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iranianhistory5

Page history last edited by Adam 14 years, 5 months ago

Supreme Leader the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 1989-Present

 

- Khomeini died on June 3, 1989

- he had a great funeral:

- in the words of one of my personal heros, Clive James, on this occasion "the western world looked on in disbelief at the sheer spectacle of belief"

- on June 4, in accordance with the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, the Assembly of Experts met to elect a new Supreme Leader - here’s a photo of the Assembly of Experts:

- there was little doubt that the Assembly would elect the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had served as President of Iran under Khomeini since 1981 as the new Supreme Leader - the only real hitch was that Khamenei had never actually become a marja, entitling him to be called “Grand Ayatollah” (Sayyid) instead of simply “Ayatollah”, whereas the Iranian Constitution required the Supreme Leader to be a marja - as such the Assembly of Experts initially named Khamenei as a temporary office holder, and they then initiated the necessary process for amending the Constitution to allow a non-marja to hold the Supreme Leadership - the Society of Seminary Teachers at Qom would eventually make Khamenei a marja in 1994 - thus before 1994, he is “Ayatollah Khamenei” - from 1994 on, he is “Grand Ayatollah Khamenei”

- Khamenei saw his Supreme Leadership as a continuation of Khomeini’s - he made no attempt to distance himself from the Supreme Leader, and their images continued to be displayed together (or, in retrospect, that looks more like Montazeri, hmm) :

- nor did he attempt to distance himself from the Iran-Iraq War (which, after all, he had largely prosecuted as President) - here we see him at the tomb of General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, commander-in-chief of Iran's armed forces during the war:

- he does do his best to appear pious:

- here he is studying the Koran:

- here he is leading Friday Prayers in 2004 (recall that his first job after the Revolution was as Friday prayer leader in Tehran):

- he can often be seen meditating:

- and praying, of course:

- and, like the previous Supreme Leader, he loves his family:

- so that’s his image - now let’s look at what’s happened in Iran since he’s been Supreme Leader

 

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, President 1989-1997

 

- with Khamenei taking over as Supreme Leader, Iran needed a new President - elections were held in August 1989, and the new President was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani:

- also, at the same time the Constitution was amended to allow Khamenei to become Supreme Leader, it was amended to abolish the post of prime minister - so we’ll stop talking about them now - henceforth, it’s all about the president

- Rafsanjani’s background: sent by his parents to the seminary at Qom in 1948 (when he was 14 years old) - studied Islamic law, ethics, and mysticism under Khomeini at Qom - from this youthful bond, he would be a dedicated follower of Khomeini for the rest of his life; following the White Revolution in 1963, Rafsanjani takes an active part in anti-Shah activities, and is jailed 15 times in the period 1964-79; in 1979, he initially serves as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Council, and was instrumental in founding the Islamic Republic Party - he is soon elected as Speaker of the Majlis, a post which he held until running for the presidency - he was one of the Iranians active on the Iranian side during the Iran-Contra Affair - in 1988, Khamenei appointed Rafsanjani as Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces - Rafsanjani was a moderate within the Iranian administration, and argued against prolonging the Iran-Iraq War and was the driving force in the administration in favour of accepting the UN Security Council Resolution that ended the war

- Rafsanjani’s election as president marks a movement towards greater moderation in Iran - he favoured a policy of economic liberalization and increased ties with other countries

- during the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) - between two of Iran’s enemies, Iraq and the US - Iran stayed neutral, though it did accept many Iraqi refugees and condemned both Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the US’s movements against Iraq

 

Minor Excursus on Iran’s Kurds

 

- as we saw earlier, the Kurds have been one of the ethnic groups constantly wanting to break away from Iran - let’s review the major ethnic groups of Iran and the Kurds’ place within Iran:

- so the Kurds are mainly found in the northwest of Iran - though about 700,000 are found in the northeastern province of Khorasan - that’s because in the 17th century, they were forcibly resettled there by Shah Abbas I, seen here:

- review:

- 1880: Kurds revolt against Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar - revolt crushed

