Mission & Justice

26/9/08

The British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday quoted European officials as saying that the United States earlier this year refused to agree to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the report, “European diplomatic sources” said that “Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites but was told by President George W. Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency.” The Guardian quoted the sources as saying that the issue was raised during a one-on-one meeting between Bush and outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert during the American president’s trip to Israel in May to mark its 60th anniversary.

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Shenaz Kermali; 25/9/08

Jamia Tuz Zahra is Iran’s largest women’s seminary and houses 800 of its 3,000 local and international students Deep within the theological heartland of Iran lies the city of Qom, also known as the “Shia Vatican”. Situated 100km southwest from Tehran, the city is reknowned for its seminaries, or hawzas, which are home to about 60,000 clerical students who come from across Iran and elsewhere to train in everything from religion and jurisprudence to modern political thought and the Greek Classics. While many of the female students attend the hawza solely to attain the status of Aalima (a senior preacher), some also choose to take courses as part of a ‘gap year’ before beginning university. Zahra Merali, a 21-year-old Kenyan Muslim, has been living and studying at Jamia Tuz Zahra, Qom’s largest women’s hawza, that houses 800 of its 3,000 foreign and local students.

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Shlomo Shamir; 22/9/08

A group of Iranian organizations working in the U.S. is preparing to stage a rally against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ahead of the Iranian President’s visit to New York on Monday for the United Nations General Assembly. The Iranian activists, some of them known as human rights activists, are organizing a mass demonstration on Tuesday, titled “Ahmadinejad, why are you executing children?” Within the framework of the rally, to be held in the plaza adjacent to the United Nations building in New York, organizers plan to erect a “wall of shame” which will include a series of pictures and documented proof of Iran’s abuse of jailed minors.

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Linda S. Heard, 16/9/08

The clock is ticking. The demise of the aggressive “do-anything-for-Israel” Bush administration is nearing. The window of opportunity for a US-backed/tolerated Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities may be closing. And as they have done throughout recent years, politicians and pundits are speculating as to whether or not Tel Aviv will present the world with an October/November surprise. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev is a believer. “We know that certain players are planning an attack against Iran,” he said on Friday, while warning that its implementation would endanger the entire world.

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Shlomo Shamir and Natasha Mozgovaya; 12/9/08

Five American religious organizations said they plan to host a dinner to break the Ramadan fast with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his upcoming visit to the United States. The Mennonite Central Committee, the Quakers, the World Council of Churches, Religions for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee are sponsoring the meeting with President Ahmadinejad on September 25 in New York City.The dinner to break the Ramadan fast, called an Iftar, is being billed as ?an international dialogue between religious leaders and political figures? in a conversation “about the role of religions in tackling global challenges and building peaceful societies.”

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9/10/08

Iran’s parliamentary committee has thrown out a proposal that activists feared would have encouraged polygamy in country, according to media reports on Tuesday. Activists have lobbied against the bill on families, which they said would have allowed a man to take a new wife without the consent of the first one. The bill also covered other family issues. Parliament is expected to vote on the amended version.

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5/9/08

A bill that would allow men in Iran to take additional wives without the consent of their first wife has generated so much controversy that parliament had to postpone a vote for more debate. Polygamy is not practised in mainstream Iranian society, but the government of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pursued amendments to a landmark women’s rights bill to allow multiple marriages, as it seeks to enshrine elements of Islamic law into the country’s legal system. The Family Protection Bill was drawn up by the judiciary with the intention of allowing women to serve as judges for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution. As initially drawn up, it would also impose prison sentences for men who marry girls before they have reached legal age. But the government’s push to add articles allowing multiple marriages without the first wife’s consent raised so much ire from women’s rights groups and the judiciary that a vote in parliament had to be postponed Tuesday. In all countries in the region it is permitted under Islamic law for a man to take up to four wives. Some countries, however, like Syria and Tunisia, apply secular legislation that requires the first wife’s consent in an effort to limit the practice. In Iran, the practice is frowned upon by most people.

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Robert Joyet; 26/8/08

Hundreds of anti-war protesters have demonstrated amid heavy police security in the US city of Denver where the Democratic national convention is set to kick-off on Monday. It was the first in a series of protests by the group Recreate 68, whose name echoes the anti-war protests outside the party’s convention in Chicago in 1968. Al Jazeera spoke to five protesters about why they were marching, and their hopes that those attending the convention would listen.

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Aluf Benn; 13/8/08

The American administration has rejected an Israeli request for military equipment and support that would improve Israel’s ability to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. A report published last week by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) states that military strikes are unlikely to destroy Iran’s centrifuge program for enriching uranium. The Americans viewed the request, which was transmitted (and rejected) at the highest level, as a sign that Israel is in the advanced stages of preparations to attack Iran. They therefore warned Israel against attacking, saying such a strike would undermine American interests. They also demanded that Israel give them prior notice if it nevertheless decided to strike Iran. As compensation for the requests it rejected, Washington offered to improve Israel’s defenses against surface-to-surface missiles.

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6/8/08; http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9820

An Iranian journalist convicted and sentenced to death on terrorism charges has been executed, the country’s judiciary said Tuesday. Yaghoob Mirnehad was executed Monday in the city of Zahedan after being sentenced to death earlier this year, said judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi. Iran accused Mirnehad of being involved in the armed Jundallah group, which operates along the Iranian-Pakistani border. Authorities said he set up a group to “cooperate” with Jundallah. Mirnehad was a reporter for a Tehran-based daily newspaper, Mardomsalari. He also ran a charity that focused on childhood education. He was arrested in May 2007 in Zahedan, the provincial capital of the Sistan-Baluchistan province about 1,600 kilometres southeast of Tehran. Jamshidi said Mirnehad’s conviction was not related to his job, but he gave no other details. State-run Press TV reported on its website that another alleged member of Jundallah has been executed along with Mirnehad.