Life and Liberty in Iran

[democratic]

http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2005/April/Regime/index.html

Masoud Kazemzadeh and Shahla Azizi
April 25, 2005
iranian.com

One of the most vexing questions animating observers and analysts of Iranian politics is: why despite being extremely unpopular and incompetent, are the fundamentalists still in power? One factor that may provide a partial explanation is the huge change of the dominant ethos among large sectors of the population.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the dominant ethos among large sectors of the Iranian people was idealistic, altruistic, and celebrated sacrifice for the greater good. Today, on the contrary, the predominant ethos have become excessive selfishness, acquisitiveness, cynicism, and lack of willingness to make the smallest sacrifice to protect the common good. This pendulum-like swing from one extreme to the other has a deleterious impact on the outcome of political struggles in Iran. If this observation is correct, although the overwhelming majority of Iranians are opposed to the ruling Islamic fundamentalist regime, the vast majority are unwilling to pay the price of replacing it.

Anecdotal and statistical evidence of the alienation of the youth from the fundamentalist regime are overwhelming. For example, a government conducted survey revealed that 86 percent of the youth say that they do not perform the obligatory daily Islamic prayer. In early 2003 a large Internet poll of students of the Amir Kabir University (the second most prestigious university in Iran) was conducted. Only 6 percent of the students said that they support the hardliners, while another 4 percent said they support the reformists within the regime. A mere 5 percent said they support the return of the former monarchy. Most significantly, 85 percent of the students said that they would support the establishment of a secular and democratic republic. Why then out of two million students at institutions of higher education, would only a few thousand participate in pro-democracy sit-ins and protests?

In a large survey of 15 to 29 year-olds published in January of this year, some interesting data have been released. The survey entitled “The Values and Opinions of the 15-29 Year Old Youth,” revealed that 59 percent of male and 57 percent of female respondents said “each person should think only of oneself.” To the question on “are people honest and forthright in public,” 79 percent of males and 82 percent of females responded “no.” And 50.4 percent of males and 39 percent of females said that they “would welcome the opportunity to emigrate abroad.”

This is the generation that was petrified under the rains of scud missiles and aerial bombardment during the eight-year war with Iraq, and survived Khomeini’s reign of terror where possession of banned materials resulted in summary trials and mass executions, and humiliated and lashed for infractions of the fundamentalists’ puritanical dictates. Monopolization of all levers of power by fundamentalist clerics, incredible financial corruption by clerical officials and their children, brutal suppression of dissents, cultural suffocation, severe economic difficulties, astronomical rise in crime, addiction, and prostitution have undermined the sense of common purpose and common good.