Kamangir (Archer)

“An Iranian cure for an Iranian problem”

Kamangir | October 24, 2007 | Category Iran, Islamic Republic, media

This is a comment I recently wrote for The Manitoban, the University of Manitoba students’ newspaper. I should thank Michael Silicz, the editor of The Manitoban, for all his help.

An Iranian cure for an Iranian problem

The inevitable regime change in Iran and how Canada and the world can help

For a country with a double-digit inflation rate, regime change is only a matter of time. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s humiliation at Columbia University and the criticism that followed it in the Iranian government ranks was only one other sign that the group which rules the Islamic Republic is shrinking. It is a bitter fact, however, that during its 30 years in power, the Islamic Republic has successfully dissipated or humiliated any political alternative. This leaves no other appropriate option on the table, making the chance for a “velvet revolution” grim. Nevertheless, the regime is indeed under harsh and active criticism by a large group of people who do not constitute a classical opposition party.

A few months back, the Iranian judiciary announced that Jafar Kiani was to be stoned in public on charges of adultery. He and his partner were sentenced to death because they had lived together for more than 10 years after they carried out the Islamic marriage rituals without registering so. Soon the news was out that Jafar had in fact helped his wife, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who is still behind the bars, escape from an abusive husband who had been forcing her to sleep with strangers for money. The couple was arrested after her original husband raised charges against the couple.

In a matter of a few hours the Iranian “blogosphere” erupted. Posts shared phone numbers of government offices, and blogs invited everyone to call up and mention their disgust. The next day, the state-run media outlets carried reports about the “false mentions of a planned stoning.” It was a moment of joy and glory that unfortunately ended horribly. Only two weeks after that first announcement, judiciary officials transferred Jafar to a tiny village called Aghche-kand, in the province of Qazvin and buried him up to his waist. The next day many blogs carried pictures of the bloody stones which were used to kill him. Mokarrameh was called up to the prison administration the next day to be informed of her saviour’s fate. Nevertheless, probably because of the wave of disgust and condemnation that had followed the stoning, Larijani, the head of the Human Rights Commission in the judiciary, called the stoning “the personal decision of the judge,” although he defended stoning as a “punishment.” The tip, the pictures, and the updates about the stoning were all sent out by Persian bloggers inside Iran, but many of those who orchestrated the awareness cause were sitting in the security of their armchairs in North America and Europe.

After the first few months of shock, I have met with other Iranian students in Canada, and we have started to rethink the Sharia-based governance in Iran. The matter of fact is, the average Iranian youth is raised under the grip of the Islamic propaganda machine. As soon as they are free from the poisonous atmosphere of Islamic fanaticism, rational thinking kicks in. For many, this is through blogging, the modern means of international discussion and learning. The same people may once have considered stoning “a legitimate Sharia punishment,” but after they inhale freedom of thought they start to question. This questioning then spreads and infiltrates Iran through blogs.

If there is to be any chance for a democratic system to blossom in Iran, it has to start from the Iranian people questioning the irrational aspects of the Islamic practice that rules Iran. No smart bomb can ever target the dungeons of confusion and twisted argument that the Iranian regime has prepared itself to survive in. It is the Iranians, and only the Iranians, who can sneak into these ideological strongholds and shed some light. It is quite embarrassing, and at the same time quite common, to hear a well-educated Iranian speak of stoning, strangling, and other degrading actions as “acceptable” and “prescribed by the religion.” That’s because the chaos of the “War on Terror” has turned the focus away from the Sharia-based governance, the main source of these horrid actions, even helping it grow stronger.

Let more Iranians breathe freedom. No single Iranian has been ever involved in a suicide attack anywhere in the world. Our politicians speak of “martyrdom,” but, unless it has been to defend the motherland, no Iranian has ever reached for arms. It happens quite frequently that a person passing airport security with an Iranian passport is asked for a “random check”. Remembering the horror the 9-11 attacks caused, many of us patiently follow the orders. At the same time, many Iranians blame the inconvenience on the Islamic Republic for its financial and political generosity to terrorist groups. Persecuting average Iranians for what the regime of Iran, whose legitimacy is seriously questionable for many Iranians as it is, only serves in the favour of the Islamic Republic propaganda machine which seeks stories to prove the theory that “the West hates Muslims and/or Iranians.”

Accepting Iranian students into Canadian, American, and other universities in the developed world is the best way to help the Iranians communicate with the reality, not through the deceitful channels of the regime. These hardworking individuals not only bring creativity to their hosting countries but also act as sources to send out the message to the Iranian public that there is more to life than living under an Islamic dictatorship.