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Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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Can the EU Afford to Underestimate the Threat Posed by the Islamic Republic?

March 07, 2004
Iran va Jahan
Darius Dana

The impressive boycott of the Iranian parliamentary election has put the European advocates of "critical dialogue" at an awkward position. It will no longer be easy for the EU to claim to be encouraging indigenous reforms in Iran when the last elements of the supposed reformist movement have been chased out of the system. Of course the temptation to continue to cut deals with the theocracy will always be there. What better way to build thriving economies than trading with a desperate dictatorship willing to dish out just about any trade incentive in return for "turning a blind eye" to its abuses of human rights and violations of international law?! It's an ironic dilemma indeed; A young union of nations bound by a firm belief in liberty and democracy on one side and a medieval, oil-rich theocracy with no respect for the civilized world on the other. These unlikely partners are drawn to one another by very different reasons. For the EU, the attraction is commercial gain, but for the Iranian regime the stakes are much higher. With Washington piling up the pressure and growing unrest at home, the mullahs need the EU for their political survival. Be that as it may, there are at least three practical reasons why the EU should refrain from throwing a lifeline to the Islamic Republic.

1 - Islamic Republic's Stability

Although the Islamic Regime seems fairly stable now, it has never been weaker in its 25 year history. The departure of the so called reformist faction means that the whole weight of the system lies on the back of a few aging and insecure mullahs totally out of touch with the popular mood inside the country and ignorant of the realities of the modern world. Put the spiraling rates of poverty, unemployment, prostitution and addiction together with the regime's inability to create jobs or hope for the young who constitute 70% of Iran's fast growing population, and you'll soon come to realize that the mullahs are fighting a losing battle. The right wing power brokers of Iran simply lack the flexibility and intelligence to formulate any rational policies in domestic or foreign affairs. Paranoid as ever with the "plots of the enemies", the mullahs have increased repression at home while turning to yet more terrorism abroad. Hardly a safe environment for trade and commerce!

2 - EU and Iranian Perceptions

Britain, France and Germany are already mistrusted by most Iranians of all classes and backgrounds. The general perception amongst most Iranians is that the EU trio are ignoring the demands of the vast majority of Iranian people and are engaged in appeasing their oppressors for commercial gain. The failure of EU to make a clear stand on the issue of human rights has caused most Iranians to look to the US for inspiration and support. It is said that "seeing is believing"; What Iranians see these days is the obscene spectacle of cordial embraces and handshakes between EU foreign ministers and the most hawkish elements of the Islamic Republic who're directly responsible for the arrest, torture, and murder of Iranians. Insisting on such unwise policies will go a long way in downgrading the EU trio from "misguided rivals" to "colonial adversaries" in the eyes of Iranian people and opposition. It's always hard to predict the future, but most analysts agree that Iranian society is reaching boiling point and that some kind of change in the Iranian political scene is likely. In the event of such change, it is plausible that the prevailing forces most likely to be of secular and nationalist nature, will seek to retaliate against the EU for its support of the Islamic Republic. A future Iranian government of almost any complexion will probably seek to sideline the EU by favoring the US for strategic partnership and trade.

3 - A Pattern of Deception and Lies

The size and scope of Iran's nuclear program and the ever increasing evidence of a grand deception by the mullahs will only serve to embarrass the advocates of dialogue in Europe. The European visionaries who beat the drums of a "multi-polar world" can not afford to ignore the fact that some regimes do not play by the rules. The old school of "deterrence" and "balance of power" only apply to those who appreciate the limits and understand the rules. Both the well intentioned and the cynical EU decision makers are well advised to read through the short and bloody history of the Iranian revolution. They will find a disturbing tale of broken promises and deception on a grand scale; A revolution whose leaders promised a nation freedom and democracy, but unleashed death and destruction upon them once they grabbed power; A regime that compromises only when it's under serious threat and flouts international law when it's not; A regime whose leader is regarded as the "biggest predator of press freedom" and a president that talks of reforms and democracy while on trips to EU capitals and condones public executions and torture at home. Can the EU really count on the goodwill of a regime with such history? Can the EU afford to underestimate the threat posed by the Islamic Republic?

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=03&d=07&a=5

Iran: Eyes on America

March 07, 2004
Telegraph of Nashua
Devin Foxall

Editor's note: Devin Foxall of Lee spent one month last fall traveling in the Middle East - Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Iran - to ask young people what they thought of America. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 2003. He is currently earning money for another trip, though he has not decided where to journey next. The Iranians invited the American into their carpet shop in Tehran to chat over tea. Then they locked the door to tell their secret.

A man with serene eyes spoke first. “There is no hope,” he said. “There is no hope. There is no hope.”

The man, who was in his 20s, sat languidly in a metal folding chair, resting his head on the blood-red carpet hung on the wall. His friend, also in his 20s, chain-smoked cigarettes and typed feverishly on a computer.

Two teenagers sat by a metal urn filled with tea. The boys never spoke except to ask if their visitor would like more tea, or perhaps more sugar if he found his drink too bitter.

Over the next hour, the Iranians talked bluntly about a future they had long given up on and a generation of young people whose eyes were filled with sadness. Their words provide a window into a society that often seems closed to the outside world, America in particular.

They saved their most venomous criticism for their country’s religious leaders, who have imposed their strict vision of Islam on Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“They use Islam as a gun,” the man at the computer said. “It’s not Islam. They say, ‘Do that, don’t do that.’ You ask, ‘Why?’ And they lie and say it’s in the Koran.”

They blamed the ruling clerics for denying the thousands of small freedoms and emotions that make people human.

They could not kiss a pretty girl. They could not read a book deemed inappropriate. They could not listen to the Beatles. It seemed, they said, that they weren’t even allowed to be happy.

To do anything like this, they were told, was not simply illegal but an offense to God.

“Our government says, ‘You must go to paradise,’” the calm man explained. “We should be able to choose whether we want to go to paradise or hell.”

Suddenly, the man behind the computer sprang up. “It works,” he said smiling. The three others gathered behind him. They gestured for the American to come watch.

But first one of the boys checked outside the door to make sure no one was secretly listening. Then the computer man pressed the key, and the contraband sprang to life: Jennifer Lopez, snug in angel-white pants, shook her hips.

“She’s American, right?” the calm man asked. He touched her pixilated butt. “You have to be proud of that.”

The American watched Lopez offend God with each gyration and then said it was time to leave.

