The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • A11

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2009 BOSTON.COMOPINION The Boston Globe Opinion All IJ JEFFJACOBY Chadors in the Cabinet can't cloak Iran's misogyny Sugar tax is sweet deal for health of children By Barry Zuckerman In an interview with the Jerusalem Post last month, a Basij militiaman explained how the regime's devout thugs deal with young females sentenced to die: "In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin Therefore a 'wedding' ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard essentially raped by her When he was younger, he had taken part in such "weddings" but now, he said, he regretted them. "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die." It will take more than shuffling a few Cabinet posts to end the Islamists' grotesque cruelty to the women and girls of Iran. "We have entered a new era," Ahmadinejad says.

Not by a long shot. MAHMOUD Ahmadinejad announced on Sunday that for the first time since the 1979 revolution, women will be named to the Iranian Cabinet, a development the news media promptly described as a bid "to soften his hardline image" and to "mollify the opposition while currying favor with women." Some people will believe anything, so presumably somebody somewhere is taking at face value Ahmadinejad's claim that from now on things are going to be different in Iran. "We have entered a new era," he said on state television. "Conditions changed completely and the government will see major changes." It would be pretty to think so. But meaningful change to Iran's theocratic government will not be coming from Ahmadinejad or the cutthroat mullahs he answers to.

His first female Cabinet choices Fatemeh Ajorloo for the social welfare ministry and Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi for the health ministry are as hardcore as the men already in power in Tehran. According to Massoumeh Torfeh, an Iran specialist at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, both nominees are supporters of "draco-nian changes to family laws," diminish ing the rights of women in cases of divorce and child custody. Ajorloo, moreover, "was influential in setting up the Basij Sisters militia, which has been involved in brutal attacks and arrests of women's rights activists." If this is the regime's strategy for "currying favor with women," what would a strategy for alienating them look like? Islamist power in Iran has been a disaster for women: That is the blunt truth that no public relations maneuvering can disguise. It has been less than two months since 26-year-old Neda Agha Soltan was cut down, reportedly by a Basij gunman, during Iran's postelection protests protests that brought throngs of women opposed to Ahmadinejad's presidency into the streets. Neda whose graphic murder, captured on video, was viewed by millions around the world is a far more potent symbol of what Islamist rule means for women than the chador-clad hardliners being named to the Iranian Cabinet.

The misogyny of radical Islam is not a peripheral distortion, but a key element of the society Islamists aim to create. The Iranian-born journalist Amir Taheri recalls that one of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's last sermons emphasized the "three threats" confronting Islam: America, Jews, and women. Women organized the first mass demonstration against the new Khomeini regime in 1979, Taheri writes. In the years that followed, "the authorities imprisoned hundreds of thousands of women and executed thousands." By now, 30 years into the Khomeinist theocracy, voluminous literature documents the repression of women under the mullahs. Some of it is impassive, such as the 2006 United Nations report that found that "violence against women in the Islamic Republic of Iran is ingrained" and that many Iranian women "feel compelled to tolerate violence inflicted not only by their husbands but also by other family members, for fear of shame, of being ostracized, or of being divorced, and for lack of alternatives to the abusive environment." Other accounts, considerably more wrenching, include Freidoune Sahebjam's heart-stopping "The Stoning of Soraya and Marina Nemat's acclaimed "Prisoner of Tehran." The depravity to which women and girls can be subjected in Ahmadinejad's Islamist paradise is difficult to overstate.

Baseball errs with lax penalty on pitchers who take aim at hitters By Alan Dershowitz THE time has come to look hard at the policy of Major League Baseball with regard to pitchers who deliberately throw at the head of batters and the managers who order them to do so. As the 89th anniversary of the death of Ray Chapman at the hands of a pitcher has just passed, it is important to remember how soft Major League Baseball has been on this life-threatening practice. It has become routine in baseball to throw at a batter. Being beaned is part of the risk of playing baseball, as any Boston fan who remembers the throw that eventually ended the career of Tony Co-nigliaro can attest. The beaning of Coni-gliaro was, by all accounts, an accident, as was the recent beaning of New York Mets third baseman David Wright.

But now throws are often deliberate, even if they aren't aimed for the head. Such was the case with Kevin Youkilis, back in the Red Sox lineup last night after a five-day suspension. The throw that prompted Youkilis to rush the mound was, according the Major League Baseball, deliberate. He was hit on the back. Youkilis and pitcher Rick Porcello were both suspended for five days even though the decision to throw at Youkilis was premeditated and deliberate whereas Youkilis's response was unpremeditated and provoked.

