From Behind the Quran Curtain



Iran to launch a new suicide bombers garrison on Thursday
Tehran, Iran, May 24 – Iran will launch a new suicide-bombers garrison on Thursday, according to the head of a group affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a government-orchestrated campaign to recruit suicide bombers, told the state-run news agency Mehr on Tuesday that the group planned to officially announce the existence of the new garrison in a ceremony in Tehran’s largest cemetery on Thursday afternoon.

The new garrison will be named after Nader Mahdavi, an IRGC naval commander who died in a suicide attack on an American naval vessel in 1987, Samadi said.

The report said that more that 55,000 “volunteers for martyrdom-seeking operations” had been registered so far by the organisation, which also calls itself “Estesh’hadioun”, or martyrdom-seekers.

In February, the group launched a new recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Tehran to fight against “Global Blasphemy”.

The group was set up by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 2004. Those who join have three choices: To carry out suicide attacks against “the infidels occupying Iraq”, against Israel, or against Salman Rushdie.

Crackdown on women spreads to Iran’s provinces
Tehran, Iran, May 12 – Iranian security forces have extended their crackdown on “mal-veiled” women from Tehran to Iran’s other provinces.

The semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami quoted on Wednesday the head of the State Security Forces in the province of Gilan, northern Iran, as saying that 15 women had been arrested on charges of “mal-veiling”.

The women were all arrested in the provincial capital, Rasht, it said, adding that a number of other women had also received warnings that they would also be arrested if they breached the Islamic dress code.

The crackdown, which began in Tehran in mid-April, coincided with a call by Majlis (Parliament) deputies for the adoption of a bill to regulate women’s attire during the hot summer months.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, women in Iran have been forced to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise the shape of their bodies in public.

Penalties for disobeying the dress code are severe. Women caught flouting the code can receive lashes, jail sentences, and large fines.

Iran students protest over increased restrictions

TEHRAN, May 24 (Reuters) - Stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilantes on Wednesday in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said.

Students who covered their faces with scarves lit fires outside dormitories through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, photographs showed. By dawn the streets were littered with hundreds of stones they had thrown.

Deputy Tehran Governor Abdollah Roshan told the ISNA students news agency 40 policemen and four students had been injured. He said the police had arrested six people.

Senior student leader Abdollah Momeni said up to 2,000 students had gathered for the protest over the expulsion of some students and the way authorities had been handling critics.

He added 20 had been seized by Islamic vigilantes who broke into the dormitories.

"The main reason for the objections in recent days goes back to the limitations imposed on universities and political students after the new government came to power," Momeni said.

Religious conservative Ahmadinejad was inaugurated in August.

"Some active students have been expelled and some students face mass summons before disciplinary committees. We are also objecting to recent dealings with critical professors such as Ramin Jahanbegloo," he added.

Iran earlier this month said it had arrested philosopher Jahanbegloo on charges of espionage. He specialised in liberal political philosophy and worked extensively on developing understanding between Iran and the West.

Other student witnesses said the crowd had chanted "Down with despotism" and hurled stones at police cars outside the dormitories, breaking their windows.

Iran's last major nationwide student demonstrations were in 2003, when hundreds of students were arrested.

Iran’s ethnic protests show no sign of relent
Orumieh, Iran, May 25 – Anti-government protests and clashes erupted in dozens of towns and cities in north-west Iran on Thursday following a 100,000-strong rally in the city of Tabriz by enraged Azeris on Monday against the publication of an insulting cartoon in an official daily, eye-witnesses reported.

In the town of Marand, thousands took part in a violent demonstration chanting anti-government slogans, a dissident who requested anonymity told Iran Focus by telephone.

In nearby Orumieh, government forces opened fire on a rally by several thousand protesters near the local headquarters of the state broadcasting company on Wednesday, killing at least people, witnesses reported. Previously, the offices of the daily Iran, which published the cartoon, were set on fire in the city.

Protests also flared on Thursday in the cities of Zanjan and Ardebil which had been the scenes of mass rallies since Monday.

During Monday’s demonstration in Tabriz, angry Azeris poured in the streets, attacking state-owned buildings and banks. Police used teargas to disperse the protesters.

Dozens of state-buildings were also set on fire in several other towns.

Ethnic Azeris make up approximately 25 percent of Iran’s population.

If you are reading this, then you must be interested in the situation in Iran to have gotten to his point, through all of the above.

I would like to ask you then, the items so far? Do they make sense in the same Universe as this statement in the Washington Post?

Iran Requests Direct Talks on Nuclear Program

TEHRAN, May 23 -- Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats.

The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran's political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing a taboo against contact with Washington that has both defined and confined Tehran's public foreign policy for more than a quarter-century, they said.

Or, are our intellectual elite, once again practicing wishful thinking that will result in something like this

Ahmadinejad laughs off resolution

IRAN'S hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today brushed off a decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency to report his country to the UN Security Council as "funny" and labelled his country's enemies as "idiots".

"You can pass as many resolutions as you like and be happy about it, but you cannot stop the progress of the Iranian people... We thank God that our enemies are idiots," he was quoted as saying by Iranian news agencies.
The IAEA voted yesterday to report Iran to the UN Security Council amid fears the country is seeking nuclear weapons. Iran argues it only wants to generate electricity and has accused the West of trying to intimidate it.

"We don't need you. It is you who need the Iranian people. This is the funniest decision I've seen," said the austere president.

"They are angry at the Islamic Republic, because the Iranian people have reached the summit of science and technology."
And in a direct challenge to the West, he said: "You know you cannot do anything, because the era of domination and repression is over and we are no longer in the Middle Ages."

Iran has retaliated against the resolution, with Ahmadinejad ordering an end to snap IAEA inspections as well as the resumption of sensitive fuel cycle work

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