http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-house-arrest-iran.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/27/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-birthday-iran

]]> http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/10/28/happy-birthday-president-ahmadinejad/feed/ 0 http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/03/12/did-israeli-drones-disrupt-irans-satellite-launch/ http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/03/12/did-israeli-drones-disrupt-irans-satellite-launch/#comments Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:39:59 +0000 http://middleeastanalyst.com/?p=98 The article below in Haaretz looks at a recent report from Iran that hostile unmanned aerial vehicles disrupted the communications systems at the launch site of a missile carrying Iran’s first satellite to space.

The question is, who was behind this?

To read the article, click below:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069876.html

]]> http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/03/12/did-israeli-drones-disrupt-irans-satellite-launch/feed/ 0 http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/02/01/meet-mrs-ahmadinejad-co/ http://middleeastanalyst.com/2009/02/01/meet-mrs-ahmadinejad-co/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:00:08 +0000 http://middleeastanalyst.com/?p=89 By: Meir Javedanfar

Since becoming president in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become one of the most widely known Iranian politicians. In direct contrast, his wife has been one of the most discreet spouses in Iranian political history. The world got its first glimpse of her in 2005, after she accompanied her husband on a trip to Malaysia. However, she did not speak any words and has hardly ever appeared in front of cameras since then. What was even more mysterious was her identity. She was only referred to as Mrs. Ahmadinejad in the very few reports which mentioned her. Her real identity was strongly protected.

But on January 18, 2009, the world suddenly met Azam Al Sadat Farahi, who until that day was known as Mrs. Ahmadinejad. The encounter was brought about by a letter she wrote on behalf of Gazans to Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In it she wrote:

The people of Gaza have been subjected to aerial, ground and sea attacks and have been living under siege for a long time. Witnessing the bombardment of mosques, hospitals and houses and the mutilation of women and children brings pain to the heart of any human being. …I ask you to do whatever is in your capacity to help the people of Gaza and to help them from the oppression that they are suffering from, so that your name is placed alongside the name of worthy and peace seeking women.

One could doubt whether Mrs. Ahmadinejad’s letter would have any impact, because these days Egypt is trying its best to isolate Iran. This was seen by the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on several occasions asked for Mubarak’s help. Nothing ever came of it.

Nevertheless, the symbolic value of the letter should not be ignored. Many people around the world believe that Iranian women, especially conservative ones, are confined to the boundaries of the kitchen. This may be true about wives of conservative clergy. However when it comes to non-clergy conservatives, the opposite is true. Quite a few are very vociferous in their political thinking and beliefs.

One of the most notable is Fatemeh Rajabi, the journalist wife of Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman and one of Ahmadinejad’s most trusted confidants. Rajabi sometimes appears in the press more often than her husband. Furthermore, she has openly attacked Rafsanjani’s allies for being corrupt and Ayatollah Khatami for being too liberal and friendly toward the West. She even called for the defrocking of  Khatami. Although many male members of Iran’s political elite have done the same, Rajabi is the first female critic in Iran’s post-revolution history to go so far in her criticism of senior politicians. This has earned her several nicknames. One is “Fatti Arreh,” meaning “Fatemeh the hacksaw.” The other is “Shamsi Pahlevoon,” a nickname given to physically rough women in Iran.

Despite the fact that Ahmadinejad’s wife has been camera shy until recently, she too has had a strong influence on her husband. Although the president of Iran is no feminist, compared to other conservatives in Iran he has championed more rights for women. One of them was his public call to allow women to attend soccer matches as spectators. Soon after, he was subjected to fierce criticism from senior clergy from the city of Qom because they saw it as un-Islamic. Ahmadinejad did not back down until he was forced to by Iran’s supreme leader. Furthermore, during his tenure as mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad opened many leisure areas for women, including parks and libraries. Although segregation of men and women is frowned upon in the West and by many Iranians, it must be noted that some women in Iran welcome segregation in buses and parks due to problems such as unwanted physical contact and approach by strangers. Right-wing movements have also increased their recruitment of women for their campaigning and demonstrations. A great number of Baseej (people’s militia) who demonstrated against Israel and Egypt were women.

