That's probably because Sharq wasn't a popular newspaper -- "circulation of just 130,000 in a country with about 70 mln people," according to Reuters* -- and a new newspaper by the same journalists and with the same politics was immediately published (as is often the case when censors come down on a periodical in Iran), according to the same Reuters dispatch:
<blockquote>Rouzegar, a new, reform-minded daily newspaper appeared on Iranian newstands, published with the help of some journalists from a banned pro-reform paper, an adviser to the new newspaper said, Reuters reported.
The press supervisory board banned Sharq in September for failing to replace a managing director accused of publishing blasphemy and insulting officials. Sharq officials dismissed the charges and said they want to challenge the ruling in court.
"Rouzegar is not a substitute for Sharq. But it's cultural output is a part of the Sharq campaign," Mohammad Atrianfar, head of Sharq's policy-making committee and who is advising those setting up the new newspaper, told Reuters.
Sharq had a circulation of just 130,000 in a country with about 70 mln people but it was nonetheless seen as a flagship publication for the beleaguered reform movement, which seeks political and social change in the Islamic Republic.</blockquote>
More generally, though, student and other protests during the Khatami era were never simply about civil liberties, which are at or near the bottom of people's concerns in Iran, the US, or any other country for that matter (most people's top priority is economy, and only wars like the Iraq War can rival that), and they were swelled by the Khatami administration's liberal economic policy, including tuition hikes, as, for instance, reported by the Asia Times in this story:
<blockquote>What started last month as a small disturbance over university privatization soon became one of the largest public demonstrations against both the Islamic regime and, surprisingly, the reform-minded president Mohammad Khatami. Students turned their outrage over increased tuition fees into a demonstration against the Iranian regime's restrictions on political and social freedoms; they also expressed their dissatisfaction with Iran's sliding economy, where youth unemployment has reached nearly 50 percent; and with the sluggish pace at which government reformers have pushed for social change.</blockquote>
The masses in Iran voted for economic populism and the cultural status quo, and that's what they got. Deborah Campbell, who recently traveled in Iran for six months, says****:
<blockquote>Ahmadinejad has pursued a populist economic agenda, using state oil revenues to address the most pressing needs of the poor and working class, devoting billions to schools, raising the minimum wage, and lowering lending rates. His anti-corruption policies have further strengthened his popularity, and fears that he would restrict social liberties have failed to materialize. Even many of the most skeptical, the middle and upper classes, have been won over.</blockquote>
Apparently, masses in Iran related to Ahmadinejad as if he were a ward healer*****:
<blockquote>Some 3 million letters were received by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his 16 provincial visits, said vice president for executive affairs, Ali Saeedlou.
Noting that more than 70% of letters were followed up, Ali Saeedlou added that 95% of the letters pertained to personal problems, IRNA reported.
He further said that the president has ordered the government to put letters and people's problems on the agenda of governmental organizations.
"Application for job, housing, medical treatment and banking facilities are people's main demands," he said.
Saeedlou announced that the remaining letters will be reviewed within the next two months.</blockquote>
You can see Hugo Chavez receiving the same kind of letters from poor Venezuelans in the documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain.******
A BBC reporter observed Ahmadinejad's tour of small towns and rural villages*******:
<blockquote>Thousands and thousands of people came to see the president - segregated with women on one side and men the other.
Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in Shahriar One year after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power these people still have faith that he will change their lives
Officials were gathering armfuls of letters and petitions written by the crowd. Scraps of lined paper torn out of exercise books with hand written pleas on them.
Women were actually weeping because they could not get to talk to Mr Ahmadinejad. They could not understand that he was not able to have personal audiences with them.
What surprised me was the emotional hunger, the neediness of these people, their desperation. Most were very poor and not highly educated.
Several old ladies told me they wanted the president to give them a house. Another sought help with medical treatment for her husband - a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war.
A mother wanted the president to do something about her son's problems - he was serving in the army. Another lady thought the president should sort out the drug problem in Iran.</blockquote>
Liberal reformists can never relate to people like them.
* "New Reform-minded Daily Hits Newsstands in Iran," 16 October 2006, <http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/October/middleeast_October276.xml§ion=middleeast>
and <http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=46490&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs>.
** Ibid.
*** Juliette Niehuss, "Why Washington Needs Iranian Students," 23 July 2003, <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG23Ak05.html>.
**** Deborah Campbell, "Iran's Quiet Revolution," Photography by Alfred Yaghobzadeh, 10 November 2006, <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/campbell101106.html>.
***** "3mln Letters for Iranian President Ahmadinejad," IranMania.com, 23 October 2006, <http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=46651&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs>
****** Watch it at <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144>.
******* Frances Harrison, "On Tour with Iran's President," 14 October 2006, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6047904.stm>. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>