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Iranian regime is vying for board of UN Women

Iran, where a woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, is poised to become a board member of the new United Nations agency to promote equality for women. The move has sparked outrage from the US and human rights groups. Some rights groups are also upset that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and are barred from many facilities used by men, is also trying to join the governing body of UN Women. The General Assembly resolution adopted in July, that merged four UN bodies dealing with women’s issues into a single agency with greater clout to represent half the world’s population, calls for a 41-member executive board, with 35 members chosen by regional groups and six representing donor nations. The Asian group has put forward an uncontested 10-nation list that includes Iran, UN diplomats said, and Saudi Arabia has been selected for one of two slots for emerging donor nations. The 54 nations on the UN Economic and Social Council are expected to elect the UN Women’s board on November 10 and it is possible that other Asian nations or emerging donor nations could become candidates, though diplomats said that is not likely. Philippe Bolopion, UN advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said “it’s puzzling that Iran would have the nerve to be a candidate for the board of UN Women, and even more puzzling if the Asia group lets Iran get away with it”. He added: “Having on top of it Saudi Arabia, a country with a track record on women’s rights as horrendous as Iran’s, would add insult to injury.”

Illegal arms shipment found in Nigeria loaded in Iran: firm

Associated France Press reported: an illegal arms shipment which included rockets and grenades discovered in Nigeria this week was loaded in Iran by an Iranian trader, the firm that operates the vessel that delivered it said on Friday. Security agents this week intercepted 13 containers declared as building materials and discharged from the CMA CGM Everest vessel at the country’s busiest port of Apapa near Lagos. ’The shipment in question was booked as a ’shippers owned container’ and supplied loaded and sealed by the shipper, an Iranian trader who does not appear on any ’forbidden persons’ listing,’ said CMA CGM, which operates the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel. CMA CGM, based in France, said the containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city of Iran, and discharged in Lagos in July. But last week the shipper asked to have the containers reloaded and sent to the Gambia, a tiny West African country wedged inside Senegal, according to the firm.

Singapore tightens trading rules with Iran, North Korea

According to Dow Jones, Singapore said Friday it will tighten its trading regime with North Korea and Iran in line with United Nations’ sanctions from November to curb ’illicit diversions of strategic controlled goods.’ A Singapore Customs statement said the Southeast Asian city-state would not allow trade in a host of military-related items, including conventional arms, with either nation.

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Strike continues in Tehran Bazaar on Thursday

Iran Focus reported on Thursday that some 70 percent of shops in the gold traders’ quarter of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar were closed down from 9:00am to 3:00pm on Thursday as store owners continued a strike against the recent imposition of value added tax. About half of gold shops were closed down in the afternoon. Some 60 percent of fabric stores and adjacent shops were shut down from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

UNHCR Greece on the Iranian Hunger strikers

“The hunger strike of the Iranian asylum seekers at Propylea, seven of which have sewn their lips shut, is founded on their legitimate claim to have their asylum requests examined and receive a definitive decision on their status based on the provisions included in the legislation on refugees,” the statement underlined. “It is worth noting that among the hunger strikers are people whose first degree interviews have delayed for over a year, while for others, second degree interviews are pending for years,” according to UNHCR Greece. It is underlined that the radical reform of the asylum granting system is imperative to ensure the fair, speedy and effective examination of requests and the issuing of relevant decisions.The UNHCR Greece called on the competent authorities “to proceed without any further delay to the scheduled examination of the Iranian asylum seekers’ requests” and concluded that it “supports any relevant requests made by asylum seekers regardless of nationality, given that the law guarantees their right to a fair and speedy response by the national authorities as regards their status”. (ANA-MPA)

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Iranian diva, Marzieh, lost her battle to cancer on Wednesday

