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Iran's anniversary clouded by electoral
crisis
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Twenty-five years ago, mass protests against the
United States-backed regime of Mohammad Reza Shah
Pahlavi led to one of the key events of the 20th century
- the Islamic revolution in Iran. Crowds at that time
chanted, "Down with the Pahlavi monarchy! Down with
[then Prime Minister Shahpour] Bakhtiyar!"
But
celebrations to mark the event have been overshadowed by
the political crisis over the disqualification of more
than 2,000 pro-reform candidates from parliamentary
elections scheduled for Friday. The candidates have been
accused of being "unIslamic "or disloyal to the
constitution". Among them are 80 sitting lawmakers,
which means that in at least 132 of the 290 seats in
parliament there's little opposition.
Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami used the anniversary to
deliver a speech to a crowd in Azadi Square, in which he
warned that restricting political freedoms represents a
threat to the nation. Khatami reminded the crowd of what
motivated the revolutionaries of a quarter century ago.
"A quarter of a century has passed since the victory of
the Islamic revolution. Before the victory of the
revolution, this public square, in which you have
gathered today, saw masses of people who, based on
Islam, chanted for independence and freedom," Khatami
said.
Khatami, elected as a reformer, said
elections are a symbol of democracy and warned that "if
this [right] is restricted, it's a threat to the nation
and the system." But despite the disqualifications,
Khatami urged Iranians to turn out and vote in
parliamentary elections to prevent hardliners from
winning, even the elections were not fair.
In a
statement carried by the official news agency IRNA,
Khatami said: "What has happened has satisfied some and
angered many others, but this anger should not push
people not to take part in the elections. Many people
have the feeling that in many constituencies, they
cannot vote for their preferred candidate. But with a
little tolerance, they can search to find those
candidates who are closest to their views. Even if they
cannot send the person they want to the majlis
[parliament], they can prevent those they do not want
from entering."
The outgoing speaker of Iran's
parliament has defended taking part in the election.
Mehdi Karoubi acknowledged that Friday's vote would not
be fair since the unelected Guardians Council of senior
clerics had disqualified so many contestants.
"It's not a fair election because of wide
disqualifications, but we can discuss if it's a free
election or not, because people are free to vote or
not," he told a news conference. "We believe that our
presence is more useful than just not participating,"
said Karoubi, a member of the pro-reform Association of
Combatant Clerics.
Reformist supporters of
Khatami said that they were bound to lose because
hardliners had rigged the candidate lists. The biggest
reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front,
led by Khatami's brother, Mohammed Reza, is boycotting
the poll after all its candidates were banned.
Karoubi, a mid-ranking cleric, said that the
Guardians Council had become politicized, and that
splits among clerics could damage Iranians' faith in
Islam. In an interview with Sharq newspaper, he forecast
that the conservatives would use their control of the
next parliament to impeach Khatami's most reformist
ministers.
Most Iranians have appeared
indifferent to the latest round of a long-running power
struggle, having lost faith in Khatami's ability to
deliver change due to the conservatives' hold on the
levers of power.
In contrast to the 2000
parliamentary election at the height of the reform
movement's popularity, this campaign has been low key,
with no big rallies. As a result, political analysts
forecast a low turnout, especially in the big cities.
Revolution remembered
Faraj Sarkouhi,
an exiled writer and journalist, says that for many
Iranians, the days of the revolution were ones of great
hope in the country. "I had been freed from jail in
those days, and I hoped that the [revolutionary] forces
would bring democracy and progress for the country,
despite the religious leadership that caused some
doubts, I hoped that the press would be free, the books
would be published without censorship, [political]
parties, associations and civil society organizations
would be formed, and I hoped that I would be able to
write freely. In fact, in these 25 years, I have not
seen anything but the death and silencing of those
beautiful hopes and dreams," Sarkouhi said.
Sarkouhi was a signatory to the 1994 declaration
of 134 Iranian writers, a document that called for an
end to literary censorship. He left Iran in 1998 after
being jailed several times.
Many Iranians from
different political groups and different backgrounds
were involved in the protests that led to the fall of
the shah. They were united by strong opposition to the
shah's rule, its lack of freedoms as well as foreign
influence in the country. The revolution itself was
concluded 10 days after the return of Iran's main
religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini
returned on February 1, 1979, after 14 years in exile -
lastly in France - and took control of the revolution.
