Five major figures in Iran's reform movement issued a manifesto Sunday, Jan. 3, calling for the resignation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the abolition of clerical control of the voting system and candidate selection.
I interviewed one of the signatories for Global Viewpoint -- reform-movement founder and scholar Abdolkarim Soroush -- about the manifesto, which also calls for the recognition of law-abiding political, student, non-governmental and women's groups; labor unions; freedom for all means of mass communication; and an independent judiciary, including popular election of the judicial chief.
The signatories, all Iranians living outside the country, also include dissident cleric Mohsen Kadivar; former parliamentarian and Islamic Guidance Minister Ataollah Mohajerani; investigative journalist Akbar Ganji; and Abdolali Bazargan, an Islamic thinker and son of a former prime minister.
Why did you decide to issue a manifesto now?
The Green Movement is into its seventh month now, and I and my friends have been following events very closely and have been in touch with some of our friends in Iran. After [the protests on] Ashura on Dec 27, we came to realize that it was a real turning point. It was at that time that the regime decided to crack down on the Green Movement. In one instance, the regime rolled over a protester and killed him. It was a very severe message to all the protesters and defenders and supporters of the Green Movement that it intends to crush the movement harshly.
On the other hand, we have also individually been frequently asked by our friends: What are the real demands of the Green Movement, because the Green Movement was something that jumped on the scene? There was no planning for it. The election was the beginning, and it just evolved and evolved. As it evolved, some demands had emerged, but there was nothing that showed what was in the minds of the leaders of the movement.
The five of us thought that because we are close enough to the leaders of the movement -- Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Khatami -- and know their demands, we should start drafting a manifesto or statement about the Green Movement. So we started drafting, and then Mousavi's statement [that he would die for the movement if necessary] was issued [on Jan 1]. Since we are living outside the country, don't have to fear [the government] and know what is in the mind of the people, we decided to publish our own statement to make clear what Mousavi's intentions and goals of the Green Movement are.
Whose views does this manifesto reflect -- just the leadership or the wider range of followers?
This is a pluralistic movement, including believers and non-believers, socialists and liberals. There are all walks of life in the Green Movement. We tried to come up with the common points for all. We know there are many more demands, many more than these.
Maybe in the next stage, they may demand redrafting the constitution. But for now, they would like to work within the framework of the constitution, and we were careful not to trespass those limits.
One of the suggestions we made was on the border [of going beyond the basic demands], which was the suggestion that the head of the judiciary should be elected rather than appointed by the supreme leader. I suggested that point -- if we have changes in the constitution, we have to make the head of the judiciary elected. But the majority of the points reflect the mind of the leadership.
What difference will this manifesto make?
It will make the goals and objectives clearer and better defined and articulated. At this stage, we need it. I've said for years that the revolution was theory-less. It was a revolt against the shah -- a negative rather than a positive theory. I insisted that if there is going to be another movement, it has to have a theory. People should know what they want, not just what they don't want. So we are trying -- in a modest way -- to put forward a theory for this movement.
Goals and objectives are based on theories and foundations. And we do have theories about liberty. We have not brought those theories into these points, but they underlie the points. They are invisible to the armed eyes, meaning the regime.
What's next for the Green Movement?
Nobody knows. There are all sorts of cries that the leaders of the Green Movement should submit themselves to the supreme leader, but that won't take place. Both sides have to be prepared for a serious negotiation. That could be the next stage. [Former President] Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani might step in to start a negotiation for national reconciliation.
Can the regime crack down to the point of eliminating the Green Movement?
I don't think so. It is a product of the reform movement, which was suppressed. Ahmadinejad did his best to remove all sort of reform movements and to start a new era. But the regime could not put out the fire. And now we have the Green Movement, which is a culmination of the reform movement, a new stage.
I hope the government recognizes it has to have negotiations with the Green Movement and will have to sacrifice something for them to be productive. Heaven forbid that it turns into violence, which would be bad for the Green Movement and the country.
Will compromise satisfy the new generation of reformers?
