Posts Tagged ‘Iran’
September 17th, 2012
An Iranian religious group has increased a reward offered for the murder of British author Salman Rushdie after blaming him for an anti-Islam film. As Rushdie recounts in his
new autobiography, in 1989 Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
condemned him to death for insulting the prophet in his novel
The Satanic Verses. Rushdie has no links to the film — which has caused riots across the Middle East— he dismissed it as ‘idiotic’, but Ayatollah Hassan Sanei of the 15 Khordad Foundation said the film would never have been released had Rushdie been killed after the fatwa was declared. Sanei increased the reward by $500,000 USD, making the total sum $3.3million USD.
September 17th, 2012
Yesterday Iran confirmed that its revolutionary guards corps (IRGC)
forces are present in Syria helping Bashar al-Assad’s government fight rebel forces. General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, issued a further warning that it would get involved militarily if its Arab ally came under attack. British officials say that the IRGC has provided riot control equipment and technical advice on how to crush
dissent, as well as providing support to improve monitor protestor’s use of the
internet and mobile phone networks.
September 13th, 2012
The Iranian government began
censoring SMS discussions of its plummeting local currency on 10 September, following an
exchange rate fall of almost eight per cent against the dollar. Iran’s mobile networks explicitly blocked messages containing the word ‘dollar’, as well as the local term for foreign money.
June 12th, 2012
A journalist and government critic has been
sentenced to two years in prison in
Azerbaijan. Anar Bayramli, a correspondent for two
Iranian media outlets, was sentenced for a drug possession charge following a controversial court case which was said to include contradictory evidence. Bayramli was arrested in February and charged with possession of four grams of heroin. The journalist was previously summoned by police on a number of occasions to disclose his political affiliation. The sentencing comes at a time when tensions between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Iran are particularly heightened.
June 11th, 2012
Iran’s cyber police will
carry out a new crackdown on software used to circumvent the country’s strict censorship media according to reports by local news agencies. The head of the specialised police unit examining security issues, claimed approximately 20-30% of Iranians currently use Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to access content restricted by the regime. Kamal Hadianfar announced the country is forming a new commission to block the technology, which is illegal for citizens. The country has been working on creating a
“national internet”, and has discouraged the usage of foreign communication services, such as Gmail and Yahoo.
May 23rd, 2012
The whereabouts of two
Azerbaijani writers remains unknown, after they were
allegedly kidnapped in Iran. Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizade were reportedly set upon by eight men in civilian dress as their bus arrived from Tehran into Tabriz, in northwestern Iran on 2 May. Huseyn, from news website 525 and daily newspaper Kaspiy, and Hajizade, who writes about youth issues on social networks, visited Tehran for the presentation of an Iranian edition of Huseyn’s writings. It is believed the pair are being held by Iranian security forces, though no information has been provided by the authorities.
May 15th, 2012
A sentence handed to an
Iranian cartoonist
may be quashed after the MP who brought the case withdrew his complaint. Mahmoud Shokraye
faced 25 lashes after local conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani took offence at a caricature the artist had drawn. Shokraye was found guilty of insulting Ashtiani at a media law court in Arak last week. The sentence caused outcry internationally and within Iran, forcing the MP to withdraw his complaint.
May 15th, 2012
An
Iranian rapper has been
issued with fatwas and faced death threats after releasing a controversial song. Shahin Najafi, an Iranian singer based in Germany, released a song containing references to one of the 12 Shia Muslim Imams. The song, which was posted on YouTube, offended some who claim it insults their beliefs, while others claim the song breaks taboos on expressing views about religious personalities. A religious Iranian website has offered a reward of $100,000 (£62,000) for anyone who kills the rapper.
