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Why Iranians protest
By Saeed
Razavi-Faqih and Ian Urbina
TEHRAN - Over the
weekend thousands of Iranian students continued their
protests to demand political reform. Their voices were
raised in support of Hashem Aghajari, the college
professor who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.
But the student movement is broader than dissent over
one injustice. What is it that the protesters are
saying?
The original ideals of the 1979 Iranian
Revolution were democracy and social justice, coupled
with a respect for the nation's distinct cultural
identity. At the time, even the clergy emphasized the
necessity of democratic rights and tolerance. These
ideals were codified in the country's Constitution:
Article 56 explicitly states that God made man "master
of his own social destiny", and that "no one can deprive
man of this divine right, nor subordinate it to the
vested interests of a particular individual or group".
Unfortunately, these founding ideals have been
violated repeatedly. The proud traditions and norms of
Iran are what the students seek to revitalize.Theirs is
not a counterrevolution, but a completion of the present
one.
The issue of free and critical expression
is, of course, crucial for students and professors. Over
the last two years, 83 reformist publications have been
shut down by the government. Internet cafes are
monitored; television is censored. These trends are not
new. It was student protests against the closure of a
reformist newspaper in 1999 that caused religious
conservatives in the government to unleash paramilitary
units on our campuses, killing one and injuring
countless others. The death sentence recently placed on
Mr Aghajari shows the danger posed to universities as
sanctuaries for open debate.
But there is far
more at stake than the academy. At issue is the status
of accountability and democracy for society as a whole.
A minority of unelected religious conservatives claim to
speak for public opinion, yet they arrest the very
pollsters who dare to demonstrate otherwise.
The
issue facing the Iranian people is whether they have the
right to discuss religious reform and the question of
"Islamic Protestantism" - or any politically sensitive
matter - without the slander of apostasy and the threat
of death or imprisonment. It is telling that the student
protesters are as diverse as they are committed. Many
are secular, but just as many are highly devout Muslims.
They all share the same desire for political and civil
rights.
Students are suppressed by a governing
system which has made everything political, from
hemlines to hijabs, from the Koran to the
curriculum. Many have grown frustrated that reformist
promises from President Mohammad Khatami remain out of
reach even as reformism is now discussed at kitchen
tables everywhere. Still, time is on the protesters'
side. With 65 percent of the national population under
the age of 30, the question of reform is not whether it
will come, but how soon.
Unfortunately, the Bush
administration's posture toward Iran has not been
helpful. President George W Bush's harsh comments about
Iran as part of the "axis of evil" have allowed Iran's
conservatives to claim they are defenders of the
republic while they tighten the reins on the reformist
majority. Now, with the threat of war against Iraq
coming to our borders, the conservatives have been
conveniently handed another excuse to crack down on
dissent and democratization.
But Iran's students
will continue to seek political evolution, one that is
without violence and gradual, but certainly no less
determined in its democratic aspiration.
Saeed Razavi-Faqih, a philosphy PhD
student at Tarbiat-e-Modarres University in Tehran, was
recently released from detention for leading student
protests. Ian Urbina is an editor at the Middle East
Research and Information Project.
Notes on recent events in Tehran: A
timeline
Saturday, Nov 23 - A
protest over the quality of cafeteria food at
Tehran's Amir Kabir University takes on new life
after students take up the cause of condemned
dissident academic Hashem Aghajari, calling for
the overturn of his death sentence by a religious
court.
Tuesday, Nov 26 -
Four student protesters - Saeed Razavi-Faqih,
Abdollah Momeini, Mehdi Aminizadeh and Akbar Atri
- are arrested by plainclothes security agents.
The four are blindfolded and taken to an unknown
location.
Wednesday, Nov
27 - The four students are released.
Saturday, Nov 30 - Razavi-Faqih
is arrested again for leading protests. He is
detained and released later the same day.
Monday, Dec 9 - Protests
continue at Amir Kabir University, including a
series of pro-reform speeches that draw
1,500-2,000. Speakers are heckled by some 150
basij, members of the revolutionary cadre
that originally formed the volunteer militia for
the 1980-88 war with Iraq . Sporadic fisticuffs
ensue. Afterward, several hundred more
basij wait in front of the university for
exiting students; scuffles ensue, lasting
approximately 15 minutes. Police intervene, and in
the process, someone (assumably basij)
tears down reformist posters and overturns tables
and chairs. Students eventually vacate the
premises, vowing to return and continue their
protests at a later date.
Tuesday,
Dec 10 - Saeed Razavi-Faqih, Abdollah
Momeini, Mehdi Aminizadeh and Akbar Atri have been
ordered to appear (on Saturday) before the
hard-line Tehran Revolutionary Court for further
questioning. The four are charged with "insulting
Islamic sanctities" and "endangering state
security" for leading
demonstrations.
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