The Observer: A headscarf pushed back to show off a new haircut, a tight jacket worn over traditional dress, expensive make-up … the challenge to the hardline clerics is taking place in bars and cafes, not in the polling booth, as the youth of Tehran push the boundaries of self-expression.
Iran’s young women find private path to freedom
Iran celebrates election by ending nuclear talks
Sunday Telegraph: Hardliners in the Iranian regime celebrated victory in parliamentary elections by toughening their stance against the West, firmly rejecting any possibility of talks over the countrys controversial nuclear programme.
Brothel shame of moral enforcer
Sunday Times: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads moral enforcer, who led a crackdown on women failing to adhere to Irans strict Islamic dress codes, has been arrested in a Tehran brothel, it was reported last week.
Irans hardliners surge ahead in poll
Sunday Times: The hardline supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand Iranian president, appeared to be heading for victory in parliamentary elections last night, despite earlier predictions that more pragmatic conservatives who favour a less confrontational approach to the West might triumph.
Scotland would be far better friend to us than England, says Rasoul Movahedian
The Times: A suggestion by the Iranian Ambassador to Britain that his country should foster closer links with Scotland than with England was treated with a mixture of bemusement and horror by Scottish politicians yesterday.
Desire for change unlikely to show
The Times: In an almost deserted polling station in north Tehran yesterday The Times asked the woman in charge how many people had voted. She passed the question to another official. One hundred and thirty-five, he replied in Farsi. The woman turned back to us. More than 300, she said in English.
The morality police try to roll back reform amid culture clash in Iran
The Times: As darkness falls the floodlit domes and minarets of the great Jamkaran mosque begin to glow in translucent greens and turquoise.
Turnout low in Iranian election as reformist voters stay away
The Guardian: Iranians went to the polls yesterday to elect a new parliament, but just as many stayed away out of scepticism that their vote would make any difference.
Iran’s call to vote ignored by millions
Daily Telegraph: Iran’s Supreme Leader cast his vote in parliamentary elections yesterday and, in his solemn and severe dark robes, told his compatriots that taking part was their “national and religious duty”.
Dissident says Iran regime will rig voting
Washington Times: Maryam Rajavi is leader of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exile group dedicated to the overthrow of the regime in Tehran. Mrs. Rajavi spoke by telephone from Paris with The Washington Times yesterday:
