A group of young people in Torqabeh, a suburb of the northeastern city of Mashad, threw three petrol bombs into a headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards’ paramilitary forces, the Bassij, at 2 am on Monday, August 7. The notorious Bassij is actively involved in the suppression of the people, especially Mojahedin supporters, and is highly despised by the local inhabitants.

Earlier this month, two Bassij members were stabbed and seriously wounded by young dissidents in the city of Qom. The incident occurred when Bassij agents harassed and intimidated a group of local people, after they heard the people swear at the regime’s leaders for the country’s misfortunes.

A 63-year-old grandmother attacked a brutal judge with a sword hidden under her chador and gravely wounded him on Monday, August 7, in the western city of Borujerd. The woman had become totally desperate as a result of oppressive actions against her by the judge and other officials of the regime. Before she attacked the judge, the woman had confronted the city’s Friday prayers leader, mullah Danesh Pajouh, outside the city’s main mosque and had exposed his crimes in front of the people.
 

Pro-Khatami MP Threatened, Associated Press, August 9

TEHRAN - Ali Asghar Hadizadeh told parliament he had been threatened repeatedly since Sunday when he and several colleagues tried to debate an amendment to restrictive press legislation despite an order from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to drop the matter.

"Official organizations are mobilizing people from other towns and bringing them to my town to hold protests against me. I dare not go to my town," said Hadizadeh, who comes from the central town of Mahallat, in an emotional speech that was broadcast live. The tension threatens to worsen the power struggle between conservatives and supporters of Khatami.
 

Iranian Jews Barely Hanging On, The Washington Times, August 9

SHIRAZ, Iran — The convictions last month of 10 Jews who were accused of spying for Israel appears to have sounded a death knell for a historic community that has survived in Iran for 2,500 years.

Many of the Jews left in Iran are quietly preparing to sell their property and get out….

In a narrow back street of ancient mud-walled streets the father of one of the imprisoned Shiraz men sat in sadness, selling melons and tomatoes. He refused to talk to a visitor….

Each Wednesday the vegetable seller visits the prison where his son passes each day alone in a cell without any time outside for exercise.

"The boy cries every time," said another Shiraz Jew, also on the condition of anonymity.

"He says, 'Father, I can't take it any more.' "…

In Shiraz, 13 synagogues still function, but the Jews no longer post mezzuzahs, or tiny scroll boxes, on the door posts, unwilling to identify their homes and buildings as Jewish.

"I was kept in jail for six months, and they beat me a lot after I sent my children out of Iran," said one Jewish man, whispering in Hebrew….

The fear of remaining in Iran was very strong, even before the Shiraz trial.

One man in Tehran said his home was raided in the middle of the night two years ago by armed police from the Ministry of Information - the intelligence ministry…

"They had us lie on the ground like this, with our hands behind our backs while they searched the whole apartment," said the man. "I am feeling terribly frightened to tell this to you now. You do not know what danger there is here."…

Jews, Bahais, Christians and other minorities could no longer hold government jobs and Jewish children in public schools were forced to sit through a half-hour of Muslim prayers before class after the Islamic revolution in 1979…

Jews also hear and read anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish remarks on state-run television and radio, and the press….
 

Court Confirms Sentence on Journalist and Issues Warrant for Another, Agence France Presse, August 9

TEHRAN - Iran's supreme court approved a two and a half-year prison term Wednesday for journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a judicial official said. Shamsolvaezin, the former editor-in-chief of the now-banned newspaper Neshat, was prosecuted for publishing articles and letters questioning capital punishment and the "eye for an eye" principle in force in Iran.

Meanwhile the press court issued a warrant for Masud Behnud, a writer close to Mohammad Khatami, saying he would be arrested if he does not appear in court by Saturday. "Mr. Behnud refused to respond to a summons to appear this Wednesday ... to respond to 85 complaints brought against him," an official said.

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