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live video seminars, enchanting renewal songs and a thousand page
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Iran seeks extradition of dissident BBC Tuesday, 17 July, 2001,
Ebrahim Yazdi failed to comply with a court order Tehran's Revolutionary Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of an opposition party leader who is currently in the United States.
Ebrahim Yazdi, Secretary-general of the banned Iran Freedom Movement [IFM], failed to meet a court order issued in April to return to Iran by 1 May.
The official Iranian News Agency, IRNA, quoted a statement from the Revolutionary Court saying it would seek Mr Yazdi's extradition through Interpol following what it called his "defection".
The statement said: "If he does not surrender himself he will be arrested under international laws."
Mr Yazdi, who is in his sixties, is undergoing cancer therapy at an American clinic.
He is wanted on charges of "acting against national security and arms possession".
The action is part of a widespread crackdown against dissidents begun in March by the hardline court.
Sixty people, mostly linked to the IFM, were arrested in April and have been held in solitary confinement since then.
They will go on trial within the next two months, accused of "plotting against the regime", the news agency quoted Revolutionary Court chief Ali Mobasheri as saying.
The charge carries the death penalty under Iranian law.
Mr Yazdi, a former foreign minister, has led the IFM since 1995.
The party was banned by the revolutionary courts in April, along with other "nationalist and religious groups".
The IFM is very popular among intellectuals and academics. Although it is opposed to the Iranian regime, it has expressed support for reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Iran reformist jailed for six years Monday, 16 July, 2001, BBC
Ganji (right) cannot appeal against the sentence An appeals court in Iran has extended the prison sentence imposed on a prominent Iranian journalist, Akbar Ganji, from six months to six years.
Ganji, a supporter of the reform movement in Iran, was convicted of damaging state security by attending a conference in Berlin on the future of Iran.
BBC Iran analyst Sadeq Sabeh says the sentence is a blow to President Mohammed Khatami, who has promised more openness and the rule of law.
In May, the 10-year sentence, followed by five years' internal exile, was reduced on appeal to six months in jail.
But despite the appeal Ganji remained in prison facing other charges.
Prosecutors then took the case to a higher court, which imposed a harsher penalty.
A court statement said that the ruling was definitive and therefore not subject to further appeal.
Clampdown
Our correspondent says Ganji made enemies by naming members of the conservative establishment as being responsible for the killing of dissidents and intellectuals.
Since the election in 1997 of reformist President Khatami, around 40 mostly pro-reform newspapers have been shut down.
Dozens of Mr Khatami's supporters have been jailed or remanded in custody on subversion charges.
A number were convicted as a result of their attending the Berlin conference last year, which was branded as anti-Iranian after being disrupted by émigré groups.
And despite the president's landslide re-election last month, a French-based press defence group said that the plight of journalists was worsening in Iran.
A statement by Reporters sans Frontieres described Iran as "the largest prison for journalists in the world", adding that of 27 journalists known to be in jail, 21 were being held in unknown locations.
Ganji has been in prison for the last fifteen months and he has accused prison authorities of torturing him.
He has been on hunger strike several times to protest at his detention in solitary confinement in a Tehran prison.
Saturday,
13 January, 2001, 08:58 GMT Conference that created a furore
The conference debacle was a gift to anti-reformists The Berlin conference in April which has led to the conviction of a number of Iranian reformists was intended to be a serious examination of the situation in Iran.
Iranian reformists had scored a sweeping victory in general elections two months earlier.
A number of prominent journalists and intellectuals travelled from Tehran to take part in the meeting, which was sponsored by a foundation associated with the German Green Party.
But the opening session was noisily disrupted by Iranian exiles believed to be from a radical communist faction.
The conference broke up in disarray when the opposition exiles refused to stay quiet even after they had been allowed to have their say.
To make matters worse, one woman dressed indecently by Islamic standards started performing a provocative Oriental dance.
Strip protests
Later, another woman stripped to her underwear while a man took all his clothes off.
These images and the speeches made by hecklers, in which they attacked the Islamic system, caused uproar after their broadcast by Iranian state television two days later.
More than 140 members of the Iranian parliament denounced the 'Iran after February election' conference as "counter-revolutionary" and insulting to the Iranian nation.
They accused them of advocating "US-style reforms" and called on the Iranian judiciary to bring to justice those Iranians who went to Berlin to attend the conference.
