Iran's killer sex cops

Independent:

Zahra Bani Yaghoub was sitting on a park bench chatting to her fiancé when Iranian religious police arrived and arrested the couple. They were carted off to jail and held in separate cells. The fiancé was released but the body of Ms Bani Yaghoub, a 27-year-old doctor, was delivered to her family two days later.

Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's feared morality police have been acting with renewed vigour against what they consider to be unIslamic behaviour. Although the doctor's death last October is widely known among Iranians because they have internet access, the case received only a brief mention in the state-run media.

Shirin Ebadi, a Tehran-based lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her tireless defence of human rights, is now seeking justice in the case.

Yesterday, she warned that the morality police, who frequently stop women in the street to accuse them of wearing headscarves that are too skimpy, are now threatening to enter the offices of private companies in their Islamic zeal.

Ms Ebadi also said that human rights in Iran had regressed over the past eight years – from the persecution of homosexuals to the recent arrests of leaders of the Bahai religious sect, to bus drivers jailed for protesting over low pay.

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Imagine how fragile the government of Ahmadinejad must be that it considers these cases a matter of national security. It appears that the house of cards would collapse if people have fun and bus drives get a pay raise.