Iran's reform movement faces the terrible wrath of conservatives

By Amir Soltani Sheikholeslami, 5/27/2000

T he parliamentary victory of Iranian reformers in the February elections has provoked a violent conservative backlash that has pushed the Islamic Republic of Iran to the brink of a constitutional splintering. Far from the flowering of the reform movement in a parliamentary democracy, conservatives have launched a systematic assault on the people, press, parliament, and presidency in the name of religious principles. These principles protect the political and economic interests of an entrenched clerical establishment that refuses to accept any constitutional checks on its absolute authority. In the immediate aftermath of the elections, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, authorized a campaign of terror against the media in the belief that the state could silence protest by strangling the press. Virtually all reformist publications were shut down as ''domestic bases of foreign enemies'' and the commander of the revolutionary guards declared his readiness ''to crush the skulls of reformists with a sledgehammer.'' Simultaneously, several hardline clerics devoted their sermons to sanctifying the use terror and political violence against the idea of reform. Ranking members of Khatami's cabinet and the architects of the reform movement were denounced for straying from the path of Islam. Shortly thereafter, Said Haijarian, a reformist publisher and a close ally of Khatami, was the victim of an assassination attempt by gunmen with links to the revolutionary guards. Spearheaded by conservative clerics, the Iranian judiciary has been acting as the official organ of a modern Inquisition. Over the past 20 years, monarchists, nationalists, leftist, Bahai, and clerics - among them ranking religious figures such as Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari - have been accused of conspiring against Islam, stripped of their religious and constitutional protections, and compelled to confess to their crimes. In the last few weeks, the judiciary has led the charge against the latest plots by domestic agents of Satan: a reformist heresy, and a Jewish conspiracy. Last month several prominent journalists, publishers, and activists were arrested on charges of insulting religion and endangering national security by attending a conference in Berlin. Among them are Mehrangiz Kar, a prominent women's rights activist; Shahla Lahiji, a reformist publisher; and Akbar Ganji, the investigative journalist responsible for revealing the involvement of ''rogue agents'' of the state in the serial killing of dozens of dissidents. They join the ranks of other imprisoned publishers, writers, students, and clerics, among them Ayatollah Abdullah Nouri, Mashallah Shamsolva'ezin, and others. In this highly charged atmosphere, 13 Iranian Jews - including a shoe salesman, a butcher, and a teenager - stand accused on charges of espionage for Israel. Their trial provides a glimpse into the constitutional ordeal of millions of Iranians. The Iranian judiciary has effectively converted Shiism, the historic creed of a persecuted religious minority, into a political ideology for the persecution of all minorities, even minors. On the legislative front, the outgoing conservative parliament has shamelessly passed legislation limiting the next parliament's powers of oversight over the judiciary, military and economic institutions under the control of the supreme leader. Since the founding of the republic, criminal cartels led by former President Rafsanjani have capitalized on religion to privatize the state. These cartels have monopolized large sectors of the economy through their control of state institutions such as the Revolutionary Guards and quasi-governmental foundations such as the Foundation for the Oppressed. Billions allocated for industrial and construction projects have been siphoned off through these institutions without any supervision by the parliament. This old guard has an economic and political interest in blocking reform and an institutional interest in crippling the parliament. They have wrapped themselves in the mantle of the Prophet and are plundering the public trust: the flesh and blood of thousands of martyred children. More broadly, the political economy of the religious capitals of the Islamic Republic revolves around the celebration of death: the burial of corpses and the sacrifice of animals. As with colonial and imperial manifestations of Christianity, a caste of religious pedators has assumed the divine right to prey on a captive nation. Much like the Taliban, the guardians of the Islamic Republic have amputated the constitutional protections of millions and sanctified the criminal history of the state in the name of Islam. Over the past 20 years they have abducted, tortured, and executed thousands in the dungeons of Evin Prison without the slightest display of mercy or compassion. The true hostages of the Islamic Republic's terrorism are not foreigners. They are Iranians. The reform movement is nothing if not a powerful expression of the Iranian people's determination to bring this greater hostage crisis to an end. And it will only succeed as a compassionate and merciful movement that binds law and religion to the recognition of the unity and protection of the sanctity of life. Amir Soltani Sheikholeslami is a member of the Blue Initiative, a human rights foundation. This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 5/27/2000. © Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company. 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