Death, serious injury, and the end to careers can result from being struck by a ball, particularly in the head; it is rare for anybody to be seriously hurt when a batter charges the mound with his bare hands. Accordingly, an equal penalty for these two very different offenses was outrageous. Moreover, the penalties were anything but equal in impact. Youkilis, one of the most consistent hitters and fielders in Major League Baseball, and one of its most difficult outs, missed approximately 25 at bats and numerous fielding chances. During his five game suspension, the Red Sox lost 4 games and won only 1 The five day suspension of Porcel- THE United States is experiencing the best of times and the worst of times regarding children's health.

A growing number of new vaccines has done for many common childhood infectious diseases what the polio vaccine did for polio over 50 years ago almost eradicated them. Advances in science and biotechnology have increased the number and effectiveness of a range of treatments and diagnoses. On the other side of the ledger, rampant increases in obesity over the past decade have made children less healthy. Alack of insurance, inadequate benefits, increasingly higher co-pays, and non-financial barriers have prevented many children from benefiting from these advances. Health care reform provides a special opportunity to address this perverse dynamic.

A limiting factor for children's health is the lack of funds to fully support the standard package of health services children need and parents can afford. A tax on sugary beverages would at once raise the revenue necessary to support a proper approach to children's health and prevention and improve the Sugary beverages are marketed so extensively to children and adolescents that they now drink more such beverages than milk. health of children by decreasing consumption of such beverages. This is a no-brainer for pediatricians and public health care leaders. Sugary drinks are toxic for children's growing bodies.

Carbonated and uncarbonated drinks sweetened with sugar or corn syrup are considered the biggest factors in the obesity epidemic. Studies show that reducing consumption of these soft drinks improves health. Yet, sugary beverages are marketed so extensively to children and adolescents that they now drink more such beverages than milk. Similar to cigarette tax, an increase in the price of sugary beverages will reduce soda consumption. Case in point, as the price of Coca Cola increases by 12 percent, sales drop by 14.6 percent.

To achieve this, though, money generated from such a tax must be invested in children's health as part of health care reform. A small tax could generate an important amount of revenue; a larger tax will significantly reduce consumption. A 1 0-cents tax on every beverage will raise about $16 billion to ensure adequate financing in children's health. Some will complain that the tax on sugary beverage is regressive, affecting low-income families more, which is true. However, sugary beverages offer no nutritional benefit, and since low-income families are disproportionately affected by diet-related disease, they would receive the largest financial and health benefit from reduced consumption.

In the face of physicians' recommendation and public support, the powerful beverage industry will be the biggest barrier to implementing this plan because of concern the tax will reduce their profits. The medical establishment, including hospitals and doctors, also has the potential to benefit financially if there is no sugar tax; there would be more doctor visits, more medications, more hospitalizations if people are in poorer health because of continued sugar consumption. What is at stake, however, is the health of the nation's children. While the beverage industry did not take a Hip-pocratic Oath, the impact of these beverages on health and health care costs is a significant national concern that should override the singular interest of one industry. We have an extraordinary opportunity in this country to kill two birds with one stone reduce the consumption of a product that causes poor health and increases cost, while covering the costs for all children to have access to the health services they require and deserve.

Dr. Barry Zuckerman is chief of pediatrics and medical director at Boston Medical Center andprofessc and chairman of the Pediatrics Department at Boston University's School Of Medicine. JeffJacoby can be reached at jacobyglobe. com. JIM DAVISGLOBE STAFF hit by a pitch.

instructs a pitcher to throw at the head of a batter, he has committed the serious crime of reckless endangerment or assault with a lethal weapon. Baseball cannot tolerate such criminality. The minimum penalty for a manager must be suspension for an entire season, perhaps even for life. For the pitcher, suspension for the season should be mitigated only if the pitcher turned in the manager. There should also be penalties for any baseball player who hears the manager or coach order the beaning of a player without reporting it.

There will be problems of proof in some cases but once Major League Baseball has determined that the decision was a deliberate one, the punishment must fit the crime. It did not do so in the Youkilis-Porcello situation. Alan M. Dershowitz is a Harvard Law professor. His most recent book is "The Case For Moral Clarity." in on issues "No offense, but he is just a gadfly," Spencer says.

Certainly McCrea is a very long shot. Yes, he's prone to seeing all politicians as liars. And the way he interprets things doesn't always square with more authoritative accounts. For example, the extra $120 million he claims the city has on hand is already budgeted, or so says Lisa Signori, the city's fiscal chief. Still, as a citizen activist, McCrea has asked some important questions and gotten some important results.

