Iran Needs a United Democratic and Secular Opposition

by Jahanshah Rashidian (Iran/Germany)

The lack of a strong and united democratic and secular movement in Iran has left the arena empty for the Islamic regime to further destruct our country, plunder our wealth and shed blood of our brothers and sisters. Millions of chests are now ready in the streets of Iran to challenge the army and thugs of this regime. Although bullets of panic-stricken Islamic mercenaries would suffocate any voice of protest, people are brave enough to resolutely claim their freedom despite risk of torture, rape and execution as “Mohareb” (heretic).

Unfortunately, the worst-ever condition of our people have not stimulated enough responsible reactions among democratic and secular activists on how to form a united movement to free the country from the plague of the Islamic regime.

Sadly, yet the people of Iran must wait; such a liberation movement has long been deemed illusory. It is, however, expected that this movement should be formed without further delay. It should learn from historical experiences of both our past and all peoples of the world, who’ve freed their countries. It should realistically use any tactical method and independently accept any international assistance to hasten the fall of the Mullah regime, because each day of parasitic life of this brutal regime costs our country lives and destruction.

The new democratic and secular movement must aim to instate democratic state in Iran, in which all political authorities will be directly elected by the people. Such authorities must be secular and democratic; their political background must be clean with no ties or sympathy for any religious or authoritarian form of government. Dictatorial regimes will have no place in the future of Iran. All authorities of free Iran must take oath to respect Human Rights and democracy unconditionally; they should be competent and independent. Our national interests should never be bargained by whims of any foreign power.

Our society is not a lab of another Islamic or extremist experiment. National leaders should be the fruit of Iranian people’s struggles for freedom from any kind of dictatorial regime. Our society is ripe enough not bow to any ideology, religion of submission, and domination of an elite class.

A democratic and secular movement now is needed to be present nationwide as people take to protests against the Islamic regime. Although this will spontaneously surface in the process of the ongoing revolution, an immediate formation of such a movement will hasten the revolution itself. Such an opposition movement should immediately present its programme that would be established after the fall of the regime. The programme must contain effective solutions to free Iran from the long yoke of backwardness and dictatorship.

The programme should expressly explain how it would create the stage for unconditional democracy, social justice, gender equality, question of Islamic hijab, development of national economy, rehabilitation of an Iranian identity, reviving of art and culture, negation of Islam as state religion, elimination of all religious institutions, removal of all religious influence from education, judiciary, calendar, language and all aspects of social life in a democratic and progressive process.

The new government, after overthrown of Mullah Regime, is expected to bring all criminals of the regime since its inception and all their collaborators before an international court for crime against humanity for the sake of establishment of justice and rehabilitation of victims of the regime. As such, the process should emphasise on the following tasks:

No Iranian woman is half that of a man, no Iranian can be punished for his political or religious belief. From now on, Iran will never possess dungeons, torture, and political prison. From now on, no Islamic law will be ever permitted to commit stoning, amputation of limb, lashing or any human humiliation.

By condemning the judiciary of a medieval belief system, which has been imposed on our country in a very violent and long process, it is time that our generation transcend our lesson to the next generations and those Iranians, who need practical proofs to quit the imposed cult of Islam.

As we know, the key powers are traditionally interested in economic gains. The EU still ignores the fact that their barrels of Iranian oil cost many lives extinguished by the criminal Islamic regime. We must demand an adequate policy from the EU. At the moment, we must forget Russia and China, because of their dictatorial past and present undemocratic states. In fact, these nations have never integrated Human Rights and ethics into their policy. The US, despite rhetoric of regime change under Bush administration and appeased policy of Obama administration, may ultimately feel satisfied with some phony reform by and within the regime. An Iranian democratic movement should not rely on agenda of any key foreign power; instead, it must try to influence their policies toward the illegitimate Mullah Regime.

Any foreign assistance or intervention in the liberation of Iran from the Mullah regime must be rejected; it must be achieved by an indigenous liberation movement by its own people with their raised fists, roars and blood.

In the ongoing critical conditions, and under pressure of a chain of crises, the ruling Iranian regime can be further divided into many cliques and factions. The ruling apparatus may even seek for handles with inner or outer interlocutors. A secular and democratic opposition should be vigilant against accepting any variants, which keep the Islamists or one of its factions in power. The least demand of our people is “no” to any model of the Islamic Regime.

Freedom-loving Iranians must also recognise the fact that the Islamic regime with nuclear weapons will have greater bargaining power to intensify its dictatorship; therefore, an opposition movement should take part in any international campaign against the regime’s nuclear ambition.

The ‘atomic conflict’ can be used to isolate the regime internationally. While condemning regime’s dangerous nuclear programme, we should also put the priority on the question of defending the basic rights of people, which cannot be guaranteed under this regime or one of its factions, led by phony “reformists”, namely Moussavi and Karrubi.

The regime is using the ‘nuclear conflict’ as a “national” right to rally popular support, but it masks the regime’s ambition to linger its totalitarian hold on power and parasitic existence. No stone must be left unturned to force the regime legally to give up it nuclear programme, when the country is expressly a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. While the nuclear issue does not deserve much highlight, it must also be recognised that nuclear weapons in the hands of a jihadi regime jeopardises the lives of our people.

Yet, military actions won’t solve the regime’s nuclear ambition; neither can economic sanction solve the real problem with this regime. Nevertheless, more than 40% of the domestic consumption of gasoline is now mainly imported from India. If this delivery can be temporarily stopped, the shortage of gasoline for domestic consumption will create a series of uncontrolled popular riots against the regime, which may render the regime paralysed and vulnerable. This will help the heroic people of Iran to dump the regime into the dustbin of history.

The Islamic regime of Iran must be internationally isolated; all diplomatic, cultural, and sport contacts with it must be suspended. All foreign accounts of the regime officials or organs must be frozen.

In short, a common platform for secular-democratic forces in Iran, however difficult, with aims to fulfill the following four major aspirations of most Iranian people:

1- Organising and leading Iranian people’s struggles to sweep away the Mullah regime and all its Islamic relics, institutions, and suppressive organs.
2- Forming a temporary government to organise a constitutional assembly for a new constitution. The new constitution is only legal when it is approved by the majority of people in a referendum supervised by international observers.
3- Preparing conditions as quickly as possible for a democratically elected parliament and government based on the right that people can elect and dismiss all key authorities.
4- Transferring power to the hands of the new government without monopolising or influencing the military or political apparatus.