Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society (Arseh Sevom)

The weekly round-up of developments inside Iran from Arseh Sevom, an NGO devoted to human rights and civil society:

In this week’s review, a former IRGC general writes a letter (1) which reads like a confession over the mass executions of the 1980s, the nuclear issue, and the flawed 2009 presidential elections. International sanctions combined with economic mismanagement are causing pain in Iran as families find themselves on the streets (2), paychecks go unpaid, workers strike (3), and projects “sleep". Reporters without Borders protest the detention of journalists in Iran (4), and the 12-year-old daughter of imprisoned lawyer Nassrin Sotoudeh receives notice that she cannot travel abroad (5). Iranians campaign against mandatory hijab (6) and a young woman writes a letter to an Ayatollah questioning its purpose: “Does this covering mean that I cease to exist in the society?” (6)The chief of the morals police calls for an end to State TV programming showing people eating chicken (7). One mosque encourages its members to voluntarily give up their satellite dishes and receivers (8).

Activists Protest for Release of Iranian Journalists

A demonstration organized by activists from Reporters without Borders outside Iran Air office in the Champs Elysees in Paris attracted attention as it raised questions about the well-being of the jailed journalists in Iran.

Activists in Paris used mock injuries and shackles to express solidarity with their Iranian peers behind bars.(Click to tweet)

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The Latest from Iran (14 July): Sanctions Watch

Mehr shows how Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz with its missiles --- an interactive infographic has also been posted

See also The Latest from Iran (13 July): Revolutionary Enemy-Breaking Queues for Chicken

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2049 GMT: Economy Watch. We started today with good-news stories from Fars about 5000 Iranians registering to buy the new automobile of the Iran Khodro Company and a "quality appreciation certificate" presented to Khodro by Renault (see 0600 GMT). We end today with this different perspective from AFP:

Iran's auto production fell by more than 36 percent over the past three months, the industry ministry was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying on Saturday, citing "lack of money".

Production fell to about 241,500 vehicles in the first quarter of the Iranian year (March 21 to June 20), according to the figures.

Iran built more than 1.5 million vehicles in 2011/2012.

The decline coincides with the halt of parts deliveries to Iran by French manufacturer Peugeot because of Western sanctions.

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The Latest from Iran (14 December): Tehran Loses Another Friend?

See also Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried --- Three Developments You Probably Don't Know
Iran Feature: The EA Story That Made It Big in Iranian Media
The Latest from Iran (13 December): Shoes Are Thrown at the President

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1855 GMT: Elections Watch. Ali Mohammad Gharibani, the head of the Coordination Council of the Reformist Front, has said that, that in the “absence of any possibility for the reformists to inform and campaign,” the reformists will not present a list of candidates or endorse any candidates in March's Parliamentary elections.

The council's announcement asserted, "After months of anticipation and struggle to open the political arena to fair elections and to provide a transparent election process, the situation is in effect becoming more and more restrictive.”

In addition to the standard vetting of candidates by the Guardian Council, the regime has suspended and suppressed major reformist groups such as the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, and Etemade Melli.

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The Latest from Iran (3 December): A Regime Feeling Remorse?

Men and women wait at a Tehran airport for the Iranian diplomats expelled from Britain --- the personnel were taken away before the crowd could welcome them

See also Iran Music Special: The Basij Militia Rap for Occupy Wall Street
Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

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2025 GMT: Economy Watch. The Tehran Stock Exchange has been removed from the World Federation of Exchanges.

1935 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Gholamreza Asadollahi, the head of Parliament's Article 90 Commission has repeated his claim that the Ministries of Trade, Transport, and Economy, as well as the Privatisation Organisation and Customs are involved in the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Asadollahi said the Aria Group, at the centre of the fraud, was the import agent for subsidised goods 4 the Ministry of Trade ministry and was involved in an illegal permit for the Shiraz-Bandar Abbas railway with the Ministry of Transport.

Asadollahi also said Aria received illegal permits for privatisation of the National Steel Company, Luristan Automotive, and Railway Services.

