This week in Iran: two men are arrested for killing monitor lizards, the men’s handball team feature the endangered cheetah on its shirts, Mazandaran Province confirmed to be free of ISIS fighters, Mojtahed Shabestari tells people to throw satellite televisions away and Iran could become the world’s top exporter of pistachio shell.
Hamid Zahrabee, the head of Isfahan’s Environment Office, said two men who killed monitor lizards in Jahadabad village, Shahin-Shahr have been arrested and will be put on trial. The pictures of the hunted monitor lizards became a big hit on Iranian social media last week. The hunted monitor lizard was one and a half meter long and was described as a monstrous creature.
‘Monitor lizard is absolutely harmless and only makes a lot of noise,’ Mr Zahrabee said to Mehr News Agency, ‘It eats insects and small birds and is not poisonous.’
Environmentalists in Isfahan warned that this species is near extinction and asked the government to educate the locals not to hunt them.
If the desert lizard was not lucky this week, the Asiatic cheetah’s luck is rolling. The Iranian team that will attend the Asian Men's Junior Handball Championship in Tabriz (2nd – 14th of August) wears shirts with the picture of Asiatic cheetah.
Alireza Mousavian, the head of Handball committee in East Azarbaijan and the director of the championship games announced the team chose to feature the cheetah on their shirts in order to raise awareness of the endangered species found only in Iran.
The Asiatic cheetah was also featured on the official jersey of the Iran football team for the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
Alireza Yunesi, the Deputy of Mazandaran Governor said there are no ISIS fighters in this province and that they have caused no harm there.
In the last month many Iranian citizens have receive text messages from their friends, circulating the rumour that ISIS fighters are in Iran, kidnapping girls and killing them. These text messages advice girls not to leave home after 8 pm.
A few weeks ago an official in Zanjan province denied the presence of ISIS fighters there and said they have not killed any Iranian there.
People in small cities tend to attribute any mysterious killings to ISIS and this trend has been on rise.
Mojtahed Shabestari, the leader of Friday prayers in Tabriz, said satellites TV channels are ‘a nest of wickedness’ and asked people to throw their satellite dishes out of their houses in the holy month of Ramadan.
He warned using satellite is one of the main challenges that the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing and it has endangered Islam.
Kerman province in Iran is known for its pistachio production. The area of pistachio plantations in Kerman province comprises almost half of total world pistachio orchards. Iran produces thousands of tons of pistachio every year, with a profit of 1.7 billion dollars, according to a report on Mehr News Agency. But this production also produces a huge amount of waste, especially the shell.
‘Unfortunately no one so far has told the farmers what to do with this waste,’ said Mohammad Ali Mirzaeean, head of chamber of commerce in Rafsanjan, Kerman.
He said the pistachio shell contains high volume of carbon and is a good fuel for industrial furnaces. He suggests that Iran can become the exporter of pistachio shell in the world.
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