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Why Washington needs Iranian
students
By Juliette Niehuss
(Posted with permission from Foreign
Policy in Focus)
After September 11,
Iranians set aside their differences with America and
expressed public support for our loss in a candlelight
vigil held in Azadi (freedom) square in Tehran. Now,
almost two years later, the US may have lost a window of
opportunity to improve relations with Iran, and
currently faces resentment throughout the Islamic world.
By proclaiming Iran as part of an "axis of evil",
continuing to implicate it in state-sponsored terrorism
and nuclear weapons production, and threatening regime
change, the US has alienated a key regional player.
But the chance to reclaim the sympathy that
followed September 11, and to bridge a 30-year enmity
between the two nations, lies in the youth of Iran,
disillusioned by a revolution they barely remember. In a
country of over 70 million, 70 percent of Iran's
population is under 25; if the recent protests are any
indication, their frustration is mounting.
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.
Ordinary Iranians sympathetic to the students
have joined in, offering refuge from security forces and
vigilante groups eager to suppress dissent. Protests
also sprouted up in dozens of other cities, such as
Isfahan and Shiraz, demonstrating that opposition to
clerical rule is more widespread than many within Iran
may concede.
According to student leaders
involved in the opposition, the response of the Iranian
regime to last month's protests, and to last week's
attempts to hold sit-ins on the anniversary of a July 9,
1999 demonstration, suggests an awareness of its growing
illegitimacy. Iranians are increasingly dissatisfied
with their economic stagnation, lack of civil rights and
political transparency, and restrictions on social
freedoms. A recent Washington Post report notes that
inflation hovers at 15 percent in Iran, causing
once-well-off professionals to seek second or even third
jobs to survive.
This downturn has fueled anger
across Iran, provoking many to express solidarity with
the student movement. In reaction to last month's
protests, vigilante militias and secret intelligence
forces arrested close to 4,000 students and citizens.
Dozens of students were attacked in their dorms by
knife-wielding thugs, in a raid similar to one four
years ago. As well, hardliners have condemned
Iranian-exile television stations such National Iranian
TV and Azadi, which have supported the protesters and
broadcast their stories across the Iranian Diaspora. The
regime has successfully jammed exile satellite feeds
urging Iranians to revolt. Criticism of the Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Khameni is punishable by imprisonment,
thus many students are still detained as families search
for missing children. To prevent efforts to mark the
anniversary of one of the most violent demonstrations
since the coup of 1979, Iran banned all protest outside
campus gates, closed universities and delayed exams for
a week.
The regime's repression of student
protest was justified as an attempt to avoid the
violence that erupted during the 1999 "18th of Tir"
protests, which began over the closing of a left-leaning
newspaper. Then, violence escalated after one student
was killed and several others wounded in a raid on
university dorms. But the regime's reaction may have
backfired. Students are hailing the protests and the
resulting crackdown as evidence that the regime's
legitimacy is faltering. They stress that lies about the
numbers of arrested and detained, and disingenuous
promises to punish the vigilantes for attacking and
injuring over 50 students, are causing increased
agitation among Iranians of all stripes. While both MPs
and hardline clerics have declared the vigilantes no
better than "organized" crime, they have cautioned that
increased force and security measures will be taken
against future pro-reform demonstrations. Not only will
this deepen students' determination, it will most likely
make their efforts more violent.
Ironically, the
reform-minded Khatami has done little to protect the
students. While acknowledging that "what divides
democratic communities from undemocratic societies is
the existence of such protests", he has argued that
students should work "within the framework of the law".
It is conciliatory statements like these that have
disillusioned students, Khatami's major base of support
in both the 1997 and 2001 elections. Although Khatami
does not possess the powers necessary to fulfill many of
his campaign promises, he is not a radical, and should
not be perceived as one. Khatami is seen by students and
reformers as a moderate Islamic philosopher, who speaks
of equal rights, the rule of law, and progress, while
being hindered by a judiciary, military and press
controlled by an unelected body of clerics.
If
Iran is to initiate reforms offering enhanced social and
political rights, its students will be at the forefront.
Although students and youth in Iran are often divided
about the ways to achieve such freedoms - some calling
for a radical cultural revolution, some favoring a more
evolutionary process that maintains Islamic tradition -
they are often united in feeling that changes should
have occurred by now. In the past decade, Iranian youth,
particularly of the urban middle class, have relaxed
their observation of the strictures enforced by the
Basiji or "moral police" - bending interpretations of
everything from head-coverings to music to public
dating. Iran is awash in satellite dishes and
black-market wares - from music to videos games to
Western clothing - and many disaffected youth have easy
access to a world otherwise closed off to them.
The issue of how the US should respond to
student dissent is politically charged. While Americans
have a rare opportunity to stand up for human rights and
democratic ideals, Washington must temper its official
support for Iranian youth with the knowledge that
explicit statements of US approval may inadvertently
undermine their efforts.
As citizens, Americans
should continue to express solidarity with the students'
right to voice their concerns without fear of
persecution. We should also stand behind international
human rights organizations, such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, as they call for
the release of political prisoners and press the Iranian
regime on police brutality, suppression of dissent, and
vigilante justice. Simultaneously, however, the Bush
administration should not make its position on the
matter part and parcel of a foreign policy toward Iran -
the delicate nature of political dissent in Iran means
that students and other activists are vulnerable to
accusations of "Western" interference, and vocal support
from the White House may actually taint the process.
Already, hardliners within the regime have blamed the
protests on America and exile groups, attempting to
de-legitimize the real disaffection of Iranian youth.
The Bush administration must manage our
relationship with Iran delicately, embracing diplomatic
approaches to a complex array of issues, from Iran's
nuclear ambitions to its role in post-war Iraq to
accusations of state-sponsored terrorism and economic
sanctions, while treading lightly on Iran's internal
political scene. This balancing act between human rights
and political reality, however difficult to handle, may
do more for a future free Iran than direct confrontation
and economic isolation, and will ensure students'
physical safety in the short term.
On July 9,
despite major efforts to commemorate the "Tir" protests,
student demonstrations were canceled due to an
overwhelming security clampdown. While solidarity
rallies were being held worldwide, hundreds of security
forces and right-wing vigilantes surrounded Tehran
University, and three student leaders were arrested for
holding a press conference outside the United Nations
office. Yet the students may have won the fight: the
shutting down of hostels, universities and major urban
centers only proves that the movement's strength and
legitimacy are growing.
Juliette Niehuss
is a project assistant and student outreach
coordinator with Foreign Policy In Focus at the
Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
(Posted with permission from Foreign
Policy in Focus)
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