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"The mix of religion and politics has led to Islamic decrees and laws, and it has caused a lot of people to hate religion, because the conservatives are using it as a tool to implement policies in line with their own interests," he said. That is why Vanani will vote on June 8 to reelect reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

But Khatami's attempts to bring political and social reforms to Iran have consistently been blocked by the conservative clergy. As a result, Vanani and others have concluded that voting in an election won't necessarily bring about change.

"Sooner or later, because of the pressure on the people, they will start a new revolution and think about the rights they've lost and what to do to regain them," Vanani said. "In no verse of the Koran does it say freedom should be deprived."

Four years after Khatami was elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stunning the conservative religious hierarchy by winning 70 percent of the vote, people here no longer talk simply about political and social reform. Today, they also speak of overhauling an entire system of government -- one controlled, ultimately, by religious leaders and their dictates -- that has blocked Khatami's promise of a more liberal society with greater personal freedoms.

Increasingly, according to analysts here, Iranians are frustrated by a hybrid system of rule that puts Islamic law above civil law and gives appointed religious leaders the power to veto the reforms of the popularly elected government. The resentment is particularly strong among the country's youth, who wield enormous power at the ballot box. Two-thirds of the country's 65 million people are under age 30. Because the country's minimum voting age is 15, 52 percent of Iran's 41 million voters are under 30; 22 percent are under 20.

In interviews, many youths said that while they support the reform movement, they did not plan to vote in next month's election because, with conservatives vetoing most of the elected government's liberalization efforts, it was pointless. If that sentiment is widespread, it could be bad news both for Khatami, who wants a large turnout to renew his mandate for change, and for the conservatives, who fear that a low turnout could threaten the legitimacy of the Islamic regime.

Political analysts say that the inflexibility shown by hard-line religious conservatives -- who control Iran's military and security apparatus, its state-run media, the judiciary and oversight bodies that often block reform legislation passed by parliament -- is gradually radicalizing Iran's youths, who are beginning to wonder how to bring about reform if not through elections.

"The people have become disappointed, and the youth are losing hope for the gradual change of reformation and are moving towards radicalization. It is a crossroads for Khatami," said Davood Hermidas Bavand, a professor of international law at Tehran's Supreme National Defense University.

"Reformers genuinely want to change from a theocracy to a non-theocratic system," he said. "The conservatives say the reformers are trying to bring down the Islamic system, and they are right. In the hearts of the people, the system has lost credibility."

It is a remarkable development in a country that violently overthrew a monarchy in 1979 and voted later that year to establish an Islamic theocracy in a referendum supported by more than 98 percent of the people. For most, the solution lies in somehow changing Iran's system of parallel power structures by increasing the autonomy of the elected government and curbing the oversight authority of the Islamic side of the state.

But for religious conservatives, who believe that the Koran gives them all the authority they need to run a country, that is tantamount to challenging the authority of Islam's holy book. They also see attempts to rein them in as an attack on Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a threat to their personal and financial interests, analysts here said.

"There is a big debate in Iran about the nature of the government and the origins of its legitimacy, whether it's from Islam or God or the people," said a leading political scientist, who asked not to be identified. "In a democratic system, you can vote for what you want, but in an Islamic system, you vote for an agenda already set up by [Islamic leaders]. Democracy is on one side, and God is on the other.

"It is a crisis of identity," he continued. "We need a theory of government, of an Islamic state, but we need more time. Khatami has been very important in this regard" because of his calls for patience and reform through legal channels, the professor said. "The people do not want to overthrow the state or the government, but they want mechanisms for democratic change."

With so much invested in the status quo, observers said, whether the right wing will compromise is problematic. Even discussing it is hazardous; hard-line conservatives in the judiciary have tried to stifle debate by closing dozens of newspapers and arresting and imprisoning scores of journalists, student leaders, politicians and other activists for challenging the system.

"This is a very sensitive point," said Masood Safiri, a reformist newspaper editor who has written extensively on Iran's student movement. However, he said, "if these demands [for reform] are not met timely and correctly, radicalism could penetrate the civil movement of Iran, and we would be on the eve of dramatic and fundamental developments that even Khatami could not stop."

Students are among the most vocal in demanding a voice in how Iran is ruled, not just systemically, but on a day-to-day basis. Seeing their country's promise frustrated by high unemployment and low pay -- and years of global isolation, retarded development and corruption -- they see democracy as their best hope, according to newspaper editor Safiri.

"They believe that if the rule of law comes true and democracy rescues the political system, it will solve many economic problems because it will reinforce regulations rather than relations in the system," he said. "That's why they support reformists, and prioritize political development over economic development."

Radical university students in particular have sent shock waves through Iran with their occasional willingness to clash with opponents. In July 1999, at least one student was killed and 20 were seriously injured when police and vigilantes attacked Tehran University students protesting the closure of a popular reformist newspaper. The incident sparked the biggest street riots in the capital since the 1979 revolution.

And last August, four days of riots broke out in the city of Khorramabad when two influential pro-reform leaders were prevented from delivering speeches to a rally organized by the Office to Foster Unity, Iran's biggest and most influential student group. One policeman was killed.

By all appearances, however, most students prefer to work within the system for change.

Two female students with a knack for finishing each other's thoughts -- one a 22-year-old psychology major and the other a 20-year-old major in physical education -- explained their aspirations while walking outside Tehran University. Both said they would probably vote for Khatami; like many of the two dozen people interviewed for this story, they refused to fully identify themselves.

"Islam is a wonderful thing, but it's not being presented correctly," said one.

"We want real Islam, not a deviated Islam," said her friend.

"The type of Islam that can hold freedom in it so people don't have to observe Islamic clothing codes," said the first.

"The type that people accept from the bottom of their hearts, not because it's being imposed upon them," her companion said.