As the Iranian presidential elections near, we are going to hear more from the female members of Iran’s political arena. Their appearance is not solely for the betterment of human kind. Jealousy and self-interest are also at play. It is believed that one of the reasons why Ahmadinejad’s wife wrote to Suzanne Mubarak is because she did not want to be outdone by Zohre Sadeghi, the wife of Ayatollah Khatami (Ahmadinejad’s chief rival), who two days earlier had written a similar letter to the wife of the emir of Qatar.

Conservative clergy may wish to keep Iran’s women quiet and at home. However, it looks like the conservative non-clergy politicians who should back them are actually turning against them.

Sixty percent of Iran’s university graduates are women. It’s only a matter of time before they can slowly claim their deserved place in the government and society of their country.

This article originally appeared in PJM Media

To read the full article, click here

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/iranian-students-slamming-ahmadinejad-goes-viral/

]]> http://middleeastanalyst.com/2008/12/10/iranian-students-and-mahmoud-ahmadinejad/feed/ 0 http://middleeastanalyst.com/2008/10/29/hopeless-in-aradan/ http://middleeastanalyst.com/2008/10/29/hopeless-in-aradan/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:00:15 +0000 http://middleeastanalyst.com/?p=51 By: Meir Javedanfar

29/10/2008

Aradan, a small village in the Semnan province of Iran, is the birthplace of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Its local population does not exceed 5000. Most are Persians. There are also some Gilak speakers. These are people who emigrated from the Gilan province, in northern Iran, where they have their own dialect. Aradan has an old Bazaar and a number of old mosques, which are in a dilapidated state. Its only tourist attraction is the grave of five Arab pilgrims, who died there on their way to the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, in the 18^th century.

Some of Ahmadinejad’s relatives still live there. Its population are understandably proud of Ahmadinejad. However, even here, the president has managed to disappoint. According to a recent article in the daily Telegraph, in Aradan:

“About 60 per cent of people are using opium these days, and about 12 per cent using crack, which will kill them within a few years,” said one official. “The problem is serious because of the underemployment; most people have only two to three hours of work a day.”

If the regime ever collapses, in my opinion, it is very probable that the start of its end will be traced back to the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Because in terms of economic welfare, since the start of the revolution, life has never been so bad for so many Iranians.

Colin Freeman of the Daily Telegraph traveled to Aradan, and wrote a very informative article. Entitled “In President Ahmadinejad’s hometown in Iran, hope goes up in opium smoke”, it paints an painful picture of life in one of Iran’s poorest areas. I highly recommend it. You can read it here

08/09/2008

Extremist. Corrupt. Unstable.

These are some of the accusations leveled at Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There is valid reason behind all of them and they are why many countries do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This is despite the fact that if and when Iran does get the bomb, Ahmadinejad’s finger will be nowhere near the launch button. Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei will make sure of that.

Unlike Ahmadinejad, Asif Ali Zardari Pakistan’s new president, will have his finger on his country’s nuclear button. So it will be interesting to know about his background.

According to the London Independent, last year, Zardari was:

“declared unfit to stand trial in a UK court on account of multiple mental problems. According to court documents filed by his psychiatrists, he suffers from dementia, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress after spending 11 of the past 20 years in jail in Pakistan. According to their testimony last year, he found it hard even to recall the names of his wife and children. ”

This is in addition to his reputation as a corrupt businessmen.

Pakistan’s case is one of many problems for the US, and it could be about to become much worst. Its population dislike the US more than many other countries in the region, while Al Qaeda is becoming more influential in Pakistan, where it has reached into the country’s influential secret service (ISI). Pakistani Al Qaeda is also making notable progress in its fight against the Pakistani government. For example, it is now in control of roads leading to the city of Peshawar, which has 3 million inhabitants. That would be equivalent to the city of Chicago being surrounded by outlaws, with the US armed forces unable to break the siege.

