Iran Election Guide

Donate to EAWV





Or, click to learn more

Search

Entries in Mohammad Reza Naqdi (49)

Saturday
Aug202011

The Latest from Iran (20 August): Regime's Cyber-Warriors "We Don't Get No Respect"

US citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, shown with fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who were convicted today of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison (see 1350 GMT)


1422 GMT: Some People are So Ungrateful Watch. The head of State broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami, has declared that he said to the "losing" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi after the 2009 Presidential elections, "You got these 13 million votes only with the help of IRIB."

The official returns, challenged by millions of Iranians in the days after the ballot, showed President Ahmadinejad with 24 million votes v. Mousavi's 13 million.

Zarghami said IRIB, with the permission of the Supreme Leader, had shown campaign ads for Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, even though Karroubi's ads "crossed red lines" by showing "prohibited persons".

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Aug112011

Iran Snapshot: Tehran Offers Basij Militia to Britain as "Peacekeeping Force"

In recent days, we have noted the interest in Iranian leaders and media in the situation in England, from the declaration that the Supreme Leader predicted the unrest as the next phase of the "Islamic Awakening" to President Ahmadinejad's suggesting of referring the matter of "savage" British policing to the United Nations Security Council to the suggestion that Iran could send human rights inspectors to London.

This, however, may be the most generous expression of assistance --- Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has offered the services of the Basij militia as a "peacekeeping force". 

In case, you haven't heard of this peacekeeping force, here is a photograph of members of the "people's militia", established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini:

And here are Basij militia keeping the peace on 20 June 2009, eight days after Iran's disputed Presidential election, by firing into crowds of protesters:

I'm not quite sure of Naqdi's logic --- is he sending the Basij militia to work with the "savage" and "racist" British police? Or is he sending the militia to work with "oppressed people" in a peaceful assault on buildings, shops, and security forces?

No matter --- I am certain that the commander is making his offer with the very best of intentions....

Sunday
Jul242011

Iran Feature: Supreme Leader Says "Read"...As Books are Banned and Publishers are Closed

On Wednesday, the Supreme Leader said, "Iranian officials should encourage the youth to read useful books....Reading should become an everyday habit among all Iranians, and the youth in particular." Pointing to Iran's long history of publishing books, he expressed disappointment at the current figures of book publication and reading. 

A quick look at how the Islamic Republic has encouraged reading in recent years....

November 2006: The regime bans thousands of books, including acclaimed works from homegrown novelist Sadegh Hedayat, classics like William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and best-sellers like The Da Vinci Code. Minister of Culture Mohammad Hossein calls publishers "assistants for evil" and says they should stop serving a "poisoned dish to the young generation."

January 2011: A think tank close to Iranian security forces publishes a leaflet listing publishers, writers, and translators who are “usurpers” intent on overthrowing the regime.  The publishers  include Cheshmeh, Ghoghnous, Akhtaran, and Kavir. Among the writers listed are Emaduddin Baghi, Ramin Jahanbegloo, and poet Simin Behbahani.

The work of novelist Paulo Coelho is banned.

Mehr reports on the closing of businesses along Tehran's Karim Khan Avenue, renowned for its bookstores.

The head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, tells an audience of the dangers for Iran's students of "Western" texts in the humanities and social sciences.

May 2011: Works by leading novelist Ali Ashraf Darvishian and several other writers are ordered off the shelves at the Tehran International Book Fair.

The books which are removed include An Introduction to Heidegger's Existential Philosophy; The Nik-Akhtar Family, a novel by distinguished Iranian satirist Iraj Pezeshkzad; the third volume of The Cambridge History of Iran; and a book about yoga.

July 2011: Six printing houses close because of economic problems, including a shortage of orders and the rise of imported products.

Writer Mostafa Rahmandust notes only one book for each two Iranian children is published annually, "A writer is not able to earn a living, nor is a publisher hopeful about the outcomes of his/her work....Cultural officials have not carried out their duties properly in the field of children's literature."

But there is one positive development in the Iranian book world, with the appearance of a new work titled "Leading Approaches". The subject? A collection of the speeches and statements of an Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tuesday
Jul122011

The Latest from Iran (12 July): Arresting the "Deviant Current"

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz has written to Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Iran, "What is happening now in the Islamic Republic prisons is a crime against humanity and has nothing less than Stalin’s inhumane treatment of prisoners in the forced labour camps of Siberia."

Referring to the death of two political prisoners, Hoda Saber and Mohsen Dokmehchi, Saharkhiz wrote, "They are deliberately trying to destroy us and have prepared a silent death for us because they fear our survival even behind bars."

Hoda Saber, a political activist and journalist died 10 days into his hunger strike, while Mohsen Dokmehchi, a businessman arrested in the post-election protests of 2009 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, died last March from pancreatic cancer.