Right-wing newspapers accused them of treason for consorting with the enemies of the regime, and a hardline cleric was quoted as demanding their death for "undermining Iran's revolutionary principles".
Arrests followed, and seven of the 17 people put on trial have now been jailed.
Reformists embarrassed
Reformists themselves, clearly embarrassed by the affair, were outraged by the broadcast.
They accused state television, which is controlled by conservatives, of trying to create conditions which would make it impossible for the new reformist-dominated parliament to do its work.
The Islamic Revolution Mojahideen Organization, one of the leading reformist groups, said that the hardliners were "seeking to justify an anti-reform coup".
Moderate President Mohammad Khatami and his allies want to loosen the strict Islamic laws and social restrictions that have been in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution brought the Shiite clergy to power.
The most visible sign of his reform programme has been the emergence of an outspoken press that has questioned the actions of the hardliners.
But a number of newspapers have been shut down on the orders of courts controlled by conservative clerics, and attempts to change the restrictive press law have not been successful.
New floggings in Iran Sunday, 29 July, 2001, BBC
Youth have got used to more freedoms under Khatami By Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba
A hardline court in Iran has ordered another group of young men to be flogged in public despite opposition from the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami.
Five men were whipped in the western town of Boroujerd on Sunday on charges of public disorder and breaking shop windows.
In the past few weeks about 100 young men have been flogged in several incidents in Iranian towns.
The Iranian interior minister and pro-reform political organisations have condemned these severe punishments.
Public spectacle
The five young men were whipped in a busy square in Boroujerd.
They each received more than 70 lashes for public disorder offences.
The head of the judiciary in the town said unemployment was the main cause of such behaviour.
He justified the use of public flogging against young offenders by saying it would make an example of them for others.
Dozens of young men have also been whipped in public in the capital, Tehran, mainly for drinking alcohol and chasing women.
This kind of punishment has rarely been carried out in Iran in recent years.
Youth concern
But its increasing use over the past weeks has created anxiety among the Iranian youth who have been enjoying more social freedoms since President Khatami came to power four years ago.
Reformists fear that the hardline conservative judiciary is ordering such punishments in an attempt to undermine Mr Khatami's credibility.
The Iranian pro-reform interior minister has recently said the whipping of people in public places had serious political and social consequences.
Other reformists have said such punishments hurt the country's image.
But hardliners blame Mr Khatami's tolerant policies for encouraging young people to defy religious rules.
Reports from Iran say most people disapprove public floggings.
Other severe punishments such as stoning of women for adultery and public hangings for various crimes have also been on the increase in recent months.
Compromise sought in Iran crisis Sunday, 5 August, 2001, BBC
Khamenei (centre) has overruled many of Khatami's reforms The speaker of Iran's parliament has proposed a compromise to resolve a dispute between reformists and conservaties that has delayed the swearing-in of President Mohammad Khatami.
Mehdi Karrubi suggested that a committee should be formed to arbitrate in the row over the appointment of candidates to the powerful Council of Guardians.
Mr Khatami's swearing-in had been due on Sunday, but it was delayed by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said there could be no inauguration while the Council of Guardians was incomplete.
Correspondents say Mr Khamenei's intervention - the latest blow in a long-running power struggle between progressives and hardliners - could present Iran with a major constitutional crisis.
Candidates rejected
President Khatami was re-elected to a second term by a landslide in June, and Mr Karrubi is one of his key allies.
On Saturday the parliament twice rejected candidates proposed by the conservative-dominated judiciary for vacant seats on the Council of Guardians, which supervises elections, and checks that laws are compatible with the constitution and with Islamic teaching.
On Sunday Mr Karrubi suggested
parliament and the judiciary should form a joint committee to
resolve the problem.
He is reported to have told parliament that this would allow the swearing-in to take place within days.
However, BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says Mr Karrubi's proposal has received a frosty response from the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi.
He adds that both sides seem ready to continue the trial of strength.
The Council of Guardians has 12 members, six of whom are appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei himself. The other six are nominated by the judiciary and approved by parliament.
Constitutional first
Mr Khatami is Iran's fifth president elected in the eight elections held since the 1979 revolution.
He received nearly 77% of the vote in June, an increase on the 70% received in 1997.
This is the first time the presidential swearing-in ceremony has been postponed, but the move is apparently not aimed at President Khatami himself.
