What is the status today of the reform movement in Iran? Are you optimistic about its prospects?
The confrontation between Iran and the Unites States over nuclear power, terrorism, politics in the Middle East, and Iran’s increasing influence in the region, has greatly overshadowed internal opposition activity. The specter of war, together with the regime’s repressiveness, has pushed aside the struggle for democracy and human rights. Moreover, the regime in Iran uses the pretext of an “impending war” to crack down more severely on its opponents. Resistance under such circumstances is very difficult.
In this way the government of the United States has harmed reformist forces in Iran. When President Bush says that Iranian reformists do not have a better friend than he, his words are both factually inaccurate and practically useless to the reform movement. But they provide a convenient excuse to Iran’s fundamentalist rulers to paint their opponents as “American agents,” and, under the pretext of fighting American intervention, proceed to crush them.
Given such circumstances, many of the reformist groups have placed their hopes on formal periodic elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran. What these reformists do not realize is that democracy and human rights will never emerge from the ballot box of the Islamic Republic. Other political activists have shifted their focus to civil society. This is the only way for… >>>
