Another cultural revolution?
This Washington Post headline caught my eye because of its use of the label "cultural revolution." It is another chapter in the politics of Iran.Iran Curtails Freedom In Throwback to 1979
Repression Seen as Cultural Revolution
"Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution...
"The move has quashed or forced underground many independent civil society groups, silenced protests over issues including women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate, and sparked society-wide fear about several aspects of daily life, the sources said.
"Few feel safe...
"[Upcoming] elections are one of several motives behind the crackdowns... Public signs of discontent -- such as students booing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a campus last December, teacher protests in March over low wages and workers demonstrating on May Day -- are also behind the detentions...
"Universities have been particularly hard hit by faculty purges and student detentions since late last year... 'Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated his goal of purging Iranian society of secular thought. This is taking shape as a cultural revolution, particularly on university campuses, where persecution and prosecution of students and faculty are intensifying with each passing day,' said Hadi Ghaemi, the Iran analyst for Human Rights Watch...
"In recent weeks, the government has also tried to dissolve student unions and replace them with allies from the Basij...
"The campus purges have been mirrored in virtually all government-funded organizations... Leaders of groups defying the new strictures -- such as bus drivers trying to unionize, teachers protesting pay rates below the poverty line and women's activists trying to gather 1 million signatures to demand reform of Iran's family law -- have been arrested...
"Iran's Supreme National Security Council last month also laid out new censorship rules in a letter to news outlets, instructing them to refrain from writing about public security, oil price increases, new international economic sanctions, inflation, civil society movements, or negotiations with the United States on the future of Iraq...
"One of the biggest crackdowns has been the campaign against 'immoral behavior' launched this spring. Iran's police chief said in April that 150,000 people had been detained, but few were referred for trial. The rest were asked to sign 'letters of commitment' to honor public behavior and dress codes. An additional 17,000 were detained at Iranian airports in May...
"The Bush administration's $75 million fund to promote democracy in Iran is the key reason for the recent arrest of several dual U.S.-Iranian citizens in Iran... Iranian analysts contend that the U.S. funds have also made civil society movements targets because of government suspicions that they are conspiring to foster a 'velvet revolution' against the regime."
See also
- The Politics of Elections in Iran
- Xenophobia in Iranian politics
- Defining a moderate in Iranian politics
- Iranian politics for review
- Iranian rule of law
- Iranian politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:09 AM
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