[Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of Iranian Resistance] on Wednesday called for Iranian women to mobilize against the "mullahs' misogynous dictatorship."

In a statement marking International Women's Day faxed to AFP in Nicosia, Maryam Rajavi insisted the recent "reformist" victory in Iran would deliver little improvement for the lives of Iranian women.

"Despite all the demagogic claims by Khatami, the mullahs have stepped up their anti-human pressures and discrimination against women," said the statement. "The arrest, beating, harassment and humiliation of women for the way they dress, the sexual segregation of medical services and a host of other misogynous measures have been going on during Khatami's presidency," it said.
 

Revealed: Role of A President in the Murder of His Own People, The Independent, March 8

… The dark and sinister political role of ex-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - once the most powerful man in the Islamic Republic - is at last being revealed in Tehran.

Mr. Rafsanjani, who first disclosed the Iran-Contra scandal, is being linked to at least six senior Iranian government officials who, during his presidency, ordered the secret execution of more than 80 dissidents, intellectuals and criminals. The ex-president, it now transpires, also appointed members of his own family to high positions in the lucrative oil ministry in Iran.

As the political star of Mr. Rafsanjani falls through the firmament so the revelations about his… presidency and its nepotism are being uncovered. The names of at least seven men with whom he dealt - some of whom are said to have issued "fatwas" ordering the death of dozens of innocent Iranians during Mr. Rafsanjani's rule - are known in Iran but have never been published before: they include Ali Fallahian, former head of intelligence, Ali Razini, who was head of judiciary powers in Tehran - he is now a member of the "special" clergy court - and Mustafa Pourmahamadi, the former deputy intelligence minister in charge of international affairs.

The "death squad" committee also included Ruhollah Hosseinian, who is currently head of Iran's "documentation center", two ayatollahs - said to have signed a decree ordering the murder of "apostates" - and Said Emami, the ex-deputy intelligence minister in charge of "operational" affairs. Mr. Emami was found dead - murdered with a potassium injection - while in prison for allegedly ordering the murders of intellectuals during the presidency of Mr. Rafsanjani's successor, Mohamed Khatami.

Many in Tehran believe Mr. Rafsanjani was himself a member of the "killer" committee.

At least three Sunni Muslim clerics were liquidated. An Armenian Orthodox priest was killed after his name appeared on the intelligence ministry execution list…
 

2,000 Workers Protest Over Labor Law, Agence France Presse, March 8

TEHRAN - Some 2,000 disgruntled Iranian workers rallied outside parliament Wednesday in renewed protests against recent legislation enabling employers with fewer than five staff to strip them of social security.

The demonstrators accused parliament of having "humiliated the workforce with its anti-worker law."

Several of the protestors, some of whom had traveled to Tehran from the provinces, also blasted Chamber of Commerce President of being in the service of "the bosses and the capitalists."

The demonstrators also threatened to trigger a "national strike movement" on May 1st.
 

News Bites

The Washington Times, March 7 - Even if Iran's parliament ends up under the control of centrist allies of Mr. Khatami, Mr. [Patrick] Clawson [of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy] said, the Iranian president has shown little interest in ending terrorism.

The Newsday, March 8 - Some young people are impatient with Khatami. "They brought in Khatami and now they're bringing in other people, but they're just the same," said Siavash, 19, a student. "It's just a plan to preoccupy us for a while." "Young people haven't seen any of the things that Khatami promised," said his friend, Ehsan, 17, who is doing his military service in an army soccer team.

State-controlled Iran Daily, March 8 - Hedayatollah Lotfian, commander of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), said that Farhad Nazari, the dismissed Police Chief, was granted a plaque of honor for his efforts to suppress the last July's unrest which was coupled with an endeavor to overthrow the government.

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