But before he left, the Iranians had one question. They were anxious to know if the rumors were true: would America soon attack? The American said that he doubted it, that the United States had its hands full with Iraq.

“You know, some people hope America invades,” the calm man said. Perhaps realizing the danger of saying this, he quickly distanced himself from this view. He had heard such things, he explained, though this was not necessarily what he thought.

“I’ve heard people say that, too” the man behind the computer said and looked at his friend. He said he doubted it would happen, though. America attacked Iraq for oil, he reasoned, and now they’ve got it.

“They don’t need our oil, now,” he concluded, glumly.

Iran, the legend goes, is like a shadowy nightmare for America.

But to visit the country and talk with the people is to learn that not all is quite as it seems.

The most striking experience for a visiting American is the extraordinary friendliness of the Iranians. To say you are an American is to be greeted with a smile and an invitation for supper and cups of hot tea.

Iranian youth delight in talking about the American pop stars and Hollywood celebrities they know from illegal bootlegs. They can talk endlessly about the opportunities they believe America offers. And, invariably, they will ask what Americans think of them.

Most, though, already have an answer: Americans are wary of Iran, they admit, if not afraid.

Young people say this image of Iran embarrasses them; they blame a small

but vocal ruling group of clerics for its broadcast.

They would like to offer a new image: On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, about 200 young people gathered in Tehran in a spontaneous candlelight vigil to express sympathy for the United States. It was the only such demonstration in the Islamic world after the attacks. The next night, the basij, a religious vigilante group, and the police attacked the vigil.

The moment unveiled the forces battling for Iran’s future: young people, if timidly at first, sought to connect with the nation they had for their whole lives been taught was the Great Satan, while the aging religious leaders tried to retain control with violence.

This question engulfs Iran: How much longer can the ruling clerics impose a strict Islamic state on a nation 70 percent of whose people are under 30?

“Five percent of the people support the mullahs,” one Iranian said. “But they have 95 percent of the power.”

Clues

An American in Iran faces many obstacles when trying to gauge peoples’ feelings toward their future.

Most notably, a visitor must understand the schizophrenia of Iranian life that splits its personality between the public and private world.

The popular example - and the transformation most spectacular to behold - is of the woman who in public covers herself in a chador, the long dark cloak designed to cover curves, then, once home, unveils trim designer clothes and a cascade of frosted hair.

This leaves one seeking subtler clues to the people’s mood - in the questions they ask when they learn a visitor is American; in the graffiti sprayed on city walls; in their criticisms of other Middle Eastern countries as much as their own; in the way young women subvert the strict dress code.

These clues illuminate a young society trying to stay human through small, private acts of rebellion.

The questions Iranians have for American visitors are embroidered with their secret hopes. Some ask when President Bush might invade, but many more ask when American and Iran will have normal relations. They ask how hard it is to visit America and if Iranians are treated well there. They want to talk about the music and movies they are not allowed to see.

Young Iranians have linked American musicians with the idea of freedom and rebellion. There is no anti-government graffiti on the street walls; instead, the names of Eminem and Avril Lavigne are crudely spray-painted.

Young women have begun rebelling through fashion. Legally, they must obey Hejab, modest Islamic dress designed to enforce a kind of sexual anonymity. The unintended side effect is that any variation in a woman’s dress serves as a political statement.

Standing on a city street, it is possible to witness a timeline of the last 25 years of Iran’s history. Older women wrap themselves in black chadors, clenching the fabric in their teeth to keep their hands free.

Younger women, especially around a university, wear a slim black jacket that stops short of their knees, tight jeans and a scarf balanced at the back of their head. Black eyeliner circles their eyes like moats, foundation cakes their cheeks - and white bandages embrace their noses. (Nose jobs have become common practice for rich girls in Tehran.)

The most direct channel to peoples’ mood, of course, was in private conversation. Alone with an American, one woman admitted that whenever she hears that another U.S. soldier has died in Iraq, she thinks “what a waste.”

From her satellite dish, she has heard President Bush justify the war as a means to achieve democracy in the Middle East. “They could have democracy in Iran without dropping a bomb,” she said. “Just support the reformers.”

Even in private, some people would only criticize their government through a less than direct route.

Two young men in a fabric shop in Esfahan, a city of turquoise-tiled mosques 250 miles south of Tehran, focused their attack on Saudi Arabia before shifting close to home.

“We all hate Arabs,” the tall one said, reminding a visitor that Iranians are Persians. “Arabs brought Islam to Iran 1,400 years ago. That is the whole problem now.” His friend agreed. “Saudi Arabia is crazy. They still love Islam. They love it. We hate it.”

Other Iranians used black humor to make their point. A man in a carpet shop in Esfahan asked, “Would you like to hear a joke? What is the difference between a madman and a mullah?” He paused, then delivered the punch line.

“Nothing.” He didn’t laugh.

Public flirting is scowled upon in Iran; for some, though, it is sometimes worth it to make exceptions.
The cafe

In a cafe in Shiraz, a city in the southwest of Iran known for its nightingales and tombs for Persian poets, two girls ask an American if he would like an espresso or a chocolate sundae. Over the next half-hour they lightly flirt and - due partly to the girls’ faltering English - talk about nothing much in particular.

In almost any other country, this would be unexceptional. But in Iran, the conversation and, more importantly, each tiny gesture is packed with meaning - and even criminal rebellion.

The brown hair of one girl spilled from beneath her scarf and onto the front of her shoulders. Her friend would every few minutes liberate a strand of hair - the color of starless night - and let it fall across her cheek.

Soon, the girls let their scarves become so loose that they would take them completely off - offering, perhaps, a momentary vision of Iran’s future - allow a moment to retie them and then slip the covering back on.

The laws concerning social behavior here seem to be in perpetual flux so there is rarely any consensus on what is allowed. In general, public mingling of the sexes is best avoided, people warned a visitor, and to flirt is to invite harassment. Physical contact of any kind, including a handshake, could, if the wrong people were watching, mean the girl’s arrest.

And so here, in a tiny cafe hundreds of miles from the capital, the quiet revolution of Iran’s youth took another step forward. When it was time to leave, the girls extended their hands with the hope that the American would share the moment’s rebellion.

http://nsnlb.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040307/OPINION04/203070303/-1/opinion

CIA: Iran Regime Plans Crackdown

March 08, 2004
Middle East Newsline
MENL

WASHINGTON -- The CIA has assessed that Iran's ruling clergy plans a major crackdown against the reformist movement.