- post World War I: Kurds, under Simko Shikak set up a Kurdish state, which lasts until 1922 when it is crushed - Simko Shikak ultimately executed by government of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1930

- 1946: the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad declares independence - crushed by troops of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

- post-1953 coup: the Shah cracks down on ethnic minorities, including the Kurds

- 1979: Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declares a jihad against the Kurds

- here we see a Pulitzer-prize-winning photograph of Iranian troops executing Kurds in August 1979:

- 1983: the Iranian government finally subdued Kurdish unrest and gains total control of Iranian Kurdistan, though unrest continued into 1990s

 

Merging this Back into Rafsanjani

 

- September 1992: 3 prominent Kurdish-Iranian separatist leaders are assassinated at the Mykonos Greek Restaurant in Berlin - here is the restaurant:

- and here is a plaque commemorating the victims:

- the attacks were carried out by 1 Iranian and 3 Lebanese men - but in 1997, a German court determined that the attack had been ordered by Iran’s Intelligence Minister Hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian (note: “Hojatoleslam” is an honorific used by all Shia clerics - the equivelant of “Rev.” - it means “authority on Islam”) - here’s what Fallahian looks like:

- the court found that Fallahian had ordered the killings with the full knowledge and support of President Rafsanjani and Supreme Leader Khamenei - the court issued an international arrest warrant for Fallahian but he has never been arrested

- while we’re on the subject of Fallahian, might he have done anything particularly odious outside of Iran?  well, maybe - Argentinian prosecutors  for accused him of ordering a bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aries in 1994 (along with his contacts in Hezbollah) - but during the case, the accused were acquitted - so it’s unclear if he actually did that or not

- come on, Fallahian must have done something else bad, right?  actually, we did leave out one thing from 1990 - remember Massoud and Maryam Rajavi?  (they were the leaders of the People’s Mujahdin of Iran, which helped Ruhollah Khomeini come to power, but then they had a falling out and they assassinated a bunch of Iranian leaders in 1980 and tried to kill Ali Khamenei - and then they supported Saddam Hussein with troops that tried invading Iran in 1989)

- so the Rajavi family and the People’s Mujahedin maintain an Iranian government-in-exile called the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Kazem Rajavi is a member of this group - unfortunately I was unable to find a pic of Kazem Rajavi

- in 1990, members of Iran’s Ministry of Inielligence and Security (Fallahian’s ministry) assassinate Kazem Rajavi in broad daylight in Geneva

- needless to say, this upsets the Swiss, and they also issue an arrest warrant against Fallahian

- but anyhow, the broader takeaway point is: in the years immediately after Khamenei becomes Supreme Leader and Rafsanjani becomes president, they are assassinating their major internal opponents - leaders of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran and of the Kurdish resistance - in Europe - this further contributes to the regime’s reputation as a rogue state

 

Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright’s Approach to Iran

 

- 1994: Clinton declares Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism”

- why did he do this? - the following is a list of things that Iran has done which the US government considers “state sponsorship of terrorism”

1)  the Ministry of Intelligence and Security actions in Berlin and Geneva discussed above

2)  there is speculation that MOIS aided Muslim forces in Bosnia (though since they were being massacred, this is perhaps forgivable)

3) the Revolutionary Guards (esp. the al-Quds force is alleged to supply aid to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad to conduct terrorist activities in Israel)

- so we saw above the links between Iran and the founding of Hezbollah - Hezbollah becomes the major Shia force in the Lebanese Civil War - the US estimates that Iran gives Hezbollah $60-100 million annually - here’s a list of objectionable things that Hezbollah has done: a) bombed US embassy in Beirut in 1983; b) attacked US marine barracks in Lebanon, also in 1983; c) highjacked TWA Flight 847 in 1985 - there were 39 Americans on board; d) bombed Israeli Embassy in 1992; and e) allegedly participated in the bombing of the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aries in 1994

- it is generally clear that Hezbollah checks with the Iranian government before they do anything - Iran has to sign off before Hezbollah does something big

- the links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad are a little less clear to me - this is a little off-topic, but let’s just briefly pause to trace the genealogies of both of those organizations:

