Thursday, November 28, 2002

Organizers of Student Protests Issue Demands

* The central council of the Daftar-e Tahkim Vahdat, association of the student Islamic councils, called for a mock referendum in 14 universities. In a statement listing the students' political and social demands, the Daftar criticized the Supreme Leader for not paying attention to the students' demands and calling them misguided. (Mehdi Khalaji)

Basij Corps to Stage Half-a-Million-Man March

* The paramilitary Basij corps, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, will stage a march in Tehran on Jerusalem day (Qods). The state radio-TV is saturating the airwaves with news of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious programs commemorating the death of Prophet Muhammad's cousin Ali, and calls from both reformists and conservatives for greater public participation in the Qods day demonstrations-while ignoring news of the reformists' demands for reform of the judiciary. (Siavash Ardalan)

Judiciary Releases Father Who His Abused Newborn

* A Karaj man, who had abused and tortured his two-month baby, was released from jail after his wife agreed not to press charges. Tehran-based lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a founder of the Iranian Society for Protection of Children's Rights, tells RFE/RL that on the recommendation of the Guardians Council, the Majles exempted children's parents from prosecution under the new law that, for the first time in post-revolutionary Iran, made child abuse a crime. She says that most abuse is perpetrated by children's parents. (Golnaz Esfandiari)

Iran's Gasoline Import To Reach $1 Billion

* Reza Kasai-zadeh, program director of the state-owned company in charge of refining and distributing oil products, said Iran's gasoline imports are expected to reach to $1 billion by the end of the current fiscal year on March 22, 2003. He said Iran consumes more than 50 million liters of gasoline per day, 13 million liters of which is imported. Government subsidized two-thirds of the cost of gasoline, at the cost of $3 billion per year, which encourages excessive use and smuggling to neighboring countries. (Jamshid Zand)

More Than 1.4 Million Students Drop Out of Elementary School

* Mohsen Hosseinpur, a Tehran-based education and children's rights expert, said more than 1.4 million students dropped out of school this year due to the bad treatment they received from their teachers. RFE/RL's Paris-based education commentator Said Peyvandi says the number points to the students who finished elementary school and did not enroll in high school. He adds that mistreatment by teachers is only one factor among many. (Shireen Famili)

Fixed Exchange Rate and Non-Oil Exports

* The central bank's decision to keep the rial's exchange rate fixed makes Iranian non-oil exports 11 percent to 15 percent less profitable each year. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)

Civil Society and Human Rights: Referendum

* Those calling for a referendum in Iran mean different things by the same word. The opposition calls for a referendum on the shape of the government, especially, on the division of church and state, but the reformists demand a referendum within the framework of the Islamic Republic constitution, which allows the two-thirds of the Majles to call a referendum on specific bills. Advocates of the referendum on the shape of the regime refer to the statement attributed to Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Republic that future generations should have the right to reject a form of government installed in the past. (Mehrangiz Kar)