Officials said the CIA assessment has determined that the reformist movement has sustained a sharp blow with its loss of parliament in February. They said the regime of Ali Khamenei will crack down on dissidents and seek to remove reformist politicians from government.

"With the victory of hardliners in elections last weekend, governmental-led reform received a serious blow," CIA director George Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb. 25. "Greater repression is a likely result."

Tenet said the influence of the reformist movement will wane as it is expelled from government and parliament. He said the reformists will seek to work with labor unions and non-governmental organizations "to rebuild popular support and keep the flame alive."

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/march/03_08_1.html

Regime increases pressure on identified opponents

SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 7, 2004

The regime's pressure has been increased from the begining of the Iranian week, Saturday, on identified opponents who have had judicial problems.

Arbitrary arrests, search of homes and cars, questionning and threats are used against those who had been formerly jailed but released while several new arrests have been made among student, teacher and worker activists.

The regime seems to be preparing itself for an International diplomatic confrontation and is intending to pacify any threat coming from whitin the country.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5237.shtml

High security measures adopted to stop "Int.'l Women Day" celebration

SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 8, 2004

High security measures have been adopted and will be applied, later today, in order to stop the planned celebration of the "Int.l Women Day". The regime forces have been mobilized, especially in the Capital, to crackdown against Iranian women and their male supporters by pretexting the unlawful nature of the gatherings.

While the right of making peaceful demonstrations is recognized by the Islamic regime, its Ministry of Interior has not issued any response to the formal request made by several feminist organizations.

Iranian Women who are representing the majority of the Iranian Nation have been struggling, since the conception of the Islamic republic regime, to keep their rights which have been mainly revoked and disregarded.

They have all been subjected to the Sharia Apartheid Law and discriminatory measures while hundreds of them have been killed and thousands wounded and forced to leave their job for their braveries and having defied the backwarded regime's ideology. Several of them were killed on January 7, 2003, as they defied the regime and its taboos by burning their veils. Savage militiamen used of their knives and acid base substance to kill and wound several of them with the benediction of the regime's hardliners and the silent complicity of the sham reformists.

One of the Iranian Women's main slogan, since the Islamic revolution of 1979, has been the famous and so many times shouted: "Na Roosari, Na Too Sari" (No Veil, No submission).

It's to note that the Iranian Women had one of the most freer life styles during the former Iranian regime while some of the familial law had been changed according to their rights and many other were under discussion in order to secularize them. Many of them, unveiled, were exercing high rank professions and functions, such as, Ministry of State, Ambassador, Policewoman, Military Officer, Fighter Pilot, Doctor, Teacher, Nurse, Ingenior, Actress, Director and various other jobs.

Knowing these historical facts, some demagogue International Reporters, such as Christiane Amanpoor of CNN who's of Iranian origin, tried to promote the sham theory of reforms under Khatami's presidency and to cover this flagrant discrimination by pretexting that "Iranian women situation is better than in Saudi Arabia as they're allowed to drive car".

Ms. Amanpoor was able to take back her father's home, confiscated during the revolution, following several reports which highly credited the so-called reformists in the eyes of the unaware world opinion. She's married to M. Rubin who was the White House Speaker during the Clinton administration.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5238.shtml

SAYING NO TO RELIGIOUS WAR

By AMIR TAHERI

March 7, 2004 -- 'WE must not be provoked!" This is the message out of a meeting of the leadership of Iraq's Shiites in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Karbala and Baghdad, which killed 270 people and injured 500 others, mostly Shiite pilgrims.

The Wednesday meeting was called by Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the primus inter pares of Iraqi Shiite clerics, at his home in Najaf. Virtually all prominent religious and political figures in Iraqi Shiism attended. It was the first time in almost four decades that the Iraqi Shiite leadership was able to join in one place to show its unity.

Sistani called the meeting hours after Tuesday's attacks, dispatching emissaries to all the nation's key mosques and husayiniahs (places of Shiite worship). His intervention played a key part in preventing Shiites from taking revenge action against their Sunni fellow citizens.

The terrorists chose their attacks to coincide with Ashura, the most important religious date for Shiites. And, as news of the tragedy spread, some Shiite leaders began to call for jihad (religious war) against the Munafeqin (Hypocrites), a code word used to depict Muslims who do not accept the Jaafari form of mainstream Shiism. In Kazemiah, north of Baghdad, armed bands of Shiites began to prepare for attack on Sunni neighborhoods, raising fears of a religious civil war.

"Sistani's message came like cold water on fire," says Muhammad-Taqi Haeri-Yazdi, a mullah in Baghdad. "He marched us back from the edge of the precipice." Soon, the firebrand young mullah, Muqtada Sadr-Mahallati, was ordering his armed supporters to go home and wait for further instructions.

Sistani's brief statement, announcing the meeting in Najaf, made no mention of the Sunnis and blamed the terrorist attacks on "enemies of Islam and the House of the Prophet." His emissaries were even more specific: The tragedy was not the work of Iraqi Sunnis but part of a worldwide anti-Shiite campaign by a network of radical Sunnis, mostly from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Pakistan, known as the Salafis.

"There may have been some Iraqis among the aggressors," a spokesman for the grand ayatollah told us from Najaf. "But this was not an Iraqi Sunni operation. It was planned, organized, financed and, at least in part, carried out by terrorists from other countries."

By Wednesday, some 20 suspects, including Iranians and Iraqis, were under arrest.

THE Sunni-Shiite feud dates back to 680 A.D. when Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the third Imam of Shiites, was killed in Karbala by men working for the Sunni Caliph Yazid Ibn Muawyyiah.

The two versions of Islam hated one another more than they hated even the Jews and Christians. For almost a century, the Ottoman Empire (raising the banner of Sunni Islam, with its symbol of the crescent moon), fought the Persian Empire (whose Lion-and-Sword banner symbolized Ai Ibn Abi-Talib, the Prophet's son-in-law and father of Imam Hussein).

The prize in the two Muslim empires' struggle: southern Mesopotamia, home to Shiite "holy" shrines in Najaf, Karbala, Kazemiyah and Samarra. By the 18th century, the "holy region" had become a lawless no-man's-land. This enabled an army of jihadists recruited in Arabia and led by Muhammad Abdul-Wahhab to invade and destroy the Shiite shrines.

