Summary of Iran Stories in Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiTuesday, December 02, 2003 <b>Nobel Peace Prize Winner Calls for Ending Guardians&apos; Vetting Role in Elections</b> • In a press conference today in Tehran, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi called for an end to the Guardians Council&apos;s role in vetting the applicants for candidacy in the Majles elections. On route to Oslo via Paris, Ebadi called for Guardians&apos; ratification of the Majles-approved government&apos;s election law reform bill, which redefines the supervisory role of the Guardians Council in the elections. Ebadi played down her own political ambitions, and said she refuses to accept the role of a hero. Instead of waiting for a hero to make their wishes come true, people should struggle for freedom and democracy, because these things are not given on a silver platter, she said. She defended the women&apos;s right to participate in the political process, and hoped to see the emergence of a woman for candidacy in the 2005 presidential election. (Shahran Tabari, London) <b>Khatami Calls for Free Elections and Large Voter Turnout</b> • Considering that the country is besieged on all sides by the US, the voter turnout matters more in the upcoming Majles elections than in any other past elections, President Khatami said today in a speech at a gathering of the election supervision committees. He said despite widespread discontent with the regime, voters will participate in the elections to show unity in the face of foreign threat. He called on the conservatives to allow representatives of all political groups to participate in the elections. He also warned against politicizing religion. (Leyli Sadr) • In a system where the Guardians Council vets applicants for candidacy in the Majles elections and rejects Majles-approved bills, speaking of freedom and democratic process is a joke, Germany-based commentator <b>Ahmad Tahmasbi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Ali Sajjadi) • Calls for changing the constitution amount to treason, Khatami said. He said criticizing the constitution should be welcomed, but if criticism is a prelude to saying no to the outcome of the Islamic revolution, it is treason. He defended the Majles as example of pluralism, which prevents dictatorship from taking hold. Power centered in the hands of one has no place in democratic systems, Khatami said. (Maryam Ahmadi) <b>Iranian Couple Die in the Samara Battle</b> • An Iranian couple died Sunday in the gun battle in Samara, according to Italian TV reports from Iraq. Quoting hospital sources, the reporter said in addition to the 54 Saddam supporters who the coalition forces said have been killed in the battle, eight civilians, including the two Iranians, were also killed. (Ahmad Ra&apos;fat, Rome) • Foreign ministry protested against the death of two Iranian pilgrims in Iraq to the Swiss ambassador, who represents US interests in Iran. (Alireza Taheri) <b>British Embassy Reopens Visa Section</b> • British Embassy in Tehran reopened its visa section on Sunday, according to the official news agency IRNA. No tourist visas can be issued at this time, due to the huge backlog of visa applications piled since the embassy closed down in reaction to several drive-by shooting attacks, embassy officials said. (Nima Tamadon) <b>Iraqi Governing Council Member Meets with Foreign Minister</b> • Foreign forces should leave Iraq, as soon as possible, and transfer sovereignty to the Iraqi people, foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said after meeting with Iraqi governing council member Ahmad Chalabi. (Nima Tamadon) <b>Japan Calls for Expanding Relations with Iran</b> • In a message to foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi, Japanese prime minister called for expansion of relations with Iran, and praised Iran&apos;s cooperation wit h the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. (Kian Manavi) <b>Islamic Student Movement Moves Away From the Regime</b> • After the authorities banned off-campus student marches in commemoration of the Student Day on December 7, the