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Iran: Human Rights Improve, But Problems Persist
Iran is slowly becoming a more tolerant society, but reactionary clerics strongly oppose the policies of moderate President Mohammad Khatami.
Start Date: 4/10/99
Under the influence of moderate President Mohammad Khatami and like-minded leaders, Iran is gradually moving away from the harshly oppressive tone set by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. According to Maurice Danby Copithorne of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the result is a "more tolerant society in which the rule of law plays a part and which generally recognizes human rights to a considerable degree greater than in the past."
However, Islamic fundamentalists in Iran continue to oppose Khatami's reforms, and the struggle between moderates and hard-liners is said to be intensifying. For that reason, Copithorne said the U.N. Human Rights Commission should keep Iran under special scrutiny for at least another year.
An incident on April 7, 1999 illustrates the problem. At the behest of hard-line elements in the Iranian judiciary, authorities closed down a leading moderate newspaper called "Zan" for printing a cartoon deemed insulting to Islam. The paper is owned by Faezeh Hashemi, a member of Parliament and the daughter of moderate former President Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ms. Hashemi is an outspoken advocate for women's rights and Zan is staunchly supportive of Khatami. The paper will remain banned, authorities said, until Ms. Hashemi is brought to court.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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