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The Latest from Iran (30 November): After the Attack on the British Embassy

Footage from Britain's Channel 4 of the attack on the British Embassy on Tuesday

See also Iran Special Analysis: More Than a Game --- 6 Points About the Attack on the British Embassy
Iran Audio Feature: Scott Lucas with the BBC about Attack on UK Embassy
Iran Latest: Students Storm British Embassy
The Latest from Iran (29 November): Nothing To See Here, Move Along

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2130 GMT: The Embassy Attack. Hossein Alizadeh, the charge d’affaires at the Iranian embassy in Finland who resigned because of the crackdown on post-election dissent, has spoken to Inside Iran about the takeover of the British Embassy:

I would never believe that the Iranian security forces who had the power to crackdown on millions of street protesters in 2009 are now incapable of stopping a few hundred people from entering the British Embassy. Therefore, I believe there was a hidden agenda to drive this action. I am pretty sure that the attackers were not students. They are the same pressure groups that oppress the opposition forces within the country.

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The Latest from Iran (29 November): Nothing To See Here, Move Along

A photograph from Fars of smoke rising above the British Embassy and the Iranian flag flying instead of Britain's Union Jack

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See also Iran Latest: Students Storm British Embassy
Iran Snap Analysis: Assessing The Isfahan Explosion
The Latest from Iran (28 November): The Bank Fraud Expands

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2025 GMT: Tough Talk Alert. In case anyone needed more tough talk on the day the British Embassy was attacked....

The head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has explained in a television interview tells TV that the US cannot fight back if it is attacked by by the Islamic Republic.

1915 GMT: On the Air. Zanan (Women's) TV has been launched on the Internet.

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The Latest from Iran (23 November): Noticing Human Rights

See also Iran Special Analysis: The Security Forces Cross Ahmadinejad's "Red Line"
The Latest from Iran (22 November): The Security Forces v. Ahmadinejad's Senior Advisor

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Political Prisoners in Iran2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Rojin Mohammadi, studying medicine at the University of Manila, has been arrested at the airport on her return to Iran.

1955 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. The Supreme Leader's military advisor, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, assures, "The IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] control the identity and destination of every US warship which intends to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "And Americans fully respond to the IRGC's telecommunications center with complete answers."

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An estimated 40% of the world's oil supply passes through the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

Rahim Safavi also said that air defences protecting Israel were "inefficient" against Iran's arsenal: "“These missile shields which they have deployed in Turkey, occupied Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cannot hit all our missiles. They may hit some of our missiles, but the number of our missiles is so large that they will not be able to target our missiles."

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The Latest from Iran (25 October): No Gratitude for CNN

See also Iran Video Interview: Ahmadinejad Puts Out His Standard Lines to CNN's Zakaria
The Latest from Iran (24 October): How To Instantly Become an Iranian Citizen

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1845 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. In an interview with the Swiss newspaper NZZ, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said that everyone in Iran has access to the Internet, and there are daily papers from all political camps.

1835 GMT: No Gratitude for CNN. Back to where we began this morning, with Iran State TV's attack on CNN and Fareed Zakaria....

It appears the cause for the assault was not Zakaria's interview of the President but an accompanying piece he did about life in Tehran. Zakaria was positive about many aspects of life in a Tehran of "order" and "cleanliness" (somehow missing Tehran's extraordinary levels of air pollution and minimising the significance of its crowded roads), but State TV claimed he had spoken of a "dark and gloomy" city. Specifically, he "tried to prove U.S. claims that Iran is under pressure because of the sanctions. In order to do so he resorted to lies".

Indeed, Zakaria, while ignoring issues such as unemployment and inflation, did hone in on sanctions. He said Iranians blamed the regime in part for the situation and indicated that the Western measures had strengthened the grip of the Revolutionary Guards on the economy:

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The Latest from Iran (7 October): Preparing for the Next Election

1930 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Is this an easing of the political situation over the $2.6 billion bank fraud? Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has said that there is no evidence linking the "deviant current" --- the label for the advisors around President Ahmadinejad --- to the embezzlement.

1900 GMT: All the President's Men (Nip-and-Tuck Edition). I'm not sure if this is news, but it is definitely testimony to the sniping inside the Iranian establishment.

Fars claims that the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, undergoing treatment for cornea dryness, has also had cosmetic surgery to lift his eyelids.

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The Latest from Iran (2 October): Down, Down Goes the Currency

2000 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Another political showcase for the President, as he closed the International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada today....

Ahmadinejad used the occasion for his standard script, declaring the West created Israel to control the Middle East and Western support for the crimes committed by the "Zionist regime".

The President then built on the West-Israel platform for wider points, such as the claim that democracy and the human rights are a "mere show" in the West and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has served the US and Israel by publishing the names of Iranian nuclear scientists so they could be targeted by the "Zionist regime". He added that Zionism symbolizes the essence of the materialistic Western schools of humanism and liberalism.

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