A conservative news site published a photo report showing that the strike in Tehran’s Bazaar continued on Thursday, July 15, 2010.
The web site, Alef, is run by Ahmad Tavakoli, Majlis representative (Tehran) and head of the legislature’s research center. Tavakoli is a cousin of Speaker Ali Larijani — he is the son of Larijani’s aunt — and has been a critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since his first term as president. Tavakoli, who obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of Nottingham in the 1990s, was one of the first Malis deputies to accuse Ali Kordan, interior minister in Ahmadinejad’s first administration, of faking his doctorate. The late Kordan was subsequently impeached. Tavakoli and several of his close allies in the Majlis have continued to denounce the government’s economic policies, the level of the post-election crackdown, and the fake doctorates of several ministers and vice-presidents.
The report was followed by 27 comments left by the site’s readers as of noon GMT on Friday, July 16. Only one reader opined that the tax rate on traders should not be increased (the government has agreed to a tax hike of 15% after first mentioning 70%). But this did not mean that the comments on this conservative site favored the government either. Only two readers expressed support for the Ahmadinejad administration. One wrote, ‘Stick to perfecting your prose and let the government do its job.’ This comment garnered 5 thumbs up and 34 thumbs down… >>>
