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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The Ayatollah's dream fades
By Safa HaeriSchool bells rang out and helicopters showered flowers on the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Monday, at the beginning of 11 days of celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Khomeini's return from exile and the downfall of the late Shah.
The bells -- along with whistles from trains and ships at ports -- tolled at 9.33am local time, the moment the 78-year-old cleric's plane touched down at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on 1 February, 1979.
Helicopters showered with flowers the route Khomeini travelled to make his first speech at the Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery. Petals were also scattered over Khomeini's golden-domed tomb, which lies in a sprawling graveyard south of Tehran, in front of huge crowds that had gathered to take part in the celebrations.
The festivities will climax on 11 February, the day the Shah's government collapsed, when the country will hold one of its largest weapons exhibitions, displaying for the first time the Shahab-3 missile. The missile, which has a 1,350-kilometre range, has sparked intense concern in the United States and its main regional ally Israel.
Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a speech marking the anniversary of Khomeini's return to Tehran, called on Iran's political factions to end their squabbling, warning that disunity poses the biggest threat to the Islamic revolution. He described the "endless bickering" between reformist supporters of the moderate President Mohammad Khatami and conservative hard-liners as "poison" and warned the rival factions against "any dissension".
Wrangling between the "rigid-minded" and "supporters of unrestrained freedom" within the regime "is exactly what the enemy wants," he told the crowds.
Rafsanjani also confirmed that the US continued to be Iran's number one enemy. He added that only Iran's military might prevented the US and Britain from carrying out attacks on Iran similar to those against Iraq. He claimed Iran was self-sufficient with regard to arms, "building everything from colt bullets to intercontinental missiles, tanks, shells, mortar-launchers, radars and communication systems."
Rafsanjani's words might have sounded like music to the ears of the hard-line clergymen who are firmly opposed to any attempt at liberalisation, but for millions of other Iranians, both in exile and at home, 20 years of strict Islamic rule has meant nothing but frustration and suppression.
A devastating, yet inconclusive, eight-year war with neighbouring Iraq, left a million people dead and another million disabled, ruined the country and exhausted its resources.
Iranian women participating in celebrations marking
late Khomeini's return to Tehran 20 years ago (photo: Reuters)
"Very quickly, the revolution was transformed into an immense movement of repression and the war with Iraq contributed to the hold of the clergymen over the state," Farhad Khosrokhavar, a leading Iranian sociologist based in Paris, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
But the revolution's most bitter and stinging of failures is in the fields of the "Islamisation" of Iranian society, particularly with regard to women and the young, and the eradication of nationalism.
Under a regime that recognises few rights for women, the struggle for freedom, equality and human rights is an uphill battle against the ruling clerics. The young, who make up more than two-thirds of the 65 million population, have not known the revolution and have more time for Leonardo Di Caprio of the epic movie The Titanic or Michael Jackson than Hussein or Reza, among other Shi'ite saints.
"They [young Iranians] have known neither the Shah nor Khomeini," one political analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Weekly. "Their heroes are Ali Daei, Karim Bagheri and Mehdi Mahdavi-Kia, footballers who help the national team beat the American side in the 1998 World Cup Championship," he added.
But just as a hard-line cleric denounced the internet, foreign films and television programmes as "a great danger for morality and the young," Tehran's first cybercafes were opening their doors to customers.
The recent wave of murders in Iran of prominent political and intellectual personalities, including Dariush Foruhar, leader of the secular Iranian People's Party (IPP) and his wife Parvaneh, by agents of the Intelligence Ministry, has exacerbated the bitter struggle between the conservatives -- who control all key positions and are led by Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and the reformist camp symbolised by Khatami, the president who won a surprise landslide victory in the last elections, mostly due to votes from the young.
Khatami's election signalled change for the country. Due to growing public pressure, mostly from the young, the hard-liners -- despite maintaining a hold over the armed forces, security and intelligence agencies, the judiciary and the legislature, and playing an important role in the country's foreign affairs -- have been retreating of late, giving way to demands for more democracy and justice. Liberal newspapers surfaced but were shut down; new political parties have emerged, but prominent politicians and intellectuals have been murdered; and elections have been held, but moderate candidates have been rejected by the hard-liners controlling the candidate-screening process.
Internationally, Iran now enjoys a better image. Relations have been improved with major Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The European Union has resumed normal ties and channels of communication have even been established with the great "American Satan".
Despite the stormy background, Iran's future looks brighter. It has an archaic governmental structure, which is a combination of a modern political system and a religious orthodoxy, but the country is nevertheless showing greater respect for the rule of law.
For example, when a powerful general believes his reputation has been tarnished by an article in a newspaper, he no longer sends troops or thugs to break into the paper's offices and beat up the journalists, but sends a formal complaint to the court.
Strange as it may seem, but 20 years of Islamic rule have loosened the tongues and opened the eyes of Iranians. If the progress towards democracy continues, Iran will become, maybe sooner rather than later, among the first nations in the Muslim world to achieve secularism and democracy without upheaval.
