Monday, May 08, 2006

Why Religious Fundamentalism Must Be Resisted

Through Colby Cosh's roundup of international news items comes this article:



Sahar is a 16-year old high school student living in Tehran. She suffered a bruised and swollen arm that was painful enough to prevent her from attending classes for several days. "I was walking on the street with my friends that suddenly a police patrol pulled over," she said. "All of my friends started to run away as soon as they saw the car, but I stayed there as I thought to myself I have done nothing wrong, why must I run away? But then the police stepped down, pushed me to the corner and cursed me. He called me a rotten grass and told me to cover up the half of my elbow that was showing down the sleeve. When I told him that my sleeves are short and they won't come lower than this, he hit my arm with his stick."


Although such behavior from the police force is not yet common, similar incidents have some concerned that physical confrontations might become the norm. The situation reminds some Iranians of extremist-dominated conditions which existed before the Khatami presidency.

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