Advice to Freedom Loving Iranians!

As someone who was born in Iran, lived through the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and then left that world behind in pursuit of her own personal freedoms, now having lived more than half of her life in the West, I think I have the advantage of being able to look at the situation in Iran from the proverbial "10000 feet view"!

I left Iran 21 years ago, and at that time, the fundamentalist hijackers of our revolution had managed to completely steal the Republic from its Founding Fathers. The future of Iran seemed as bleak and hopeless as it did in its worst periods in history, such as the Ghajar era, the Mongol invasion, the 2 centuries of silence, ...!

Of course, a lot has changed over the past couple of decades in Iran, and most significant of them is the Reform Movement of former President Khatami in 1997. However, the pace of CHANGE has been very slow and the success of REFORM has been hindered by the fact that unfortunately Iran's fundamentalists of the far-right have continued to maintain and exert their power and influence on the society more than any other group in that country's political spectrum.

Now a days, when I read about Mr. Khatami daring to extend a hand of cooperation to the once vilified Freedom Movement of Iran, and how he is trying to reintroduce the notion of "liberalism" to the Iranian public, it all seems hard to believe for me, and I'm shocked but quite pleasantly so!

However, I shouldn't perhaps be too shocked, because thanks to the new approach that seems to be taken by the rational, pragmatic, and smart liberals in America, such as Barack Obama and his friends and supporters (young and old), I think the Theocratic Dictatorship of Iran can see no other choice but to save itself through major and REAL reforms and course-correction! Hence, their need for the REAL revolutionaries of 1979! Thank God there are also rational, pragmatic, and smart people even in the clerical class of Iran!


I have been writing (on Persian Paradox = Dr. Ebtekar's weblog) about my Utopian "dream" of a push by the Assembly of Experts to revise the wisdom of keeping "Supreme Leadership" as a lifelong term, and instead, to change it to a finite term of 25 years, at the end of which there can be celebrations and hoopla and fanfare to commemorate and recognize the achievements of the outgoing Supreme Leader, and passing the torch of our revolution's "Principles" to the incoming Supreme Leader!

Why do I have this dream???
Even though I was only a kid during the revolution, but I do remember somethings and I'm sure people like Dr. Ebtekar who were young adults and university students at the time, and actually involved in the revolution, MUST remember the slogans and the ideals and principles that their fellow revolutionary students sacrificed their lives for:
"Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic"

Let's look at these slogans carefully:

Independence? What did PEOPLE mean when they shouted for Independence? Iran was not a colony, it wasn't under the occupation of any other country, so why was it so important to DEMAND "Independence"??? They were talking about political, technological, and economic INDEPENDENCE from the Shah's Western masters (i.e., United States of America, United Kingdom, and Israel)!

Freedom? That one was much more obvious to most people, due to the despotic and dictatorial nature of the Shah's rule which made it impossible for people to exercise their basic and inalienable rights and freedoms, like Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Opinion, ...

Islamic Republic? This one of course has TWO parts to it, and I would like people like Dr. Ebtekar and other politicians in Iran to pay attention to the origin of this term! Let's remember 1979!!!

What were PEOPLE referring to when shouting and screaming these slogans in front of the bullets of Shah's Imperial Guards? What were they expressing as their HOPES and ASPIRATIONS for the future generations as they were taking their last breaths, wounded and on the verge of ascending to heaven, lying in the pool of their own sacred blood? Those martyrs (shaheed) of the 17th Shahrivar who gave their lives for this revolution of which you have now become custodians, what did they mean when they said "Islamic Republic"? Did they simply mean "Islamic rule"? Were they referring to the sermons of Ruhollah Khomeinin in Najaf about "Velayat Faghih"????!!!! Did those young university students mean to say we want to just replace the Shah (king) with a Faghih (priest) and that's how we hope to insure our country's Independence and Freedom????!!!! I'm sure you know the answer to that!!!!

Maybe there were a number of clerics involved in the revolution, who were inspired by Ruhollah Khomeini's sermons about an Imam-Ali-like regime in which social justice could be promoted in the style of that Imam's moral teachings, but the youth, the majority of the revolutionary activists who GAVE their LIVES for that revolution did not learn their principles from those sermons, they learned and were inspired by the theories put forward by Ali Shariati, Morteza Motahhari, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ayatollah Taleghani and other such Islamic intellectuals who had written books and given speeches at the Hosseyniyeh Ershah for years, had been taken to jail, had been tortured by the Shah's secret service (SAVAK), and had a REAL moral authority to speak of the principles of the REVOLUTION they were inspiring in the youth! Ayatollah Khomeini was in France by then! Safe and Sound!

So, what did that two-word term of "Islamic Republic" really mean? What did those Founding Fathers have in mind when they specifically said Islamic REPUBLIC?????

We had a draft of what they meant in the original constitution which scholars such as Dr. Beheshti, Ostad Motahhari, Prime Minister Bazargan and others wrote in the first few months of 1979, in that glorious "Spring of Freedom"! It was a REPUBLIC based on the rule of law, by the PEOPLE, of the PEOPLE, and at the same time, under the moral guidance of Islamic laws, headed by a high priest (=Faghih) called "Supreme Leader" as a supervising arbiter of its moral direction! It was NOT meant to become an "Islamic Hokoomat" (Islamic Rule), but an "Islamic Republic", in actuality, and not just in name!

Now, with respect to these 3 slogans and principles of the revolution, where is Iran after almost 30 years? Do people feel that they have "Freedom of Speech", "Freedom of Opinion", "Freedom of Press", "Freedom of Religion", "Freedom of Expression"????? Do people feel that they are totally "Independent" of both Western AND Eastern influence in their political, technological and economic standing in the world? and most importantly, is this "Islamic Rule of the Clerical Class" what people had bargained for 30 years ago? Is what Iran has right now, truly a REPUBLIC? Do people vote freely and elect their representatives according to what they know of them? or according to what the clerical class allows them to know? Are presidents and members of the Parliament allowed to express opinions and put forward agendas that are not 100% in agreement with ONE doctrine and ONE alone, which is that of the "Supreme Leader"? Then what does the title of president even mean? If the policies of the regime are set by the "Supreme Leader", then isn't the president only a slave to those policies? Isn't the Parliament bound by the policies of ONE and only ONE person alone???? Isn't this more reminiscent of the Pahlavi monarchy than what any of those martyrs of 17 Shahrivar ever dreamed of as they took their last breaths on earth hoping that their bloods could pave the way for a better society in which there was:
Independence, Freedom, and Islamic Republic?


The beauty of the Reform Movement headed by former president Mohammad Khatami, is that these short-comings are recognized!!!!

So, according to my Utopian dream, ... if the next president of Iran (anyone BUT Ahmadinejad) manages to make that "grand bargain" deal with President Obama within the first term of his presidency, and therefore allowing Mr. Khamenei to claim HIS own leadership's success in demanding respect for Iranians and achieving Iran's technological and political INDEPENDENCE, then it can be packaged (by the pragmatic and realistic ones in the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Council) as this:

1) Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini achieved the first goal of our revolution = Islamic Republic
2) Seyyed Ali Khamenei achieved the second goal of our revolution = Independence
3) Seyyed Mohammad Khatami is the only leader who can pave the way for us to achieve the third goal of our revolution = Freedom


At this very crucial time in history, all Iranian reformists and Freedom-seeking leftists, with the backing of Mr. Khatami and Rafsanjani, NEED to prove to the world that Iran is on its way toward that Utopia! You need to demonstrate the non-monolithic nature of Iran and the MODERATE and peaceful characteristic of an IRI regime that can be possible within the next 9 months!
Good Luck!