The Government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the midst of one of the most intensive crackdowns on domestic dissent in the past two decades, targeting groups as diverse as banks and labour unions, students and civic organisations. In the US, attention has focused on the detention of four Iranian-American dual nationals, three of whom have been charged by the Government with endangering Iran’s national security. But according to human rights activists and ordinary Iranians who described the events, the impact of the crackdown has been far more widespread at home. The first extensive detentions came in April aimed at people wearing clothes deemed not to comply with Islamic strictures. Security forces swarmed streets in Tehran and grabbed people wearing skimpy head scarves. short overcoats or tight shirts. Since then, the campaign has widened. Student and union leaders have been arrested, and scholars have been harassed for refusing to sign statements attacking Israel, according to human rights groups. Private banks have come under attack for their interest rates. The Government moves have been met with resistance in Tehran and other parts of the country. But Government officials have taken a tough line. “Those who damage the system under any guise will be punished,” Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ezhe’i declared in April. He accused women and student groups of attempting to overthrow the Government under the guise of civil society movements. Congress appropriated $66.1 million this year to support Iranian opposition groups, and Bush administration officials have talked openly of seeking “regime change.” Iranian leaders say they believe the US is trying to manipulate domestic groups to overthrow their rule the way western-backed civil society organisations helped unseat the Ukrainian Government in that country’s Orange Revolution 2 1/2 years ago. The US Government has refused to say what groups in Iran received its money. Although the internal crackdown has been widespread, it has attracted relatively little attention outside Iran.Iranian news outlets have been issued a three-page letter from the Supreme National Security Council listing forbidden topics. Barred subjects include the enforcement of Islamic restrictions on dress, the effect of UN sanctions on everyday life, international sanctions on Iranian banks and travel bans on Iranian nuclear and military officials. Also on the do-not-publish list were stories about tensions between Iran’s Shiites and Sunnis, ethnic clashes in the provinces, and strained relations between Iran and other Muslim countries worried about Iran's regional ambitions. Western news organisations also felt intimidated. The bureau chief of one western news organization in Tehran likened present-day Iran to the former Soviet Union, where foreign journalists writing about human rights abuses would have their visas revoked and local staffers regularly were summoned to interviews with intelligence officials. “There are many things that I would like to write about, but can’t,” the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They would shut down our office and kick us out.” Ahmadinejad has always been strongly conservative on Islamic issues, but he downplayed those views during his 2005 presidential campaign. “Is hijab the real problem of our people?” he said during a campaign speech, referring to the Islamic head covering. “Don’t we have much more important things to deal with?” The speech is played frequently on satellite channels and websites run by Iranians abroad. Some people view the government’s strict enforcement of dress codes and moves against opposition groups as an attempt by a hard-line faction to sabotage any possible rapprochement with the West by disrupting groups that advocate closer ties to western societies. Others see the repression as an attempt to establish control over the domestic situation as the country girds for possible war or economic sanctions.
