PAGE 3

Tuesday, January 14, 1997

* To "sin" or to sigheh?
* Oops?
* Coexistense/cooperation a must
* Debts are mightier than the fax?
* Nina Shahravan?
* Hamshahri
* Make sense
* No help in nuclear weapons plans
* Malnourished children
* Bribery scandal
* Yazd is history

From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Iranian cleric proposes temporary marriage for young to avoid "sin"

Agence Frace Press

01/12/97

TEHRAN, Jan 12 (AFP) - A prominent Shiite Moslem clergyman has proposed the idea of temporary marriage for young Iranians to prevent them from being tempted into committing "sinful" acts.

Ayatollah Mohieddin Haeri Shirazi, the prayer leader of the southern city of Shiraz, said the government should implement the Islamic law of Sharia on temporary marriage, known as Sigheh.

Sigheh, which is occasionally practiced by religious Iranians, allows a man and a woman to be married under a summary religious ceremony, permitting the couple to have sexual relations.

The temporary marriage is for a specified period, which sometimes can be as short as a single day.

"To prevent the young from deviating, we must bring the Sharia law on marriage closer to practice," the ayatollah said during a seminar organized this week on the problems of marriage. "It should be allowed, not boycotted."

He advised however that the initiative be "gradual and limited" and implemented with "fastidiousness."

"Disciplinary committees" could be set up in universities to see to "ever better implemention of this divine decree and stopping it from being abused," Shirazi said.

"In our Islamic society, we need to find an alternative to the illegitimate and secret liasions the young establish under the guise of friendship," he concluded.

The ayatollah was voicing an ever-growing concern in Iran over the unfulfilled sexual needs of the young, who are forbidden from establishing relations with the opposite sex outside of wedlock or close family circles.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the authorities waged a campaign to segregate public places to reduce contact between the sexes for fear it would lead to "illegitimate" relationships.

Similar attempts were made to separate classes in universities but the initiative was abandoned as impractical. However, fundamentalists are pressing on with the campaign.

The authorities also closed all brothels and waged a fierce fight against prostitution.

Despite enjoying support among some top clerics, the idea of temporary marriage is opposed by many Islamic intellectuals, who see it as demeaning to the status of women.

The Islamic leftwing Salam newspaper said the practice "could well serve the sexual needs of the men, but can not be a viable solution and encouraged for women," who are expected to be monogamous in a culture highly protective of them...

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Israeli Fencing Team Invite Iran

Sunday, January 12, 1997

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli fencing team says it received an invitation from Iran -- a sworn enemy of the Jewish state -- to take part in an international fencing competition in Tehran.

The head of Israel's fencing association, however, said he thought the invitation came only to meet International Federation of Fencing tournament rules that all members must invited to competitions.

``They did this so that they can fulfill their obligation,'' Moshe Ben-Ezra said Sunday. ``I don't know how seriously they intended the invitation...''

***

To see full text, go to:

//wp1.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19970112/V000951-011297-idx.html

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Two items from Hamshahri (in Persian)

-- Foreign affairs expert: International coexistense/cooperation a must

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751022/maqal1.htm

-- National soccer team player signs with Turkish team

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751022/varze65.htm

NOTE: The above articles are from Saturday's edition of Tehran's Hamshahri daily online paper. You need Persian fonts to see the news in Persian. If you have not installed it, go to these sites for free download and installation instructions:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri

or:

//www.payvand.com/persian

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From: Masoud Sadegh <intcons@ix.netcom.com>

From wire services 01/12/97

LONDON - The London-based Saudi dissident Mohammad al-Masari, whose fax campaign against the Saudi royal family severely strained relations between London and Riydah, says he is financially broke.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper published [Jan 12], the former physics professor said he had debts of more than 100,000 pounds ($168,100) resulting from his campaign and was living on state welfare payments.

"It is not a secret. I am broke and I am not going to lie about it. I have had to use some of my family's money to keep my movement going," Masari said.

"I still owe about 50,000 pounds to my lawyer, who fought my deportation case. Then there is about 10,000 to 15,000 pounds owed to British Telecom and another 30,000 to feature fax for sending out our faxes. I simply have no way to pay them," he said.

Masari's Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights was the first opposition group to emerge in Saudi Arabia and bombarded the kingdom with up to 2,000 faxes a week.

His activities enraged the Saudi royal family and when Britain's arms manufacturers expressed fears for their lucrative contracts with the kingdom, the British government tried to deport him. An immigration appeals court ruled last year he could stay in Britain for another four years.

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From: Kamran Seyed Moussavi <seyed.moussavi@gsa.gov>

Police clear Irvin, Williams in assault investigation DALLAS - Police have ended their investigation into Dallas Cowboys [American football] stars Erik Williams and Michael Irvin, dismissing a woman's claim that Williams raped her while Irvin videotaped and held a gun to her head.

