Iran launches new crackdown on unIslamic dress

As predicted...details below and here:

UPDATE: I hadn't noticed this angle on it (provided by USS Neverdock)...

According to the BBC this is a 'subtle' Iran.

Iran on Monday launched a new wave of a moral crackdown against women who "dress like models" and men whose hairstyles are deemed unIslamic, police said.

Tehran's police force dispatched dozens of police cars and minibuses into the early evening rush-hour to enforce the dress rules at major squares in the city centre, an AFP correspondent said.

Oh, you didn't hear about the Iranian student activists on the MSM?

Well, City Boy has some updates this week - check them out here:

1. Latest on the student activists
2. Police brutality against activists

Renewed clampdown on women in Iran is guaranteed

That's what their own police say...

IRAN warned that its police will enforce a drive against clothing deemed unIslamic with renewed vigour this month by doubling the number of forces assigned to check up on lax dressing, local media reported.

Thousands of women have already been warned and hundreds arrested across Iran for failing to adhere to the country's Islamic dress code since the drive began in April, its toughest such crackdown in years.

Ahmad Reza Radan, the head of Tehran's police force, dismissed any notion that the crackdown was now fizzling out, saying it was "unstoppable''.

Union wants release of Iranian activist

As you know, I've been away and just learned through reading through the headlines that Mansour Osanloo has been taken by the authorities. What a shame, but only a matter of time for him, I suppose, as he was actually trying to do something to harm the regime, so it would seem. Details can be found here.

The International Transport Workers' Federation has appealed for the release of an Iranian union leader who reportedly was kidnapped earlier this week in Tehran.

Mansour Osanloo, leader of a bus workers union, ``is still in custody somewhere by agents unknown,'' federation spokesman Sam Dawson said Thursday.

The Associated Press was unable to contact any member of his family in Tehran for information on the case.

Osanloo, 47, president of the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed (Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company), was accosted by several men as he stepped off a bus Tuesday evening, the federation said, quoting information from its Iranian affiliate.

Iran: Ethnic Azeri journalist arrested

Another day, some more crackdowns on free speech.

Iran wages war on 'immoral' cell phone messages

I thought I saw an article about this weeks ago, but maybe it was just inspired foresight for something that would obviously eventually happen under the mullahs (?). Fox News has the story.

Iran’s state telecommunications company is offering rewards to citizens who turn in their neighbors for sending or receiving “immoral” messages on their cell phones, according to a report in The News International.

"There are rewards for those who report senders of immoral multimedia messages to the judiciary," Vafa Ghaffarain, head of Iran's telecommunications company, was quoted as saying.

Dissenters jailed in Iran's 'total freedom'

Ahmadinejad's Web site doesn't mention numerous reformists arrested in last six months. What else would you expect from the two-faced peasant who does the bidding of the mullahs? The full story from AP is here.

Tehran blocks Iranian-French journalism student's exit

Reporters Without Borders is on the case. They wouldn't pull another Kazemi now, would they? You can never be sure with the mullahs.

An Iranian-French journalism student is being prevented from leaving Iran after spending a month in jail for interviewing opposition members, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Mehrnoushe Solouki has been under de facto house arrest in Tehran since March when she was freed from Tehran's Evin prison where she was interrogated and confined to a cell with a permanently-lit neon light, the group said.

Solouki, a doctoral student in Montreal, Canada, had obtained permission from Iranian authorities to produce a documentary film on the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, said Ajar Smouni, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders.

Theories on the mullahs' crackdown

Not like this hasn't been going on since before Ahmadin-jihad's time, but the Seattle & Los Angeles Times try to analyze why it's sped up (or the media has given it more attention) in recent months.

Why the regime has cracked down now remains unclear, although analysts offered several overlapping theories.

The widespread purges and arrests are expected to have an impact on parliamentary elections next year and the presidential contest in 2009, either discouraging or preventing reformers from running against the hard-liners who dominate all branches of government, Iranian and U.S. analysts say. The elections are one of several motives behind the crackdowns, they add.

Public signs of discontent — such as students booing Ahmadinejad on a campus in December, teacher protests in March over low wages and workers demonstrating on May Day — are also behind the detentions, according to Iranian sources....

The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"You're going to think twice about taking to the streets to protest the hike in gasoline prices if you know the regime's paramilitary forces have been on a head-cracking spree the last few weeks."

Despite promises to use Iran's oil revenue to aid the poor, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have backfired, triggering 20 percent inflation over the past year, increased poverty and a 25 percent rise in the price of gas last month. More than 50 of the country's leading economists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad warning he is endangering the country's future.

Others see the repression as an attempt to establish firm control over the domestic situation as the country girds for possible war, international isolation or economic sanctions.

BBC didn't exactly report this...

They mentioned that students/teachers had been detained, but didn't say what really happened to them...as usual.

In a statement issued on Saturday the students of Polytechnic University of Tehran condemned the physical and psychological torture of detained students being kept in ward 209 of notorious Evin prison by the agents of mullahs Information Ministry.

The statement said: The innocent students of Polytechnic are days and nights in the ward 209 of Evin prison at fault for no reason. The news of the physical and psychological tortures inflicted on them for obtaining forced confessions has caused great concern.

The statement concludes: “We expect the freedom loving forces not to forget the imprisoned Polytechnic students, whose only fault is the struggle for democracy and freedom in Iran, and ask them not to stay silent.”