association of the Islamic student councils – Dafter-e Tahkim-e Vahdat (Office of Reinforcing Unity) -- agreed to hold a ceremony in the halls of the Hosseineh Ershad mosque, but the interior ministry rejected the embattled student organization&apos;s application. An interesting game is being played by the government&apos;s reformist faction; the interior ministry banned off-campus demonstrations and ceremonies, and the higher education ministry said for security reasons no on-campus gathering can be allowed, deputy secretary of the Amir-Kabir University&apos;s Islamic student council Matin Meshkin said. The reformists within the Majles and the government are pushing out those student activists who called for separating the Islamic student movement from the government, he added. His comments indicate that barriers for the student movement are no longer put up by the judiciary alone; the reformist faction has joined in the attempts to distance the students from the regime. The Dafter has been doing the government a favor by asking permission for its events, because the government could not provide security for the events it had authorized, member of the Amir-Kabir Islamic student council Hamed Shojai said, citing several authorized demonstrations which were attacked by plainclothes security forces. Meanwhile, the Islamic student council of the Shahid Beheshti University issued the outcome of an opinion survey that showed 40 percent of the students will boycott the upcoming Majles elections. Furthermore, judiciary&apos;s actions further separated the students from the pro-reform government. Several student activists, editors of student journals and Islamic student council members have been disciplined either by the courts or by the universities&apos; disciplinary committees. Twenty-one students of the Razi University were expelled from the school and banned from higher education, and all members of the social sciences school of the Alameh Tabatabi University were banned from political activity. Sabzebar University&apos;s Islamic student council members were sentenced to 19 months in jail. Many students arrested after the July 1999 student uprising are still languishing in jail. The committee to defend jailed student Ahmad Batebi said in a statement signed by 130 that Batebi and many other jailed students are not associated with any of the regime&apos;s factions, and receive little attention and support because of that. (Bahman Bastani) • Students must go through a complicated process in order to receive permission for their events, member of the general council of the association of Islamic student councils <b>Roozbeh Riyazi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Neither the reformists nor the conservatives have been sincere in their support for an atmosphere tolerant of criticism, he adds. Off-campus the interior ministry banned the student events planned for December 7, and on-campus the higher education ministry did the same. The reformists could not even support the students within the organizations that they controlled, such as the universities and the higher education ministry. It was the lack of sincerity and commitment of the reformists themselves that brought us to this point, he adds. (Nima Tamadon) <b>Memorial for Serial Murders Victims</b> • The authorities do not allow the families of the victims of the 1998 serial murders to hold joint memorials for their kin, <b>Sima Pooyandeh</b> wife of slain writer Mohammad Jafar Pooyandeh, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. That forced the families to hold separate events, she adds. This year&apos;s memorial for her husband will be held in silence at the shrine of Emamzadeh Taher, and possibly at the offices of the Iranian writers&apos; association. Each year families hope that with a new revelation about the main culprits, but to no avail, she says. (Shahran Tabari, London) • Preventing the political murders&apos; kin to hold memorials is a tactic of the regime, because it is clear that high-level authorities were involved in these killings, Frankfurt-based political activist <b>Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Ali Sajjadi) <b>Two Asylum Seekers in France and Czech Republic Tell Their Stories</b> • Brother of Alireza Yadollahi, a young Iranian political asylum applicant, who has been detained for the 42 days at a campus in the Prague airport, and Afshin, an religious Iranian who has recently applied for political asylum in France, tell <b>Radio Farda</b> about immigration and the process of applying for political asylum in the Czech Republic and France. