TEHRAN - The results of Iran's February municipal elections will not be approved by the conservative-dominated supervisory board until late April, press reports said Thursday, amid a continuing bid to annul the election of five leading reformers in Tehran.

Ali Mohajedi Savoji, the hardliner who heads the election supervisory committee, told reporters that the board will not announce the results before April 20 and reiterated that the five in question had failed to meet the board's criteria.

"The five failed to turn in their resignations from their posts before the elections," he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, adding that "any person with any number of votes can be eliminated if he is found to have been unqualified."

The five, including former interior minister Abdollah Nuri, are supporters of President Mohammad Khatami and have come under fire by conservatives attempting to reverse their victory in the February 26 vote.
 

Internal Feuding: "One Can Smell Blood", State-controlled Hamshahri, March 5

Following the arrest of Mohsen Kadivar, an open letter was addressed to Khatami by Hojjat-ol Islam val moslemin, Mo'adikhah. Excerpts from that letter are brought here:

In my view, out of the present political confusion, one can smell the blood of our brothers.

The extent of the violence also hurts us. Doubtless, if our brothers had engaged in a quarrel in two different fronts, we would not have been indifferent about the lack of attention by you or any other senior or low-ranking officials. In the case of our dear brother, Kadivar, the media shared the view that "the especial court for the clergy" is an illegal institution.

In contrast, in a handful of dailies with limited circulation but hyped up by the state television, the country's writers received the most heinous response. I recommend that in one of your own meetings with the leader (Khamenei) devote substantial amount of time to resolve this particular problem. It will suffice to say that the two of you, with 20 years of experience can find a solution to the problem.
 

Iran to Flog, Jail Six for Celebrating the Iranian New Year Feast, Reuter, March 18

TEHRAN - Six Iranians have been sentenced to 18 months in jail and 228 lashes of the whip for goading people to dance in the streets at an annual festival in a conservative religious city, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The six had blocked roads with bonfires and forced passers-by to dance during Chaharshanbe-Souri, an ancient Zoroastrian feast held Tuesday ahead of the Iranian new year, which starts Sunday, the Qods daily said.

The court in Mashhad, where a revered Shi'ite Muslim saint is buried, passed the sentence after also convicting the six of disrupting public order, harassing women and consuming alcohol.

On the night of the festival, Iranians let off firecrackers and leaped over bonfires, in the traditional belief it would dispel evil spirits and purify them ahead of the new year.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the occasion has been a cause of tension between Islamic hard-liners, who see the ceremonies as a pagan relic and superstition, and secular-minded Iranians keen on preserving the popular pre-Islamic tradition.
 
 

Clerical Regime and Internet, The New York Times, March 18

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Ever so gingerly, the Internet is being allowed across some final frontiers, into restrictive parts of the Islamic world, under the wary eye of governments used to playing Big Brother…

In Iran, users -- who are monitored by some providers -- must promise, among other things, that they "will not contact stations against Islamic regulations," a reference to sites with sexual content. Violators are warned that they could lose Internet privileges.…

In Iran, an Islamic republic that prohibits the publication of photographs of women unless their heads and bodies are covered, ordinary people were not permitted graphic access to the Internet until December 1997… even now, the service, with prices beginning at $330 a year for one hour a day, remains too costly for all but a few…

A top Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Janatti, warned in a recent Friday sermon that the "disgraceful, immoral pictures" broadcast on the Internet were an affront to "all humanity, morality and chastity" that "threatens us all." Even now, the Iranian Government has still not officially legalized Internet use, perhaps with an eye to conservative militias that have threatened attacks on the offices of Internet providers…

Back to Brief on Iran