The Ottomans soon re-imposed control and allowed the Persians, now at peace with them, to rebuild the shrines. But the de-Shiification of Mesopotamia remained Ottoman policy. Over decades, this transformed Samarra (north of Baghdad), where the 12th and last Imam of Shiites went into hiding over 1,000 years ago, into a predominantly Sunni city. They also settled Turkish, Kazakh and Turcoman tribes, all Sunnis, in parts of what is now Iraq to alter its Shiite character.

At modern Iraq's founding in 1921, the Shiites decided to stay out of politics because of their belief that any government formed in the absence of the Hidden Imam is illegitimate. That allowed Arab and Turkic Sunnis, some 18 percent of the population, to dominate the government and use its power to marginalize the Shiites.

IN 1946-47, the principal seminary at Qom (in Iran), acting on behalf of Shiites, and the Al-Azhar seminary in Cairo, representing Sunnis, negotiated a concordat ending almost 13 centuries of enmity between the two main branches of Islam. The mithaq al-taqrib (convergence pact) allowed Shiites and Sunnis to pray together, to intermarry, to trade, to accept each other's testimony and, most re important, to stop murdering each other in the name of jihad.

From the mid 1950s onward, Iraqi Shiites provided the popular base of several major political movements, from communist to Arab nationalist. But by 1963, the coalition of Sunni Ba'athists and Nasserites who had seized power in Baghdad regarded the Shiites as something of a "fifth column" for Iran. By 1970, a new de-Shiification had become part of the official Ba'athist ideology.

This was spelled out in a book by Taha Yassin al-Jizrawi, later vice president under Saddam Hussein: "Three That Allah Should Not Have Created: Shiites, Jews and Flies." In it, Jizrawi recalls how the Jews, in the 1930s almost a quarter of Baghdad's population, had been "flushed away." He then notes the "speedy disappearance of flies" from Iraq, thanks to imshis, small pesticide vaporizers. "We now," he wrote, "need imshis for the Shiites."

From 1968 to 1978, the Saddam regime tried to change Iraq's demographic balance by turning Shiites into minorities. Over a million were deported to Iran or forced into other exile on the grounds that they had not been registered under Ottoman rule. Saddam also imported more than a million Sunnis from Egypt and the Palestinian territories and he transferred almost 400,000 Sunni Kurds from their northern villages to towns and villages in the Shiite south.

In 1991, Saddam ordered the wholesale massacre of Shiites. By some estimates, over 200,000 were killed and a quarter of a million forced to flee the country.

YET Saddam's fall has not been followed by any major acts of revenge by the Shiites. The reason may well be their confidence that the new Iraq that will emerge in the next two to three years will give them a fair share in the decision-making process, ending decades of minority rule.

"I know that many in the West talk of a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq," says Muwaffaq al-Riba'i, a member of the Governing Council. "I also know that many in the West, and the Arab world, hope for such a civil war either because they want the Coalition to fail in Iraq or because they hate Shiites.

"But we Shiites have no interest in a civil war because we do not wish to destroy our own country. Our interest is in democracy that provides the best way for rebuilding our country."

E-mail: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03072004/postopinion/opedcolumnists/19999.htm

Chief Nuclear Inspector Rejects Iran Call

March 08, 2004
The Associated Press
George Jahn

VIENNA, Austria -- The head of the U.N atomic agency on Monday rejected Iranian demands of an end to international scrutiny, saying Tehran would remain in the spotlight as long as questions remained about its nuclear agenda.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke at the start of an IAEA board of governors meeting trying to bridge differences over Iran's nuclear intentions - and what to do about them.

Germany, Britain and France want an emphasis on the progress Iran has made in revealing nuclear activities and cooperating with IAEA inspectors since the discovery last year of a secret uranium enrichment program and covert tests that could be applied toward making nuclear weapons.

Convinced that Tehran at one point wanted to make nuclear weapons, Washington, however, wants tough language to dominate in any resolution adopted by the board.

Ahead of the meeting, a senior Iranian official on Sunday demanded an end to the board's scrutiny of its nuclear activities, insisting that they were never geared toward making arms. He also demanded that the three European countries deliver on promises of access to advanced nuclear technology in exchange for cooperation with the IAEA.

"We told them that if you don't fulfill your promise everything will return to day one," Hasan Rowhani said at a meeting with other senior Iranian officials in Tehran.

ElBaradei, however, suggested that Iran's nuclear activities would remain under scrutiny.

"The issue will (only) be removed form the agenda when we are done with all the issues that are outstanding," he told reporters ahead of the meeting. Progress on clearing up question marks about Iran's past suspect nuclear activities, "depends very much on the kind of cooperation we hopefully will continue to receive from Iran," he said.

"To build confidence takes years and requires absolute transparency and full openness," said ElBaradei. He said the board would also discuss agency findings resulting from its probe of the black market providing Iran, Libya and North Korea with technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons.

He described both Iran and Libya - which has acknowledged having a weapons program and has pledged to scrap it - as in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty.

But with Libya commonly accepted as willing to reveal all about its former nuclear secrets, it is Iran that is under the gun at the Vienna meeting.

While insisting it is interested in uranium enrichment only to generate power and not to arm warheads, Iran has suspended its enrichment program to defang criticism and ease months of international pressure. Still, it insists it has every right to resume such activities, despite international demands that Iranian enrichment be scrapped, not just suspended.

Tehran has also allowed IAEA inspectors broad access to its nuclear programs and has handed over materials requested by ElBaradei in his investigation of nearly two decades of covert activities, including purchases from the nuclear black market that also supplied Libya and North Korea.

Still, an IAEA report prepared for Monday's meeting of the 35-nation board faults Tehran for continuing to hide evidence of nuclear experiments unearthed by agency inspectors and again urges it to come clean. Made public last month, the dossier dealt the Islamic Republic a setback in its efforts to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is fully cooperating with the U.N. agency.

The report mentioned finding traces of polonium, a radioactive element that can help trigger a nuclear chain reaction, but which Iran says it was interested in for generating electricity. And it expressed concerns with the discovery of a previously undisclosed advanced P-2 uranium centrifuge system - a finding that the U.S. administration said raises "serious concerns" about Tehran's intentions.

Nia Zamani, a member of the Iranian delegation, told reporters his country is "working actively with the agency to resolve outstanding issues." He said any resolution should reflect "this trend of positive cooperation and outstanding issues being resolved one after the other."

U.S. officials don't agree. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said last week that Iran was exhibiting "a continuing pattern of deception and concealment."

