Mullahs tighten grip as US looks to Iran

The Scotsman:

With parliament firmly in their grip, the hardliners in the Tehran theocracy have increased pressure on moderate-minded politicians, journalists, writers and internet bloggers.

But the risk of being caught has not stopped the bloggers flooding the net with complaints at the state of their country. One on-line diarist in Tehran wrote: "The people in Iran are getting sadder and sadder. You see no music or dancing outdoors. There are no discos or nightclubs in any city of Iran. All the happiness is behind the closed doors of houses - the so-called ‘underground’. Many crimes are done here in the name of God. There are no really free newspapers. All the journalists are afraid of telling the truth because they will be arrested and sent to the jail, if they are lucky enough not to killed by hard-liners.

"All books to be published must undergo a strict line-by-line reading by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to make sure there is nothing against the rules made by mullahs inside them.

"The more the government pushes people toward Islam, the more people hate both them and their version of Islam." ...