 

Excursus on Hamas and Islamic Jihad

 

- preliminary note: “Islamic Jihad” is too broad - we need to distinguish between the 1) Lebanese; 2) Egyptian; and 3) Palestinian Islamic Jihad;  - the Lebanese Islamic Jihad Organization was a Shia group related to Hezbollah whereas the Egyptian and Palestinian Islamic Jihads are Sunni organizations both descended from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - though to make things confusing, during the 1980s there was a Lebanese Shia group that called themselves “Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine”

- in general, when people talk about Islamic Jihad, they are speaking of the Sunni organizations - usually Egyptian, but more recently also the Palestinian

- both Hamas and the Sunni Islamic Jihads are descended from the Muslim Brotherhood

- what’s the Muslim Brotherhood?

- well, this is Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood:

- founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to working politically to restore the caliphate (abolished 4 years previously by Atatürk in 1924) and maintain the role of sharia law in Muslim society (which was being replaced by Western law all over the Muslim world in this period - remember our discussion of the Persian Empire in this period)

- the Muslim Brotherhood is active throughout the entire Islamic world - it is anti-colonialist, and anti-western and opposes regimes that side with the West

- however, the Muslim Brotherhood has (with a few exceptions) always condemned the use of violence to achieve its ends and has rejected terrorism as a method

- the Egyptian Islamic Jihad breaks away from the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1970s, seeking more effective means of restoring the caliphate - e.g. in 1981, they assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Sadat - they later try to assassinate Hosni Mubarak - the Egyptian government hates these guys

- Palestinian Islamic Jihad is organized in the Gaza Strip shortly after the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and is committed to using all necessary means - including terrorism - to liberate the Palestinians and create a Muslim state in Palestine

- here is one of  the founders of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Fathi Shaqaqi (assassinated by Israeli Mossad forces in 1995):

- and Abd Al Aziz Awda (a.k.a. Sheikh Odeh):

- Palestinian Islamic Jihad ultimately sets up shop in Damascus and reportedly receives funding from the Iranian government

- Hamas (a.k.a. the Islamic Resistance Movement) was a separate off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1987 during the First Intifada by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a man whose charisma was partially linked to the fact that he was a blind parapalegic (Muslims have an especial reverence for blind people):

- here he is in 2004, shortly before his assassination by Israeli Mossad forces (go talk to Gabriella Blum if you want more information on why a blind paraplegic had to be assassinated):

- during the First Intifada (1987-1993), Hamas develops the technique of suicide bombings which prove so frightening to Israelis and the West

- Hamas’s charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, to be replaced by an Islamic state

- Hamas’s funding mainly comes from Saudi Arabia, though I guess the US alleges that Iran is involved too

 

Back to Clinton

 

- it seems to me that it was probably the link to Hezbollah that Clinton had most in mind when he designated Iran as a state supporter of terror

- May 1995: Clinton issues Executive Order 12,957, placing tight oil and trade sanctions on Iran and executive Order 12,959, banning almost all trade between US businesses and Iran

- however, Clinton also tried to move towards rapprochement with Iran - in 1996, the US government agreed to pay compensation to the victims of Iran Air Flight 655 - though without the US admitting responsibility

- 1996: the US issues a statement which can be read as an apology for American involvement in the 1953 coup against Mossadegh

 

Did Anything Else Happen While Rafsanjani Was President?

 

- here we see Rafsanjani, older, more contemplative:

- his presidency saw the founding of Azad University

- but economically, times were rough - the inflation rate at one point hits 49% under Rafsanjani - of course, the tightening economic sanctions don’t help

- he was also notoriously corrupt - his “privatization” of Iran led to him and his family having deep involvement in Iran’s oil industry - at one point he was on Forbes’ list of wealthiest men in the world - he puts his son in charge of the state-owned Gaz Iran Co., where he allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes

- having won reelection in 1993, come 1997, Rafsanjani (a centrist Islamist) was opposed by the reformist Mohammad Khatami - upon losing the election, Rafsanjani relinquished power peacefully

 

