TEHRAN, 13 August 2003 — Iran’s hard-line Guardian Council yesterday rejected three bills from the reform-oriented Parliament to push forward reforms and liberalize Iranian society.
The council rejected an anti-torture bill for the third time within one year, again terming it vague, the news agency IRNA reported. The revised draft bill was aimed at prohibiting use of mental and physical force during interrogations, and solitary confinement and punishing offenders with prison terms from three to 12 months. The second bill rejected by the council would have allowed Iran to join the International Convention on Discrimination Against Women. Council spokesman Ebrahim Azizi said that the convention contradicted prevailing Islamic rules of the country. Parliament last month sparked a huge controversy by approving the bill which led to protests by Islamists who regard the convention as an effort to impose Western norms on Iranian society. Also rejected was the bill on amending the election law which the reformists planned to reduce the authority of the Guardian Council which is constitutionally entitled to reject candidates for presidential and parliamentary elections according to their own criteria.