Compromise has a negative connotation. But if even one of these demands is fulfilled -- such as freedom of press -- that will be enough to change drastically the political scene and atmosphere of the country. If they accept one of these 10 demands -- and not the rest -- it will revolutionize the whole country. Maybe release the prisoners; so many competent people are in prison. Any one of these would revolutionize the atmosphere.
The following is an English translation (from the Persian) from the Jaras Web site of the manifesto signed by Iranian reform-movement founder and scholar Abdolkarim Soroush; dissident cleric Mohsen Kadivar; former parliamentarian and Islamic Guidance Minister Ataollah Mohajerani; investigative journalist Akbar Ganji; and Abdolali Bazargan, an Islamic thinker and son of a former prime minister.
We fully support the positions of the leaders of the Movement in Iran (Mousavi, Karroubi, and Khatami), and believe that the optimal demands of the Green Movement of the Iranian people at this point are as follows.
1. Resignation of Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [as the president] and holding a new presidential election under the supervision of neutral organs; abolish the vetting process of candidates [by the Guardian Council] and formation of an independent election commission that includes the representatives of the opposition and protestors, in order to draft the rules and regulations for holding free and fair elections.2. Releasing all the political prisoners, and investigating the torture and murder of the protestors over the past several months in open courts in the presence of a jury and the attorneys of their [the victims'] own choice, and compensating those who have been hurt and their families.
3. Free means of mass communication, including the press, the Internet, voice [radio] and visage [television]; abolishing censorship and allowing banned publications [such as dailies] to resume; expanding non-governmental TV and satellite channels; ending the filtering of the Internet and making it easily accessible to the public, and purging liars and provocateurs from [national] radio and television.
4. Recognizing the rights of all the lawful political groups, university student and women movements, the NGOs and civil organizations, and labor unions for lawful activities and the right to peaceful protest according to Article 27 of the constitution.
5. Independence of the universities [from political meddling and intervention]; running the universities democratically by the academics themselves; evacuating the military and quasi-military forces from the universities, and abolishing the illegal Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution [that interferes in the affairs of the universities].
6. Putting on trial all those that have tortured and murdered [people], and those who ordered the past crimes, particularly those over the past several months.
7. Independence of the judiciary by electing [rather than appointing] its head; abolishing illegal and special courts [such as the Special Court for the Clergy]; purging the judiciary from unfair judges, and banning judiciary officials from giving political speeches and carrying out orders of higher officials [the president and the Supreme Leader], instead of implementing the laws fairly and neutrally.
8. Banning the military, police, and security forces from intervening in politics, the economy, and culture, and ordering them to act professionally.
9. Economic and political independence of the seminaries, and preventing politicizing the clerics to support the government, and banning the use of Friday prayers sermons for issuing [by the clerics] illegal and anti-religious orders.
10. Electing all the officials who must become responsive to criticisms, and limiting the number of terms that they can be elected.
Not meeting these [legitimate] demands of the Green Movement and increasing the [violent] crackdown and oppression will not only not help us to pass the [present] crisis, but will also deepen the crisis with painful consequences, for which only the Supreme Leader will be responsible.
To act like an ordering commander from thousands of miles away is not desirous either.
You know the ..........lengesh kon proverb.
But you do have a point, Mousavi agrees with Ahmadinejad's positions on the nuclear program, Iran exerting its presence as the dominant power in the region, and several other issues that the US likes to portray Ahmadinejad as being a hardlliner on.
And seeing as Muslims in general, and Iranian Muslims in particular, do not see a need for dividing church and state, in the unlikely case of Iran's democratic government being toppled, that is not likely to change.
And if the 'protesters' truly are promoting such an agenda, it marks them as as much a fringe element as the 'no tax/no government' people in the US.
As for women rights issue and whether the Iranian women are content with the Islamic laws, let me tell you that though Iranian women may like their religion but they are extremely unhappy with those religious laws. What woman would want to be subjected to these laws?
1. Women not having the right to divorce
2. Women not having custody rights
3. Polygamy for men (4 permanent wives and unlimited temporary marriages) while stoning women in case of an affair
4. Women inherent 1/2 of what men can inherent from parents or other relatives
5. Two women witnesses equal to one man in the court of law
6. A Woman’s life is worth ½ of a man’s life therefore unequal punishment in a murder case.
Richard, if you were a woman, would you be happy with these laws? These are some of the reasons why separation of church and state is a MUST in a free Iran.
