Dealing behind the scenes
It was almost ten days after disputed presidential election in Iran that I talked to a friend of mine. Massive rallies of reform supporters in Tehran and a few other cities had turned violent, many prominent reformist figures were under arrest and some demonstrators had been killed.
By then, it was almost clear that dissidents could not overthrow Ahmadinejad administration and fulfill their primary dream, i.e. annulling the election or convincing the regime that Musavi should take the power.
My friend had a point: if reform movement was about to give in, it either should achieve something big enough to make its supporters believe “it’s worth what we’ve done, now let’s give up;” or it had to come up with a justified reason to demand an end to demonstrations. In either case, their supporters needed a reason to quit.
The regime, however, was not ready to compromise, believing that it had the upper hand. Reformers had no winning card to take the regime to negotiations table. Hardliner propaganda machine upped the ante, trying to take advantage of the situation, even seeking for the trial of Musavi. Ultra-conservatives claimed that Musavi and reformist movement were responsible for the death of citizens and damages caused to public and private properties for they conducted allegedly illegal demonstrations.
Reformists’ struggle was seemingly bound to fail. They were under harsh criticism of hardliner centers for being connected to foreign powers, trying to destabilize Islamic Republic, and orchestrating a velvet revolution.
By then, there was a widespread rumor that many people detained during demonstrations were tortured and killed in prisons. What turned the page was a piece of official news: son of a top official died in prison.
Mohsen Ruholamini, who was arrested in pro-reform demonstrations, reportedly died in Evin prison. His father was an advisor to Mohsen Rezayi, a member of Expediency Council, general secretary of Justice and Development Party (a moderate reformist party) and a former member of an influential conservative party. Rafsanjani, Rezayi, Zarghami (head of IRI state TV), and parliament speaker offered their respective condolences to his father.
Mohsen Ruholamini was apparently tortured in the prison. His death triggered a wave of criticism of what was going on in prisons. In an important development, Mahdi Karroubi publicly announced that he had found information and hard evidences showing that some prisoners were raped.
Since the very beginning of Islamic Revolution, there had been rumors regarding rape and torture in prisons. Top IRI officials, however, always rejected such accusations. In one case, serial killing of intellectuals by some intelligence agents, the case of torture in prisons got public. Rape, however, was a redline.
At first, regime was reluctant to admit. Lecturers of Friday prayers in the country unanimously criticized Karroubi. They even said that ‘if he fails to prove his accusations, he should be lashed 80 times’ (an Islamic penalty for those accusing an innocent person of adultery and rape).
After a while, rape and torture reports got a momentum. According to Parlemannews,
“A journalist was arrested in post-election demonstrations. For he had been in contact with the office of a senior official [usual slang for Ayatollah Khamenei] since several years ago, he was set free after two weeks. When he paid a visit to that senior official, he was asked to take a seat. But he refused, telling that he could not seat. He said that he was repeatedly raped by stick.”
The hole was too big for the regime to cover. Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the closure of a ‘non-standard prison’ in Kahrizak. A judge was suspended and some agents are waiting for trial.
It seems that the regime finally agreed to a limited compromise. In a speech delivered this week, Ayatollah Khamenei said that reformist leaders were not agents of foreign powers. He added that those who caused death and loss, regardless of their organizational affiliations, should be tried.
This may not be what reformists longed to achieve. However, given the circumstances, it was a noticeable outcome. They were about to be put aside as some ‘non-insiders.’ Moreover, torturing and raping prisoners is a blow to a regime that finds itself the pioneer of morality and Islam. This shall be remembered forever.
Finally, reformists got to save their face and credibility. And the regime is assured that protests are not to be continued, at least temporarily. It might be a deal behind the scene.
Join the Conversation
The Iranian regime has suffered a significant setback with these recent waves of demonstrations. It is hard to preach morality and ethics on the one hand, and be accused of rape and torture on the other.
The protesters may not know what it is they want, but they sense that the current leadership is inadequate in some very fundamental ways. The threshold needed for revolution has not been reached because there is no leader who can galvanize public support for a vision that resonates with the people. And I think that such is the case with many countries in the Middle East, even though Iran is in a different part of the world, and has a different history.
Many of the states in the region are in what political scietists describe as “prerevolutionary mode.” The people are frustrated, and oppressed, and demoralized, but as yet the momentum for change has not been galvanized to the extent required to overcome the police powers of the state, including the abuse of power using torture, rape, imprisonment and the like.
But in my opinion, for what it’s worth, these protests have not been in vain. The leadership, obstinate and arrogant as they may be, cannot help but take notice of the mood of the people. They have been put on notice. Internal reform of some sort is likely to assuage the masses. And if not, the people on the street will continue to suffer the humiliation of oppressive rule, until they decide they can’t take it any longer.
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@ Nissim,
In my opinion, most of Iranians are against another revolution.
I’ll write about it later.
Mohammad, violent revolution is a risky thing because you never know what you’ll get. Case in point, the Iranian Revolution.
Also, it could be argued that the kind of people who are willing to engage in a violent overthrow, are not the kind of people you want running your country when it’s all over. If they can be violent against the government, there is nothing to say that they won’t be violent against their own people, in a bid to hold on to power. Case in point, the current Iranian leadership.
The people are right to be against another revolution. It’s too risky. And yet, living under the yoke of daily oppression is not a picnic either. So a middle ground of some sort is needed. As Aristotle made clear, the truth of a matter is ususally to be found somewhere between two extremes.
In this case, violence is one extreme, and blind acceptance of current realities is another. What is needed is a non-violent struggle, in which people figure out what it is they want, and make their will known forcefully, but without violence.
I don’t know Iran that well to know what levers of power should be used. But it seems to me, especially in the age of the internet, in which everyone can see what everyone is thinking and doing, that it should be possible to exert pressure, and to bring about reform, and perhaps even democratic change, without resorting to a violent revolution, and running the risk of unintended consequences.