The Iranian nuclear program is a cause for concern for the West, with much validity. However, equally dangerous, if not more, is the situation in Pakistan, which already is a nuclear country. Just as Saddam’s Iraq took the attention of the West away from Iran’s nuclear program, the current absolute focus on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions may do the same to the troubles in Pakistan.

03/09/2008

There is a growing sense of anger amongst Iranian women. This week , a number of women’s rights groups picketed in front of the Majlis (parliament) to demonstrate against a new bill which would allow Iranian men to take a second wife, without the permission of his first one.

Until now, consent of the first wife has been required by law. If the new bill is approved, this will be no more. All the man has to do is to prove that he can provide financially for his second wife, and he can legally marry her, no matter how vehemently his first wife objects. As Iranian law allows a man to have four wives, once this law is passed, all that stands in the way of anyone who wishes to be a bigamist is money.

Compared to some Middle Eastern countries, including U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, Iranian women have more rights. Iran has female members of parliament. Iranian women play sports, attend universities in record numbers (higher than men), and participate in the arts and entertainment world, just to name a few.

In Saudi Arabia, women can’t drive. Ever heard of Zohreh Vatankhah? She is Iran’s female champion rally driver.

Clearly, compared to Western countries, women’s rights in Iran have a very long way to go. For example, the testimony of a female witness in court is officially considered half as credible as a man’s. There have even been cases of women being stoned for adultery.  If a woman leaves her husband, she is likely to lose her children.

This new bill, even if it is not passed, shows that the rights of women under President Ahmadinejad (who refuses to shake a woman’s hand) are deteriorating. This stands in contrast to the time of Ayatollah Khatami as president, who had a female vice president.

The new bill also endangers the welfare of Iranian men from poorer income brackets who wish to get married (for the first time). They may find it more difficult to find brides from their economic class, because women who want to escape poverty could now find it easier to become the second wife of a rich man. So instead of helping the poor, as he repeatedly promises, Ahmadinejad and his government are giving more power to the rich.

In addition to just demonstrating, Iranian women are finding other ways to defend their rights. For example, one of their concerns is that if divorced, the husband could convince the court not to pay them anything. To resolve that issue, many girls have upped the compensation they would get from a man in case they divorce. The level is measured in the number of gold coins promised as dowry to a bride in a prenuptial agreement.

Until five years ago, 100 to 200 gold coins was the going prenuptial rate for girls from middle-class families. Nowadays, there are reports from Iran, especially Tehran, that this rate has jumped to 600. Even 1,000 coins has been heard of.

According to an article in BBC Persian, this has raised alarm bells for the Iranian government, for a number of reasons. One is that the government sees that marriage, which has been a sanctified Iranian tradition, is “turning into an economic project,” as stated by Ahmadinejad’s vice president, Gholam Hossein Elham. This was also making life for some Iranian men very difficult. In some cases, after getting married, the man would realize that he is not a good match with his wife. But he is not able to divorce her, as he cannot afford to pay the prenuptial agreement. And this is something no one can escape from. In March of this year, one divorcing husband was ordered by a court to buy 124,000 roses for his wife, as per their prenuptial agreement. Not everyone can afford this. So it is a choice of staying in an unhappy marriage or going to jail.

Meanwhile, some single guys heard such stories and decided to stay away from marriage altogether, or to postpone it for as long as possible, until they could afford it. But not everyone wants to stay single until they are older. Therefore, in order to resolve their romantic aspirations, more young guys are opting for temporary marriages, called sighe in Farsi. Such temporary marriages, which could last anywhere from two hours to 99 years, have to be sanctified by a Shiite clergy to be recognized. The rates at which some girls agree to such marriages are much lower. One can even use the Internet to find sighe, thus making this a more comfortable temporary solution, until such times that they can afford to get married.