Mohammad Khatami, President 1997-2005

 

- Khatami’s background: born in 1943 in Yazd province:

- Yazd is historically important as the sight of Zoroastrianism, and you can still see important Zoroastrian temples in the province, e.g.:

- also the home of great medieval castles, such as:

- as well as great medieval mosques, such as:

- as a young man, Khatami travels to neighbouring Isfahan province:

- there he attends the University of Isfahan, a university founded in 1946 - from the photos on its website, it looks like the University of Isfahan could be located in New England:

- Khatami received a B.A. in Western Philosophy

- what can you do with a philosophy degree?  absolutely nothing - so, he moved on the University of Tehran to study Education - ahh, teaching, everyone’s fallback position

- he then changes his mind and moves to Qom - you can’t expect Iran to have a leader who hasn’t passed through either Najaf or Qom, after all - he studies theology for 7 years at Qom, becoming a mujthahid, the equivalent of a doctorate in Islamic theology

- he then moved to Germany where he chaired the Islamic Center in Hamburg, one of the leading Islamic mosques / cultural centres in Germany - here’s a picture of it:

- Khatami was in Hamburg when the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1979 - like so many of his countrymen, he was elated that the despotic Shah had finally been overthrown - and like so many clerics, he happily returned to Iran, being elected to the first post-revolutionary Majlis in 1980

- in 1982, he became Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance - inter alia, this made him supervisor of the Khayan Institute, an organization which publishes a daily newspaper formerly associated with the Shah’s regime but now widely seen as the mouthpiece of the Supreme Leader - he was also a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the committee which oversaw the Iranian Cultural Revolution, which saw the educational system purged of western influences (though presumably you can still get a B.A. in Western Philosophy?)

- oh, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but in 1987, the Islamic Republic Party - which had been pretty much the only party in the country was dissolved - it was replaced by two parties, the Combatant Clergy Association (a conservative party of which Rafsanjani was a member) and the Association of Combatant Clerics (a left-wing reformist party) - at this point, Khatami sides with the Association of Combatant Clerics over against the Combatant Clergy Association and leaves the cabinet

- in 1989, Rafsanjani - a conservative, but a centrist conservative, invites Khatami to return to the cabinet as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance - Khatami accepts

- 1992: Khatami resigns from cabinet and takes a post as head of the National Library of Iran, one building of which is seen here:

 - a bit of a step down from the Islamic Centre in Hamburg, if you ask me, but you gotta do what you gotta do

- as already mentioned, in 1997, he opposed Rafsanjani in the general election, promising major reforms and finding particular support among women and young voters

- this must be one of the few times in history an individual has moved from the post of Head Librarian to president of a country

- Khatami was elected on May 22, 1997, which is the 2nd of Khordad, 1376 (according to the bizarre Iranian calendar) - his election marks the beginning of a reform movement known as the 2nd of Khordad Movement

- the 2nd of Khordad Movement involved:

1) the Association of Combatant Clerics, headed by Mohammad Khatami, a cleric-dominated party founded in 1988 following the dissolution of the Islamic Republic Party

2) the Islamic Iran Participation Front - a new organization founded in 1998 as part of the 2nd of Khordad movement - here is a picture of delegates at its founding:

- the Islamic Iran Participation Front wanted greater levels of participatory democracy in Iran

- it was headed by Mohammad Khatami’s brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, seen here:   

- Mohammad-Reza Khatami is married to the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi:

- Zahra Eshraghi is one of Iran’s leading feminists who campaigns for changes in Iranian society, including the ending of mandatory headscarves and control of husbands over their wives

3) the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization - a smaller political party

- the leading thinker behind the 2nd of Khordad movement was this man, Saeed Hajjarian:

- Hajjarian’s background: educated as a mechanical engineer at the University of Tehran; participates in the student portion of the Iranian Revolution; works for the Ministry of Intelligence in the 1980s, rising to the position of Vice Minister of Political Affairs; in the late 1980s, he establishes the Institute for Strategic Studies, a high-level think tank that advises the Iranian president - while there, he becomes convinced of the necessity of the Rule of Law and democracy and rejecting the primacy of religion within the Iranian constitution - he becomes one of Khatami’s key advisors in 1997-98

