Cautiously Chafing Under Clerics' Rule, The Baltimore Sun, July 13 

TEHRAN - …Tahmineh Milani, a promising young film director, has battled the religious establishment in Iran. Her films have been banned….

Finally, several years ago, the 37-year-old producer-director took on a subject she thought was safe - the environment. She produced a film about an 8-year-old girl who learns to appreciate the environment….

After two weeks in the theaters, the filmed was pulled. Fundamentalists complained that the 8-year-old actress wasn't wearing proper Islamic head covering…

But many young Iranians in Tehran don't have the money to socialize. They live at home with their parents because they can't afford not to…

"And the source of that [problem] is unemployment," says the 28-year-old graduate student. "More than half of my life has passed and I have zero. In this country, the rule for the youth is not to live. It's to stay alive."…

… Women still need a husband's permission to travel out of the country; men can divorce their wives freely; they have foremost custody rights to their children; a woman's life is worth less than a man's; a woman cannot be a judge in Iran….

Iran Court Acquits Editor of Slandering Minister, Reuter, July 15  

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An Iranian court has found the editor of a hardline Islamic weekly not guilty of slander for articles accusing Iran's telecommunications minister of financial mismanagement, Tehran newspapers said Tuesday.

The daily Salam said the court acquitted Mehdi Nassiri, editor of the Islamic weekly Sobh, of charges of slander and confusing public opinion. The court found Nassiri guilty of insulting Post and Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Gharazi but did not punish the editor, ruling that he had "good intentions."

Sobh had accused Gharazi of favoritism in delivering telephone services to officials, breach of budgetary guidelines, questionable practices in granting foreign contracts and wasting ministry funds on chartered planes and helicopters…

Sobh has been allied with conservative critics of outgoing President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and has blasted government bodies for alleged corruption and mismanagement… Iranian analysts said the demands appeared orchestrated by the conservatives against moderate officials close to Rafsanjani and president-elect Mohammad Khatami who is due to take over Aug. 3…

A majority of parliamentary deputies earlier this month called for an investigation into the assets of top officials of Rafsanjani's administration and their families. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had earlier called on the judiciary to confront the misuse of public funds, which he described as a "dangerous phenomenon."

Velayati Accused of Lacking Strategy, IRNA, July 13 

Abbas Maleki, Deputy Foreign Minister for Research, told reporters: "On the eve of the 21^st century, no country can afford to have a foreign ministry which is passive and lacks a strategy. The future foreign minister must agree with the views of the new president."

Twelve Hanged in Mashad, Reuter, July 15

DUBAI - … Iran publicly hanged 12 convicted drug smugglers in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, Kayhan daily newspaper reported on Monday.

More than 1,000 people have been executed in Iran since a 1989 law took effect imposing the death sentence for possession of five kg (11 lbs) of opium or 30 grams (just over one ounce) of heroin.

Hezbollah Hoodlums Raid Park, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 8 

Tehran - A group of hoodlums calling themselves the Hezbollah (Party of God) raided Sorkh-Hessar Park on July 4. They began following young couples, interrogating them about whether they were blood relatives, and arrested a number of people. In several cases, clashes ensued between the thugs and the people they were harassing.

The clerical regime forbids males and females who are not either married or closely related by blood from mingling in public or private. Offenders may be arrested, flogged, fined, or imprisoned.

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