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Resources IN IRAN , REFORM BLOOMS BUT WEST SHOULD NOT EXPECT U.S.-STYLE DEMOCRACY
Published: Sunday, March 5, 2000 Edition: Morning Final Section: Perspective Page: 1P
Memo: Anisa Mehdi (whetstoneproductions@anisamehdi.com) is producing a PBS documentary with Alvin H. Perlmutter Inc. on Islam around the world. She wrote this article for Perspective.
Illustration: Photos (3)
Source: BY ANISA MEHDI
'MAKE SURE YOU COVER your toes, too. Not just your hair.'' The advice came from a fellow female reporter who had covered Iran after the revolution in 1979. Another adviser, a former State Department officer who served in Iran , suggested I avoid the eyes of any man I might interview. I listened carefully.
Iran was the third leg of my journey last fall through mostly Muslim lands as I researched a documentary on Islam. I searched Senegal , Malaysia and Iran for people who could tell stories explaining the fiery politics and diverse cultures of Islam -- the faith of one in five people on earth today.
You can't study Islam at the turn of the century without including Iran . It is hot. Last month's elections grabbed the attention of many in the West, where analysts were pleasantly surprised by the success of reformer candidates.
But Westerners should understand that reform in Iran will take place on Iran 's terms and by Iran 's timetable. It would be a mistake to think that the gradual mellowing of the Iranian system will produce a society with equivalent notions of freedom and secularism as they prevail in America . Iran will continue to be an Islamic state.
The $60 million question is: What is an Islamic state? Everywhere I went in the Islamic world, people were excited by the 20-year-old experiment in Iran , and they were debating the authenticity of ''Islamic government.'' Does it exist in Saudi Arabia ? In Afghanistan ? Is it at work in the United States, where popular democracy guarantees freedom to worship, as many Muslims believe is mandated by Islam?
Indeed, the fascinating discussion of what an Islamic democracy would be like has only begun in the Muslim world. While the Koran, the holy book of Islam, provides the basic recipe for living an Islamic life, the intellectual, historical and cultural ingredients differ all around the world. Iran provided me with a unique opportunity to inhale the early aromas in a great kitchen.
Pleasant surprise Friendliness, relaxed attire Contrary to what some Americans might expect, I was warmly welcomed in Iran. From the mullahs in the holy city of Qom to the twentysomethings at the ruins of Persepolis , people were delighted to meet me. An American. A woman. A reporter.
I found that Iranians were not shackled to the events of 1979 -- the takeover of the U.S. Embassy, the 444-day-long hostage crisis and the subsequent freezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets by the United States. In contrast, many Americans still see red when they remember those days.
I was carefully covered all the while I was there, wearing a navy blue full-length coat-dress and a precisely tied scarf. No errant strands of hair got out. I wanted to be culturally appropriate so that my behavior would not be an issue and my research would be fruitful.
As it turned out, my attire made me one of the more conservatively dressed women in Tehran . Many women still wrapped themselves in black chadors, as was the fashion even in pre-Islamic Persia . But brightly painted toenails were flaunted in platform sandals, and calf-length coats showed blue jeans underneath. All women, native or not, Muslim or not, must cover their hair in Iran -- but from teenagers to grandmothers, many were now tying their scarves loosely and casually over their heads.
Democracy cannot be measured by women's wear, but in Iran it symbolizes an expanding envelope of tolerance.
These changes are indeed a sign that we are witnessing the birth of a democracy -- a gradual and, Iranians hope, peaceful evolution from totalitarian religious rule to shared and balanced power within a religious context.
To date, the religious hierarchy maintains control over most state functions, with a say in and veto over decisions regarding both domestic and foreign policy. Over a cup of sweet tea in his semi-detached home, Nasser Hadian -- a University of Tehran professor renowned at home and abroad for his expertise on Islam and politics -- told me: ''Those in power feel threatened by political values like democracy and human rights. They feel they may lose their power.''
Growing freedoms Censorship relaxed as press flourishes
History confirms that most people in power prefer to keep it, and in Iran , the religious authorities are being challenged. The election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997, Iranian and Western observers will agree, was a turning point.
Today in Iran , the rule of religious law still applies. But interpretations are conceded, and enforcement is less strict in some walks of life. Women no longer fear being swatted about the ankles with sticks by self-proclaimed ''morals police'' if their scarves don't cover every lock.
Even some rudimentary principles of U.S.-style democracy are germinating. There are opportunities, though limited, to air grievances. The Iranian press, for example, is elbowing for autonomy.
In Iran , if you say what you see and write what you believe, you are still at risk of imprisonment and the closure of your publication. And yet, over the past few years, dozens of newspapers have opened in Iran , many of them feisty and mildly critical of governmental policies.
Some of those newspapers have been closed by order of the religious leadership. But they've opened again. And been closed and opened again. What to an American is a violation of the First Amendment is, to an Iranian editor, cause for celebration.
Iran is in a transitional period,'' said Hamidreza Jalaeipour, an editor whose newspapers have been closed repeatedly by the government. When we spoke, his fourth paper, Al-Iqtesad, had been on the street for just two days. Jalaeipour is not at all satisfied with the way things are, but he is pleased with the direction things are going for the press in his country.