- a second major reformist thinker of the 2nd of Khordad movement was Abdolkarim Soroush:

- Soroush is a philosopher of religion - his major work, The Theoretical Expansion and Contraction of Shari’a distinguishes between “religion” and “our understanding of religion” - “religion” is objective, but beyond human reach, eternal, and divine - “our understanding of religion” is subjective, based on authentic religious experience, but finite, limited, and fallible - his philosophy thus provides a way to decrease the role of religion in Iranian life

- so, with the intellectual backing and party structure in place, it was time for the 2nd of Khordad Movement to begin its major reforms to promote civil society and the Rule of Law

- principles of the reforms of the 2nd of Khordad Movement:

1)    free elections for the Tehran city council

2)    heightened rhetoric at the ideas of civil society and the rule of law

3) commitment to only pursue reforms through legal and constitutional channels

4) calling on people to criticize those high in authority, including the Supreme Leader

5) ending press censorship and allowing newspapers to express a wide variety of views

6) reopening European embassies

7) reorganizing the Ministry of Intelligence and Security

8) initiating interfaith dialogue within Iran and between Iran and the rest of the world

- the conservatives were not impressed with this reform programme in the least - and they weren’t going to take things lying down - the 8 years of Khatami’s presidency mark a period of intense political rivalry - Khatami once remarked that his administration faced a major crisis “every 9 days” - let’s go over a few of those:

The Chain Murder of Iranian Intellectuals, 1998 - in 1998-99, a number of leading Iranian intellectuals were murdered, including Dariush Forouhar:

and his wife Parvaneh Forouhar:

- the Forouhars were the head Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran (the Party of the Iranian Nation) - Dariush Forouhar had founded Mellat in 1951 as a pan-Iranian nationalist party in opposition to the Shah and in favour of Mossedegh - although political parties were later banned under the Shah, Mellat continued to exist as a grassroots organization - after the Revolution, they remained a group dedicated to separation of religion and state

- in 1998, the Forouhars were found murdered in their home in Tehran

- several weeks later, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that the murders had been carried out by Saeed Emami:

- Emami’s background: born Daniyal Ghavami to a wealthy Jewish family in Shiraz, Iran in 1959 - studies aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University - then gets a job at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C. for a year, followed up by a year with the Iranian delegation to the United Nations - during this period he is recruited by Iranian intelligence and returns to Iran to work for the Ministry of Intelligence - he applies for a vice-ministerial post, but is rejected by Saeed Hajjarian because of his family background - when Ali Fallahian becomes minister, however, he promoted Emami

- the Ministry of Intelligence thus admitted that it was a “rogue element” who had committed the murder - though Emami quickly committed suicide in prison, so we don’t know his side of the story - there was some indication that the Minister of Intelligence, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi was aware of the murder and he had to resign

- in 1999, a series of articles by Saeed Hajjarian and his collaborator journalist Akbar Ganji reported that Emami had been responsible for: a) the mysterious death of Iranian poet Ali-Akbar Saidi Sirjani; b) the Mykonos Restaurant assassinations in Berlin; c) an unsuccessful attempt to throw a bus carrying 21 journalists off a cliff; d) the mysterious death of Ruhollah Khomeini’s son Ahmad Khomeini in 1994; e) a series of murders of other Iranian dissident writers

Violence Against Khatami’s Cabinet - following a Friday prayer service, Minister of the Interior Abdollah Noori and Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ata’ollah Mohajerani were beaten by the crowd of the faithful - here’s a picture of Mohajerani:

Attempted Impechment of Mohajerani - didn’t work out, although he did later resign

Impeachment and Trial of Noori - the conservatives in the Majlis were successful in impeaching Noori - and he was then hauled before a Special Clerical Court where he was accused of insulting Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, publishing anti-religious materials, disturbing public opinion, insulting officials, and advocating closer ties with the US - he was convicted and sentenced to five years in the dreaded Evin Prison - here he is on his way to the prison after his trial:

Student Riots, 18th of Tir- in July 1999, peaceful protests began in opposition to the closure of a reformist newspaper associated with President Khatami - protests spread to Tehran University - then in comes the Basij (the student auxiliary to the Revolutionary Guards, founded during the Revolution) and the Ansar-e Hezbollah (an ultraconservative group) who start attacking the students - this led to a full week of student riots in Tehran, with the violence spreading to other universities, most notably Tabriz University - several people were, of course, killed

- here we see police squaring off against students:

- and more students rioting:

- of course, these were followed up by conservative rallies, opposing the students’ lawlessness:

- but what is really significant is that we’ve now come full circle - in 1979, students were in the forefront of the Iranian Revolution - now, 20 years later, students are rioting in opposition to the regime established by the Revolution and in favour of the reformist president Khatami

Attempted Assassination of Saeed Hajjarian - Saeed Hajjarian, the mastermind behind the 2nd of Khordad Movement had been elected to the Tehran City Council in 1999, the first free elections for the city council since the revolution - he had also been exposing the evils the regime had committed via that unsavoury character Saeed Emami - now, in March 2000, he was shot in the face at his home by a member of the Basij

- here’s a photo of Hajjarian in the hospital:

- miraculously, the assassin’s bullet passed through his left cheek and lodged in his neck - Hajjarian lives!

- in this photo, we see the attempted assassin, Saeed Asgar (standing) and his accomplices at their trial for the attempted murder of Hajjarian:

- though convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, Asgar was released after serving only a fraction of his sentence

Closing of Reformist Newspapers - the conservative hardliners now hit back using their censorship rights given by the Iranian Constitution - 30 reformist newspapers which had opened under Khatami’s presidency were shut down, a move which some political analysts described as a “silent coup” against Khatami

- with all the backlash he was provoking, Khatami must have been discouraged when it came time to run for re-election in 2001

- he nevertheless remained immensely popular with the Iranian people, who were incredibly supportive of his reforms - as you can tell by the reaction he’s getting from this crowd:   

- so he’s eventually re-elected in June 2001 with 77% of the popular vote (vs. 9 more conservative candidates)

 

Foreign Relations During Khatami’s First Term

 

- this is Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington:

- and this is Huntington’s most famous book:

- the book was published in 1996, and was an expansion of an article he had written in Foreign Affairs in 1993

- in both the article and the book he was responding to Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” thesis - that after the Cold War, there was no major conflict left in the world

- Huntingdon’s “Clash of Civilizations” thesis responded that, au contraire, there would be a lot of conflict in the 21st century, but it would be religious and cultural conflict, as opposed to the political conflict of the 20th century

- he divided the world up into a few major cultures:

- and then provided us with a nifty visual showing how the cultures would come into conflict:

- note how in his graph, Islamic culture is coming into major conflict with Hindu, African, Western, and Orthodox cultures - ouch

- Khatami read Huntingdon’s book (or perhaps a précis of the book) and was disturbed - no good reformist wants that much conflict

- Khatami now opposed a counter-thesis to Huntingdon’s, which would serve as a programme for civilizational interaction in the 21st century - he titled his book Dialogue Among Civilizations and argued that the 21st century should see increasing dialogue among cultures in order to avoid conflict

- his idea proved so popular that the United Nations even declared 2001 the year for Dialogue Among Civilizations - they love their slogans at the UN

- so what did he do?

- well, Bill Clinton proved a receptive audience, semi-apologizing for the anti-Mossadegh coup - soon, the US and Iran were initiating sports exchanges (first wrestling, then soccer)

- putting his money where his mouth is, Khatami became the first Iranian president since the Revolution to visit the west - in this emblematic photo, we see a President of Iran meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1999:

- and here he is meeting Jacques Chirac in Paris in 1999:

- and in 2001, he returned to Germany, where he had once been the chair of the Islamic Centre in Hamburg - here’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder showing Khatami off to the media:

- he also visited Japan, Russia, Algeria, and Venezuela

- given this spirit of reaching out to the West, Bill Clinton did offer to have a dialogue with Khatami and to normalize diplomatic relations, but the Supreme Leader Khamenei insisted that before Iran could enter into dialogue with the US, the US would have to meet the following conditions: 1) formally withdraw its support for Israel; 2) lift the sanctions imposed in 1995; 3) stop accusing the Iranian regime of seeking nuclear weapons; and 4) state that Iran was not a “state sponsor of terrorism”  - note that of these 4 demands, 3 were Clinton administration policies, not longstanding US practice - Clinton considered these 3 demands, but in the end, of course, the US wasn’t going to withdraw its support for Israel, so the offer ultimately went nowhere

- the US did however lighten the sanctions in 2000 and withdraw the recommendation that Americans shouldn’t travel to Iran

 

On to Khatami’s Second Term, 2001-2005

 

- the first major event of Khatami’s second term was, of course, 9/11

- Khatami issued a statement saying

        On behalf of the Iranian government and the nation, I condemn the hijacking

        attempts and terrorist attacks on public centers in American cities which have

        killed a large number of innocent people...My deep sympathy goes out to the

        American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also

        the families of the victims...terrorism is doomed and the international community

        should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it

- for the first time since the Iranian Revolution, the chants of “Death to America” were omitted from the Friday Prayers in Tehran   

- Supreme Leader Khamenei echoed the sentiment, saying: “Mass killing is wrong, whether it's Hiroshima, Bosnia, New York, or Washington” - though note the anti-US jab by including reference to Hiroshima and Bosnia

- in Tehran, Iranians held a candlelight vigil in honour of the 9/11 dead - the vigil was especially well-attended by those with pro-Khatami, pro-reformist sympathies, especially the young - see, e.g.:

- here is a painting from a young Iranian artist commemorating the vigil:

- three weeks later, on October 7, 2001, the US invaded Iran’s neighbour, Afghanistan

- as you will recall, Afghanistan had historic links with Iran, having once been part of the Persian Empire - however, the Afghans refused to convert to Shia Islam and starting in the mid-18th century gain their independence - however, note that Persian remains the most widely-spoken language in Afghanistan:

- and although the majority of the population is Sunni, 15% of the population is Shia - and when the Taliban gained power in Afghanistan in 1996, the Shiite opposition groups were their fiercest opponents

- naturally, these Shiite groups looked to Iran for leadership

- most of these Shiite groups had banded together (and with some non-Shiite groups) in 1996 to form a united front against the Taliban regime, the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (a.k.a. the Northern Alliance)

- major Shiite components of the Northern Alliance include: 1) the Hezbe Wahdat; 2) the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan; and 3) the Islamic Dawah Organization of Afghanistan - yes, of course there’s a Dawah party in Afghanistan too - where there are Shia, there is a Dawah Party

- these groups had all been part of the Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen (a.k.a. the Peshawar Seven) who had been backed by the US during the Soviet-Afghan War

- Iran encouraged the Shiite groups in the Northern Alliance to support the US in its invasion of Afghanistan

- January 2002: President George W.  Bush delivers his State of the Union address in which he delivers his “Axis of Evil” remarks - here he is giving the speech:

- here’s the full text of what he had to say about the Axis of Evil:

            [Our goal] is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror

             from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of

            mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since

            September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a

            regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while

             starving its citizens.

            Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an

            unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.

            Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror.

            The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and

            nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already

            used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens—leaving the

            bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime

            that agreed to international inspections—then kicked out the inspectors.

            This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.   

