Kamangir (Archer)

Fatwa-Driven Democracy

Kamangir | April 27, 2006 | Category Iran

A view of the shrine in Qom which is surrounded by some of the most important Iranian seminaries.

Minister of state says “we follow Sharia” (see). With the rising protests against the president’s order to let women watch games in stadiums, it seems that Ahmadinejad has to step back from his very popular stance. Having two Fatwas issued against him, given his strategic links to the hardliners, he has no other choice. What seems interesting to me in this whole situation is the struggle of the government with Fatwas. One way to look at a Fatwa is to assume it as a personal recommendation to the followers. In this way we would only expected none of those female followers to enter an stadium. However, there is another interpretation of Fatwa, as the final verdict according to which everything should be corrected. In this way, which is actually what being practiced in Iran, followers will attack, or at least openly threaten to attack, women in stadiums. With Basij members stopping “immodest” people in the streets that actually is an everyday event in today Iran. However, not always followers take it that serious. When Khomeini issued a Fatwa against Salman Rushdi people started conspiring to kill him. A few of them, including an Iranian, did go very close. Then, the Islamic Republic realized that it can’t live with having that Fatwa as its major foreign policy. However, nobody could have broken Khomeini’s charisma. So, they very smoothly forgot the Fatwa, with out ever mentioning it publicly.
In the new Fatwa battle Ahmadinejad seems to have lost one point. Though, I doubt if that was actually loosing something. With out thinking about a conspiracy theory, that the decision was announced to be denounced later, the religious part of the Iranian nation may even see this whole situation as another approval that the Islamic Republic is governed by the will of God, practiced through top clerics’ rigorous watch. For the rest of Iranians it may even be an indication that oppression does not come from Ahmadinejad. What both groups agree upon is that the strong pillars of religious extremism in Iran have their bases in Qom (see), the Iranian Vatican. I think this event just proved again that Iran’s capital city is actually that holy city. Furthermore, it was a glimpse into the actual face of “Iranian democracy”