Spotlight on Iran (Week of December 10-17, 2009)

Uproar over footage of burning Ayatollah Khomeini’s

picture shown on Iranian TV

"The affront to Imam Khomeini reminds me of an old joke: a man from Qazvin was ‘messing’ with some kid, when suddenly the Komiteh (morality police) arrived. But he didn’t panic, he went on doing it with even more zeal, and told the kid, ‘What? You cursed the Imam?!" (Deldade blog, http://nayebi-deldade.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post.html, December 13).

Outrage was sparked in Iran last week after Iran’s state TV aired a brief video from the Student Day demonstrations the week before last, showing demonstrators tearing and burning a poster of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei featured alongside the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Fierce public accusations were exchanged over the video between

 Image from the video showing Khomeini’s picture being burned

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrtvAo-jrlk)

After the footage was shown, Hamid Ansari, the reformist-affiliated head of the Institution for Publishing Imam Khomeini’s Works, sent a strong-worded letter of protest to Ezatollah Zarghami, the chief of Iran Broadcasting. In his letter, Ansari claimed that the video shown on TV was a serious, unprecedented affront to Khomeini by Iran Broadcasting. Ansari noted that even foreign media had not aired the segment, calling Zarghami to exercise more caution when showing footage pertaining to the leader of the Islamic revolution (ILNA, December 11).

Prior to that, Mehdi Karoubi, one of the leaders of the reformist opposition, accused Iran Broadcasting that the footage which showed demonstrators ripping and burning Khomeini’s picture during the Student Day demonstrations was fake. In a letter sent by Karoubi to the chief of Iran Broadcasting, the reformist leader accused it of faking the footage in order to besmirch the popular protest movement and lay the groundwork for its continued oppression. That claim was strongly denied by senior Iran Broadcasting officials (Fars, December 9). Mir Hossein Mousavi also condemned the burning of Khomeini’s picture, calling it a "questionable, anti-revolutionary action”. He noted, however, that he was certain that the students were not responsible for it, and that everybody knew that Iranian students had love for Khomeini and were even willing to sacrifice their lives in battle for his values (Parleman News, December 12).

Senior reformist cleric Ayatollah Yousef Sane’i also reacted to the burning of Khomeini’s picture by saying that there were people who would not even stop at using Imam Khomeini for their political needs. Sane’i condemned the burning of the revolution leader’s picture, claiming it had not been done by students and that the students were loyal to Khomeini (ILNA, December 11). At the same time, the burning of Khomeini’s picture was heavily criticized by senior conservative politicians, organizations, and clerics, and used by government-supporting conservative media to step up the campaign to delegitimize the reformist opposition led by Mir Hossein Mousavi.

In a speech given early last week to clerics, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed the burning of Khomeini’s picture, blaming it on the leaders of the reformist opposition. Their behavior following the presidential elections encouraged the enemies of the revolution and of Islam to challenge the Iranian establishment and to offend Khomeini, Khamenei said (Fars, December 13). The Islamic Coalition Party published an announcement calling on the Judiciary to take legal action against those responsible for offending Khomeini. Hojjat ol-Eslam Kazem Seddiqi, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, addressed the incident in his sermon at Tehran University, saying that the disrespect prevailing in Iranian society for Khomeini’s picture was a cause for tears. A condemnation was also issued by senior conservative cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.

Fars news agency, whose reports emphasized the purported connection between Mousavi’s supporters and the burning of Khomeini’s picture, reported last week that on December 12, several religious seminaries, including the religious seminary in the city of Qom, stopped classes for several hours in protest of the insult to the founder of the revolution. The news agency also reported that activity had stopped in several markets in Iran, and that protest rallies were held across Iran following the burning of Khomeini’s picture, in which the protesters demanded to bring to justice those who insulted the leader of the Islamic revolution (Fars, December 11-12).

 
Religion students on a demonstration in Tehran against the insult to Khomeini

Asr-e Iran, a website affiliated with the pragmatic conservative faction, also criticized the broadcast of the burning of Khomeini’s picture on Iranian TV and the attempt to use it for political ends. An article published on the website (December 12) says that, some time ago, the Iranian press refrained from publishing the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which appeared in a Danish newspaper several years ago and provoked the anger of many Muslims worldwide since their very publication was considered an affront to the Prophet. The website claimed that showing the burning of Khomeini’s picture was motivated by political considerations and even criticized the attempts to take advantage of the incident to defame Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose close relations with the founder of the Islamic revolution are known to all.

In recent years, Iran’s various political factions have used "Khomeini’s legacy” to justify their respective worldviews. For example, the Khomeini legacy is widely used in debates between Iran’s reformists and conservatives about the character of the Islamic republic. In early 2006, Mohsen Gharavian, one of the students of senior ultra-conservative cleric Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, claimed that Khomeini never intended to establish in Iran a "republic” in the Western sense of the word, that is, an institution based on popular legitimacy facilitated through an election process, and that his recognition of the term "Islamic republic” was by necessity and not by choice. Gharavian’s statement, relying on similar ideas voiced by his teacher Mesbah Yazdi, were strongly criticized both by clerics and by senior politicians, who also appealed to Khomeini’s legacy in support of their arguments. Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami responded to Gharavian’s statement by claiming that the most important feature of the Islamic revolution was the people’s participation in the establishment of government structures, and that Khomeini’s chief concern was to implement the rule of law while relying on the key part played by the people in the Islamic system.