Why is the BBC reporting about Iran's crackdown on students?

What's in it for them? They almost never report on this kind of thing, especially when reporting 'unconfirmed' accounts from the students themselves - it's 'not in their interest' you know...It kind of makes you wonder.

And of course the 'statistics' given about the previous government's (Khatami's) crack-downs are grossly underestimated and likely the mullahs' own 'official' figures...but hey, what do you expect from the Beeb's current embedded spy in Tehran?

Iranian students and professors say an unprecedented number of disciplinary cases have been brought against students in the last month.

They say 29 have been arrested in the last two months for political activism and 207 were taken before disciplinary committees in the last 40 days alone.

By comparison, just four students were disciplined a month on average under the last government.

University professors who criticise the government are also losing their jobs.

One of the best-known reformist professors to be affected by the latest purge is the outspoken cleric Mohsen Kadivar.

You know things are bad in Iran when Robin Wright finally admits it

You can read the related aritlce here - some excerpts are below.

Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution.

The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups.

The move has quashed or forced underground many independent civil society groups, silenced protests over issues including women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate, and sparked society-wide fear about several aspects of daily life, the sources said.

Few feel safe, especially after the April arrest of Hossein Mousavian, a former top nuclear negotiator and ambassador to Germany, on charges of espionage and endangering national security.

Iran's hard line cracks down for summer

From the National Post (Canada). At a few people are reporting it in the MSM - wonder why...?

As the world frets about Iran's nuclear intentions, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched the most extensive crackdown on domestic dissent in 20 years.

Men and women have been arrested for wearing clothes that flout Islamic strictures, students and union leaders have been jailed as national security threats, and women's rights groups have been branded a national threat.

Fearing a U.S.-backed "velvet revolution" in which western governments will manipulate opposition groups within Iran, officials are monitoring civil-society activists, intellectuals and academics, and doing all they can to prevent them from having contacts with the outside world. Few moderates have escaped the new war on dissent.

Iran takes further action to suppress dissent

From the LA Times. I would say that the fact that this has not been reported in the Western MSM is not because "the government has harshly clamped on the media" or because "Western news organizations also feel intimidated" but simply because they don't want to (or are being told not to) report it. But hey, what do I know?...

The government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the midst of one of the most intensive crackdowns on domestic dissent in the past two decades, targeting groups as diverse as banks and labor unions, students and civic organizations....

...Although the internal crackdown has been widespread, it has attracted relatively little attention outside Iran, in part because the government has harshly clamped down on the media....

...Western news organizations also felt intimidated. The bureau chief of one western news organization in Tehran likened present-day Iran to the former Soviet Union, where foreign journalists writing about human rights abuses would have their visas revoked. "There are many things that I would like to write about, but can't," the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They would shut down our office and kick us out."

Iran stepping up persecution of Baha'is

Radio Free Europe reports:

A representative to the United Nations for the Baha'i International Community says Iran has stepped up its persecution of believers of the religious faith.

Bani Dugal said Iran's Information Ministry appeared to be systematically generating suspicion, fear, and hatred toward Baha'i followers in an attempt to destabilize the community.

The Baha'i faith originated in Iran during the 19th century. Of an estimated 5 million followers worldwide, some 350,000 now live in Iran. But Tehran does not officially recognize the religion.

Iran's big brother for bloggers

Al-Guardian reports on Big Brother Mullah. Starts like this.

Want to start a blog in Iran? Then you'll have to register it with the government - which has recently begun to require that all bloggers register at samandehi.ir, a site established by the ministry of culture of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

All you need do is give your personal information, including your blog's username and password - otherwise it will be filtered and blocked so that nobody in Iran, and perhaps outside too, will be able to access it. This has led to an outcry among many Iranian bloggers who consider the net an independent and free forum for expression....

Unreported protests & civil disobedience in Iran

A few recent unreported events...

• Tehran’s Youths Attacked the Governmental Centers and Buses (NCRI)
• Iranian Workers Go on Strike (NCRI)
• Iranian Students warn Ahmadinejad (Aryamehr)

Hunger strike by Amir Kabir University students

Aryamehr is on it, as usual (via City Boy). You can see more images on his site.

City Boy reports that Amir Kabir University students have gone on a hunger strike in protest against the illegal and savage Islamic occupational regime's detention of seven Iranian students and against the increased repressive atmosphere that is prevalent on Iranian campuses across the country. For the full story click HERE.

Iran Focus reports, with state media photos. You can view them all here - again, this is the only place you'll probably see them. Just another day for X and Y in (Islamic Republic) paradise...

Iran’s State Security Forces are cracking down on youths across the country. Residents in Tehran say that bogus charges are being used as justification for the arrest of political activists and those perceived to be potential threats to the security of the clerical establishment.

One Tehran resident reached by telephone told Iran Focus that thousands of youths had been arrested on “phoney charges” such as non-conformance to the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code or even drug trafficking. “Maybe less than one percent of those arrested have actually done something illegal. The rest are being picked up at random for socialising in public or looking at the security forces in a certain manner”, the resident said on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Iran journalist sentenced to three years jail

...just another day for you and me in paradise...

An Iranian journalist arrested last year after returning from a conference abroad has been sentenced to three years in jail, the judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.

Ali Farahbaksh, who specialised in economic affairs, worked for the now banned reformist Yas-e No newspaper and the centrist Shargh, which started to reappear earlier this week after serving a nine-month ban.