(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Politics: 2008 Parliamentary Elections

  • Ali Larijani, former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council: ”The result of the elections is very important in Iran’s confrontation with the West.”
  • Khatami vice president Abtahi describes his election meeting with bloggers, who “warm up a cold and uncompetitive election atmosphere with their contribution,” and urges people to vote, in order not to see the total elimination of the reformist element in the parliament.
  • Former president Khatami criticizes character assassination against the reformists in the Iranian media, but adds such acts have only strengthened the popularity of the reformist camp.
  • Urges Iranians to vote en masse.
  • Ansar claims the Iranian military attaché in Croatia, Hossein Allah-Karam’s return to Iran is not due to participation in parliamentary elections, but because of the death of his wife.
  • Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi boycotts parliamentary elections in Iran.
  • Ansar publishes the names of candidates from the Grand Alliance of the Principalists.
  • The Islamic Republic of Iran’s vice minister of interior: “The parliamentary elections results will be public before the [Iranian] New Year holidays.”
  • A week after ousting of Commander Zare’I, Greater Tehran chief of Law Enforcement Forces, the news agency of the Amir Kabir Polytechnical University of Tehran (AUT News) reports that Zare’i was arrested at a “House of Corruption,” the Islamic Republic’s equivalent of a gentleman’s club, along with six ladies. The six ladies say upon raiding the place, Commander Zare’i had asked them to perform a group prayer naked, which explains their state undress at the time of arrest. Commander Zare’i was the supreme enforcer of the “societal security scheme” planned under the Khatami presidency and enforced under Ahmadinejad, aimed at eliminating ”moral corruption” and “deviation from the path of salvation” in the Iranian society. Commander Zare’i has dealt harshly with what he calls Arazel va Owbash [Hooligan elements] and in an early interview he told the Iranian press: ”35,000 people have been warned by the Law Enforcement Forces, 1,000 people have been summoned to police stations, and 124 people have been delivered to the Judiciary.” AUT News also claims the arrest of Zare’i took place upon direct orders from Shahroudi, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Judiciary, who feared the close friendship between the head of police and Tehran judge Sa’id Mortazavi would lead to freeing of Zare’i. According to AUT News, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the legal proceedings against Zare’i to take place after the parliamentary elections.

Politics: General

  • In an interview with Rooz Online, Ezzatollah Sahabi says it is the duty of the reformist opposition to inform the Iranian public about the price the Islamic Republic pays for its nuclear policies, and the price the Iranian public will pay for the short term economic solutions of the Iranian president which will harm the country in the long run. Sahabi also says the regime is cracking down on the opposition to present a united front in the face of external pressures.
  • Majid Doost-Ali, secretary of Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, calls the Ahmadinejad government the era of zohour-e soghraa [the minor resurrection (of the Twelfth Imam of the Shi’as Mahdi)].
  • According to Rooz Online, the Islamic Republic has closed the bank accounts of Ayatollah Behjat who has challenged the views of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with regard to self-mutilation with machetes during ‘Ashura.
  • E’temad Melli, mouthpiece of Mehdi Karrubi, says the biggest blow to the reform movement came from “extremist elements,” referring to former president Khatami.
  • Raja News claims Mohammad-Reza Khatami, brother of former president, is engaged with a conspiracy with the German ambassador to Iran to derail ”president Ahmadinejad’s nuclear victory.”
  • Raja News, close to the Ahmadinejad government, slams presence of “English and Danish students” at the reformist Islamic Participation Front’s gathering.
  • Chief of the Revolutionary Guards urges the members of the Guards to struggle harder to “realize the expectations of the Supreme Leader.”

Economy and Trade

Diplomacy

Culture, Religion, and Society

  • Nima Kiyan reestablishes the Iranian Ballet, banned in Iran since the 1979 revolution, in London.
  • According to Shia News, anti-Shi’a activity is on the rise in the peripheral regions of Iran: In Chabahar (in far southeast Iran) two religious sects with the names of “Fadayian-e Hazrat-e Omar” and “Fadayian-e Hazrat-e Mo’avieh” have started their activities which allegedly are directed from the countries “on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.”
  • Cultural Deputy of the Awqaf charity organization stresses the necessity of sending religious propagators to the peripheral regions of Iran to deal with ”sectarian [in this case, Sunni] tendencies.”
  • Shi’a News claims there has been a 25 percent increase in “temporary marriages” in Iran.
  • Shia News’ coverage of Bushehr says the Wahabis have attacked a Shi’i book exhibition in Bushehr, and that the merchants from the Persian Gulf buy agricultural products from Bushehr at very high rates to attract Iranian farmers to Sunni Islam.
  • Poorly-planned midterm exams result in a “spontaneous demonstration” at the entrance of the Amir Kabir Polytechnical University, which leads to postponing exams until after Nowrouz (March 21). The online reader comments depict the demonstration as an act of political protest and civil disobedience.
  • Saudi Wahhabi scholar Ibn Jabareyn calls for massacre of the Shi’a in a tape recording broadcast on the internet. The exact edict is “The blood of the rafezi [derogatory word for Shi’a] is halal [religiously permissible].” Original Arabic statement, here.
  • Islamic Republic seeks UNESCO action against speech insulting to its interpretation of Islam.

Human Rights and Labor

  • Four journalists from Gilan province, Arash Bahmani, Babak Mehdi-Zadeh, Kouhzad Esmaili and Ali Anjom-Rouz are condemned to prison for insulting the Twelfth Imam.
  • An employee at a newspaper supporting the reformist camp is arrested upon allegations of espionage for Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.

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