Security forces arrested 60 girls and boys in Shiraz partyAccording to Kayhan state-run daily Dec. 4; Participants in a night party were arrested with the efforts of the Moral Security Police in the Fars Province. Security forces were informed that a number of young men and women were having a party in a garden in the north western region of Shiraz. Agents arrested 60 people and discovered alcoholic beverages in the garden. The detainees were transferred to prison on orders of the Shiraz Public and Revolutionary Court.
EU leaders call for more sanctions on Iran
Reuters reported on Dec. 9 that European Union leaders called on Friday for more sanctions against the Iranian regime by the end of January, in an effort to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program. The leaders did not make an explicit call for an embargo on Iranian crude oil, which EU diplomats have been discussing this month as a way to respond to mounting concerns that the OPEC producer has worked to design a nuclear weapon. Instead, they called on their foreign ministers to broaden existing sanctions, which include asset freezes and travel bans on those involved in the nuclear work. EU leaders also called on them to study “additional measures against Iran as a matter of priority and to adopt these measures no later than by its next session”, which is scheduled for Jan. 30. The International Atomic Energy Agency last month released new evidence confirming international concerns that Iran is seeking the atom bomb. In other news Japan also toughens sanctions on the Iranian regime. Japan said it added around 100 Iranian groups and an individual to a blacklist that imposes asset freezes and now totals over 300 entities. It also raised the number of Iranian banks it has suspended correspondent banking relationships with to 20 from 17. Measures announced by Japan in September 2010 included halting all new energy-related investment in Iran and warning companies to be cautious over existing contracts.
UN asks Iraq to extend dissident camp deadline
The United Nations on Tuesday appealed to the Iraqi government to push back a December 31 deadline to close an Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad, warning of a growing risk of violence. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also renewed appeals to the international community to find a home for the estimated 3,400 Iranian exiles at Camp Ashraf. Amid heightened international concerns, the UN envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, told the UN Security Council many “obstacles” remain to ending doubts over how to end the camp standoff. The positions of the residents and the government “remain far apart,” Kobler told the 15-member council. There is “a real danger of confrontation and even violence” because of the uncertainty over the camp, which has been home to members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) since the 1980s. Iraq has insisted it must close by the end of the year. But the camp’s inhabitants refuse to move unless they are given UN protection. At least 36 people at the camp were killed in clashes in April. Residents said they were attacked by Iraqi forces. Kobler said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is ready to start interviewing Camp Ashraf residents, but there is little hope of ending the dispute over the camp by December 31. “I therefore appeal to the government of Iraq to extend this deadline in order to permit adequate time for a solution to be found,” Kobler said. The envoy said any solution must suit the Iraqi government, which says the camp is a security threat, and the residents’ demands for a safe exit. Tomorrow in front of the white house a large demonstration by the Iranians is expected as Nouri Maleki visits with Barak Obama.
Women banned from working as secretaries in Bushehr offices
The Bushehr Governor cited the ban on the use of female secretaries for managers and said, “The plan for gender segregation for office employees in Bushehr will be carried out”… “Promoting virtue and prohibiting vice is a public duty and because everyone does not carry out this duty well enough, this issue has become obsolete in the society”. “Many of the displays of improper veiling in the society have become prevalent in the society because of management weaknesses therefore we need a strong will to solve the problem of veiling”, he stressed. “We will deal with companies and offices that have not cooperated with the Staff to Awaken the Promotion of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice”.
Qom women’s affairs cleric says equal education for girls and boys will lead to change in their sexual identity
The head of the Women’s Observation and Research affiliated with the Central Management of the Sister’s Religious Seminaries said, “The existence of an equal educational system for girls and boys will lead to a change in their sexual identity”. Hojatol -Islam Mohammad-Reza Zibayi Nejad pointed to some of the reasons for weakness in having forbidden sexual relationships and said, “One of the reasons is a change that occurs in people’s sexual identity”. He said that this was because of a change in how people see men and women and added, “The western educational system and also our educational system do not segregate on the issue of gender”… He said that the aim of the West in carrying out this educational system is to remove the sexual differences between men and men. “The result of this issue is that we bring up bold girls and sensitive boys”… “For example, epic poems have to be used in the boys’ educational books”, he added.