Saharkhiz, arrested in July 2009 and sentenced to three years in prison for "insulting the Supreme Leader and the regime", urged Shaheed to act immediately to inform the public of the prisoners’ plight, stressing that any delay will only result in more deaths.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jun162011

The Latest from Iran (16 June): Halting the Slide

2010 GMT: Public Service Announcement. I will be on the BBC's The World Tonight just after 2130 GMT, discussing the current political battle within Iran.

2005 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Mohammad Dehghan has confirmed that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani will lead a Parliamentary committee meeting with President Ahmadinejad next week over the merger of ministries.

1955 GMT: Two Years Later. More on the open letter from Tehran University's Islamic Association to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, demanding punishment for those who attacked university dormitories two nights after the 2009 Presidential election (see 1110 GMT)....

The Association notes that students who were detained in the raid are serving prison sentences while those who "ordered and carried out the attack" have not been brought to justice.

Plainclothes agents, riot police, and special units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps raided the dormitories. Iran's largest reformist student group claims five students were killed, but Iranian authorities have only said that "100 to 120 students were injured".

The exact number of students arrested and of casualties has never been officially released.

Click to read more ...

Monday
May232011

The Latest from Iran (23 May): The Net Closes on Ahmadinejad's Inner Circle

1530 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mousavi campaign activist Reza Safavi has been arrested in a raid of his home by six agents, with his computer and other items confiscated.

1515 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (cont.). More on the unusual interview in which the President's son-in-law tears apart the President's advisors....

Mehdi Khorshidi says that the leader of "deviant group" --- presumably Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- never studied theology but dares to comment on religious matters. Indeed, Rahim-Mashai is so arrogant that he challenges Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who is esteemed by the Supreme Leader and has 30 years of experience.

Khorshidi continues that Rahim-Mashai has endeavoured to sabotage and eliminate useful people around Ahmadinejad, replacing them with his cronies.

And Khorshidi's reference to the "deviant group" splashing out money on "problematic" people such as actors? Well, in January, Hojatoleslam Mohammad-Taqi Rahbar, the head of the clerical faction in Parliament, noted Rahim-Mashai’s meeting with an Iranian actress, Hedyeh Tehrani, at the Presidential office:

Anyone with a bit of Principlist zeal will not approve of the lowly acts of the Head of the Presidential office. All Principlists especially the President’s true supporters are ashamed that such a character is running the office of the president.....I don’t know what an actress’s [photograph] exhibition has to do with the head of the presidential office that he has to fund it with $80,000 from the Treasury. These loans are handed out by him [Mashai] at a time when many farmers are struggling with repeated droughts and are starving. Yet the government refuses to give them a $1,000 loan.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Apr202011

The Latest from Iran (20 April): Ahmadinejad's Powers of Intelligence?

2140 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. Most Iranian media may be avoiding any reference to clashes in Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran, which activists claim have killed up to 15 people, but the conservative site Tabnak has made an indirect but blunt approach....

Tabnak, linked to Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, has written that militant Wahhabi groups are being supported by Gulf states to foment separatist unrest in the region and that the British are encouraging this.

Tabnak claims that the "British Ahwazi Friendship Society", a group claiming to promote Ahwazi Arab culture, is co-ordinator of the Wahhabi separatists of the "Arab People's Front".

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr142011

The Latest from Iran (14 April): Honouring a Detained Lawyer

A "Free Sotoudeh" Poster With Her Children2050 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The European Union has published the names of 32 Iranian officials who were subjected to sanctions this week. Included are Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi, Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Basij commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi, and Iran police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam.

2045 GMT: Media Watch. Another curious suspension of a conservative publication --- the English-language site of Tabnak, the outlet of Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of the Expediency Council and 2009 Presidential candidate, has not updated since 1 February.

Ayande has not published in Persian since 9 March.

Click to read more ...

Friday
Mar112011

The Latest from Iran (11 March): In the Balance

2118 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Hashemi Rafsanjani may have lost the contest to retain his leadership of the Assembly of Experts, but he has triumphed elsewhere: in a poll of Khabar Online readers on the political figure of the last year, Rafsanjani gets 59% of the vote vs. 17% for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Conservative MP and Government critic Ali Motahari is third with 9.2%.

2115 GMT: The New Leader. Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani has issued his first statement after the Assembly of Experts election, declaring, "We must preserve unity."

2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Political activists Mohammad Reza Malekian and Iman Sedighi have been freed on bail.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Mar102011

The Latest from Iran (10 March): President Rahim-Mashai?

1650 GMT: "Proper" Studies. Iran's Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education has banned Iranian graduate students from pursuing a dissertation on any subject related to Iran while studying abroad.

The ban covers all Iranian students, whether they are financially supported by the Government or paying for their education. Students who violate the directive will face problems with confirmation of their degrees by the Iranian authorities and with applications for jobs.

1615 GMT: Labour Front. Workers at Tabriz Petrochemical Plant have ended an 11-day strike after their demands were met.

1610 GMT: Smoothing the Waters. More on the Supreme Leader's appearance at the Assembly of Experts....

Click to read more ...

Page 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 Older Posts »