 RFE/RL Iran Report 7/17/2009 2:41:18 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Iran.For more stories on Iran, please visit and bookmark our Iran page . |
| 'Green Friday Prayers' On July 17, thousands of supporters of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi gathered for the Friday Prayers in Tehran led by influential former President Ali Akbar Hafshemi Rafsanjani. Many were turned away by a massive security presence, but others rallied to show their rejection of the presidential elelction results. More  Two Iranian Christians May Face Execution For Apostasy Two Iranian women jailed in Iran's notorious Evin prison for converting from Islam to Christianity may be executed for apostasy, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. More  Rafsanjani: Iran Is In 'Crisis' In much-anticipated remarks at Friday Prayers in Tehran, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has acknowledged the grievances of many Iranians who remain skeptical about the results of the recent presidential election, while at the same time calling for unity. More  All Eyes On Friday Prayers Iran is bracing for Friday Prayers, with the opposition planning a show of strength at the official sermon in Tehran. Those prayers are to be led by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, while Mir Hossein Musavi is expected to attend. Neither has acknowledged the reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. More  Iran Institutes New Laws Defining Internet Crimes In the wake of the postelection protests in Iran, which exploited social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the government in Tehran severely limited the public's access to the Internet through band-width strangulation and by interrupting mobile phone service. Now, the regime in Tehran appears to be taking even more radical steps to control the free flow of information. More  Commentary: What Next For Iran? Now, the crisis in Iran is no longer a matter of election fraud. The issue is not President Mahmud Ahmadinejad as a personality, or the role of the Guardians Council vetting body, or who is the supreme leader. The entire structure of the Islamic republic is under question and the era of public political apathy is over. More  Is There Enough Caspian Gas -- And Political Will? On July 13, the EU and Turkey signed what's been hailed as a historic deal to start work on the Nabucco pipeline, which is designed to give Europe an alternative to the unreliable supply of natural gas from Russia's Gazprom by connecting directly to Azerbaijan and other Caspian sources. But even if Azerbaijan does have the gas to fill the initial need, some question if it has the political will. More  Clinton Tells Iran That Time To Act 'Is Now' After missing two overseas trips due to surgery to repair a broken elbow, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major foreign-policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on the eve of her trip to India and the Association of South East Asian Nation conference in Thailand. She took the opportunity to remind Iran that time is running out on the U.S. offer to negotiate. More Inspired by "The Atlantic's" mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  Nokia Faces Wrath Of Iran's Protesters Some Iranians are boycotting Nokia products after reports emerged that a subsidiary of the Finnish mobile-telephone giant had provided the Iranian government with a "monitoring center" that enables security forces to tap cell phones, scramble text messages, and interrupt calls. More  Iran's Bob Dylan Sentenced Over Koran Song Iranian singer Mohsen Namjoo has been found guilty of "disrespecting religious sanctities" for his use of Koranic verses in a song and sentenced to five years in prison. More Speaking Out At Friday Prayers Davod writes at Inharfa that those protesting the June 12 presidential election results should use the Friday Prayers to make their voice heard. More  Musavi Meets With Family Of Teen Slain In Postelection Unrest On Tuesday, Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, met with the family of 19-year-old Sohrab Arabi, who was killed in the postelection crackdown. More  Iran’s Long Slide Back To Absolute Rule Revolutionaries often end up adopting the habits and methods of those they once opposed. In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has overseen a transformation back to absolute monarchy -- the difference being that this time, a cleric has control, not a dynasty. More  Black Boxes Recovered From Fatal Iran Plane Crash Reports from Iran say two black-box flight recorders have been recovered from a Tupolev aircraft that crashed in Iran on July 15, killing 168 people. More  'Everything Depends On Us Now' Blogger Arash57 says that Iran's reformists must show that they are finished accepting the government's abuse. More  'Our Sohrab Is Not Dead, Velayat Is Dead' Reports from Tehran say that last night in the Abadana neighborhood where 19-year-old Sohrab Arabi (who was shot dead in the postelection unrest) lived, people lit candles in front of his house and chanted "Allah Akbar" in his honor. Many were chanting "Our Sohrab is not dead, Velayat [the rule of the supreme leader] is dead." More  Friday Prayers As A 'No' To Khamenei "I'm Happy" blogger Shangoolam thinks critics of the current establishment should turn out in high numbers for this week's Friday Prayers. More  'Each Of Us Can Make A Difference' Economistbalatarin insists that each and every person can make a difference. More  Teen Victim Of Unrest Buried In Tehran Official reports say about 20 people have been killed in the unrest that has presented the Iranian political establishment with its biggest crisis in decades. One of them, a 19-year-old who disappeared from alongside his mother nearly a month ago, has now been buried in Tehran. More  Montazeri Casts Doubt On 'Repressive' Leader Iranian philosopher, cleric, and activist Mohsen Kadivar has blogged the responses to what he describes as five "fundamental questions" about the legitimacy of Iran's current government. He posed those questions in the form of a dialogue with his former teacher, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a long-time thorn in the side of the Iranian authorities and a symbol for many of internal opposition to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. More In this clip posted to youtube on the one-month anniversary of the disputed election, some of those Iranians chanting "God is great!" from their rooftops and windows in Tehran are using loudspeakers or megaphones. More  Mahmud Ahmadinejad Is The Product Of Fraud Even if one accepts that Mahmud Ahmadinejad received 24 million votes and won reelection as Iran's president, Radio Farda's Mohammad Reza Kazemi argues, his statements and policies provide grounds to dismiss his reelection as based on deceit and untruth. More  Inside An Iranian Protest For 10 years, July 9 has been a symbol of student resistance and defiance. Following the events of the last couple of weeks, everyone knew that there would be demonstrations and the accompanying ruthless crackdown. More  How The World Had Come Crashing Down On Us Blogger Be Omide Ayandeh (Hoping For The Future) wrote this blog entry, titled "Until Tonight, I Never Realized How The World Had Come Crashing Down On Us," after President Ahmadinejad's televised speech on July 7. More  Iran's Vote Critics Remain Defiant Despite Crackdown This week's scattered rallies quickly turned into the most significant mass demonstration in the Iranian capital since security forces crushed protests against the presidential election that even conservative clerics have come to denounce. The message from one protester was clear: "We're here and we're still upset." More  Ex-Vigilante 'Shocked' At Iran Violence After his falling out, a founding member of one of Iran's thuggish "pressure groups" learned what it was like to be on the other side of the truncheons. More recently, Amir Farshad Ebrahimi has watched from exile as former colleagues mete out brutal justice to quell postelection protests. More  Looking For Signs And Prophets Everything here is still topsy-turvy. I never imagined I would watch and listen to the Friday Prayer sermon by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, call Rafsanjani the "last hope," listen and enjoy speeches by Hadi Ghaffari, who was one of the most radical clerics during the revolution and now has turned his attacks on the supreme leader. More Who Are The Vigilantes? The most-feared force that keeps protestors off the streets of Tehran is a shadowy group of men who wear street clothes and carry clubs and pistols. When they swoop down on a demonstration in cars without license plates, the police stand back and so does the Basij militia. The men literally get away with murder. Who are they? More |
