Subject: Daylight saving abolished for religious reasons [in Iran?]
From: "Dave Stewart" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:32:15 -0000

Iran apparently now not changing on Wednesday.....

http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2006%5C03%5C03-20%5Czc
ulturez%5C971.htm&dismode=x&ts=20/03/2006%2011:46:42%20%C3%95

Daylight saving abolished for religious reasons 

Daylight saving, which was due to come into force in Iran on Tuesday -
the first day of the Iranian new year - has been abolished by president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Changing the clocks with the seasons was introduced in Iran in 1990 to
try to reduce energy consumption. Government spokesman Gholam Hossein
Elham justified the decision to eliminate daylight saving on the grounds
that when the legal hour changes many faithful have difficulty in
calculating with precision the hour of prayer. 

In the same presidential decree, Ahmadinejad said that students
returning from New Years holidays must turn up for school at 7 am
instead of 8am, and public officers will open an hour earlier, at 7.30
am local time. 

The decision by Ahmadinejad to suspend daylight saving on religious
grounds, ignoring the economic motivations of the government in 1990,
has been criticised by reformists and economists.

"The country is in no condition to increase public spending" warned
economist Fereidoun Khavanad. 

"With the Iranian nuclear dossier before the Security Council it does
not seem very intelligent to increase energy consumption rather than
diminish it" added Khavand. 

Under Daylight Saving Time, official time is adjusted forward, usually
by one hour, remaining that way for the spring and summer months. 

The measure is intended to provide a better match between the hours of
daylight and the active hours of work and school and allow more
efficient use of natural sunlight resource in summer time.