The “homogeneity” of Iran is an illusion. President Ahmadinejad is not a moderniser and Iran is not a French-style democracy, as Steele infers. Iran is a deeply divided society in which the clergy still maintain rigorous and often violent control over any show of dissent. Iran’s human rights record remains appalling. As Steele rightly says, “Iran is complex”. But it is not fundamentally “unfathomable”. Attempting to impose a 14th-century medievalism upon a society will inevitably lead to contradictions and tension. That is not difficult to fathom. A truly democratic Iran would permit all voices to flourish, of whatever religion or political persuasion. The people of Iran do not have the privilege of such liberty at present.