Calling them "rioters" won't change anything, president Dr. Ahmad. tried to downplay the peaceful demonstrations about the election results by calling them names also ("a few khas o khashak").
Mandana, I look forward to the day that all such laws againts women, are addressed & changed once and for all.
Richard, they're personally taking away huge chunks of money & are living like kings under the name of religion, you do know that.
http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/File/109486/Women_in_the_Muslim_World.pdf
Learn what women like Souad Saleh (who not only preaches, but teaches Islam, and has been dean of faculty at her university in Egypt) have to say, and more importantly LISTEN to what they have to say.
But somehow, I get the feeling that until all women feel exactly as you do, you'll struggle to free them from their opinions.
Let me guess, Batman & Don Corleone?
Joking aside, niet, in Iran, not in planet Mars, the leaders are the people in the streets w/Karroubi & Mousavi being instrumental as the pubic spokesmen in the front. The only directives were by Mousavi, and nobody else. I'm speaking of reality, not fiction or personal preferences. Mousavi was chosen & supported in the elections as the person who could confront Ahmad. & co. And after the elections and with his continued objections he is supported, the thinking is that one can't travel 1000 miles in one day (on foot). The thinking is he's one of them and knows how to deal w/them better than anyone else.
The Green movement as everyone knows and as you mentioned, also consists of those who want a a democratic government w/the separation of church & state, an "Iranian Republic" ("Jomhoorye Irani").
But, seeing as the historical track record has been pretty much the opposite, with often the church working to bring down the oppressive and bloodthirsty rulers, it is not so in Iran, particularly given that the church played such a large role in bringing down a tyranically opressive leader (the Shah) within living memory.
Which is why Gallup found that almost 80% of Iranians wanted their laws to be mainly based on Sharia ( http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/File/109489/Islam_and_Democracy.pdf ), and though 56% of Iranians said they didn't want religious leaders to play a direct role in government, it never asked if they saw their religious leaders as playing such a direct role (I know that seems like it should obviously be a YES, but then again you have Americans marching to protest against 'socialised medicine' who would riot if Medicaid was cancellled)
BTW, if you only listen to women, that percentage of those who want Sharia law increases to just under to being definitely over 80%
http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/File/109486/Women_in_the_Muslim_World.pdf
The treatment of the rioters is also not likely to prove a wedge issue (rioters whose cause is not seen as just rarely get much sympathy), and focusing on those two issues hurts the other issues. It will be easy to portray those who support the others as 'supporters of rioting', and those reformers who denounce the rioting are likely to loose more supporters than they gain, and the middle of the road have been in Ahmadinejad's hip pocket for a while now, so the odds of a 'Green' winning in the next presidential election keep going down
The Iranian people do know a bit about the various methods of selecting candidates for office, and the problems with all of them. Allowing everyone to run, with no weeding out leads to only those who play to special interests having a chance. Weeding out by a primary type system leads to only those who play to those with money having a chance. Maybe if Iranians widely felt that the weeding out process in Iran got things badly wrong, they'd be looking for an alternative, but seeing as less than a quarter of the population could come up with a single name they wanted on the presidential ballot that wasn't there, and there was a fairly diverse field to choose from, it's not likely to be a burning issue.
To be continued.
The freedom seekers of Iran are done with the Islamic Republic of Iran. They want a democratic and secular system of government. What Mr. Soroush and friends stated is nice but certainly NOT ENOUGH. I don't see an item for getting Iran rid of the absolute supreme leader role in their statement. How can you expect to have a democratic system with someone on top with absolute power?
We want the world to know that the Green Movement has many leaders within Iran. They will come to surface when the time is right and their lives are not in danger. It does not need people who were instrumental in establishing the very system of government they are demonstrating against and being killed for to define this movement. Let’s not attempt to derail the real Green Movement.
They won't accept these and I don't think accepting one of the demands would drastically change the position and opinion of the grass roots Green Movement about those who are ruling behind the name of religion.