Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 23 Students in Allameh Tabatabai University protested against the extended detention of a fellow student activist who was arrested during a demonstration by women in Tehrans Laleh Park. Ali Vakili, a final-year student in Allameh Tabatabai University, was arrested by State Security Forces last week after he made a speech at a protest rally by women demanding equal rights and a nationwide boycott of Irans presidential elections.
Student demonstration in Iran capital
Student demonstration in Iran capital
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 23 Students in Allameh Tabatabai University protested against the extended detention of a fellow student activist who was arrested during a demonstration by women in Tehrans Laleh Park. Ali Vakili, a final-year student in Allameh Tabatabai University, was arrested by State Security Forces last week after he made a speech at a protest rally by women demanding equal rights and a nationwide boycott of Irans presidential elections.
US firm says Iran ‘illegally’ uses Internet filter software
AFP: A US Web security firm cited in a report on Iran’s Internet censorship said Wednesday that any use in Iran of its software is “illegal and unauthorized.” John McNulty, chairman and chief executive of Secure Computing Corporation said in a statement that his company “has sold no licenses to any entity in Iran.”
The triumph of absolute rule
Boston Globe: As Iran prepares to hold a runoff to its presidential elections, much of the international media are focused on the two remaining candidates, the pragmatist
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his archconservative rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the façade of elections conceals the remarkable changes that Iran has undergone in the past few years.
Rafsanjani promises cash handouts in Iran election bid
AFP: Moderate conservative presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has promised to hand ordinary Iranians billions of dollars in stock options and benefits in a last ditch bid to win their votes away from hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad. Rafsanjani, facing a run-off against the far right-winger on Friday, said he would give “every Iranian family …
Radical rebound in Iran
Baltimore Sun: Three years ago, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a relative political unknown in Iran. But now, the 49-year-old hard-liner – a former commander in Iran’s universally feared clerical army, the Pasdaran, and more recently the mayor of Tehran – has become one of the Islamic Republic’s most recognizable faces.
Iran Nobel winner defends election boycott
AFP: Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi made an impassioned defence of her decision to boycott Iran’s election, which goes into a second round on Friday, and launched a stinging attack on presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ebadi told AFP in an interview that she was not voting because she deemed the entire election was illegitimate, adding it was of little difference whether hardline Tehran mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad or former president Rafsanjani won.
Dissident Disputes Results, Calls Runoff Choices ‘Bad and Worse’
New York Sun: The choice for Iranians tomorrow in the presidential runoff is between “bad and worse,” according to a leader of the July 9, 1999, Tehran University uprisings, Ahmad Batebi.
In a phone interview yesterday with The New York Sun, Mr. Batebi said, “The candidates were never elected by the people, the selection of the candidates are from the supreme leader.The people of Iran had no power in choosing any of them.”
Unfair Elections
Washington Post – Editorial: It has become a truism among those who promote and observe the development of new democracies that elections alone do not make democracy. Without other characteristics of democracy — free press, free speech, the right to form political parties — elections can even be counterproductive, since they give spurious legitimacy to “winners.”
Rafsanjani reassures Iran’s ultra-conservatives, praises Revolutionary Guards
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 23 – Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told a meeting of senior Revolutionary Guards commanders that he has not accepted any pre-conditions to win the support of different factions within the regime for his presidency. All those who are supporting me in the run-off are doing so without any pre-condition, the former President said.
