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News & Views Terrorism in Tehran Editorial AABBAS AMIR-ENTEZAM, former minister and prisoner, arrested on Sept. 8 for denouncing atrocities witnessed during his previous detention. Dariush Foruhar, prominent Iranian dissident for a half-century, and his wife, Parvaneh, murdered in Tehran on Nov. 22. Ezzatollah Sahabi, director of a monthly, condemned on Nov. 23 for "insulting the armed forces" and publishing "lies about the clerical tribunals." Majid Sharif, writer, found dead and possibly tortured in a Tehran street on Nov. 26. Parviz Davani, publisher, vanished without trace in August, reportedly later found killed. Mohammed Mokhtari, poet, missing since Dec. 3, found dead in Tehran on Dec. 9. Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, dissident writer and campaigner against censorship, listed as disappeared also on Dec. 9 -- just a few days ago. This is a short list and does not include the other Iranians whose lives have been decimated or ended by the heavy hand of the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran. Still, the list gives a certain sense of the real political climate at a moment when many foreigners are otherwise cautiously but hopefully looking to the effort of Iranian "moderates," led by the elected president Mohammed Khatemi, to move the country into reform. It is evident that the forces of the old regime retain a powerful place and are in a position to use an experienced and ruthless secret service to wreak vengeance on Iranian citizens who dare try to exploit the new opening. Better, the new semi-opening. The elections of spring 1997 made possible what many found to be an encouraging debate about the direction of society. A struggle to define the shape and the legacy of the Iranian revolution has since moved to the center of contemporary politics in Iran. But what is on the surface an increasingly candid public debate is below the surface a one-sided contest in which the old guard wields the physical and bureaucratic instruments of terrorism and control and the alternative official forces are constrained. As long as the detentions and murders and disappearances continue, Iran cannot reasonably expect to find a fair place in the contemporary world. * Iran News
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