Iran refuses permit for memorial rally

Iranian authorities have refused to issue a permit to Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi for a memorial rally planned for Thursday 30 July.

Iran's Interior Minister, Abbaszadeh-Meshkini, told the Fars News Agency "Memorial ceremonies are considered to be private issues of citizens and any request for such ceremonies from the interior ministry has obvious political overtones".

This Thursday marks the 40 day anniversary of the death of at least 20 demonstrators including 'angel of the protests', Neda Agha-Soltan. In Islamic tradition the dead are remembered 3, 7 and 40 days after their death and opposition politicians had planned a memorial ceremony at Tehran's Grand Mosalla Prayer Halls.

Speaking about his plans for Thursday, he said "we don’t want to do anything. We will not have speeches. We just want to use this Mosalla for mourning… so allow us to gather only to recite the Koran,”.

An official at Iran's Interior Ministry said "We have received a request signed... by two presidential election candidates who were not popular amongst the majority of voters asking, as two individuals, for a permit to hold a memorial service for those who were killed in the post-election incidents.". He continued to say that the request had be declined.

On Sunday, twitter users began planning a 2 minute silence in memory of those that had been killed in the protests . The event is planned for Thursday 30 July at 11am and 6.30pm (local time) and has been planned to achieve maximum global participation. The protest has spread rapidly online, becoming the subject of numerous tweets and spawning its own website (http://silentwave.info/) and facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129068429275).