News from the new, moderate Iran

From AFP:

Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli said on Monday that she has been sentenced to two years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and 50 lashes for publishing anti-regime propaganda.

Rasouli, respected for her work as an arts and culture reporter for leading reformist media outlets, including the Shargh and Etemaad dailies, was detained in January 2012 as part of a crackdown.

She was later freed on bail, but her incarceration -- shortly before a parliamentary election -- drew international condemnation led by the United States and France.

In a statement posted Monday on Twitter, Rasouli said she had been charged with "propaganda against the establishment and disruption of public order through participation in gatherings."

The first charge has been commonly used by Iran's conservative-dominated judiciary to convict activists and journalists since the disputed 2009 presidential election that triggered widespread anti-regime protests.

Rasouli suggested the sentence had been approved by an appeals court, without elaborating, only adding that "I have to go to prison tomorrow to serve my sentence."

From Al Arabiya:

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is contemplating a ban on vasectomies and other birth control measures in an attempt to rekindle the Islamic Republic’s falling birthrate.

The birth rate has dropped from 3.2 percent in 1986 to 1.22 percent now, according to the CIA World Factbook. At present fertility rates, Iran's median age is projected to increase from 28 in 2013 to 40 by 2030, according to U.N. data.

In his 14-point decree online, Khamenei said increasing Iran's 76 million-strong population would “strengthen national identity” and reverse “undesirable aspects of Western lifestyles.”

Khamenei is ambitiously calling for a population of 150 million.

In reaction, Tehran lawmakers passed a bill that would see the imprisonment of doctors for five years if found guilty of performing birth control procedures. The bill is yet to be ratified and will be scrutinized by a constitutional watch dog.

We knew Rohani would reform the Islamic Republic!