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Schools Closed for Two Days in Tehran - Schools were closed for two days in Tehran because of severe air pollution and smog. Children, the elderly and those with asthma were told to stay at home. Tehran has one of the poorest air qualities amongst the cities around the world. Meanwhile the Islamic parliament debates whether male doctors should examine female patients!!.
10th December, 1998 -
Mohammad Mokhtari is Killed by IRI Hit Squads, Another is Now Missing - The body of the Iranian dissident poet has been found after he went missing
in Tehran last week, his relatives said on Wednesday.
They said Mohammad Mokhtari's son, Siavash, identified his father's body at a Tehran morgue on Wednesday. Mokhtari had been missing since he left his home last Thursday.
``Officials said Mokhtari's body had been found on Friday in the outskirts of Tehran but that it had not been identified,'' a relative told Reuters.
We have now learned that yet another writer, Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh disappeared on Wednesday afternoon after telephoning home to say he would be visiting a publisher's office on his way back from work.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement sent to Reuters that the killing of writers and opposition figures in the Islamic republic was reaching crisis proportions.
Mokhtari was one of the key writers who organised the famous petition against censorship in the Islamic Republic, may his memory and bravery live
on in the ever growing list of Iranian freedom seekers. Freedom loving people of the world, help us to put a stop to the terror squads of the Islamic
Republic.
The Declaration of Iranian Writers
Mr. Mokhtari and a group of other Iranian writers have been repeatedly questioned by a revolutionary court for trying to reactivate a professional association of Iranian writers.
Last week, another dissident writer Majid Sharif died in suspicious circumstances after disappearing for four days, and concern has also been expressed over the disappearance of an activist Piruz Davani who disappeared more than two months ago.
Sahabi Banned from Writing - Ezzatollah Sahabi, a prominent liberal journalist in Iran has been banned from writing for a year.
The ruling came from a special court that deals with press matters, which found Mr Sahabi guilty of publishing slanderous articles about the military in a magazine, called Iran-e-Farda.
He was also fined one-thousand dollars.
Ayatollah SaeedZadeh is Defrocked - An Iranian court has banned reformist clergyman Mohsen Saeidzadeh from wearing his clerical garb in an effort to silence his unorthodox views, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
``Saeidzadeh has been sentenced to defrocking on charges of disturbing public opinion through insulting the Islamic republic, meaning that he no more has the right to wear clerical costume,'' the daily Arya quoted Shirin Ebadi, the Shi'ite Moslem cleric's attorney, as saying.
Saeidzadeh, known for supporting women's rights, was arrested in August on unspecified charges and tried in a closed court in the absence of his attorney.
The paper did not say if Saeidzadeh was still in prison. Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry in September refused to allow the publication of Saeidzadeh's ``Freedom of Women during the Time of Islam,'' charging that the book showed disrespect towards the prophet of Islam.
More than 3,000 protesters chanted, "death to despotism" and "free all political prisoners."
Shortly after the protest began, members of the Bassij and Revolutionary Guards, posing as the Students' Bassij, attacked the crowd with clubs and knuckle-dusters. Clashes continued from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and a number of students were arrested.
The Elm-o San'at is one of the biggest universities in Tehran.
Soldier Kills 6 Guards Majors - Siavosh Rahmani Aqdam a conscript private attacked the revolutionary guards post single handedly and killed at least 6 Majors of the revolutionary guards. Siavosh was finally gunned down by extra security forces called in. The incident was reminiscent of when a member of the Shah's Imperial Guards gunned down scores of high ranking military personnel in the canteen, during the last days of the monarchy in Iran.
In a funeral procession held for the revolutionary guards Majors, Naqdi the head of the guards' protection unit pledged that they will be revenged by attacking liberal newspapers and figures.
May the memory of Siavosh, this soldier of Iran live for ever. Home