BRIEF ON IRAN No. 614 Monday, March 17, 1997 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Washington, DC 22 Air Force Officers Among Victims Of C-130 Crash In Iran, Agence France Presse, March 16 TEHRAN - Twenty-two air force officers were among the 88 people who died in last week's crash of an Iranian military C-130 transport plane in the northeast of the country, a newspaper reported Sunday. Several officers from the 2nd Armored Battalion in Dezful and several members of the elite Revolutionary Guards were also among the 88 victims of Thursday's crash, the daily Iran said... Built before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Dezful base in Khuzestan province is one of the most important in Iran and is situated near the border with Iraq... Pilgrimage Leader Raps Saudis For Blocking Anti-US Rally, Agence France Presse, March 14 TEHRAN - A senior Iranian official criticized Saudi Arabia on Friday for seeking to prevent Iranian pilgrims from holding anti-US and anti-Israeli rallies during a Moslem pilgrimage in Mecca next month... "It is painful that the slogans against America, the great satan, and Israel are prevented on the side of the Kaba," Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca, the head of Iran's pilgrimage affairs Mohammad Mohammadi-Reyshahri said. "This is a token of their distance from the Koran, from hajj," or the annual Moslem pilgrimage, he said. Bahrain Coup Trial Soon, Reuters, March 16 MANAMA - Bahrain's state security court has said it will listen in a few days to final defense statements in the trial of 81 people accused of involvement in an alleged pro-Iranian plot to topple the government by force... Bahrain in June accused Iran of backing an attempt to topple the government by force. U.S. Spy Wanted Iran Info, Reuters, March 16 BONN - The German news magazine Der Spiegel said on Sunday said a U.S. diplomat ordered out of the country for spying was digging for information about Germany's controversial trade ties with Iran. The alleged spy and his predecessor..., tried to get a senior Economics Ministry official to name German firms selling high-tech equipment to Iran, it said. They also asked about Bonn's official credit guarantees for German exports to Iran, a German-built nuclear plant in Iran, the 1995 expulsion of two Iranian spies from Bonn and a Berlin murder trial at which German prosecutors have accused Tehran of state terrorism, it said. Overview Marzieh Sings in Solidarity with Iranian Women Against Fundamentalism Iran Zamin News Agency, March 14 - On the occasion of the International Day of Women, the Office of the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, in cooperation with the Association of Iranian Women in Denmark, held an event in Copenhagen on Friday, March 14 in which more than 3,000 people participated. In this gathering, many members of the Denmark's parliament, political and cultural figures, and members of the Danish and Norwegian press were present. Following the speeches, Marzieh, the diva of Iran's music, performed a memorable concert in solidarity with Iranian women. In her closing remarks, Marzieh expressed her confidence that the Iranian women will gain their freedom under the guidance of Mrs. Rajavi and she called on them to rise and unite behind her. Agence France Presse, March 14 - Marzieh, the diva of Iranian traditional music was in Copenhagen to sing her songs and star in the program which was organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran Friday night. Marzieh, 72, who is famous as the "Iranian Canary," was banned from singing after the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979. In 1994, she came to exile in Paris to join the National Council of Resistance. ... She told the Danish daily Berlingske Tidente that "Khomeini had banned the music and announced in radio that the musicians corrupt the society. But Iran is very rich in arts and culture and when this nation loses its cultural heritage, it is a huge lose for the whole world." Marzieh stressed that "Fundamentalism is antagonist towards women and artists... In mullahs' view, women lack any human element and are like the house's furniture." She urged Salman Rushdie, the British novelist who was condemned to death in 1989 by Khomeini's decree... to "fight back." She said: "If one day I see Salman Rushdie, I will tell him that he should not fear the mullahs in Iran and must fight them back with the tools at his disposal."