"We're absolutely determined ... that we're not going to ease pressure on Iran," he said in Lisbon, Portugal.

The German, French and British, feel, however that too much pressure could backfire, particularly at a time of domestic political struggle between Iran's moderates and hardliners.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=471416&section=news

Iraq Interim Constitution Signed

March 08, 2004
CNN
CNN.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Calling it a new beginning for Iraq, Iraqi Governing Council members Monday signed an interim constitution, laying the ground work for future elections, a permanent constitution and eventually a return to self-rule.

"Here we are today standing in a historical moment to lay the strong foundation for rebuilding a new Iraq," said governing council President Mohammed Bahrululum. "A new, free, democratic Iraq that protects the dignity of the human being and protects human rights."

As governing council members gathered, an explosion was heard across Iraq's capital city, but was not apparent at the conference center where the ceremony took place.

According to Iraqi police, the rocket hit a house near the police patrol station in Karada in central Baghdad, wounding four people, including two children and a police officer.

The latest attack followed a barrage of at least seven small rockets that damaged a hotel Sunday evening in central Baghdad.

The newly approved 25-page interim constitution defines a new Iraq as being "federal, democratic and pluralist," according to an advance copy secured by CNN's Jane Arraf.

The ceremony was delayed by nearly a week because of deadly violence and disagreement among Shiite and Kurdish council members.

The missiles in Sunday's attack were fired toward the so-called Green Zone from the bed of a Toyota SUV parked about 400 yards (400 meters) north of the Al-Rashid Hotel, the official said.

A civilian security employee was slightly wounded but later returned to duty, the official said.

The Green Zone includes the Coalition Provisional Authority's headquarters in the presidential palace, which is across the street from the conference center where the signing ceremony was scheduled to take place.

The 80 mm rockets were launched about 7:25 p.m. (11:25 a.m. ET) from two "simplistic" launchers containing 11 tubes each, the official said.

Seven unused missiles remaining in the tubes after the attack were later destroyed by coalition troops, the official said.

Word of Sunday's attack came shortly after a spokesman for a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said Iraq's interim constitution would be signed without changes Monday.

"There were different opinions among us, but we were able to come to an understanding," said Sayed Mohammed Hussein Bahrululum, son of the council president. "We will continue with the signing of the interim constitution without making any changes in it".

On Friday, Shiite council members backed out of the ceremony after the nation's top Shiite cleric objected to a provision that would effectively give three Kurdish provinces veto power over approval of a permanent constitution.

"They reached a positive and clear understanding by the religious authorities for the development of the constitution and they plan to continue with the signing of the interim constitution on Monday," said Ali al-Shabout, spokesman for council member Muwafaq al-Rubaie.

The clause at issue says that if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject the permanent constitution, which is to be drawn up in coming months, it would not go into effect until it is revised.

The three Kurdish provinces want more autonomy than the majority Shiites are likely to approve.

Shabout said the meetings were attended by clerics Mohammed Ishak Sayed, Mohammed Said Al-Hakim and Grand Ayatollah Sayed Ali al-Sistani.

In addition to Rubaie and Bahrululum, council members who attended the meetings were Adnan Chalabi, Adel Abdul Mehdi, who is a spokesman for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and a spokesman for Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The signing ceremony was originally to take place Wednesday but was delayed for three days during a mourning period for victims of suicide bombings in Baghdad and Karbala.

The council gathered for a pomp-filled ceremony Friday afternoon to sign the historic transitional constitution, but the disagreements delayed the event and the council adjourned eight hours later.

The document will be the law of the land while efforts are made to adopt a permanent constitution and to directly elect Iraqi leaders -- a period Senor said would begin July 1, when sovereignty is set to be transferred from the Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraq.

The interim constitution will not go into effect until given the go-ahead by Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, who is expected to approve it.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/08/sprj.nirq.main/index.html

Iran Says Dossier to IAEA Not Meant to Be Complete

March 08, 2004
Reuters
ABC News

VIENNA -- Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna said Monday a declaration it gave the U.N. watchdog in October, once described by Tehran as complete, was never intended to be a complete picture of Iran's atomic past.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the U.N. nuclear agency's governing board, ambassador Pirooz Hosseini said Iranian officials had been "misquoted" by the press last year as saying the October dossier was complete.

"We were not at the time of October 21 to say everything, because what we announced at that time was based on our obligations under the Safeguards Agreement," he said, referring to an agreement permitting only limited U.N. inspections.

His comments contrasted with Iran's statements at the time.

Iran's former ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on October 21 the declaration he gave IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei "fully discloses our past activities, peaceful activities, in the nuclear field."

ElBaradei said in remarks prepared for delivery at Monday's closed-door IAEA board meeting that Tehran's failure to include research into advanced "P2" centrifuges capable of producing weapons-grade uranium was a serious omission.

"I am seriously concerned that Iran's October declaration did not include any reference to its possession of P2 centrifuge designs and related (research and development), which in my view was a setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency," he said.

He urged Tehran to stop withholding information from the U.N. body and take "the initiative to provide all relevant information in full detail and in a prompt manner."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040308_44.html

Rare Syria Demo Broken Up

March 08, 2004
BBC News
BBCi

Syrian police have broken up a rare protest by human rights activists demanding political and civil reforms. At least seven of a small group staging a peaceful sit-in in front of the parliament in Damascus were arrested.

The protest was organised to mark the anniversary of the Baath party's rise to power in 1963.

Organisers have also been circulating a petition urging President Bashar al-Assad to release political prisoners and lift the state of emergency.

The protest against the emergency laws in place for 41 years was organised by the Committees for the Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria.

Outnumbered

Organisers had been summoned by state security for questioning several times in recent days.

However they said on Sunday they would not be intimidated.

Monday saw riot police standing guard and the demonstrators were outnumbered intelligence officers in civilian clothes and black leather jackets.

One man raised a banner reading "Freedom for Prisoners of Opinion and Conscience" - but it was quickly torn up by agents, the Associated Press reported.

About 20 minutes into the protest, the main organiser, Aktham Naisse, was detained along with several others.

Low-key

Syrian flags and large banners hailing President Assad's leadership have been put up on the streets of Damascus to mark the coup which brought the Baath Arab Socialist Party to power.

But official festivities are expected to be limited and low-key.

Observers say there is a feeling there is not much to celebrate and that officials are still painstakingly trying to avoid parallels between Syria and Iraq.

