Hacktivists Target Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Leak Trove Of Data

Ali Majdam, Mohammad-Reza Moqaddam and Moin Khanfari have been transferred from Shiban prison in the southern city of Ahvaz to an unknown place, according to one prisoner’s family.

Concern that they are soon to be executed without their families having been informed is now growing following the reports of their relocation.

There are also fears about the fate of Habib Darees, Adnan Ghobeishavi and Salem Mousavi, three other Arab prisoners who have been sentenced to death.

In February, the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court sentenced the six prisoners to death on charges of "transferring currency and remittances through a foreign bank, armed attacks, and being associated with a political movement."

A Twitter campaign in support of the Arab political prisoners will be launched on Sunday promoting the hashtag "no to death".

This comes as the execution of Iranian-Swedish political activist Habib Asyud on Saturday has drawn widespread international condemnation.

Asyud, former leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), had been convicted of leading an Arab separatist group accused of attacks including one on a military parade in 2018 that killed 25 people.

He was sentenced to death for being "corrupt on earth", a capital offence under Iran's strict Islamic laws.

Asyud, 49, was put on trial by a revolutionary court in Tehran in December. He was not allowed to choose his own defense attorney and was represented in his trial by a court-appointed lawyer. He was also forced under duress to make self-incriminating confessions.

While the Islamic Republic is theoretically based on some democratic processes such as holding elections and giving the nation a voice in the parliament, the supporters of true ‘Islamic Government,’ a more radical theory, do not recognize the role of the parliament and do not believe in people's vote. 

Mohajeri told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA): "Those who believe in an Islamic Government do not clearly say that they do not value the people's vote because they know if the say so, the people will tear them apart."

Despite Mohajeri's statement, the main advocate of the Islamic Government theory, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi has said many times that the people's vote is useless as the Supreme Leader is appointed by God Almighty and even his aides are appointed by God rather than being elected by the people. 

According to Mohajeri, some allege that the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also believed in full Islamic Government and the reason why he supported the idea of establishing an Islamic Republic was to prevent criticism from the international community. 

Mohajeri added: "Although the advocates of Islamic Government refrain from openly expressing their opposition to elections, they take measures that undermine the people's vote." He explained: "They do this by changing the political situation in a way to ensure minimal turnouts in elections, so that they can further their own ideas."

Mohajeri's statement alludes to what happened in the latest parliamentary election in 2020 and the presidential election of 2021, when mostly hardliners were allowed to run. This brought an inefficient parliament and president to power, so that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can now dictate whatever he wants to them.

On the other hand, many key decisions about the affairs of the state are handed over to the heads of the three powers of the government, such as the decision to dramatically increase the price of fuel in 2019, and the decision about accepting the terms of the international financial watchdog, the FATF, that was handed over to the Expediency Council. The former case led to one of the biggest and bloodiest protests in Iran and the latter has left Iran's foreign trade in a state of limbo for several years now. 

Even some of the decisions that are apparently made by the parliament, like the decision on the budget bill for 1400 (two years ago) were finalized according to Khamenei’s taste, by the president, speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary. 

Mohajeri's comments followed a statement by former President Mohammad Khatami who said recently that some Iranian politicians have turned to the idea of an Islamic Government rather than the Islamic Republic. Khatami however argued that what Khomeini had in mind was not the rule of clerics.

Asked to clearly name the advocates of the totalitarian Islamic Government, Mohajeri said: "A small part of radical conservatives believe in this idea," but refrained from naming any individual or group. Referring once again to the results of the latest elections in Iran, he said: "Naturally, when a majority of the people do not take part in the election, the political atmosphere will be controlled by the radicals."

With these explanations, the statement by reformist figure Mohsen Mirdamadi makes better sense. According to Rouydad24, Mirdamadi said: "Boycotting the election is not the favorite choice of political parties. But sometimes it is the only option on the table." He added: "When the reformists see that they cannot further any one of their plans by taking part in elections, they find out that their presence in the election can only lead to a decline in their social capital."