To resolve the decreasing number of people from poorer classes who wish to get married, the government is planning a new maximum tax-free limit for prenuptial agreements. Any figure above that will be taxable. In this way it aims to deter couples from agreeing to what it sees as exorbitant prenuptial figures. Also, by reducing the financial burden, the government of Ahmadinejad hopes that Iranian men will be less scared of getting married.  Whether it will succeed is another matter.

So while the world frets about Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, upper-class Iranian bigamists are coming up with new ways to “enrich” the number of their female companions. And much like the nuclear program, outside authorities seem powerless to stop them. However, all hope is not lost. There is one great difference here. The opposition, in the form of Iran’s women, has most probably gotten its own array of “tough” and “comprehensive” sanctions, and unlike the UN, is far more willing to impose them.

The End

Update:

This article originally appeared in PJM Media a number of days ago. Since then, the Majles has voted on this controversial issue. To find out the result, click here

19/08/2008

The last number of days have been a roller coaster for Iranian foreign policy. On the one hand, Iran scored a major success by hosting Nechirvan Barzani, who is the prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq. The Iranian educated Mr Barzani (studied three years at Tehran University), comes from a noble, and interesting Kurdish stock. His grandfather Mustafa Barzani, was the founder of KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party), and Massoud Barzani, who is his uncle, later became its head.

What is interesting is that Barzanis had a well know relationship with the government of Israel. According to several reports, it was Mustafa Barzani who sanctioned the presence of Mossad in the Kurdish region of Iraq from the early 60s to the mid 70s. Furthermore, recent reports that Israeli companies were helping Kurdish guerillas, talk of the Israelis operating in areas controlled by Massoud Barzani, indicating of an ongoing relationship between the two sides well into mid 2000, if not beyond.

But Nechirvan Barzani followed a different path. He became close to Iran, after his family were exiled by Saddam. He found refuge in Tehran, during the reign of the Shah. After the revolution, in which some Kurdish groups helped Ayatollah Khomeini, he managed to secure his stay in Iran, and was allowed to keep in touch with KDP elements in Iraq. He finally returned home in 1989 and pursued a very successful political career.

In another successful example of Iran’s soft power strategy, he, much like many Shiites who took refuge in Iran, did not forget the help he received. And now, he is repaying the favor.

One of the main goals of his trip to Tehran and meeting with Ahmadinejad is to secure Tehran’s backing, in the dispute over the oil rich city of Kirkuk. The Kurds want to include it in the Kurdish part of Iraq. But the Arabs (Sunnis) and Turkmens want it in Iraq, because they are worried that they may be persecuted, and more importantly, they may lose out on the oil windfalls. This dispute is one of the reasons behind the delay in the election bill in the Iraqi parliament.

Barzani’s request for help shows that now days, Iran not only has a say in oil rich southern Iraq where its Shiite allies live, it now also has a political and possibly economic say in relatively oil rich northern Iraq. Much in line with Iran’s post war strategy, Tehran is backing more than two sides in a conflict, successfully.

But it hasn’t all been good news for president Ahmadinejad. According to his account, during visit, Turkish president Abdullah Gul warned him against the “machinations of the Zionists”. But the Turks give a very different version of the encounter. According to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, Gul warned Ahmadinejad in the same way that he warned Iraq’s vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan in 2003, about the upcoming conflict with the United States, telling him (Ahmadinejad) to “avoid getting into an unwinnable war”.

The paper goes on to say:

“Gül did not give Ramadan’s name when warning the Iranian leader but reminded him of the Iraq example when he said, We would not want anything to happen to our neighbor.

We would not want Tehran to be Baghdad”.

These are very tense warnings from a president who is close the US, EU, and Iran. This is also a country which needs Iran for its energy resources. The very fact that Gül chose to make his warning public shows that as he said to Ahmadinejad, “the political area for a peaceful solution is getting narrower. We are approaching critical developments”.

Indeed. Unfortunately.