In Iraq, the Baath party - which also came to power in 1963 - was led by Saddam Hussein who was ousted as president almost a year ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3543029.stm

Police Crack Down on Demonstration in Tehran

March 08, 2004
Iran va Jahan
KRSI Radio

Eyewitness reports from Tehran to KRSI radio station in Los Angeles indicate that a gathering by Iranian women and young men commemorating women's day, in Laleh Park, is being savagely repressed.

Chants of " Non Violence" were filled in the air when the police charged the demonstrators.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=03&d=08&a=6

Hundreds of women defy the regime by gathering

SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 8, 2004

Hundreds of Iranian women along with their male supporters have gathered at this time (17:00 local time) at the Laleh Park located in the center of the Iranian Capital.

They have defied the non declared official ban and the massive presence of the regime forces by reaching the Park located in the Fatemi avenue (former Aryamehr).

They are shouting slogans, singing the baned "Oh Iran!" and making speeches under the desperate eyes of the regime forces which have stayed affar from attacking them till now. Slogans in favor of women's rights, release of political prisoners and free elections for regime change are shouted.

Plainclothes agents are seen walking with walkie talkies and taking pictures of the crowd which is increasing constantly.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5244.shtml

The last public call to European Union's leaders

SMCCDI (Public Statement)
Mar 8, 2004

Mr. Blair, Mr. Chirac, Mr. Schroeder, Mr. Berlusconi and Mr.Klestil,

Twenty-Five years of oppression, mass killing, barbarism, and mismanagement of our country by the Islamic republic and its indoctrinated technocrats have now brought Iran to the edge of collapse and civil war.

As an increasing number of young Iranians are starting to shift towards armed struggle, the masses tired of 7 years of empty promises of reforms from within the theocratic system boycotted the sham elections of Feb. 20th in the greatest yet act of Civil Disobedience. This non-violent method of struggle follows the massive boycott of last year's sham city and rural election and prior to that, in 1997, Iranians used the Islamic Republic's presidential elections as an opportunity to show their rejection of those known as "hardliners" by the greatest voter turn out in Iran's history.

Thus, more than ever, we can declare with absolute conviction that Iranians are rejecting the Islamic regime in its totality!

But despite these clear signals, many entities with short term mercantilist and neo-colonialist views, especially among the EU, are still trying to extend the life of an illegitimate regime just as they did in the case of Iraq till the situation led to war due to the persistent existence of an unaccountable and un democratic regime..."

Gentlemen,

We Iranians know that you are the leaders of the European Union. We know that you did not arrive at your positions of power by force, deception, coercion, cronyism, intimidation, or all the other subversive means that some Mullahs of Iran successfully employed to hijack power and hold on to it. You are where you are because the majority of European people, believing mainly in your honor, integrity, and competence, assigned you to your posts by utilizing true Democratic means. Your nations purport to be vanguards and champions of Liberty and Democracy and you are their torch bearers.

Thus we justly demand of you to abandon your indifference to our plight and let us arrive at the shores of Democracy too!

If you still listen to your conscience and still possess your honor and integrity, then do what is right and do not impede us in our struggle to build a nation that is founded on the principles of Human Rights, Liberty, and Democracy.

In particular, Mr. Blair, you and your Crown Prince, if you are entertaining or nurturing neo-colonialist ideas and dreams involving Iran, forget them. You failed in America and India and you will meet defeat just the same in Iran.

Abandon your support of the Islamic Republic and your demagogic pretense of conducting "Constructive Dialogue" with the doomed Islamic terrorist regime. As repression continues and persists in Iran, while the Iranian people have made it brazenly clear to the world that they don't want the Islamic Republic, you no longer have even a resemblance of justification to continue with aiding and abetting that regime. The fallacy that you liked so much to perpetuate, that within the wretched regime of ayatollahs there were "Reformist Elements" with whom you could conduct legitimate business, while knowing full and well that they are all woven from the same cloth, has lost its façade of validity. The sham elections of Feb.20 through which the "Hardliners" got rid of the so-called "reformers" should be your clue.
And the fact that Iranians massively boycotted those elections, and didn't so much as yawn for the disqualified "pro-reform" MP's when they staged a protest sit-in hoping that Iranians would rush to their support just like the Russians did for Yeltsin, should remind you for the hundredth time that Iranians do not want and care for this regime in its entirety.

There is no wiggle room or gray area. You are either with us or with the Tyranny and Terror Masters in Iran!

Gentlemen,

We know and do expect that as leaders of your nations, you primarily uphold the interests of your countries. But you must reconsider your position of willingness to gain short term profits from the Islamic Republic and opt for solid and lasting relations with a Free, Modern, and Democratic Iran that wants and will be a bastion of security in the region; an Iran which is tired of being known as a supporter, producer, and exporter of terrorists and terrorism.

Time for you to help us is now. We will appreciate and reward your help in the future when the Islamic Republic is no more, as we will not forget if you choose to ignore our pleas and carry on your romance with Mullahs. And furthermore, we will reject many of the illegal and unfair contracts that this regime has awarded to some greedy establishments in your union.

All we want from you for help is due recognition:

-Recognize that Iranians have had it and are done with the Mullahcracy that has ruined their country. They want a Free, Democratic, and Secular Iran.

-Recognize that The Islamic Republic of Iran, by the very principles and doctrine upon which it is founded, can not be reformed, either from within or without. It has finally finished playing "Good Mullah, Bad Mullah" and the Bad Mullahs are now openly in charge.

-Recognize that your continued embrace of the Islamic Republic only serves to prolong its miserable political existence because it makes the Ayatollahs in power believe they enjoy legitimacy, and by banking on it, they continue their brutality on the masses of Iranian people who so far have valiantly chosen to remain non-violent.

-Recognize that the Islamic Republic is an oppressive terrorist regime that is a threat to the world security and peace in the Middle East. It must be brought down and the Mullahs be peacefully ushered back to the mosques where they belong.

-Recognize that all you need to do is shun and abandon the hated and doomed regime and give your full moral support to the oppressed people of Iran. Iranians will take care of getting rid of the Islamic Republic and its menace themselves. Their struggle against the theocratic system, which is based on civil disobedience and non-violent measures, has started and is well under way. Absolutely no foreign troops need to march in Iran and no military intervention is sought.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Long live freedom!
Long live secularism!
Established be democracy!