The Judiciary of Iran’s Fars Province has filed a case after the marathon race was held on Friday in the central streets of the city of Shiraz.

Mustafa Bahraini, Prosecutor General of the southern province said on Saturday that after this "deconstructive" action, the director and organizers have been summoned to provide an explanation.

Some women spectators in the street also defied the edit to wear hijab.

Since the death last September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police and the protests that engulfed the country for months, many women have discarded their headscarves altogether and vowed never to wear it again.

The Islamic Republic is now facing the phenomenon of "hijablessness" as a form of civil disobedience.

Only five months after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, then leader of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini banned women from appearing without a veil in government offices. The ban gradually spread to the entire society within the next two years.

Iran's women eventually gave into covering their hair, even if partially, with headscarves and shawls and wearing tunics and trousers that could be tight-fitting and/or colorful. The hardline religious and political establishment considered this level of compliance faulty and called these women "bad-hijab".

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations said teachers should gather in protest in front of the parliament in Tehran and education ministry departments in other cities.

In recent weeks, Iran's security forces have violently attacked teachers’ protests in Tehran and other cities detaining several demonstrators.

While calling for better salaries and working conditions, the teachers’ council also stated that Iran’s education system will not improve without a fundamental change. The union urged an end to the "dominance of the ruling totalitarian ideology" in Iranian schools.

Earlier, the union had called for further protests just hours after the Supreme Leader failed to address nationwide school poisonings in his speech on Wednesday.

Khamenei had been speaking at an event for the Islamic Republic’s National Teachers’ Day with a cherry-picked group of teachers. During the meeting, Khamenei discussed the country’s education system but failed to even mention the months of gas attacks against the schools across Iran which have left thousands of schoolgirls sick and hospitalized.

Scores of schools in many of the country’s provinces have been attacked by unidentified chemicals since November 30 when the first case of poisoning among schoolgirls was reported in the religious city of Qom.

The union also voiced support for the recent wave of protests by teachers and families of students who have been victims of the mysterious chemical attacks on schools.

According to reports by industry sources, the steel production in Iran plummeted because the regime faces a severe shortage of electricity and gas, both vital for running the plants.

Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture says the power outage in the Iranian year 1400 – ending March 2022 – led to a loss of seven to eight billion dollars in non-oil exports.

Some among industry experts say that loss of this magnitude, while oil exports have been reduced by US sanctions, led to shortage of foreign currencies in Iran, which contributed to its sharp decline since September.

Iran's rial has fallen from 260,00 to the US dollar last August to 540,000 as of this week.

Ahmad Mahdavi Abhari says that 45% of Iran’s non-oil exports is related to petrochemicals, saying that "Urea and methanol exports decreased by 2.5 million tons due to the gas cuts, meaning that it cost$700 million in exports.”

Zakaria Nayebi, a businessman active in the steel industry, says the production of steel ingot and direct reduced iron decreased for three months due to the shortages of electricity and gas.

While the Islamic Republic officials predicted a bad winter in Europe, offices and schools in Iran were closed for days in winter due to a serious natural gas shortage.

Iran has failed to invest in its gas production sector, although it has the world’s second largest reserves. The distribution network also needs upgrades as more than 25 percent of the gas is lost during transfer.

Earlier this year, an Iranian industrialist said the gas and electricity shortage would probably lead to a two-million-ton decrease in steel production. Reza Shahrestani said there is a severe gas shortage for industries, adding that the steel industry needs 40 million cubic meters of gas daily, but at present their consumption has reached 15 million cubic meters per day, adding that almost 50% of the electricity supply for industries has been cut off too.

“Gas shortage has also led to electricity shortage because the current amount of natural gas does not meet the needs of power plants to produce electricity,” he underlined. “It seems that the gas and electricity shortage will be more severe next year and if it continues like this. It will have a tangible impact on the production rate of all industries,” he added.

The World Steel Association, in its march report, removed Iran from the list of the 10 largest steel producers in the world, and Italy was replaced by Iran. Iran has always been among the top 10 largest steel producer in the world, and in the first two months of 2023, Iran was the ninth largest steel producer above Turkey.