Although it didn’t get much play in the press over the weekend, events in Iran continue to be interesting.
Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former President and force behind opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi, took the podium for Friday prayers. Via the LA Times:
A sermon by powerful cleric and opposition supporter Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reignited Iran’s simmering protest movement Friday, heartening thousands of supporters who braved tear gas and club-wielding militiamen to march and chant slogans across Tehran.
In a highly anticipated speech, Rafsanjani slammed the hard-line camp supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, criticized the June 12 election results and promoted several key opposition demands. Analysts said his description of the unrest as an ongoing “crisis” was a signal to keep the pressure on Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. […]His speech, as well as the ensuing pitched clashes between security forces and supporters of opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi, suggested that the political firestorm surrounding the marred vote would continue and that the movement it had inspired remained strong.
Reformist websites estimated that more than 1 million people participated. That number could not be confirmed, though even supporters of the hard-line camp who attended the prayer session to show support for Khamenei acknowledged that the crowds were huge.
The story reports clashes between police and protesters, arrests, and defiance on the part of the huge crowd.
Here are two eyewitness accounts via Juan Cole (here and here)
And two video accounts (here and here)
There is a good deal of controversy regarding Rafsanjani’s intentions. Middle East Scholar Juan Cole argues that Rafsanjani is attempting to lay the foundation of an understanding of the Iranian revolution that would undercut the hardliners.
The reform movement and its allies among pragmatic conservatives have developed a narrative about Khomeinist Iran. They allege that it is ultimately democratic, and that the will of the people is paramount. It is popular sovereignty that authorizes political change and greater political and cultural openness. Precisely because democracy and popular sovereignty are the key values for this movement, the alleged stealing of the June 12 presidential elections by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for his candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is intolerable. A crime has been committed, in their eyes. A social contract has been violated. The will of the people has been thwarted.
The hard liners hold a competing and incompatible view of the meaning of Khomeini’s 1979 revolution. They discount the element of elections, democracy and popular sovereignty. They view these procedures and institutions as little more than window-dressing. True power and authority lies with the Supreme Leader and ultimately all important decisions are made by him. Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Misbah-Yazdi is an important exponent of this authoritarian view of the Islamic Republic. The Leader in this view is a kind of philosopher-king, who can overrule the people at will. The hard liners do not believe that the election was stolen. But they probably cannot get very excited about the election in the first place. Khamenei and his power and his appointments and his ability to intervene to disqualify candidates, close newspapers, and overrule parliament are what is important. From a hard line point of view, the election is what Khamenei says it is and therefore cannot be stolen.
Rafsanjani desired in his sermon to lay a Khomeinist foundation for the more democratic view.
According to Cole, the take-away message of the speech was this:
His solution to this crisis of confidence consists in the following steps:
1. All parties to the dispute should act only in accordance with the law.
2. The authorities must exert themselves to regain the confidence of the people.
3. The door must be left open to free and unrestrained public debate among the contending parties, including on the state-run radio and other media.
4. Demonstrators and other prisoners of conscience must be released by the regime.
5. The press must be left free to publish a wide range of opinion on these issues.
Rafsanjani seems to have been acknowledging that the results of this election are unlikely to be overturned. But he is urging fresh legislation and wide open debate as means of resolving the crisis.
So is what Rafsanjani is saying about Khomeini and Khomeinism true? Probably only partially. Khomeini is notorious for having rejected popular sovereignty as a principle. But he did put an elected president and parliament into the constitution, and he surely knew what would follow.
It appears that the regime in Iran has not succeeded in crushing the opposition and that the battle over the direction of Iranian society is far from over.
That is heartening. Best wishes to the protestors whose courage is inspiring.
