Bijan A M

Could someone pleas eexplain to me what is “green”? I may be totally ignorant and truly stupid. What I have gathered so far is that the green movement is an uprising against IRI. However, this does not say much about what the core agenda of this movement is?.  If opposition to IRI is the only driver without a common goal for how our nation should be governed, then we are traveling the same road we did 30 years ago. It will be disastrous (as we have witnessed).

IMHO, there is absolutely no way to reform this theocracy to a true democracy (i.e. Separation of church and state). If the green movement is to bring out the more friendly face of theocracy, then our nation is in a very deep trouble. My hope is that people are risking their lives for a true democracy.Any movement to abolish the sharia law, should give the assurance to the believers of any faith that their belief system is protected. The ordinary population, the cab driver, the office worker, the merchant, the banker, the teacher, the student, preacher and the congruent,….all should believe and propagate the belief that under a secular democracy their spiritual belief system is protected and there is no supremacy of any belief system.

The greatest challenge is to make someone who has been born and raised to blindly submit to whatever the clergy (Akhund) says, to open his/her mind to what his god given rights are. Being against IRI with the ultimate objective of its overthrow is not enough. It would be an absolute nightmare to shed the young's blood with the only focus to rid of IRI and end up with yet another tyrannical system. This is where educating the masses becomes the most critical aspect of any movement towards a democratic system. I don’t know where we stand in that regard. Without a doubt our educated, the students and professionals have a clear understanding of a secular democratic society. How effectively can they propagate their understandings is the question. Without access to free press and media such propagation will move at a snail pace. The enthusiasm in recent demonstrations leaves hope for a faster pace.

Nationalism is a two edged sword, it could be the greatest motivator to rid of tyranny and at the same time could be used by the same tyrants to prolong their reign. This is probably the greatest obstacle to overcome in educating the masses. But, one way or the other the point should come across. Again, IMHO, the activists of this movement should go underground and conduct their education process one family at a time. We need to infiltrate the basij and pasdar. These people have relatives, friends, acquaintances,…that are close enough to them that can have effect. The underground objective should be to create cracks and division within Basijis and Pasdarans while promoting secular democracy.

We don’t need to glamorize the western democracy to promote the idea. India and Turkey can provide good examples. The point is that people (majority) have to be convinced that they and their children will have a better life under a secular democracy.

Speaking of Turkey, I was visiting Istanbul a few weeks ago (as part of a one day tour). Our Tour guide was a young gentleman (early 30s) who said he was a Muslim and a college professor and was doing this to supplement his income. To my extreme surprise he said he couldn’t read Arabic and even didn’t know the Arabic alphabet. He said the secularism movement by Ataturk intentionally eliminated the Arabic alphabet from their language and education system to ensure success of the movement. It worked. A Muslim nation (over 90% of the population) in the Middle East without Arabic influence…yes, it is possible… He said in Turkey it is against the law for women to wear hejab (Chador) in public. And  this is in a country that over 90% are muslim…We will get there soon… God willing.