Nowadays there is no prior censorship. You get your message out first, and then you may be closed down. You may even go to jail, as he did. But the newspapers are reopening with the same editorial staff and reporters. And there is less censorship overall. Newspaperman though he is, Jalaeipour said he understood why limits on the press were necessary in the republic's early days, as counterrevolutionaries challenged the fledgling government, and during Iran 's eight-year war with Iraq . He is optimistic about the future.
''I see a reform trend,'' he said. ''(Reform) has a good place among the new middle class, among educated people. You know, more than 4 million in this country have got a B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Twenty million students go to school. There is good ground for reform trend in Iran .''
At the heart of the matter is the definition of refom. Iranians are not debating which American values to adopt; they are seeking to increase democracy within an Islamic government. And ordinary citizens are clearly engaged in the process: About 31 million Iranians from age 16 on up cast their ballots Feb. 18, a remarkable 80 percent turnout.
''The test of democracy is not to climb up the ladder, it is to come down the ladder,'' said Mohamad Jawad Larijani, a member of parliament. In undemocratic systems, the ladder of power goes one way: up. A king claiming the throne stays until death; a dictator holds on until a coup d'etat. ''In the case of Khatami's election, for the first time a powerful politician like Hashemi Rafsanjani (the previous president) after finishing his term, came down the same ladder he went up,'' Larijani said with pride. Rafsanjani, alive and well, ran again for office last month. This is part of the democratic process.
Still, tensions between reform-oriented leaders and Iran 's still-powerful conservatives remain. What about this divide between appointed religiousauthorities and the authority of the people through elected representation?
''It is not good that all of the power be concentrated in the hand of one person,'' said Larijani, who earned his doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley. ''We have a constitution. We have elected a president. We did not elect a God.''
When the American president is challenged by Congress, Larijani pointed out, we view it as a sign of strength in a democracy. ''But if such a challenge comes in Iran ,'' he sighed, ''it is looked at as a sign of weakness.'' Hadian also drew a parallel. ''There have been different interpretations of the American Constitution; there have been different interpretations of the Koran,'' he said. ''It is the flexibility of the system that gives it stability.''
Throughout the ages the Koran has been used to support divergent political goals and has fit snugly into widely diverse cultural patterns. Islamic law, for example, is something many Westerners barely understand, yet blindly fear. Americans understand Islamic law to mean chopping off hands and heads.
In fact, capital punishment has been meted out far more frequently in Texas alone this year than in Iran of late. And you have to steal often, without reason or remorse, to suffer the loss of a limb. Hasan Ghafoorifard, a member of parliament who lost his seat in the recent elections, also remarked on the unfolding of the Islamic system in Iran over the past 20 years.
''We have a much better idea now about an Islamic government,'' he said. ''What we have right now is much closer to the idea of Islam than what we had at the beginning.''
In other words, what is ''closer to . . . Islam'' is a less harsh regime that respects a place for individual freedoms.
''This is the first Islamic government after the Prophet Muhammad,'' Ghafoorifard said. ''We have to start everything from scratch.''
Muhammad's influence Prophet established principles of government
There is only one historic example of Islamic government on which all Muslims will agree: the one led by Muhammad in the city of Medina (now in Saudi Arabia ) in the seventh century. The prophet was both the political and spiritual leader of his people. Consensus was one of his methods of governance, making Medina one of the first examples of participatory government: by the people and for the people. Western-style democracy, as we know it today, did not exist at that time.
Iranians' political and cultural desires may seem modest by American standards. Painted toenails and platform shoes are a long way from big-busted women flaunting cleavage to sell beer. Frankly, I enjoyed a respite from the hard-sell sex that so pervades the American economy; I appreciated daily interactions based on my face and my mind, not on my figure and hairdo. Some young Iranian women say freedom for them does not mean abandoning the scarf but rather holding hands with their fiances in public; others told me they couldn't wait to let their hair fly free.
Some aspects of public life in Iran remain unlikely to change. Despite the hopes of many in the West, the reformers' sweep is unlikely to bring major foreign-policy changes. And Hadian predicted ''drinking (alcohol) or relations between unmarried men and women'' would remain out of bounds of 2 the Islamic value system in Iran .
The times may be a-changin' in Iran , but they're not galloping toward Western, secular values. This is a different kind of growing up. '' Iran is coming of age,'' Larijani explained. In his office, a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini watched us from one wall, while from another hung the visage of the popularly re-elected president, Khatami, the so-called hope of the West.
''We're out of babyhood; we're not rebellious teenagers anymore,'' Larijani said. ''Now we are carving a future as mature members of world society. We have the will and the self-confidence. We can admit our mistakes and stand by our principles. That's what this election is all about.'' Only 73 years after the U.S. Constitution was enacted, we fought a long and bloody civil war. That was part of the painful birthing of American democracy.
Iran is enduring its growing pains under the microscope of world public opinion, in an age when we want everything done yesterday. What we outsiders must remember is that the process of growing up is painful, hopeful and invigorating. And it takes time.
(box) Caption: PHOTO: REUTERS A young Iranian woman walks past a wall covered with election posters in central Tehran . [000305 PE 3P] PHOTO: REUTERS
A flower seller walks over election fliers littering Revolution Avenue in Tehran after the Friday prayers Feb. 11. More than 6,000 candidates vied for 290 seats in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. [000305 PE 1P] PHOTO: MAJID -- KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
A reform supporter holds pictures of President Mohammad Khatami, top, and Ayatollah Taleghan during a rally at Tehran University . [000305 PE 1P]
The San Jose Mercury News archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a Knight Ridder company.
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