Behind the Headlines/December 5

In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will look at the rampant corruption among the regime’s official in the midst of continuation of the workers strike at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Factory and Ahwaz Steel Plan.

18 Majles deputies from the city of Isfahan have resigned but it is not yet clear if the parliament’s speaker has accepted their resignation or not.

Meanwhile the student movement in the universities has once again erupted and clashes between pro-and anti-regime students have been reported in the local press.
Our guests tonight to discuss these issues are Hassan Etemadi and Maziar Shakouri.

Hassan Etemadi:
Our young generations have been one of the main victims of this regime as once they were abused and sent to the war fronts when the regime took advantage of their honest religious and nationalist sentiments and thousands of them were killed in that carnage.
We currently have more than one million disabled people left over from the war with Iraq. They estimate there are more tan 6 million disabled people across Iran.
And yet, decades after the end of that bloodshed the cities affected by the war have not been reconstructed yet. The province of Khuzestan is the most devastated part of the country as a result of that war.

Maziar Shakouri:
Even in those countries of the world that do not have democratic governments we can see their regimes do respect human and civil rights of their people to some extent.
But in Iran the regime even decides what goes on inside the private homes of the citizens and tries to control the way people think in their private lives.
The war veterans and disabled people in Iran receive very little material and psychological help from the regime as its means are limited due to the numerous social and economic problems that the country faces as a whole.