic. More radical reformists, such as the former hostage taker turned leftist journalist Ali Abdi, asked Khatami to resign from a presidency that has no real authority and only serves to legitimize the regime in the eye of the international community. Khatami's brother said without the reformists the Islamic Republic would fall because it would become an Islamic dictatorship. The majority of the reformist faction does not see quitting the regime as an option, but uses the radical concept as a threat to promote its own agenda. (Mehdi Khalaji) Judiciary Chief Vows Support for Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad * During his first official trip abroad as judiciary chief, Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi met at Iran's embassy in Damascus with heads of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which are on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Shahrudi said Tehran "is 100 percent behind Hezbollah," and would not reduce its support under US pressure. Minister of housing development and city planning Ali Abdolalizadeh was accompanied the judiciary chief, since his ministry is developing a housing complex near Damascus. Iran has judicial cooperation agreement with Syria, and reportedly sends arms and supplies to the Lebanese Hezbollah through Syria. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) The Expediency Council Defends its Supervisory Role * A spokesman for the Expediency Council defended its unpublished executive directive that places the Council above the Majles and presidency in a supreme supervisory role. He said the Supreme Leader has transferred his constitutional supervisory role to the Expediency Council and has charged it with drafting the regime's general policy guidelines and supervise their implementation by the three branches of government. The Khatami cabinet spokesman Ramezanifar said last week that the new directive would create a parallel, unelected legislative body. (Siavash Ardalan) Legislative Crisis: Administrative Tribunal Rejects Cultural Revolution Council's Bills * Two legislations of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council headed by President Khatami was rejected by the administrative justice tribunal (Divan-e Edalat-e Edari), according to the tribunal's legal advisor, Allahverdi Moqadasifar. In one of the rejected bills, the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council rejects the administrative tribunal's authority to review the decisions of the universities' disciplinary committees. In the other one, the Council gives the press freedoms beyond the conservative press law. With the proliferation of the parallel legislative bodies, Iran faces a legislative crisis in which the elected Majles finds its authority challenged by several institutions whose members are appointed by and report to the Supreme Leader. (Mehdi Khalaji) The Aftermath of Esfahan Prayer Leader's Resignation * A spokesman for the Esfahan prayer leader Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri said he may follow up his letter of resignation with a statement responding to the critics of his resignation, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The spokesman denied that Taheri was being pressured to withdraw his resignation and apologize. The conservative "Society of Militant Clergy" accused the Esfahan prayer leader of being influenced by "enemy inducements." Conservative newspapers disregarded the national security council's ban on press discussion of Ayatollah Taheri's resignation and ran statements and articles condemning it, but the reformist press observed the ban. (Siavash Ardalan) Kar holds Majles Responsible for Her Husband Pourzand's Mistreatment * Washington-based lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar said in a letter addressed to Majles Speaker Mehdi Karubi that the Majles MPs would be as liable as the police and revolutionary guards for the torture and mistreatment her husband, veteran journalist Siamak Pourzand has received in the hands of the police, revolutionary guards and the judiciary. (Shireen Famili) Plainclothes Forces and the Revolutionary Guards A source at the interior ministry was quoted in the press today as saying that the number of plainclothes elements who violently disrupt political rallies in Tehran is only around 400, and they are armed and equipped with tear gas. He added that the police arrested some of them during last week's street demonstrations commemorating the 1999 police raid on Tehran University students' dorms. A police spokesman told the Tehran daily Entekhab that he knows nothing about the organizational affiliation of the plainclothes force. * Sweden-based reformist journalist Nima Rashedan says the plainclothes force is formed, sustained and administered directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, the Pasdaran. He tells RFE/RL that a group of IRGC officers formed a committee in 1987 and took positions at the top of security and propaganda organs of the