Our correspondent says the primary targets are reformist MPs who are using every possible occasion to assert their authority against the Council of Guardians who have been creating obstacles for bills passed by parliament.
In a letter to Mr Karrubi announcing the delay, Ayatollah Khamenei indicated his concern that the parliament's tactics were also aimed at challenging his authority.
Standoff in Iran's power struggle Sunday, 5 August, 2001, BBC
Speaker Karrubi wants to assert authority The head of Iran's judiciary has rejected a compromise in a dispute that has delayed the swearing-in of President Mohammad Khatami for a second term.
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi told parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi that there could be no negotiations on the appointment of candidates to the powerful Council of Guardians.
Pro-reform members of the Iranian parliament had refused to approve candidates put forward by the conservative-dominated judiciary for the council.
Ayatollah Shahrudi said he was unwilling to change the list of four candidates which he had submitted to parliament.
Iran state radio quoted him as saying: "Parliament should choose two lawyers from the four and resolve this issue."
"Proposals which have no executive guarantees will not solve problems, they will only make matters worse."
The speaker had proposed a joint committee be set up to resolve the conflict over the choice of candidates for the Council of Guardians.
Shortlist
The conservative-dominated Council of Guardians supervises elections, and checks that new laws are compatible with the constitution and with Islamic teaching.
It has 12 members, six of whom are appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei himself. The other six are nominated by the judiciary and approved by parliament.
Parliament claims the candidates proposed by Shahrudi do not represent Iranian society as a whole, but only Islamic conservatives.
"We are not duty bound to vote for every person who is introduced," speaker Karrubi told parliament on Sunday.
"In such a case, voting would be meaningless."
Inauguration
Mr Khatami's swearing-in had been due on Sunday, but it was delayed by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said there could be no inauguration while the Council of Guardians was incomplete.
Correspondents say Mr Khamenei's intervention - the latest blow in a long-running power struggle between progressives and hardliners - could present Iran with a major constitutional crisis.
President Khatami was re-elected to a second term by a landslide in June, and Mr Karrubi is one of his key allies.
Mr Khatami is Iran's fifth president elected in the eight elections held since the 1979 revolution.
He received nearly 77% of the vote in June, an increase on the 70% received in 1997.
This is the first time the presidential swearing-in ceremony has been postponed, but the move is apparently not aimed at President Khatami himself.
Our correspondent says the primary targets are reformist MPs who are using every possible occasion to assert their authority against the Council of Guardians.
In a letter to Mr Karrubi announcing the delay, Ayatollah Khamenei indicated his concern that the parliament's tactics were also aimed at challenging his authority.
Three men publicly hanged in Iran Thursday, 16 August, 2001, BBC
Hardline clerics say such punishments are a deterrent Three men have been publicly hanged in north-eastern Iran, bringing to 10 the number of people executed in the past two days.
The three men were hanged at dawn in Semnan, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Tehran. They had been convicted of multiple armed robbery.
On Wednesday, police in Tehran used tear gas to break up a protest against another public hanging in the capital.
The trouble erupted at a football stadium in south-eastern Tehran, where more than 2,000 protesters threw sticks and stones in support of relatives trying to stop the execution of a man convicted of murder.
Media reports said plain-clothed security officials seized journalists' cameras, and beat reporters covering the event.
Public outrage
The BBC's Eurasia analyst says it was a rare display of public outrage, at a time when there has been a sharp rise in public executions and floggings.
There is growing public unease in Iran over the way the conservative judiciary is responding to the gradual liberalisation of public life, he says.
Reformists accuse the judiciary of using such punishments to try to discredit the new government of President Mohammad Khatami.
Two public executions took place in the north-eastern city of Mashhad on Wednesday and four others were hanged in Tehran - two of them in public - the semi-official Iran daily reported.
Floggings
A row has also broken out in Iran over the growing number of public floggings of young people accused of drinking alcohol or making sexual advances.
A leading Iranian conservative, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, has said the public floggings should be stopped if they reflect badly on the Islamic state and Islam.
In the latest series of floggings, 13 young men accused of drinking alcohol were lashed with a whip in a square in central Tehran on Tuesday.
The punishment took place during the evening rush hour, bringing traffic to a standstill along Tehran's main north-south thoroughfare.
It was at least the ninth public flogging since President Khatami was re-elected in a landslide victory in June.