Legendary Iranian singer, Ashraf-o-Sadat Mortezai known as Marzieh, passed away in Paris at the age of 85. Marzieh who had lost her daughter to cancer last march، lost her own battle to cancer on Wednesday. Marzieh was the first female singer to perform in radio Iran’s Golha-ye-Rangarang program in 1946. After the Islamic revolution، she stayed in Iran for over 16 years away from the stage. In the 1990s، she left Iran and made her residence in France joining the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Marzieh said: “when Iranian families rarely sent their daughters in pursuit of education، my father, despite belonging to the clergy, encouraged me to pursue contemporary education. When I started to sing، becoming a singer for women was out of the ordinary and at the same time, a singer had to have academic education as well as knowledge of classical music، in addition to a good voice. Furthermore، a number of music masters had to approve of her singing techniques and we had to be well-acquainted with musical theory. I spent many years studying under the supervision of several top masters before beginning my singing career “. Marzieh entered the music arena in 1934. She appeared on stage as Shirin in Shirin and Farhad which was repeated for 37 nights bringing her immediate success and initiating her immense and lasting popularity with the public . Marzieh died on Wed. Oct. 13, 2010 of bone cancer.

Iranian chocolate thief ’to have hand chopped off’

Associated France Press reportd that an Iranian court has condemned a man convicted of robbing chocolates and cocoa from a Tehran pastry shop to have a hand chopped off, Fars 21-year-old man, whose identity was not revealed, to six months in prison for damaging the shop and another six months for 'disobeying police.' Fars said police arrested him on May 29 and found in his possession 900 dollars worth of cash, three pair of gloves, chocolate and cocoa.

3 female students gone missing in Iran

Iran Focus reported on Sat. that three politically active female students at Honar (Art) University in the Iranian capital have disappeared in the past month, a student at the university told Iran Focus. The three students are Massoumeh Shahsavari a junior, Firouzeh Ansari and Marjan Eftekhari, seniors. Follow-ups by their families have been futile.

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Jailed Iranian opposition lawyer is on hunger strike

Associated Press reported: A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer has gone on a hunger strike to protest her detention in solitary confinement on suspicion of spreading propaganda against the ruling system, her husband said Wednesday. Nasrin Sotoudeh told her husband in a phone call from Evin Prison, north of Iran’s capital, that she began a hunger strike on Sept. 25, he said. Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, said she told him that she was being held in solitary confinement in a phone conversation that lasted only a few seconds. When she added that she was being threatened, prison officials cut the call mid-sentence, Khandan told The Associated Press. The lawyer was summoned by an official notice to Evin Prison last month and did not return home, he said. The 45-year-old Sotoudeh is a mother of two small children.

Iran’s judiciary warns gold merchants over strike

Associated Press reported: Iranian authorities have threatened to take legal action against gold merchants in Tehran’s main bazaar if they don’t call off their two-week-old anti-tax strike, local media reported Thursday. AP added: Iran’s government has been trying to find ways to boost revenue -including by raising taxes- amid low oil prices and other woes that have hampered the country’s ailing economy. But it has had to be cautious in the face of widespread public discontent. Several newspapers, including the state-owned Jamejam and the Donya-e Eqtesad economic daily, quoted Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi as saying the ’judiciary will confront whoever disturbs public order by closing the bazaar.’ He did not elaborate. Tehran’s gold merchants began their strike in September to protest a government plan to impose a 3 percent sales tax. Iran suspended the tax in 2008 after a rare strike by merchants, who fear it could lead to more income tax in the future.

Iranian regime State Security Forces open fire on protesters, wounding one

According to the state-run Central News Unit, the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces in Rasht (northern Iranian city) opened fire on protesters, leaving one injured. According to reports, a family staged a protest to the mismanagement to necessary medical care for their loved one, which led to his death. When State Security Forces intervened, the family members clashed with the suppressive forces. State Security Forces opened fire in response, injuring the child of the deceased patient and arresting 8 members of the family.

Steel producers stage protest in Iran capital

Iran Focus reported on Friday that the Steel producers and distributors in Tehran on Thursday staged protests in several locations in the Grand Bazaar and surrounding areas, including in the Sabz-e Meidah bazaar. Hundreds of people came to their support. In the three-hour protest that began at 9am, the protesters carried placards calling on the authorities to meet their demands.