Monday, June 16, 2008
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Published: Monday, June 16, 2008
* Blogging politics
The web logger Hajji-e Kensington” [the Hajji from Kensington] writes that Javier Solana’s most recent trip to Iran [on 14 June] to present the incentives package is “a handful of empty promises.” He does not think the offer contains any new incentives and says the offer is the same as before, but in “new wrapping paper”:
“If the [uranium enrichment program] is suspended, and they [the West] declare Iran’s program to be harmless, then, naturally, the sanctions would have to be lifted and all of these incentives would be Iran’s right. Even America said they would negotiate if enrichment is suspended. So the package contains nothing new—just different wrapping paper.
Also, all these promises of facilitating trade, etc. are qualified by the world “possible” and those who are in the business of negotiating trade agreements know that this little word can kick your ass.
An important point here: two years ago, Solana and [Ali] Larijani [Fomer chief nuclear negotiator, now the speaker of the Majlis] drove everyone crazy with anticipation before they told everyone what the package contained. This time Solana gave a Persian translation of the incentives offer to reporters when he came. And someone well-versed in diplomatic etiquette would not do such a thing if he did not have a message to convey.”
Monday, June 16, 2008
http://www.mibibi.com/1387/03/26/post-573/
In a posting called “Majma’e al-jazayer-e Qamar” [Union of the Comoros Islands], the writer of the weblog “Shaandel” considers widespread reports by the state-run media, that the president of this small nation visited Iran and the two Muslim countries signed memoranda of understanding.
“I kept obsessing and saying to myself, God, where is this country? Maybe its newly independent? Or maybe my memory is getting really bad…. No matter how much I searched, I could not find ‘the Union of the Comoros Islands.’
I was loosing hope when I remembered the Comoros. It consists of several Islands in the [Indian] Ocean. That’s it, the Comoros Union, which signed such important agreements on bilateral cooperation. A little, backwater place near Madagascar on the [Eastern Coast] of Africa. The population is around 623,000 [official figures put the population above 700,000], which is equivalent to Shahriyar Country’s population [in Tehran]. The Capital Moroni has a population of 53,000, similar to Abhar [provincial city 3 hours from Tehran, though official figures put the number of residents at just over 60,000].
By the way, I forgot to ask: How did these folks get to Iran? The place doesn’t even have an airport. {the blogger here omits the Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport]. And how did Comoros turn into Qamar? Maybe they became an Islamic nation?
Monday, June 16, 2008
http://shaandel.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D8B6AC5E26ECC8D5!284.entry
* Blogging social issues
In his weblog, “Goftani-ha” [Worth Mentioning] Amir-Farshad, looks at the recent scandal in ZanJan University, where a University official tries to violate a student by telling her she would not be expelled from the university because of poor academic performance if she perform sexual favors.
“A girl, an agriculture student, who had received three warnings pending suspension due to poor academic performance, goes to the appropriate committee to plead her case. A member of the committee, Dr. Madadi, who handles special situations says he will fix her case on the condition that she sleeps with him.
[She tells her friends] ‘I am due to go to his office around 6 PM in the afternoon, when the university is closed and I just wanted you to know.’
She goes there, and Dr. Madadi, who is the university’s Deputy for Student Affair and also handles those special academic probation requests, has sent his secretary home and is waiting. Apparently she was supposed to call her friends on her mobile and they would come into the office and confront the guy. She does, and as you see, they have taken a video camera with them and filmed the whole thing: the curtains are drawn and there is a carpet with pillows on in it in the middle of the room. So the first students to arrive on scene beats up the guy and gets a little loud. Eventually other students arrive and ask for the university president to come in. When the university president gets there and sees the masses of students, he says, ‘my life is in danger!’
The students ask for the resignation of the university president and Madadi. But he says, Madadi will be suspended for the time being and anyway, ‘you weren’t the ones who appointed me, so you can’t ask me to resign.’ Up till now, the Minister of the Sciences [who has the power to fire the officials] hasn’t shown any reaction,
Monday, June 16, 2008
http://www.goftaniha.org/2008/06/blog-post_15.html
In “Hoquq Blog” [Rights Blog], Farhad looks at the decision of the Expediency Council to veto a bill of the Majlis that would require Iran to sign the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [CEDAW, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979], from the perspective of a Member of the Parliament. The Expediency Council rejected the bill, on grounds that it contradicted Sharia [Islamic] law.
“…When it comes to blood-money there is a discrepancy between the Convention and Islamic Law. The Convention says that the blood-money for men and women should be equal [bloggers stipulation: since the lives of men and women are affirmed as having equal value in the Convention, the blogger presumably stipulates that the blood-money in cases of murder or wrongful death would also be equal.]
This is plainly against the letter of the law in the Koran
Concerning equal blood money for men and women he [the MP] says ‘some sources of emulation [Grand Ayatollahs] such as Sana’i, have issued Fatwas [editcts] declaring that blood-money for men and women should be equal.
Amnesty International says in a statement that it regrets the Expediency Council’s decision to reject the bill requiring Iran to sign the convention.’
Monday, June 16, 2008
http://lawblog.ir/archives/2008/06/post_151/
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