March 8, 2004 (18th Esfand 1382)

The "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran" (SMCCDI)

http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_3143.shtml

Regime forces beaten up Iranian women and supporters

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Mar 8, 2004

The Islamic regime's forces and plainclothes agents intervened, at Laleh park of Tehran and its surrounding areas, in order to smash the celebration of the "Int.'l Women Day" by beating the female protesters and their male supporters.

Clubs and chains were used against hundreds of brave women of different ages showing once again the brutality of the theocratic regime which has based one of its main pillars on a back warded and sword forced imported ideology dating of 14 centuries to go and which discriminates women.

Faces of several women were seen in blood and many had injuries on their faces.

Several male supporters who intended to oppose to the brutal repression were beaten up badly and were seen laying on the ground.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5247.shtml

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!

This just in from a student inside of Iran...

"Doc,

Internet connection and cell phone connections are cut off or broken because of this evening protests in Tehran."

Vigilantes Stop Iran Women's Demo

March 08, 2004
BBC News
Miranda Eeles

A gathering to celebrate International Women's Day in Tehran turned ugly as militia groups broke up what had started as a peaceful demonstration.

Members of the Basij volunteer group beat people with batons and pushed several men and women to the ground.

The authorities had tried to cancel the demonstration, withdrawing permission just hours before it was due to begin.

Shouting slogans and singing freedom songs, several hundred women defied the ban and gathered in Laleh Park.

Intimidation

They had come to hear local activists' speeches on violence against women, to commemorate International Women's Day.

"We were supposed to perform different plays," said one local woman, "to show how women are exposed to violence and to show how women's voices are not heard."

"Now they won't even let us speak," she added.

Dozens of police stood by, refusing to let the crowd congregate and ordering them to go home.

After the organisers left, members of volunteer militia groups, the Basijis, arrived, some on motorbikes, others brandishing batons.

They tried to intimidate the crowd of men and women who remained behind.

There are reports that several people were arrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3544791.stm

U.S. Complains Stance on Iran Nukes Soft

March 08, 2004
The Associated Press
George Jahn

VIENNA, Austria -- In a trans-Atlantic rift over Iran, a top U.S. official complained in a letter to France, Germany and Britain that their softer stance was hurting common efforts to get Tehran to honor promises for full nuclear disclosure, diplomats told The Associated Press on Monday.

News of the letter by U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton came amid tensions at a key board meeting of the U.N. atomic agency over whether Iran has done enough to banish suspicions it had a nuclear weapons program.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to provide details about the letter but said such direct criticism was unusual.

Convinced that Tehran at one point wanted to make nuclear weapons and continues to harbor secrets, Washington wants tough language to dominate in any resolution adopted by the board of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

On the other side, Germany, Britain and France seek to emphasize progress Iran has made in revealing nuclear activities and cooperating with U.N. inspectors since the discovery last year of a secret uranium enrichment program and covert tests that could be applied toward making weapons.

At Monday's board of governors meeting, the chief Iranian delegate predicted that U.S. attempts to crack down on Tehran will fail.

Yet Iranian attempts to end international scrutiny of its past and present nuclear agenda found no favor with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, who said Tehran would remain a top agenda item for the U.N. agency until fears it was trying to make nuclear weapons were put to rest.

ElBaradei spoke on the first day of what was to be a three-day meeting. But diplomats said the conference might go until Friday because of the lack of consensus on how to deal with Iran's mixed record on lifting nearly two decades of nuclear secrecy.

``We are still far away on common language,'' a senior diplomat said as the meeting progressed.

A U.S-proposed text, seen by AP, spoke of ``serious failures'' by Iran to reveal nuclear secrets and the ``most serious concerns'' about its activities. Europeans consider that language too harsh.

Chief Iranian delegate Pirooz Hosseini said the U.S. attempt to take Iran to task ``is not going to work.''

``Almost all colleagues in the IAEA think that we have done our best in our ability to work with the agency,'' he said.

Before the meeting, senior Iranian official Hasan Rowhani demanded an end to the scrutiny of his country's nuclear activities, insisting they were never geared toward making arms.

ElBaradei, however, suggested that Iran would remain an agency priority. ``The issue will (only) be removed from the agenda when we are done with all the issues that are outstanding,'' he told reporters.

ElBaradei also said the board would discuss agency findings resulting from its probe of the ``complex black market network'' providing Iran, Libya and North Korea with nuclear weapons technology.

He described both Iran and Libya as being in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But with Libya apparently keeping pledges to reveal and scrap its nuclear weapons program, it is Iran taking the heat at the Vienna meeting.

While insisting it is interested in uranium enrichment only to generate power not to make weapons, Iran suspended its program to defang criticism. Still, it reserves the right to resume such activities, despite international demands that its enrichment be totally scrapped.

Tehran has also allowed IAEA inspectors broad access to its nuclear programs and handed over materials requested by ElBaradei. But an IAEA report prepared for Monday's meeting faults Tehran for continuing to hide evidence of nuclear experiments unearthed by agency inspectors.

Made public last month, the dossier dealt the Islamic Republic a setback in its efforts to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is fully cooperating with the U.N. agency.

The report mentioned finds of traces of polonium, a radioactive element that can be used in nuclear weapons but that Iran says it wanted for generating electricity. It also expressed concerns with the discovery of an advanced P-2 uranium centrifuge system - something the Bush administration said raises ``serious concerns'' about Tehran's intentions.

ElBaradei told the board he was ``seriously concerned'' about Iran's refusal to declare the P-2, calling it a ``setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency.''

Hosseini, Iran's delegate, said his country had nothing else to reveal.

Washington was unconvinced.

``I think its striking that the more the agency learns the more the Iranians have to change their stories,'' chief U.S. delegate Kenneth C. Brill told reporters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3837159,00.html

Iran: The World's Highest Rate Of Brain Drain

March 08, 2004
RFE/RL
Golnaz Esfandiari

Iran has the highest rate of "brain drain" in the world. That's the conclusion of the International Monetary Fund, which recently surveyed some 61 countries. The IMF says every year more than 150,000 educated Iranians leave their home country in the hope of finding a better life abroad.

RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari spoke to young people who have chosen to leave Iran and experts to see what is driving the country's future to find opportunity somewhere else.

Prague -- Vahid Garousi emigrated to Canada about three years ago, after graduating in computer engineering from one of Iran's best technical universities. Garoussi says he left for economic, social, and educational reasons.

