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News & Views Government seeks to win back restless youth TEHRAN, Feb 2 (AFP) - Iran's Islamic regime set out to capture the imagination of the huge teenage population born after the 1979Islamic revolution Tuesday with a special youth day launched by itsmost popular figure, moderate President Mohammed Khatami. Khatami told a raucous crowd of Tehran schoolchildren he could understand their difficulty in identifying with the 10 days ofcelebrations the government is staging to commemorate the 20thanniversary of the overthrow of the shah. "You youngsters were not not in the revolution, so it is natural that what you know is only what you have read or heard," he told acrowd of 12,000 schoolchildren gathered in the Azadi sports stadiumin the west of the capital. "But the revolution was a dramatic development in terms of the speed and sheer scope of change ... and youngsters just like youplayed the most important part," he told the cheering crowd. Khatami is by far and away the most popular figure in the Islamic regime -- in warm-up speeches at the stadium the names ofall Iran's leaders were mentioned, but only the moderate president'smet with any enthusiasm from the young crowd. Cries of "Khatami, Khatami we're behind you, we're behind you," greeted him as he entered the stadium and were repeated throughouthis speech. His shock 1997 election victory over conservative opponent Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri was largely due to the votes of women and theyoung, who have the vote here from the age of 15. "One of the greatest things about the last presidential election was the presence of young people and women -- I salute you," Khatamitold the schoolchildren. He called on the young to turn out with as much enthusiasm for Iran 's first-ever local elections next month as well as polls forthe currently conservative-dominated parliament due next year. Khatami's election victory prompted the authorities here to sit up and pay more attention to young people's concerns -- nearly 50percent of Iran's population was born after the revolution. Calls for the authorities to pay greater heed to young people's aspirations have become a trademark of the president and are nowroutinely echoed by other leaders. "Young people have all sort of tastes and preferences -- this is quite natural -- we should try to make sure that their legitimatedesires are met," Khatami said to wild applause, adding that hisgovernment's top priority was to provide young people with jobs. Some two million young Iranians are currently unemployed and an estimated 10 million jobs will need to be created over the next fewyears just to deal with the rising number of school leavers. Teenagers are increasingly more interested in the youth culture of the officially hated West and the capital's growing number ofburger joints than in the ideological slogans of the revolution. The youngsters in the Azadi stadium crowd refused repeated calls from marshalls to behave with Islamic decorum, showing theirappreciation for the president with un-Islamic whistles and Mexicanwaves, and even throwing firecrackers. Khatami urged the students not to give up hope and assured them he was battling with the authorities to give them a greater say. "Hopefully, after all the tortuous meanderings of the bureaucracy, it has been now finally been agreed that there will bea students' union," he told the youngsters. State television broadcast a series of frank interviews with schoolchildren to mark the youth day in which they aired theircriticism of the authorities. "They don't take enough notice of young people," said one child. "They should be more friendly to us," said another. Others voiced more mundane demands -- better facilities for football, Iran's new-found passion. Links * Iran News
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