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • An immigration judge in Canada deported Ali Arimi, an Iranian youth who caused the death of his fellow countrymen Payam Yaqubi by speeding in Vancouver streets. (Maryam Aghvami, Toronto) . ژان خاكزاد (راديو فردا): خانم شيرين عبادي، برنده جايزه صلح نوبل، پيش از ترك ايران براي سفر به پاريس، با خبرنگاران در ايران گفتگويي داشت. او از پاريس براي شركت در مراسم رسمي اعطاي جوايز نوبل و دريافت جايزه صلح خود به اسلو مي رود. خانم عبادي در گفتگويش با خبرنگاران از تلاش خستگي ناپذير خود در برقراري كامل حقوق بشر در ايران و همچنين برابري كامل حقوق زن و مرد و اقليتهاي مذهبي سخن گفت. شهران طبري (راديو فردا): از هنگامي كه خانم عبادي، برنده جايزه صلح نوبل شد، وفاداران به اصلاحات به او به نشانه شاخص و الگوي مبارزات خود با دست راستي هاي دستگاه حاكم جمهوري اسلامي مي نگرند. اما او مي گويد چنين نقشي براي خود قائل نيست و سوداي مقام سياسي در سر ندارد. او در كنفرانسي خبري در روز سه شنبه به خبرنگاران گفت: من به شدت مخالف قهرمان پرستي هستم. بعضيها در كشور ما منتظرند قهرماني پيدا شود و آرزوهاي آنها را برآورده كند. اين نوع برخورد اشتباه محض است. مردم بايد خودشان مبارزه كنند، چرا كه آزادي و دموكراسي در سيني نقره تحويل كسي داده نمي شود. او حاضر نشد بگويد كه در انتخابات ماه فوريه از چه نامزدي حمايت خواهد كرد، اما ابراز اميدواري كرد كه لايحه لغو اختيارات شوراي نگهبان براي دستچين كردن نمايندگان امضا شود. او گفت فقط با لغو نظارت اين شورا است كه مردم مي توانند آزادي راي دادن به نمايندگان خود را پيدا كنند و فقط در آن صورت مي توان انتخابات را آزاد خواند. برنده جايزه صلح نوبل در ايران، همچنين از حقوقي برابر براي زنان دفاع كرد و گفت: آنها بايد بتوانند در انتخابات 2005 براي مقام رياست جمهوري نامزد شوند و با هم رقابت كنند. او اخيرا خواهان پرداخت خونبهايي برابر براي زنان و اقليتهاي مذهبي شد، چه در حال حاضر و براساس تعبير از قوانين شريعت اسلام، خونبهاي زنان و غير مسلمانان، نصف بهايي است كه براي يك مرد مسلمان پرداخت مي شود. در آوريل امسال شوراي نگهبان لايحه اي را كه خواهان رفع اين تبعيض شده بود، وتو كرد و نپذيرفت. شيرين عبادي كه قرار است دهم سپتامبر براي دريافت جايزه صلح نوبل خود در اسلو باشد، تا چند روز ديگر ايران را ترك مي كند. او كه چند ماه پيش هنگام اعلام برنده شدن خود با سر باز در تلويزيون فرانسه حاضر شد، از پاسخ به پرسش خبرنگاران كه آيا در اسلو هم بدون روسري جايزه خود را دريافت خواهد كرد، سرباز زد و فقط گفت: در آن روز خواهيد ديد كه چگونه خواهم بود. او در پاسخ سوال ديگر ديگر خبرنگاران در مورد اين كه آيا جايزه صلح نوبل او را تغيير داده، گفت: در عقايد و نظرات من تغييري داده نشده است، اما اين جايزه به من قدرت و شهامت بيشتري براي ادامه مبارزه ام داده است. خانم عبادي از ترميم قانون مربوط به سرپرستي اطفال استقبال كرد و آن را قدم مثبتي خواند. او گفت زنان ايران منتظر روزي هستند كه هرگونه تبعيض عليه آنان برطرف شود و افزود اگرچه حقوق بشر در ايران نسبت به گذشته بهتر شده، اما اين بدان معنا نيست كه به طور كامل رعايت مي شود. او از مقامات جمهوري اسلامي به خاطر زنداني کردن روشنفکران، نويسندگان، فعالان سياسي و رهبران اصلاحات انتقاد کرد و گفت: آرزوي قلبي من، آزادي تمام کساني است که، متاسفانه، به خاطر ابراز عقايد خود در بند افتاده اند. خانم شيرين عبادي، برنده جايزه صلح نوبل، پيش از ترك ايران براي سفر به پاريس، به مقصد اسلو، براي دريافت جايزه صلح نوبل، در يك كنفرانس مطبوعاتي خواستار تصويب لايحه اصلاح قانون انتخابات شد كه به نظارت استصوابي شوراي نگهبان خاتمه مي دهد. وي تاكيد كرد قصد فعاليت سياسي ندارد و گفت بعضي ها در كشور ما منتظرند تا قهرماني پيدا شود و آرزوهاي آنها را برآورده كند، در حالي که مردم بايد خودشان مبارزه كنند، چرا كه آزادي و دموكراسي در سيني نقره تحويل كسي داده نمي شود. برنده جايزه صلح نوبل همچنين از حقوق برابر براي زنان دفاع كرد و گفت که آنها بايد بتوانند در انتخابات 2005 براي مقام رياست جمهوري نامزد شوند. خانم عبادي از مقامات جمهوري اسلامي به خاطر زنداني کردن روشنفکران، نويسندگان، فعالان سياسي و رهبران اصلاحات انتقاد کرد.