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PARIS - Iranian exiles said they handed a petition to French President Jacques Chirac's office on Thursday with signatures of 650 prominent French people opposed to a visit by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami.
The petition said that, under Khatami's presidency, 500 people had been executed in Iran, including 10 stoned to death, while 36 opponents were assassinated abroad while "aggravated discrimination continued against women and religious minorities.
"The regime of the mullahs will certainly take advantage of Khatami's visit to legitimize its crimes and have its hands even freer to pursue repression and exportation of terrorism," said the petition, organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The petition followed an earlier one handed by the same group to Chirac's office last week which the exiles said was signed by 22,000 French people.
The group said the latest petition was signed by such personalities as former minister Francoise Hostalier, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, philosopher Andre Glucksman as well as 260 university professors and 231 doctors and health workers.
The group recalled that 146 French
parliamentarians issued a similar appeal on June 29 against Khatami's visit.
Italian Daily Displays the Gloomy Picture Of Women's Condition in Iran, State-controlled Tehran Times, October 21
TEHRAN -- The Italian daily Corriere della Sera, in a report dispatched from Tehran written by its correspondent Antonio Ferari, compared the Islamic Republic of Iran with the Communist states.
The report, titled "The Covert Suffering of Iranian Women", which was carried by the daily on Tuesday, depicted a gloomy picture of the women’s condition in Iran, claiming that a large number of young women commit suicide.
It added that "some 73 percent of the
young women have no particular objective in their lives and are forced
to marry men chosen by their families". In fact, the Italian correspondent
tried to show some connection between the suicides and the Islamic system,
which is very ridiculous because psychologists cite different reasons for
committing suicide such as failure in love, education and the like…
Iran Hangs Four Iranians, One Afghan, Reuters, October 21
TEHRAN - Iran has hanged four Iranian men and one Afghan national for murder, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The state-run daily Iran said the five men were hanged at a Tehran prison at dawn on Wednesday.
[The condemned had already spent between
two and 12 years in prison.]
Iran Shuts Down Student Paper Over Attack Photos, Reuters, October 21
TEHRAN - Iranian authorities have closed a student publication for carrying photos of a bloody police attack on student dormitories, which sparked widespread unrest in July, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
It was the second recent closure of a student magazine in Iran, where several dailies have been banned this year.
The newspaper Sobh-e Emrouz said a court in Tehran, acting on a complaint by police over the photos, ordered the student magazine Anjoman (Council), to be closed.
It quoted an Islamic student group
at a technical university as saying the magazine's publisher and a graphic
artist were expected to be put on trial next week on unspecified charges.
More Alien Than the Aliens? State-Controlled Tehran Times, October 19
The Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi went to Paris on Thursday to discuss various aspects of President Khatami’s forthcoming visit. The Foreign Ministry has not dispatched any news about the trip….
Sarmadi is in Paris, but his visit has not been officially announced yet. We are good in raising slogans saying that the officials are the servants of the people. When it comes to the issue of taking the people into confidence they are more alien than the aliens to our officials.