The Washington Times: Iran’s parliament is preparing fashion designs for national Islamic costumes to combat what they call the corrupting influence of Western fashion.
Agence France Presse reports the move comes after the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the nation about a “cultural invasion” and the dangers to public morality of imitating foreigners. Iranians needed to design their own styles, he said.
A Fashion Fatwa
Death and the maiden in Iran
Sunday Telegraph: Atefeh Rajabi appears to have been a fairly normal 16-year-old: sulky, disobedient, and eager to have sex. In London, those attributes earn lectures from parents and teachers on the importance of acting responsibly and not being offensive. In the city of Neka in Iran, where Atefeh Rajabi comes from, they get you hauled up in front of a judge.
Atefeh’s typical teenage behaviour meant that she was charged and found guilty of “acts incompatible with chastity”.
Iran president to visit Belarus amid growing trade
MINSK. Aug 27 (Interfax-West) – Iranian President Mohammad Khatami plans to visit Belarus in September 9-10, during which he will meet with the Belarussian leadership and see leading industrial enterprises, the Belarussian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.
No backdown on uranium: Iran
AFP: THE UN nuclear watchdog must accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium as part of its civil nuclear program, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said today.
“We are still hoping that with the negotiations we have had, we will arrive at a logical solution that they recognise our right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and accept us into the club,” the president said.
Iraqi deputy PM to visit Tehran Saturday
Iran Focus: Iraqs interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh is expected to visit Iran Saturday following a barrage of criticisms directed at the Tehran regime from Iraqs most senior government officials.
California woman missing after hiking accident in Iran
AP: A Stanford University lecturer and veteran mountain climber suffered a fall while descending a mountain in Iran and has been missing for four days, her daughter said Thursday.
A body was found in the area where Kathleen Namphy, 69, was climbing Mount Damavand near Tehran.
Iran remains closed to the idea of women in art
AFP: When entering a music hall in the Iranian capital to hear a performance by folk diva Pari Zanganeh, one could be forgiven for thinking the venue was a top secret military installation.
At the door, uniformed security guards demand entrants to surrender cameras, mobile telephones and tape recorders. The aim is for nothing to leak out from the Jasmine festival, a series of singing performances by women that began in 1999.
Iranians Volunteer For Suicide Operations In Iraq: Report
AFP: Some 250 of Iran’s Islamist militia volunteered for suicide operations against US forces in Iraq at a rally in the holy Shiite city of Mashhad, the conservative daily Kayhan said Thursday.
Tehran paper calls U.S. in Iraq hostage of Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran Focus: A state-owned Iranian daily, Kayhan, described the United States in Iraq hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is now becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. in Iraq is the hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran the daily wrote in its lead article.
Irans judiciary chief, himself an Iraqi, praises Iraqs intifada against U.S.
Iran Focus: In a meeting of top judiciary officials, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the judiciary, praised the emergence of the Iraqi peoples intifada, which will paralyse the Americans.
Born and bred in Iraq, Shahroudi came to Iran for the first time after the 1979 revolution.
