Saying the unsayable, in public
The Economist
November 19, 1999
AN IRANIAN Socrates, Abdollah Nouri challenged the clerical establishment
in discourse, knowing that it would lead to (political) death. His show
trial before a court of traditionalist theologians was designed by Iranian
conservatives to remove him from the political scene. In a 44-page indictment,
he was accused of everything from undermining the principles of the Islamic
revolution in his newspaper Khordad to insulting Iran's revolutionary leader,
the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Last week, he was duly convicted; his sentencing
is imminent.
Mr Nouri does indeed pose a threat to Iranian conservatism. No other
politician, apart from President Muhammad Khatami, can influence so broad
a section of the electorate. As a cleric himself, he stands inside and
outside the system. In six days of giving evidence, he changed the nature
of the trial, opening the window of debate to the most sensitive of all
Iranian issues: the place of religion. Reaffirming his call for an "Islam
of love", he argued that religious practice should be voluntary: "You
cannot enforce the veil with clubs and batons," he told the Special
Court for Clergy hearing his case. "You cannot claim religion is limited
to your own particular understanding of it."
Mr Nouri had been the reformists' candidate for speaker after the parliamentary
elections due on February 18th. But now that he has gone down, fighting
nobly, the way may be opening for a degree of compromiseâ¤"on
both sides. The reformers are free to choose a less divisive parliamentary
speaker. And the conservatives, no longer responding to Mr Nouri's wounding
comment, may be able to shed a little of their reactionary image. Both
groups are already adjusting their pre-election strategies.
Mr Khatami's faction announced this week their preliminary slate for
the election. Among the 40 names on the list was Mohsen Razaei, a staunch
conservative and former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The conservatives
have yet to publish a list, but some have suggested publicly that their
candidates should be more centrist if they are to get the votes.
Even hardline political mullahs, grouped in the Society of Militant
Clergy, appear to have seized on the chance of compromise. They have held
one conciliatory meeting with their leftish foes and another such gathering
was scheduled for November 18th. The stated purpose of these meetings is
to discuss co-operation in the February election. But the range of issues
discussed was said to include the fate of Iran's senior dissident, Grand
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. Once Khomeini's chosen heir, he has been
under strict house arrest since 1997, when he issued a scathing critique
of Iran's system of supreme clerical rule and the current top cleric, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei.
From his compound in the holy city of Qom, Ayatollah Montazeri has
led a shadow cabinet, providing reformers with theological and political
support for their various campaigns, including the effort to hold the powers
of Iran's supreme leader to those spelled out in the constitution. At his
trial, Mr Nouri protested at the way the ayatollah was being treated, thus
breaking yet another taboo: public support for the sage in Qom has generally
been a ground for imprisonment. But on November 15th, the authorities unexpectedly
eased at least one of the restrictions. A delegation led by two conservative
ayatollahs was allowed to enter Ayatollah Montazeri's compound, the first
such visit in two years. The ayatollah, however, sturdily declined to see
them, saying the authorities had no right to dictate who could visit him
and who could not.
In his seclusion, Ayatollah Montazeri embodies all the contradictions
and complexities gripping Iran. He was instrumental two decades ago in
creating the Council of Guardians, a supervisory clerical board, and giving
it powers to oversee elections. But he recently smuggled an open letter
past his minders that condemned the Guardians for abusing these powers
by eliminating reformist candidates from the election rolls.
Whether or not a tentative spirit of compromise is emerging from the
battleground, many reform-minded contenders, however mild, are still likely
to be cast aside by the Guardians on "technical" grounds. The
leader of President Khatami's political faction, his brother Reza Khatami,
said on November 16th that, if the reformers manage to win a majority of
seats, their first act in parliament would be to end the Guardian Council's
electoral powers.
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