WE have recently seen the oppressive nature of Iranian society when people show dissent.

That oppression applies to many sectors of society and has done so for many years.

Women there are campaigning for the basic right to be treated equally. Shockingly, discrimination is written into Iranian law. Among other things, it values a woman’s testimony at half that of a man, bars women from being judges or standing for president and gives them less rights in marriage and child custody. This is why Amnesty International is running its Campaign for Equality for Iranian Women.

Amnesty is also concerned about the persecution of independent trade unionists and the non-compliance with international labour conventions, and I would highlight the plight of Mansour Ossanlu, leader of the Tehran bus workers’ union, who is serving five years for simply having organised an independent rally on International Labour Day.

Article 23, Section 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.” Yorkshire and Humberside TUC strongly upholds that right for trade unionists throughout the world, including Iran. That is why we support this Friday’s International Trade Union Day of Action for Iran.

Peter Sagar, Amnesty International Regional Representative, Yorkshire and Humberside.

WE are fortunate in this country to have a settled democracy, one shaped by ourselves and without outside interference. When election results are declared we trust the people who have administered them, and if the side we have favoured loses we accept the result and think of success at a future election.

Iran has not had this experience.

It has suffered interference from other countries, and those of my age will remember the Mossadeque leadership there which had been elected, but was acting contrary to British commercial interests and was deposed by us and the Shah was installed.

I do not pretend to know how the people of Iran voted in their recent presidential election, but I think that they have a right, if they do, to resent the way our media is reporting the demonstrations that have taken place when the result has been disputed.

I think that the West should refrain from official comment, and be prepared to work with the president who prevails there.

It should not be a matter of who will have the nuclear programme we want them to have, and we should not let the government of Israel determine how we act.

Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.