Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 12, 2003

• Ministry of Interior Report on City and Village Council Elections
  Lashing on the Day of Ashura Despite Ayatollah Khamenei's Prohibition
  Full text of the diary:
• At home, time was spent reading and listening to the mourning prayers [on the occasion of Ashura] on the radio and television. The late [Mohammad] Kawthari's program of Rawdah Khwani had more impact than others.

The Ministry of Interior has sent the summary of the elections of the [Islamic city and village] councils, which is noteworthy: 1. In the big cities, the decrease in people's participation in the elections is significant. The situation is better in the small and border towns, 2) The faction critical of the government is better off throughout the country, 3) The Participation Party has been defeated and only 19 of its candidates have been elected to the councils throughout the country, 4) Not a single person from the national-religious and the Freedom Movement has been elected to the council. 5. A significant number of independents and without party affiliation have voted. 
There has been striking the sword in many parts of the country, despite the explicit prohibition of the Supreme Leader. In Kermanshah, women had breast-beating bands and in some cases, they were chained as part of the men's groups and mixed with them, despite the prohibition of the Friday prayer leader.

Some of the Friday Imams have attacked and rebuked the Friday Imams by planning the defeat of the 2nd of Khordad.

[Lt. Gen. Tommy Franks], the commander of the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf, has said that he is ready to launch an attack and is waiting for [George] Bush's order. Some of the representatives of the United States have passed a resolution against the Islamic regime of Iran and in support of the counter-revolution.

Unlike previous years, the Ba'ath government of Iraq has organized and published extensive programs of mourning for Tasu'a and Ashura this year, as well as the fatwas of Shiite scholars on opposing the U.S. invasion.