            States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil,

            arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass

            destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could

            provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their

            hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United

            States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

- the Iranian people’s reaction was predictable and is shown in this photo:

- Ayatollah Khamenei denounced Bush’s speech as “bloodthirsty”; Khatami denounced it as “meddling, warmongering, insulting, and a repetition of old propaganda”

- from this point on, the reformist sentiment in Iran, which had been pro-US, moves in an anti-US direction - a common enemy is the one thing that the reformists and hardline conservatives can agree on

- the debate between conservatives and reformists went on within Iran though

- in September 2002, Khatami introduces the Twin Bills, proposing minor but symbolically significant reforms: one of the bills would limit the role of the Guardian Council, while the other would give the president the ability to prevent constitutional violations by state institutions (he obviously had the Ministry of Intelligence on his mind here)

- the Twin Bills pass the Majlis easily, but are rejected by the Guardian Council - Khatami accepts this, having determined to pursue reforms through constitutional means only

- some of Khatami’s supporters, especially the young, start to question his commitment to reform within the boundaries of the Islamic Constitution - after all, the conservatives don’t play by the rules - they are constantly sending in their goons to beat us up, so why shouldn’t we overthrow them? - Khatami doesn’t listen to these critics and sticks by his principles

- so, we’ve only started to scratch the surface of intellectuals being harassed, but let’s look at one more, since he was particularly controversial within Iran - this is Hashem Aghajari:

- Aghajari is disabled because of injuries he sustained fighting for Iran during the Iran-Iraq War - he’s basically the Max Cleland of Iranian politics - Aghajari is a history professor in Tehran, and an active member of the Organization of the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution, the smaller reformist party involved in the 2nd of Khordad Movement - he publishes history in which he argues that the original, historic Islam was markedly different from the way in which Islam is practiced in Iran today - he also says that people shouldn’t be led around by clerics “like monkeys” - his publications lead conservatives to denounce him as “Iran’s Salman Rushdie” and in 2002 he goes on trial for apostasy - here we see him defending himself at his trial:

- apparently he didn’t have a very good lawyer - verdict: guilty - sentence: death

- Aghajari’s death sentence sets off another round of student-led protests - all of this pressure leads to the ultimate intervention of Supreme Leader Khamenei who orders a new trial - this takes place in 2003, and Aghajari’s sentence is ultimately commuted to 3 years in prison, 2 years probation, and 5 years suspension of his social rights

- and while we’re on the topic of heroic Iranian dissidents, we might as well pause to glimpse briefly at the winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi:

- Ebadi’s background: born in Hamadan in 1947 - as everyone knows, Hamadan was the home of Avicenna, the major medieval philosopher - this is his tomb:

- Hamadan is also a major region for Persian rug production

- Shirin Ebadi’s father is a professor of commercial law - he takes up a position at the University of Tehran in 1948

- Shirin Ebadi follows in her father’s footsteps, getting her law degree (it’s an undergrad degree in Iran) in 1969 (age 22), and then having passed the qualifying exams and a suitable internship, became a judge at age 23, in 1970, and in 1975 she becomes the first Iranian woman to serve as a prestigious legislative judge - at the time of the Iranian Revolution, the regime decreed that women could no longer serve as judges, so she was demoted to being a “law expert” - she found this much less exciting than being a judge, and repeatedly tried to resign - her resignation was finally accepted in 1993

- she returned to the University of Tehran as a law lecturer and focused her attention on the legal status of women and children - in this role, she was a keen supporter of Mohammad Khatami, and was one of the people that Khatami looked to to implement his promises to improve the position of women and children in Iranian society

- as a lawyer, Ebadi represented the Forouhar family after the murders of Dariush and Parvahen Forouhar; she also represented a student accused of murder during the 1999 student riots  and a few of the banned newspapers

- in terms of children, she established 2 NGOs, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child and the Defenders of Human Rights Center, designed to serve as advocacy groups for children’s and human rights

- she drafted Iran’s law banning physical abuse of children, which passed the Majlis and became law in 2002

- the Nobel Committee awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for children’s rights in Iran, though, of course, the Committee’s decision was also viewed in the media as an attempt to draw attention to Iran’s reformist movement after they had been undercut by Bush’s Axis of Evil speech - anyhow, here’s Ebadi accepting her award:

- so to summarize, the major events of 2003: 1) rejection of the Twin Bills; 2) Aghajari is recalled to life; 3) Ebabi wins the Nobel Peace Prize   

- but of course, none of those things was really the big story of 2003 - the big story of 2003 was the US invasion of Iraq

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

go to http://iranianhistory.pbwiki.com/iranianhistory6

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