It was a lawsuit he and two co-plaintiffs filed and argued that prompted a court to declare the City Council had violated the state's opening meeting law. With the campaign heating up, he's promising to make the first televised mayoral debate August 26, at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV a lively affair. "I'm going to expose more of the corruption that's going on at City Hall," he vows. Now that sounds like must-see political TV.

Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh globe. com. SCOT LEHIGH A longshot? Sure, but candidate Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello after being cause a batter to respond impulsively to being struck, a pitcher can trade a meaningless suspension for a meaningful one against the opposing team. Moreover, had Youkilis not charged the mound, it is extremely unlikely that Porcello would have been suspended at all. But even if he were to have received a slap on the wrist, managers will now have an incentive to continue to encourage pitchers to throw at valuable batters, since their team can derive a benefit.

If this continues, someone will be maimed or killed, despite the presence of helmets. The time has come for Major League Baseball to ban the bean ball. The only way to do this is for baseball to adopt a zero tolerance policy and to impose draconian sanctions not only on pitchers who throw at the heads of batters but, more importantly, on the managers who instruct them to do so. A manager cannot order a pitcher to accidentally hit a batter. Anytime a manager McCrea zeroes As a candidate, that same bluntness has made him a burr under the saddle for his City Hall rivals.

"I'm like kryptonite to Sam," he says, "because Sam knows that I know he's full of well, let's put it this way: It's not substance McCrea thinks Yoon is full of. Indeed, he relates a run-in he had with Yoon's campaign about Yoon's failure and, for that matter, the failure of Councilor Michael Flaherty to object when the council created a new position, with a nifty pension-boosting raise, for Paul Walkowski. Walkowski, now retired, was a former aide to Jimmy Kelly, the South Boston councilor who died in January of 2007. "Flaherty and Yoon were go-along-to-get-along guys," McCrea says. "Sam didn't object and that is not something he is particularly proud of," concedes Jim Spencer, Yoon's chief strategist.

McCrea says that Yoon ducked his repeated queries on the issue and that Spencer later let loose on him. Spencer acknowledges as much, but insists that Yoon spoke with McCrea personally on the issue. The Sox's Kevin Youkilis charged after The message conveyed by Major League Baseball, even if unintended, is that it pays for a pitcher to throw at a superstar. lo, on the other hand, barely affected his team. Normally a starting pitcher gets to the mound only once in five days, so Porcello didn't even miss one full rotation.

His appearance in the rotation was merely postponed by a game or two. The message conveyed by Major League Baseball, even if unintended, is that it pays for a pitcher to throw at a superstar. Since human nature will often term limits for city officeholders, make city government transparent, and bring the city police force up to 2,300 officers. He's also calling for replacing the Boston Redevelopment Authority with a planning agency that answers to the City Council. And he's vowing to spare the school budget any cuts.

Here's something the 42-year-old McCrea, owner of Wabash Construction, has learned since his last campaign: Image matters. Having been portrayed as a motorcycle-loving party boy when he ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 2005, he's single-minded about substance this time out. He hasn't registered any of his bikes this year. Nor will he show me around his five-story South End home, which he remodeled himself and which, he says, contains secret rooms and passageways. Instead, he does interviews in his baronial first-floor living room, where his one campaign aide, a Smith College student, asks if I'll take my shoes off, since her boss likes to keep his highly polished floors unblemished.

As a person, McCrea is engaging and likable, with an appealing bluntness. AT first listen, Kevin McCrea comes across as a nerdy policy wonk. Don't be misled. The developer who hopes to be mayor is both tough and unabashed as he campaigns. And right now, he's aiming a dart City Councilor Sam Yoon's way.

Both have come to Doyle's, the Jamaica Plain watering hole, to address the Retired Opinion Makers Eating Out (ROMEO), a lively lunch-and-libation group. Having let Yoon, a fellow mayoral candidate, field questions first so he can leave for a second afternoon engagement, McCrea holds up his departed rival's campaign handout. "It doesn't say a single thing about what he's going to do when he's elected," he declares. He reads one of the newspaper comments Yoon's team has featured. "It says, 'He has a look that reflects the new look of the city and that gives him A candidate shouldn't be asking for votes based on something as superficial as that, McCrea avers.

Why, look at his own flier. He's offered a concrete list of things he intends to do: Eliminate tax breaks for rich developers, introduce GL All 19:55 FIRST.