"For a software engineer in Iran, you can find a quite well-paying job [by Iranian standards]. You can get something like 500,000 toumans a month [about $600], but still that [amount of] money is not something that [will give you a comfortable life]. So this was the economic reason. Then I had social reasons to leave Iran. The example I'm telling now is that you couldn't listen to music in your car -- Iranian pop music or I like Turkish pop music. There are many examples of these social restrictions you can think of. [And] there is no freedom of speech."

Every year more than 150,000 educated young people leave Iran for countries such as the U.S. and Canada. Some 4 million Iranians now live abroad.Garousi, now a Ph.D. student in Canada, adds that educational opportunities also were better abroad: "Then I had educational reasons. For example, you don't have good access to the Internet with high speed [and] then you have Internet censorship in Iran. [The authorities] have filtered many websites, even educational websites. We didn't have good libraries in Iran. We didn't have new books, new technical books. And, for example, here in Canada I can go to very prestigious conferences but in Iran, because of U.S. sanctions, Iranians cannot submit papers to [professional groups like the] IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers)."

Garousi says he won't return unless many things change. His story is increasingly typical. Every year more than 150,000 educated young people leave Iran for countries such as the U.S. and Canada. Some 4 million Iranians now live abroad. Few of these will ever return.

Many emigres cite a lack of basic social freedoms. In Iran, boys and girls cannot mingle together in public. Dancing is forbidden. Women and girls must cover their hair and bodies.

Under President Mohammad Khatami there has been a gradual liberalization, but public life is still closely monitored.

The situation is particularly serious among the best-educated young people. As many as four out of five (80 percent) who recently won awards in scientific fields have chosen to emigrate.

Hazhir Rahmandad, who won an international award in chemistry, left Iran in 2000 and now studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.

"After finishing my undergraduate studies in industrial engineering, I decided to continue my studies for graduate work, and system dynamics was one of the main areas that [I] was interested in. The only place I could go to was basically the U.S., so that was one of the main reasons. The other thing was that almost everybody was applying [at foreign universities] at the end of [my undergraduate university study]. I was studying at Sharif [University] in Tehran, so it was kind of the norm. And finally I think another dimension of it was that I was interested to see a different world."

Rahmandad says Iran's political structure does not allow people like him to get involved in the country's future as much as they would like to.

"In the short term, I don't think I will be going back," he said. "I actually, personally would really like to go back and be useful to my country and I feel a lot of connection still with whatever is happening in Iran. But on the other hand, I don't see a way of how I can be useful, how I can contribute to building a better Iran -- so it is a challenge."

Amanollah Gharayi Moghadam, a professor of sociology in Tehran, agrees. He says many young people are forced to leave because society cannot absorb them and respond to their needs. "Based on our research, the most important cause for brain drain from Iran is unsuitable social conditions for the youth. There are several factors contributing to this unsuitable atmosphere."

The costs of the brain drain are high. Local sources put the economic loss at some $50 billion a year or higher. "For each inventor or scientist who leaves the country, it is as if 10 oil wells had been destroyed," Moghadam says.

Afshin Molavi is a journalist and author of "Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys Across Iran." Molavi cites economic conditions as a main reason young people choose to leave. The unemployment rate is around 20 percent -- and higher for young people. Hidden in the statistics is massive underemployment, with students forced to take jobs below their qualifications.

"Mostly they describe the economic reasons for leaving the country and they describe simply a lack of jobs, number one, and there is also a massive underemployment problem with young Iranians who may have graduated in, say, engineering ending up working as traders, businessman. Or you might find pharmacists who can't find jobs in their fields so they learn a few software packages and they have to work, say, as a part-time software engineer."

Economists say Iran needs to create more than a million jobs a year just to keep pace with its growing population. In reality, though, only about 300,000 new jobs are added each year.

"It's a very sad thought and quite a tragedy to think that these people who would really like to stay in their home country but they can't simply because of the massive economic mismanagement of the Islamic republic of Iran," Molavi says. "And the irony is that everywhere Iranians go they seem to succeed. It is extraordinary what Iranians are capable of when the are given opportunities, and they are simply not given opportunities in their home country."

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/3/C655D456-07DF-405A-8FE9-AAD51173BD66.html

How They Celebrate Women in Iran

March 08, 2004
The Command Post
Weblog

Today is International Women's Day.

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

Many countries celebrate this day; some even mark it as a national holiday, closing schools and businesses.
In Iran, they tried to mark the day, but were unable to do so without bloodshed.

First, the regime made it clear that they would not sanction any demonstrations:

High security measures have been adopted and will be applied, later today, in order to stop the planned celebration of the "Int.l Women Day". The regime forces have been mobilized, especially in the Capital, to crackdown against Iranian women and their male supporters by pretexting the unlawful nature of the gatherings.
While the right of making peaceful demonstrations is recognized by the Islamic regime, its Ministry of Interior has not issued any response to the formal request made by several feminist organizations.

But the women came out anyhow, determined to have their voices heard.

Hundreds of Iranian women along with their male supporters have gathered at this time (17:00 local time) at the Laleh Park located in the center of the Iranian Capital.
They have defied the non declared official ban and the massive presence of the regime forces by reaching the Park located in the Fatemi avenue (former Aryamehr).

They are shouting slogans, singing the baned "Oh Iran!" and making speeches under the desperate eyes of the regime forces which have stayed affar from attacking them till now. Slogans in favor of women’s rights, release of political prisoners and free elections for regime change are shouted.

And then, the regime stifled those in the gathering the only way they know how:

Clubs and chains were used against hundreds of brave women of different ages showing once again the brutality of the theocratic regime which has based one of its main pillars on a back warded and sword forced imported ideology dating of 14 centuries to go and which discriminates women.
Faces of several women were seen in blood and many had injuries on their faces.

Several male supporters who intended to oppose to the brutal repression were beaten up badly and were seen laying on the ground.

Lest you think those paragraphs are somewhat biased, coming from an Iranian activist site, you can find the story at BBC as well:

A gathering to celebrate International Women’s Day in Tehran turned ugly as militia groups broke up what had started as a peaceful demonstration. Members of the Basij volunteer group beat people with batons and pushed several men and women to the ground.
Most other media carried the story of International Women’s Day by excerpting a speech from Nobel Prize Winner and Iranian, Shirin Ebadi.

No mention was made of the beatings or arrests.

http://www.command-post.org/nk/2_archives/010796.html