Back to Brief on Iran
NEW YORK - Exile groups protesting the militant Islamic government in Tehran interrupted Saturday night's Goodwill Games wrestling match between the United States and Iran and continued their protest outside Madison Square Garden after the match ended.
Hundreds of Iranian fans were wearing T-shirts bearing the name and picture of Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
"A group of fans was protesting politically in the stands. The Iranian team leader took offense and left with his team," said Larry Sciacchetano, president of USA Wrestling. "What they asked us to do was to clear the protesters from the arena. We had a hard time convincing them that this is a free society."
Last month in Lyon, France, there were similar protests during the U.S.-Iran World Cup match, with exile groups wearing T-shirts with the pictures of their leader
Tens of thousands of Iranians left after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many, who are still opposed to the government, have never returned even for a visit.
A block away from the Garden, Moslem E. Filabi sat in a hotel lobby, unable to watch the team of the country he once represented and afraid of the stir his presence in the arena might create.
For 10 years, from 1966-76, Filabi wrestled on the Iranian national team. He appeared in three Olympics for Iran, won 17 gold, silver and bronze medals in international competitions and was honored as a national hero. He left Iran in 1982, three years after the revolution.
Filabi believes that his homeland is being pillaged by the current regime and that the wrestling team is being used in an effort to repair his nation's image.
Filabi, a member of Rajavi's group, seeks the overthrow of the current government, which he says is repressive domestically and sponsors terrorism internationally.
And, he said, the regime is using the wrestlers solely to improve its image. "They are playing politics," he said. "They say they are here for sports. They are here to cover up what is going on in my country, the people who are executed, the ones who are jailed."
Messages From the Missile, The New York Times, July 24
[Excerpts from a column by A.M. Rosenthal]
The missile launched by Iran Wednesday had a payload of messages to nations around the world -- other Muslim nations of the Middle East, Israel, Europe, the U.S. -- and to the Iranian people.
Among the messages was the military intelligence coming from the launch.
The range was 800 to 900 miles. Almost every Mideastern country is now within reach of the missiles Iran manufactured from components bought abroad. And so now are all U.S. forces in the Mideast…
To Iranians, the missile carried the plain message that those ayatollahs were the rulers of Iran, not… Mohammad Khatami…
The ayatollahs rule by terror at home and terror exported. They count on terror to extend their reign a lot more than 20 years.
Their end will come not by suicide -- the voluntary surrender of terrorist power by bomb, lash or missile. The end will come when the Iranian people overthrow them.
They did not intend it, but that was the most important message sent by the ayatollahs, on that missile.
Tehran Police Arrest Women for Violating Dress Code, Agence France Presse, July 26
TEHRAN - The Tehran police arrested on Sunday a number young women who failed to conform to the strict dress code in the Islamic republic, witnesses said.
An unspecified number of young women were ordered to board minibuses stationed in residential and business districts to be taken to a special center tasked with fighting "social corruption."
Most of the women were wearing makeup or in the company of young males who were not related to them.
The offenders could be flogged, but more often they are cited and fined. They are also ordered to pledge that they will conform to the regulations.
U.N. Official Protests Execution of Bahai, Los Angeles Times, July 25
UNITED NATIONS--Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, on Friday protested Iran's execution of a member of the Bahai faith and urged Tehran not to execute three other Bahais who are sentenced to death.
She said she was "gravely concerned about the reported conditions that led to the execution, particularly the seeming absence of due process," according to a statement released in New York and Geneva.
U.S. officials had issued similar protests Thursday.
Ruhollal Rawani, a 52-year-old father of four, was hanged Tuesday on charges of converting a Muslim woman to the Bahai religion. He was the first member of the faith to be executed in Iran since 1992.
Robinson said that she was concerned about reports that three other Bahais--Ata'ullah Hamid Nasirizadih, Sirus Dhabih-Mugaddam and Hidayat Kashifi--had secretly been sentenced to death.
She said a number of other Bahais were
in jail or awaiting trial under similar circumstances.