regime, including the state radio and television organization and the Keyhan publishing group, as well as the police and IRGC. This committee, known as "the Aqdasieh," considers itself above the law and does not even obey the Supreme Leader. (Ardavan Niknam) The Third Five-Year Development Plan's Failure * Midway through the Third Five-Year Development Plan, the budget and planning organization has begun drafting the Fourth plan. The Third Plan has failed to meet most of its goals, particularly in the area of job creation. The budget and planning director Mohammad Satarifar, who assumed the position two years ago at the beginning of Khatami's second term, has been one of the ardent critics of the open market, and according to reports in Tehran press, has given most of the key positions at his powerful organization to supporters of state-run economy. (Fereydoun Khavand) Guardians Council Rejects Majles Ban on Child Abuse as Un-Islamic The conservative Guardians Council rejected as un-Islamic the Majles bill banning all forms of child abuse and exploitation. Meanwhile, according to Tehran press, incidents of reported abuse and maltreatment of children are on the rise. * Tehran-based journalist and legal expert Shadi Sadr says Majles had sidestepped the issue of father's guardianship in its anti-child abuse bill. She tells RFE/RL that in Islam the father's is an unalienable right that prevents the state from prosecuting the fathers even in case of mortal abuse of their children. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Conservative Paper Criticized Impotence Ad * The conservative daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami criticized an ad for a cure for impotency which appeared in "Iran," the daily newspaper of the state news agency. The ad showed a man trying to straighten Italy's Tower of Pisa. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) WORLD * Pakistan sentences the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's killer to death by hanging. (Alireza Taheri) * The gathering in London of 70 former Iraqi army officers was potentially important since it was met with strong reaction from Baghdad, says director of RFE/RL's Iraqi service Kamran Qaradaghi. (Mehdi Khalaji) * Israel's defense minister meets Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tells US personnel in Afghanistan that the war against terrorism would continue for a long time. (Golnaz Esfandiari) * US Attorney General warns about al Qaeda sleeper cells in the US. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * France examines President Chirac's assailant for possible mental illness. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Human right activists call for the right of women to safe childbirth in the Rome conference of the UN Population Fund. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) New Book on Iranian Women * Agence France Press said in a review of the book on Iranian women and Islam by Azadeh Kian, a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, is based on a six-year study. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) Documentary Charts Gender Relations in a Village * Documentary filmmaker Mohammad-Reza Moqadasian, whose film "Goftegu dar Meh" (Conversation in Fog) was shown at the Marseille film festival, says his film is about the male members of the Caspian town of Dastjerd's local council who refuse to convene two years after the elections because they do not want to sit in the same room with a young woman who was also elected to the council. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) Songs and Song Makers: Varuzhan * RFE/RL's music critic Mahmud Khoshnam discusses the work of pioneering pop music songwriter and arranger Varuzhan in an interview with singer and TV producer Manuchehr Sakhai. A Book, An Author * Abolqasem Tafazoli, translator, and Sadeq Sami, publisher of the Persian translation of "The Fifth Horseman" discuss the book by Dominique Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. (Bahman Bastani)
ميهمانان يك مجلس جشن تولد در قيطريه كه در آن مشروب الكلي نيز صرف نمي شد، دستگير شدند. صاحب مجلس گفت هرچند كار خلافي در اين ميهماني انجام نشد، ولي در هر حال عذرخواهي مي كند. چند تن از ساكنان جوانان تهران، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي از تجربه هاي خود از ورود نيروي انتظامي به خانه هاي مردم در ميهماني هاي عروسي و نظاير آن سخن مي گويند. يك جوان به نام علي مي گويد در يك مجلس ميهماني 25 مرد و زن را با ميني بوس به نيروي انتظامي پاسداران بردند و بعد از هيچ طريق اقدامي براي آنها نمي شد كرد. بعدا با مشكلات خيلي زياد و جريمه نقدي سنگين و رابطه اي كه از طريق عموي او پيدا شد آنها توانستند خود را بيرون بياورند. جوان ديگري به نام حسين مي گويد دوست او كه سوار بر موتور فرمان ايست كلاه سبز ها را نشنيده بود، در اثر تيراندازي آنها به قتل رسيد و حجله او هنوز سر كوچه است. جوان ديگري به نام علي به راديوآزادي مي گويد برادر او در يك ميهماني جوانانه كه «لو» رفت و مورد شبيخون پاسداران قرار گرفت، دستگير شد و به شلاق و جريمه هاي نقدي محكوم شد و دست كم 80 تا 90 ضربه شلاق تحمل كرد.