"Independence, freedom, and Islamic Republic" were the
slogans of the revolution.
Ali Akbar Mahdi is a
professor of sociology at Ohio Wesleyan University in
the US. He says few people knew what an Islamic system
would look like. "The last [slogan, about the Islamic
Republic] was really something that came out at the very
end of the revolutionary process, when the leadership of
the revolution was taken over by the clergy. And the
public did not really know what the content of this
Islamic Republic [would be]. They trusted one man, and
that was Ayatollah Khomeini," Mahdi said.
On
April 1, 1979, after a referendum, Khomeini declared the
country an Islamic republic. Islamic laws were applied,
and an Islamic constitution was created, which gave
ultimate authority to unelected religious leaders.
Amir Taheri is a veteran Iranian journalist and
writer who, at the time of the revolution, was
editor-in-chief of Iran's largest newspaper, Kayhan. He
says the Islamic system dashed the hopes of many of the
revolutionary forces. "[It is,] of course, a
disappointment to the left. It's a disappointment to the
democrats and, of course, it was a disappointment to the
monarchists, as well. So most of the hopes of the
revolutionaries were dashed. Many of the leaders were
executed by the mullahs when they came to power," Taheri
said.
Saeed Rajayi Khorasani, a former Iranian
ambassador to the United Nations, says the Islamic
Revolution fulfilled all its promises: Iran is an
Islamic republic, Iran is independent, and there is a
great deal of liberty in Iran. He was asked about the
detention of writers and activists for expressing their
views and the closure of more than 80 liberal
publications in recent years. "Of course, there are
certain red lines in certain areas of, let's say, the
political domain of the country. You cannot be
disrespectful to the leadership. You cannot ignore the
significance of the Shoraye Negahban, or the Guardians
Council. The Guardians Council is also part of the
constitution of the country," Khorasani said.
But analysts say the revolution has had mixed
results. According to Mahdi, the Islamization of Iran's
judicial system was one of the most devastating aspects
of the revolution. "The clerics did not like the shah's
judicial system. They regarded it as modern, as civil
and as Westernized, and they dismantled the whole thing
from day one, and they put in place a Sharia law-based
system, which has been very, very painful on the
country, particularly on women in that country," Mahdi
says.
Following the Islamic Revolution, wearing
a veil became mandatory for women, and many other
discriminatory laws were introduced, such as the need
for a woman to first get permission from her father or
husband before she could travel.
Mahdi says that
after the revolution, Iranian women lost most of the
rights they had gained during the shah's era, but says
their social participation increased. "Despite all that
negativity, Iranian women's participation in social
affairs and social life has increased tremendously
because the traditional sector of the society - which
was the largest sector of society during the Pahlavi
[period] - did not participate because they never
trusted the shah and the system, and they did not regard
the society as a safe place for women. Now this kind of
traditional fear, religious fear, has been removed, so
there is a lot of gain there, as much as there is a
great deal of suppression," Mahdi said.
Following the revolution, Iran became
internationally isolated and mismanagement of the
economy led to a sharp decline in living conditions. The
revolution has had some positive effects, but observers
say they were largely inadvertent. Taheri says the
revolution helped politicize Iranians and raise their
political awareness. As a result, he says, Iranians now
know what they want. "The Iranian people now know that
democracy and human rights are not abstractions, but
they are concepts that affect their daily lives. So for
the first time, there is a genuine popular constituency
in Iran for democratization and the achievement of human
rights. And I think that is really the most positive
outcome of the past 25 years," Taheri said.
In
Iran, media reported that millions of people attended
rallies around the country last week to reconfirm their
allegiance to the 1979 revolution. In the capital,
Tehran, tens of thousands reportedly marched to Azadi
(Freedom) Square to take part in a parade.
Professor Mahdi says most Iranians aspire for
change but don't want another revolution. "The Islamic
Republic is in a struggle with itself. There is a
tremendous amount of force within the country and a
great deal of aspiration to change, but this change is
desired to be gradual and nonviolent. Iranians do not
seem to be at this stage anymore, desiring some kind of
a violent overthrow again, just like the revolution,
because they did not have much positive experience out
of that revolution. So for that reason, I believe that
we will see more change, more opening of the system and
more pressure from the bottom," Mahdi said.
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
(Additional reporting by Inter Press
Service)
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