 RFE/RL Iran Report 12/23/2009 4:00:39 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Iran.For more stories on Iran, please visit and bookmark our Iran page . |
 Fresh Memorial Sparks New Iran Clashes Heavy clashes have been reported outside an Isfahan mosque where a memorial ceremony was due to be held in honor of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a founding architect of the Iranian Revolution and spiritual father of Iran's opposition Green Movement. More Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was full of surprises. His defense of human rights and fierce criticism of the Iranian clerical establishment is well known. But there are other aspects of his personality that are less so, including his knowledge of English, his humility, decency, and sense of humor. More  Top Dissident Cleric Laid To Rest Thousands attend Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral in Iran, including protesters chanting antigovernment slogans. More  Blog: Iranians Begin To Mourn Cleric Thousands of Iranians are mourning today the death of the top dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri who passed away overnight. More  'We Know Our Kids Had No Ill Intentions' Mothers of the young Americans detained in Iran ask the supreme leader for compassion. More  I Confess: I Tore Up The Photo Of Imam Khomeini! Blogger Mohammad Nurizad, who used to be a columnist with the hard-line "Kayhan" daily, reacts to the recent controversy in Iran over the alleged tearing up of the picture of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during an opposition protest. More  Call Made For Leaders Of Green Movement To Be Executed An Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Rahimian, called today for the leaders of Iran’s opposition Green Movement to be executed. More  Imprisoned Iranian Journalist Awarded Golden Pen Of Freedom An imprisoned Iranian journalist has been awarded the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom award for 2010 by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). More  Iran's Reported Nuclear-Weapons Work In a report this week, "The Times" alleged that Iran has been secretly conducting weapons-development work. The report was based on documents obtained by the newspaper that referred to a neutron source, uranium deuteride, that can be used as a trigger for a nuclear weapon. More  Iran's Nobel Peace Laureate Praises 'Men In Hijabs' Campaign Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has praised those men who have in recent days worn the Islamic hijab to express support for jailed student Majid Tavakoli, and to protest against the hijab becoming compulsory for women in Iran after the 1979 revolution. More  Iran Is Likely To See A Harsher Crackdown In the short term, an even harsher crackdown is foreseeable if the opposition presses ahead with the planned demonstrations for the month of Muharram -- and many bet they will. More  Khomeini Portrait Scandal Fuels Postelection Fire Scenes on state television of a defaced portrait of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, have sparked uproar in Iran. The current supreme leader, government officials, and conservative clerics blame the opposition, which counters that the whole thing was staged to allow for a tougher crackdown. More  Ayatollah Rafsanjani? Not Anymore, It Appears "Fararu," an Iranian news website, has posted a directive that is said to be from the deputy news director of Iran’s official news agency IRNA. The directive reportedly calls on the agency’s news sections to refer to Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an ayatollah and a rival of Iran's current president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, as a hojatoleslam, which is a lower religious title. More  They Show No Mercy, Even To Their Own Blogger Zeitun (Olive) writes about the fate of a supporter of Mahmud Ahmadinejad who she says was jailed and tortured after he unintentionally held a picture of the Iranian president upside-down. More Blogger Zahra writes about an instance of the family pressure on Iranian girls and women to get married. More  Iranian-American's Mother Describes His Plight Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was arrested and put on trial in the course of the crackdown that followed mass protests over the results of Iran's June presidential election. When he was given a 15-year prison sentence, his mother says Tajbakhsh and his family were shocked. More |