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceMonday, July 15, 2002 - Police arrest 45 at birthday party - Reaction to Bush's Call for Democracy - Reformists' option of resignation - Judiciary chief in Syria - Expediency council's supervisory role - Legislative crisis - Aftermath of Esfahan prayer leader's resignation - Kar holds Majles accountable for Pourzand's mistreatment - Plainclothes forces and the Pasdaran - Third five-year development plan's failure - Guardians Council rejects child abuse bill Police Continue Crackdown on Youths * Forty-five guests at a birthday party held in Qeitarieh, a northern Tehran neighborhood, were arrested even though no alcohol was found on the premises. The host apologized to a court to obtain the release of himself and his guests after a night in jail, even though he said they did nothing wrong by celebrating his son's birthday with friends and family. * Ali, a young Tehran resident, tells RFE/RL that in a separate incident police took 25 young men and women to jail a night raid on a party. They were released a few days later after paying heavy fines and after a connection of Ali's uncle who knew people within the system interfered. * Hasan, another young Tehrani, tells RFE/RL that a friend of his was shot dead by the police while he was riding on his motor bike because he apparently did not notice that police ordered him to stop. * Another young man, Ali, tells RFE/RL that the police picked up his brother and other guests at a party. His brother received 90 lashes. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Regime's Factions React to US President's Call for Democracy in Iran * Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council, accused the US President of flagrantly supporting the regime's reformist faction. The officials and newspapers of both factions criticized the US president's call for democracy as interference in Iran's domestic affairs. But one important exception was the new reformist website, www.emrooz.org, edited by Khatami advisor Said Hajjarian, which interpreted Bush's statement as a positive indication that the US would not negotiate with Iran's unelected authorities. (Ardavan Niknam) Reformists Use Resignation Threat * President Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza, deputy speaker of the Majles and general secretary of the Participation Front party, said today in an interview with the student news agency ISNA that the only way the government reformists, including President Khatami, can keep their jobs is to press for reforms within the Islamic Republic. More radical reformists, such as the former hostage taker turned leftist journalist Ali Abdi, asked Khatami to resign from a presidency that has no real authority and only serves to legitimize the regime in the eye of the international community. Khatami's brother said without the reformists the Islamic Republic would fall because it would become an Islamic dictatorship. The majority of the reformist faction does not see quitting the regime as an option, but uses the radical concept as a threat to promote its own agenda. (Mehdi Khalaji) Judiciary Chief Vows Support for Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad * During his first official trip abroad as judiciary chief, Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi met at Iran's embassy in Damascus with heads of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which are on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Shahrudi said Tehran "is 100 percent behind Hezbollah," and would not reduce its support under US pressure. Minister of housing development and city planning Ali Abdolalizadeh was accompanied the judiciary chief, since his ministry is developing a housing complex near Damascus. Iran has judicial cooperation agreement with Syria, and reportedly sends arms and supplies to the Lebanese Hezbollah through Syria. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) The Expediency Council Defends its Supervisory Role * A spokesman for the Expediency Council defended its unpublished executive directive that places the Council above the Majles and presidency in a supreme supervisory role. He said the Supreme Leader has transferred his constitutional supervisory role to the Expediency Council and has charged it with drafting the regime's general policy guidelines and supervise their implementation by the three branches of government. The Khatami cabinet spokesman Ramezanifar said last week that the new directive would create a parallel, unelected legislative body. (Siavash Ardalan) Legislative Crisis: Administrative Tribunal Rejects Cultural Revolution Council's Bills * Two legislations of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council headed by President Khatami was rejected by the administrative justice tribunal (Divan-e Edalat-e Edari), according to the tribunal's legal advisor, Allahverdi Moqadasifar. In one of the rejected bills, the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council rejects the administrative tribunal's authority to review the decisions of the universities' disciplinary committees. In the other one, the Council gives the press freedoms beyond the conservative press law. With the proliferation of the parallel legislative bodies, Iran faces a legislative crisis in which the elected Majles finds its authority challenged by several institutions whose members are appointed by and report to the Supreme Leader. (Mehdi Khalaji) The Aftermath of Esfahan Prayer Leader's Resignation * A spokesman for the Esfahan prayer leader Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri said he may follow up his letter of resignation with a statement responding to the critics of his resignation, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The spokesman denied that Taheri was being pressured to withdraw his resignation and apologize. The conservative "Society of Militant Clergy" accused the Esfahan prayer leader of being influenced by "enemy inducements." Conservative newspapers disregarded the national security council's ban on press discussion of Ayatollah Taheri's resignation and ran statements and articles condemning it, but the reformist press observed the ban. (Siavash Ardalan) Kar holds Majles Responsible for Her Husband Pourzand's Mistreatment * Washington-based lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar said in a letter addressed to Majles Speaker Mehdi Karubi that the Majles MPs would be as liable as the police and revolutionary guards for the torture and mistreatment her husband, veteran journalist Siamak Pourzand has received in the hands of the police, revolutionary guards and the judiciary. (Shireen Famili) Plainclothes Forces and the Revolutionary Guards A source at the interior ministry was quoted in the press today as saying that the number of plainclothes elements who violently disrupt political rallies in Tehran is only around 400, and they are armed and equipped with tear gas. He added that the police arrested some of them during last week's street demonstrations commemorating the 1999 police raid on Tehran University students' dorms. A police spokesman told the Tehran daily Entekhab that he knows nothing about the organizational affiliation of the plainclothes force. * Sweden-based reformist journalist Nima Rashedan says the plainclothes force is formed, sustained and administered directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, the Pasdaran. He tells RFE/RL that a group of IRGC officers formed a committee in 1987 and took positions at the top of security and propaganda organs of the regime, including the state radio and television organization and the Keyhan publishing group, as well as the police and IRGC. This committee, known as "the Aqdasieh," considers itself above the law and does not even obey the Supreme Leader. (Ardavan Niknam) The Third Five-Year Development Plan's Failure * Midway through the Third Five-Year Development Plan, the budget and planning organization has begun drafting the Fourth plan. The Third Plan has failed to meet most of its goals, particularly in the area of job creation. The budget and planning director Mohammad Satarifar, who assumed the position two years ago at the beginning of Khatami's second term, has been one of the ardent critics of the open market, and according to reports in Tehran press, has given most of the key positions at his powerful organization to supporters of state-run economy. (Fereydoun Khavand) Guardians Council Rejects Majles Ban on Child Abuse as Un-Islamic The conservative Guardians Council rejected as un-Islamic the Majles bill banning all forms of child abuse and exploitation. Meanwhile, according to Tehran press, incidents of reported abuse and maltreatment of children are on the rise. * Tehran-based journalist and legal expert Shadi Sadr says Majles had sidestepped the issue of father's guardianship in its anti-child abuse bill. She tells RFE/RL that in Islam the father's is an unalienable right that prevents the state from prosecuting the fathers even in case of mortal abuse of their children. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Conservative Paper Criticized Impotence Ad * The conservative daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami criticized an ad for a cure for impotency which appeared in "Iran," the daily newspaper of the state news agency. The ad showed a man trying to straighten Italy's Tower of Pisa. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) WORLD * Pakistan sentences the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's killer to death by hanging. (Alireza Taheri) * The gathering in London of 70 former Iraqi army officers was potentially important since it was met with strong reaction from Baghdad, says director of RFE/RL's Iraqi service Kamran Qaradaghi. (Mehdi Khalaji) * Israel's defense minister meets Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tells US personnel in Afghanistan that the war against terrorism would continue for a long time. (Golnaz Esfandiari) * US Attorney General warns about al Qaeda sleeper cells in the US. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * France examines President Chirac's assailant for possible mental illness. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Human right activists call for the right of women to safe childbirth in the Rome conference of the UN Population Fund. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) New Book on Iranian Women * Agence France Press said in a review of the book on Iranian women and Islam by Azadeh Kian, a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, is based on a six-year study. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) Documentary Charts Gender Relations in a Village * Documentary filmmaker Mohammad-Reza Moqadasian, whose film "Goftegu dar Meh" (Conversation in Fog) was shown at the Marseille film festival, says his film is about the male members of the Caspian town of Dastjerd's local council who refuse to convene two years after the elections because they do not want to sit in the same room with a young woman who was also elected to the council. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) Songs and Song Makers: Varuzhan * RFE/RL's music critic Mahmud Khoshnam discusses the work of pioneering pop music songwriter and arranger Varuzhan in an interview with singer and TV producer Manuchehr Sakhai. A Book, An Author * Abolqasem Tafazoli, translator, and Sadeq Sami, publisher of the Persian translation of "The Fifth Horseman" discuss the book by Dominique Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. (Bahman Bastani)
ميهمانان يك مجلس جشن تولد در قيطريه كه در آن مشروب الكلي نيز صرف نمي شد، دستگير شدند. صاحب مجلس گفت هرچند كار خلافي در اين ميهماني انجام نشد، ولي در هر حال عذرخواهي مي كند. چند تن از ساكنان جوانان تهران، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي از تجربه هاي خود از ورود نيروي انتظامي به خانه هاي مردم در ميهماني هاي عروسي و نظاير آن سخن مي گويند. يك جوان به نام علي مي گويد در يك مجلس ميهماني 25 مرد و زن را با ميني بوس به نيروي انتظامي پاسداران بردند و بعد از هيچ طريق اقدامي براي آنها نمي شد كرد. بعدا با مشكلات خيلي زياد و جريمه نقدي سنگين و رابطه اي كه از طريق عموي او پيدا شد آنها توانستند خود را بيرون بياورند. جوان ديگري به نام حسين مي گويد دوست او كه سوار بر موتور فرمان ايست كلاه سبز ها را نشنيده بود، در اثر تيراندازي آنها به قتل رسيد و حجله او هنوز سر كوچه است. جوان ديگري به نام علي به راديوآزادي مي گويد برادر او در يك ميهماني جوانانه كه «لو» رفت و مورد شبيخون پاسداران قرار گرفت، دستگير شد و به شلاق و جريمه هاي نقدي محكوم شد و دست كم 80 تا 90 ضربه شلاق تحمل كرد.
