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A young Iranian boy passes
police officers after police and members of a hard-line
paramilitary squad arrested more than 50 anti-government
protesters in Tehran Saturday Feb. 10, 2001. Some 200
demonstrators, mostly young people, took part in the action
demanding freedom of expression. The violence took place as Iran
marked the anniversary of the 1979 collapse of the Pahlavi
monarchy. The 10-day celebration ends Saturday. (AP Photo/Hasan
Sarbakhshian) (Hasan Sarbakhshian, AP)
- Feb 10 12:14 PM ET |
Source: MSNBC
Patience wears thin in Iran: Young electorate tunes out after tiring of wait for change.
TEHRAN, Iran, Feb. 16 - As Iran’s divided theocracy gears up for
presidential elections in June, 30-year-old Mohsen has one reaction: "I turn off the television and turn up the music." Young Iranians like
Mohsen, once seen as the engine for change in a country balancing democracy with hard-line clerical rule, are tuning out.
THE FRUSTRATIONS of Iran’s youth ( more than 50 percent of the country is under 25) are felt in the streets of the capital of
Tehran. In 1997, voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind President Mohammed
Khatami, who pledged democratic reform in all levels of Iranian society. Then last year the same electorate handed reform candidates a
huge victory in an election for the country’s parliament, or Majlis. After both votes, expectations were high. But both Khatami and
the reformers in the Majlis have been unable to wrangle the levers of power in Iran away from the conservative clerics who control most of
the country’s key institutions: the army, the judiciary, the finance ministry and the police. Only a few months before the presidential elections, Khatami
has yet to declare his candidacy. Some say the president is suffering much of the same bitterness as his supporters. With many of his main
allies jailed, Khatami is increasingly alone, his liberal policies thwarted by the closure of pro-reform newspapers and subjected to a
virulent campaign in the conservative press. In recent days, hard-line vigilantes have attacked conferences
held by Khatami’s supporters. Haircutter Mohsen and other young Iranians interviewed said
they are disillusioned about their futures and the next presidential elections. Some are even preparing to leave Iran altogether.
POLITICS ‘RUINS YOUR BRAIN’
On recent day in his barber shop, amid throbbing techno music on the shop’s radio, Mohsen sent out a young boy to buy a some reading
material. He returned with a sports magazine. "I can’t read about politics anymore, because it ruins your brain," said
Mohsen, who did not want his last name used. "I buy sports papers or magazines. It’s
more exciting, and it boosts my energy."
Across town at Tehran University, 22-year-old architecture student Fariba, who also did not want her last name used, said a
growing number of students are packing their bags. "Students want to have a good time," she said. "They want to be
where they can have a party, where they can watch a new film from satellite. Students no longer have the political fever ... they have
become pacified. They used to read two or three newspapers a day, but now they just glance at the headlines," Fariba said. Fariba said that students are leaving for Australia, Canada,
Dubai and even Bosnia, which recently dropped its visa requirement for Iranians. From Bosnia, they can get into Europe to seek asylum, Fariba
said.
Iran’s media reported recently that the number of Iranians seeking asylum in Europe had increased by 30 percent from 1999 to
2000, to nearly 28,000. Aware of the public pressure on Europe’s governments to crack
down on asylum seekers, many students are having their photographs taken at Iranian student rallies to use as evidence in future asylum
hearings, Fariba said.
DANGEROUS ACTIVISM
Student efforts to seek asylum abroad aren’t entirely motivated by the political malaise that has settled over Iran; being a student
involved in the pro-democracy movement can be truly dangerous. When one of the biggest students unions in Iran, a backer of
President Khatami, held its annual gathering last summer in the southern Iranian city of
Khorramabad, conservative vigilantes attacked the crowd, killing one. None of the attackers were caught, and only
students were arrested. And when the student union’s head, Ali
Afshari, participated in a cultural conference in Berlin last year, he was jailed with other
prominent Khatami supporters upon his return. The union, called the Office to Consolidate Unity, used to draw thousands to its rallies at
Iran’s universities. The crowds no longer come.
The biggest crackdown on the students came two years ago, when a pro-democracy demonstration was attacked by vigilantes. In several
days of violence, hundreds were injured and one student killed. Several senior police officials were charged with a role in
inciting the violence. But while most of these officials were acquitted, students demonstrators are still in jail with harsh
sentences. "Khatami did not do or could not do anything about it,
therefore that was a disappointment and a discouragement," said architect
Fariba, who is also an activist in the youth branch of the pro-democracy political party headed by Khatami’s brother. "Students chanted slogans for four years, then realized that it
was no use," Fariba said.
For now, Khatami is playing his cards close. Analysts speculate that the reason he has not announced his candidacy -- he has until one
month before the June 8 election -- is to deny conservatives the opportunity to find a reason to disqualify him from the race. The
president’s frustration, like that of the students, is evident in his speech. "Every nine days my government face a crisis since I came took
office," Khatami said recently.
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