As the debate heats up between Iran’s various political and religious factions about the future and character of the Islamic republic, the use of Khomeini’s legacy increases as well as a tool for political bashing and justifying various (and even contradictory) ideological worldviews.

"Men in Veils”: original Iranian protest on Facebook

Last week, hundreds of men from Iran and elsewhere published their pictures on Facebook wearing veils in a show of support for Majid Tavakoli, a member of the students’ protest movement from Amir Kabir University in Tehran. Tavakoli was arrested during last week’s Student Day events when according to authorities he was trying to escape arrest wearing women’s clothes following a speech he had given to demonstrating students. Tavakoli’s photographs in women’s clothes were published last week by Fars news agency (December 8). Reformist opposition sources claimed following the publication that the photographs were faked by the authorities after his arrest in order to humiliate him and mock the reformist protest movement.

Tavakoli has been arrested several times by the security forces in recent years, and was even expelled from university. He was arrested about three years ago after participating in a protest rally against President Ahmadinejad’s visit to Amir Kabir University. Last year he was put in prison for another four months due to some protest activities in which he was involved.

Following Tavakoli’s detention, the student activist has become one of the new symbols of the reformist protest movement, and over 250 Iranian men joined forces in Facebook to express their protest by publishing pictures of themselves in veils.

 
Amir Kabir University students’ website, www.autnews.es, December 11

More signs of recession in Iran’s economy

Economic daily Donya-ye Eqtesad ("World of Economy”) reported last week that there were clear indications of recession in Iran’s economy. In an editorial published last week, the daily noted that the economic indicators showed a considerable drop in Iran’s economic activity over the past year. The daily said that data released recently by the chief of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce showed that the various economic spheres, including banking and financial institutions as well as import and export companies, were facing considerable difficulties. According to the daily, that information is supported by recent data released by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

For example, during the last Iranian year (2007-2008) 26,087 new industrial factories were established in Iran, a drop of 45.8 percent compared to the previous year. Last year’s industry investments also reflect a sharp decrease of 34 percent, while the number of share buyers in the first three months of 2007-2008 dropped by 45 percent compared to 2006-2007 (Donya-ye Eqtesad, December 15).

The Central Bank figures indicate a recession also in non-industrial sectors. The Fararo news website reported last week that according to the bank’s information, it is evident that there was a drop in production and economic growth in the spheres of agriculture and construction as well. For example, the number of urban construction projects in Iran dropped by over 30 percent in the third quarter of 2007-2008 compared to the third quarter of 2006-2007 (Fararo, December 15).

Meanwhile, at least 40 Majles members signed a petition last week calling for the impeachment of Industry and Mines Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian due to what they refer to as his failure to deal with the deep economic crisis of Iran’s industry (Jam-e Jam, December 12).

Significant increase in "temporary marriages" in Iran

Information published in Iran last week show a significant increase in the phenomenon of "temporary marriages” in Iran (mut’a or sigheh marriage, permissible in Shi’ite Islam) in recent years. According to a top Iranian official, during the past year there has been an increase of 28 percent in the number of "temporarily married” couples in Tehran province compared to last year. The senior official argued that the extent of the phenomenon was hard to assess because many couples married in that fashion are not officially registered. He warned that the lack of such registration could lead to unwanted legal problems, mainly when children are born as a result of such marriages.

A researcher from the College of Shari’a and Law also noted the growth of the phenomenon, issuing a warning about its negative social repercussions. He said that the legal status of children born from temporary marriages was unclear, and that many of them had many issues facing them from the moment they were born. He further added that the official data on the number of temporarily married couples were much lower than they actually were (Farda, December 12).

Several Majles members interviewed by Farda last week expressed support of the institution of temporary marriage. According to them, such marriage is permitted by Islamic religious law and is also effective for fighting the moral corruption of the society, and consequently there is no need to combat the phenomenon. The deputy head of the Majles Law Committee even noted that the subject of temporary marriage should be taught in school textbooks in order to encourage it. Some Majles members noted, however, that conditions and rules must be set for temporary marriage in order to keep married men from abusing it in a way that could compromise family as a social institution (Farda, December 13).

According to Iranian researchers, the continuing increase in temporary marriage is to a considerable extent a result of economic problems, causing a continuing increase in Iran’s average age of marriage and requiring young couples to find temporary solutions for cementing their relationships.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Education Minister Hamid Reza Hajibaba’i expressed his support last week of early marriage in young teenage girls. There is nothing wrong with teenage girls getting married, the minister said, "it makes us happy”. He noted, however, that a married teenage girl would not be able to continue her day studies and would have to study evening classes. A married girl changes her behavior and appearance, he said, making it inappropriate for her to mingle with her unmarried peers (Tabnak, December 14).  

In recent years, senior Iranian officials have been asked to address Iran’s marriage crisis, reflected both in the increase in age of marriage and in divorce rate. Approximately two years ago, former Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi even suggested that the government encourage the institution of temporary marriage in order to help young Iranians. He said that many youngsters were facing unique problems due to the increase in age of marriage, since they could not satisfy their emotional and sexual needs. Therefore, the state must assist them by encouraging the institution of temporary marriage. The suggestion of the former interior minister was strongly criticized, mostly by reformist circles, who warned that the implementation of his proposal would further compromise the institution of family and the status of women in Iran.

Picture of the week: ultra-conservative website Ansar News hacked
by supporters of the reformist opposition ("Green Movement”)

The hackers planted a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win”.