The players' lawyers said the woman, 23-year-old Nina Shahravan, recanted the allegation and said it was a hoax, but police would not comment on those reports or discuss details of the case.

Police spokesman Ed Spencer said Shahravan, a former topless dancer who recently worked at a mall cosmetics counter, could be charged with filing a false report.

Irvin, met by camera crews as he left the Cowboys Sports Cafe late Friday, told them to ''rerun it, rewrite it, reprint it. Just like you did, with the same intensity that you did - the same intensity. Don't lose the intensity. Don't lose the intensity.''

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Here are selected stories from Monday's edition of Theran's Hamshahri daily online newspaper. You need Persian fonts to see the news in Persian. If you have not installed it, go to these sites for free download and installation instructions:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri

or:

//www.payvand.com/persian

Articles

-- Hostage taking: Bad for business - in Peru
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/eqtes37.htm

-- Iran's population: 49 percent women, 51 percent men
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/eqtes64.htm

-- Fifty films in Fajr International Film Festival (titles not listed) //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/maqal59.htm

-- Majlis debate on next year's budget (1376)
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/siasi51.htm

-- Preparing to transit Kazakh oil products
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/shahr71.htm

-- Desmond Tutu: Speaking the truth and other duties of The Journalist //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/ejtem1.htm

-- Thirty-two fatalities in Ardakan-Yazd, Mashhad-Qouchan roads //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/havad58.htm
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751024/havad70.htm

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

`Senseless' Foreign Policy

Saturday, January 11 1997; Page A20 The Washington Post

[A letter to the editor:]

Senator Richard Shelby (Republican-Ala.) pursues an intriguing line of reasoning as recounted in The Post's story on Iran, Bosnia and Anthony Lake [news story, Jan. 1]. It is one rooted in a long history of isolationist thinking in the United States in general and in the Senate in particular.

America likes the Bosnian Muslims, but not enough to give them all the aid they need to survive a genocidal attack. They turn to whatever friends they can find, including Iran.

Since they took Iranian aid when U.S. aid was inadequate, they now are friends of Iran, which makes them enemies -- or at least untrustworthy -- to the United States.

This makes no sense...

***

To see full text, go to:

//wp1.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/displaySearch?WPlate+45303+%28iran%29%3Adescription%26and%2619970110%3Cevent%5Fdate

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Russia, China not helping Iran develop nuclear weapons: Perry

From wire services 01/10/97

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 - Defense Secretary William Perry expressed confidence Friday that neither Russia nor China were consciously helping Iran develop a nuclear weapons capability.

The United States in the past has protested Russian and Chinese sales of nuclear technology to Iran, which Washington believes is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

But in an interview with Fox television aired here, Perry took a softer tone, declaring that it would take "a long, long time -- more than 10 years" for Iran to develop nuclear weapons on its own.

"That time could be shortened if they got assistance from any nuclear power," he said. "We are confident that neither Russia nor China want to see Iran with a nuclear weapons capability and therefore are not consciously helping them..."

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

WHAT ON EARTH? A WEEKLY LOOK AT TRENDS, PEOPLE AND EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD

Saturday, January 11 1997; Page A16
The Washington Post

CHILDREN OF WANT

In the developing world, about 165 million children under the age of 5 are malnourished, and half of them live in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, according to UNICEF.

The U.N. children's agency says this is not primarily due to lack of food but rather to inadequate child care caused by overcrowding, and ill health and oppression of mothers...

Percentage of children under age 5 who are malnourished, by country:

MIDDLE EAST/N. AFRICA GROUP

Sudan 34%

Yemen 30

Iran 16

***

To see full text, go to:

//wp1.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/displaySearch?WPlate+45337+%28iran%29%3Adescription%26and%2619970110%3Cevent%5Fdate

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Twenty arrested in bribery scandal in Iran

From wire services 01/12/97

TEHRAN, Jan 12 - Twenty public employees in a poor suburb of the Iranian capital have been arrested and remanded in custody for taking bribes, the Iranian press reported Sunday.

They include several officials responsible for security in the working-class area of Robat-Karim, which covers several poor districts south of Tehran.

The mayor of the district of Sultan-Abad, whose name was not disclosed, is among those being prosecuted.

The Robat-Karim region was the scene of violent protests in April 1995 in which several people died and many were injured. An unknown number of people were also arrested in the demonstrations.

The Iranian press frequently mentions such matters as swindles and bribery in state governments.

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From: Paymon Mogharabi <pmoghara@cisco.com>

"Kayhan Havai", 25 December

1996 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared that city of Yazd located in the center of Iran is the second most historically significant city in the world.

Venice of Italy has been announced by UNESCO as the most historical city in the world.

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