Hope for Iran?
June 11, 2003 ~ 10:55 p.m.
In Tehran, the capital of Iran, around 3,000 protestors took to the streets. Anti-American protests, you ask? No. The furthest thing from them. In fact, the Iranian protestors took their cue from the Americans with regard to rights to assembly and free speech.
What originally started as a protest against the privatization of higher education�largely centered around Tehran University�soon turned into a rabid clarion call against the country�s religious leaders who enforce the strict rules put into place by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It is estimated that 70 percent of the Iranian population is under the age of 30 and have little love for the Islamic Revolution. President Mohammad Khatami, a reformer, has not been able to make much significant progress in reforming the country due to the clerics who remain in power and act as a check against progress in the country.
But it is apparent that the hard-line infrastructure that has defined Iran for 24 years is crumbling. More parliamentarians in Iran are elected on the basis of a reform platform and student protests only get more strident. In fact, some of the protestors would welcome U.S. intervention to topple the clerics in government.
While that could be a disaster�and I do not wish to see Iran attacked militarily�it appears all-too-apparent that change will happen from within (that was never going to happen in Iraq). We can keep a d�tente, after a fashion, with Iran until such change happens. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many Iranians vocally showed support for the U.S. at a home soccer match, holding aloft signs that read �We Love You, America!�
There are still powerful positions left to topple that combine the 24-year-old theocracy with the government, but the United States will win the war against theocratic Iran if we keep supporting the goal of many young Iranians�toppling the Islamic government. In fact, that is what fueled the fire of the latest protests: many of the protestors heeded a call from U.S.-based Iranian exile satellite television.
There is hope for Iran. Think about it. Could these sort of protests have occurred before Khatami's election in 1997? The more the dissatisfaction among Iran's young�and therefore powerful�grows, in cahoots with a sympathetic leader, the better chance for true reform there will be. And while Iran does exist on our �Axis of Evil� list, I trust those in the Bush Administration to recognize the forces at work in Iran�those not only fomenting terrorism but those actively working to downplay, and eventually overthrow, the hard-line government.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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