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The Associated Press reported that authorities have arrested some 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, state-run television reported Wednesday. The report was the first confirmation that people were arrested for protesting the new fuel rationing measures. Announced last Wednesday, the government's rationing drove angry Iranians to set fire to more than a dozen gas stations in the capital, Tehran, and several other cities. Iran is one of the world's biggest oil producers but has only nine refineries and must import more than 50 percent of the gasoline used by consumers. The rationing system allows private drivers only 26 gallons of fuel per month at the subsidized price. Taxis get 211 gallons a month. Anything more than that will have to be bought at a higher price, which officials say will be announced within the next two months.
The Iranian regime wants the people who were arrested for the protest to be executed and some of them will be introduced to public on Monday. The prisoners are in Evin notorious prison and a few are in solitary confinement.
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Reuters reported: Activists should not try to change Islamic laws relating to women's rights, Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday, two days after one campaigner was reportedly sentenced to 34 months in jail and ten lashes.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was addressing a group of women, most dressed conservatively in head-to-toe black chadors, in Tehran.
Reuters added: Campaigners say Iranian women face difficulties in getting a divorce and criticize inheritance laws they say are unjust and the fact their court testimony is worth half that of a man's. "We are witnessing in our country that some women activists and some men are trying to play with Islamic laws ... in order to harmonize them with international conventions related to women," Khamenei said. "This is wrong.""They shouldn't see the solution in changing Islamic jurisprudence laws," Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, was quoted as saying. Although Women are legally entitled to hold most jobs in Iran, it remains a male-dominated society. They cannot run for president or become judges.
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Iran’s judiciary has sentenced a women’s right activist to lashes and prison time for taking part in an anti-government protest last year, state media reported on Tuesday. Delaram Ali, who had taken part in a demonstration in Tehran on 12 June 2006 demanding greater women’s rights, was sentenced to 10 lashes and given a 2-year-and-20-month suspended prison term sentence.The announcement was made by Nasrin Sotoudeh, Delaram’s lawyer.
Delaram had been charged with “participating in an illegal gathering”, carrying out “propaganda activities against the state”, and “disturbing public order”.
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According to International news agencies, tens of thousands of Iranians converged on a Paris exhibition centre on Saturday in support of the main Iranian opposition group, and to denounce EU action against the group.“Justice, justice, rule of law; EU, EU, shame on you”, chanted protestors at an indoor arena in Villepinte, north of Paris. They were referring to the EU’s decision to impose a ban on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) despite a ruling last December by the European Court of First Instance annulling the group’s terrorist designation. The PMOI is a member group of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).Several dozen Parliamentarians from Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle East took part in the rally.The keynote speaker was NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, whose speech was repeatedly interrupted by jubilant cheers.Rajavi accused the EU of “appeasing” the “mullahs’ regime” by declaring the PMOI, terrorist.“We in the European Parliament have fought very hard to convince the EU leadership that the correct policy towards Iran is not these useless negotiations and engagement. If the West is afraid of another war in the region, appeasing this regime is not the solution”, said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament one of the speakers at the rally. Organizers estimated participants to number 50,000.During her speech, Rajavi touched on the NCRI’s plan for a future Iran. “We shall build a new Iran, a free society and an advanced nation. We shall make execution and torture a thing of the past. We shall abolish the death penalty. We shall dissolve reactionary courts and medieval punishments. We shall bring to an end the era of inquisition, compulsory veiling and meddling in the private lives of the citizenry”, she said.
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An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook parts of central Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.The quake jolted the vicinity of Behabad in Yazd Province, the official news agency IRNA said.