"I voted once, and it was enough for my whole life. It was no good," said another youth, Shahab, 21. "We participated in the last election to help Khatami. But afterwards, we saw that the right wing holds the real power, and Khatami and his team couldn't do anything."

"I'm not that happy with the present circumstance, but I will vote for a person who will help society stand up against the other part that wants to keep the power in its own hands," said Zahra Arkan-nia, 30, at an Internet cafe where she had stopped to make a long-distance telephone call via the Net, an inexpensive method of communication that she said has helped open Iran to the rest of the world.

Samira, 20, surfing two of her favorite Yahoo.com chat rooms -- Good Girls of Iran, and Iran Boys and Girls (polite and fun) -- recalled that students were at the forefront of the 1979 revolution, braving the shah's military government. "I think that the youth today lack a certain element that the youth of yesterday had," she said. "But if we want, we can gain it back -- the guts and courage to do something."

Date: 2/6/01
Time: 3:58:07 PM

Letters

I write today in memory of Iran. I say memory for it's so far away and yet I feel I've never left. MI hope is that one day my son will have the chance of visiting with me to see the land of his ancestors and that he will make a contribution to a country that is in the throes of change for the better. Paloma Farr

Iran's Khatami Is Caught in the Middle

By Molly Moore and John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday , November 28, 2000 ; Page A01

TEHRAN –– When Mohammad Khatami was elected president 3 1/2 years ago, many Iranians expected that his reform plans would reintegrate this isolated nation into the global economy and bring new freedoms to a young population weary of strict Islamic government.

But six months from Iran's next presidential election, Khatami's most important reforms have been strangled by a conservative opposition, the nation's floundering economy is driving thousands of young people to emigrate and many of the president's most ardent supporters have become disenchanted by what they see as weak leadership.

The political mood has become so overcast that on Sunday Khatami--recognizing growing discontent within the reform movement--issued a rare public indictment of his own performance. "After 3 1/2 years as president, I don't have sufficient powers to implement the constitution, which is my biggest responsibility," Khatami told a conference on the constitution here. "In practice, the president is unable to stop the trend of violations or force implementation of the constitution."

It was an extraordinarily frank confession by the moderate cleric--as well as an unusually open assault on his conservative opponents.

Khatami's despair has sprung from a devastating year: wholesale shutdowns of reform newspapers; jailings and trials of reformist intellectuals, economists, writers and students; and veto after veto of reform legislation passed by the parliament. As a result of these setbacks--and of his silence as they took place--Khatami has now come under pressure from the left and right at the same time, with radicals in the student movement and parliament demanding faster, more far-reaching reforms, and ultra-conservative religious leaders remaining deeply entrenched against liberalization.

Attempting simultaneously to battle conservative foes and rein in reformist malcontents has left Khatami discouraged, according to associates, even after his followers' strong victory in legislative elections in May. After announcing in July that he would seek reelection for a second term next May, he told the Associated Press at an Islamic nations' summit in Qatar two weeks ago that he is reconsidering that decision.

"The image is that this reform has no engine," said Fariborz Raisdana, a reformist economist now on trial, with 16 others, in Tehran's conservative-controlled courts for participation in a pro-reform conference in Berlin last April. "The car was being pushed by hand and now those people are in jail or in court. We want a new engine."

Fueling impatience is the country's youth--the vote considered most critical to Khatami's May 1997 victory. Slightly more than half the country's 68 million inhabitants are under 20 years old, too young to have experienced the revolutionary and Islamic fervor that seized Iran after the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979.

While the revolution left Iran with one of its best-educated generations, it failed to create an economy that could give them jobs. Now, with access to satellite television and the Internet more readily available, this educated, underemployed generation has become increasingly frustrated that the opportunities of globalization are passing them by because of sanctions that have kept them isolated from most of the world.

"Khatami was elected because the country was like a time bomb, ready to explode," said Meysam, a 21-year-old agriculture student who asked that only his first name be used. "People voted for him because they expected more freedom. He delivers speeches for freedom and peace, but we don't think he's done anything. This time many university students are not going to participate in elections at all."

"We expected political development would happen faster," admitted reformist legislator Alireza Nouri, 36. "Unfortunately, we've had to reduce speed, and even, sometimes, it has stopped."

Even so, Khatami's supporters credit the president with improving the country's image abroad and with fostering an atmosphere that has begun to loosen some of the Islamic government's stringent internal controls over society.

"The important thing Khatami brought for the nation was that, after the elections, people realized they had rights," said Benymin Parvan, a 26-year-old law student at Tehran's Shahid Beheshti University.

Khatami has been thwarted mainly by ultra-conservative clerical forces opposed to his moderate vision of political and social reform within the Islamic state. They are able to block his reforms through the unusual dual form of government that has controlled Iran for the past two decades.

Under this system, Khatami, as president, is the elected head of the executive branch, with its ministries and departments. But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the supreme religious leader, appointed for life by a board of clerics and invested with control over the Revolutionary Guards, the regular military, the security services and the judiciary.

The religious side of government has emerged as the more powerful, with conservative religious forces using their control of the judiciary and security services and an appointed upper house of parliament, the Guardian Council, to defeat reform proposals of the president and the elected house of legislators, called the Majlis. As a result, when Khatami and reformist lawmakers opened the door to a freer press, and reformist-oriented newspapers and magazines began to flourish, the courts, the Guardian Council and, ultimately, the supreme leader moved to shut them down and jail some of the most controversial writers and editors.

When the parliament recently passed laws raising the minimum age at which girls may marry from 9 to 14, and giving women the same access to government scholarships for studies abroad as men, the Guardian Council vetoed the legislation. The council, an appointed group of six clerics and six lawyers that reviews laws to determine if they conform to Islamic codes, is dominated by conservatives and has been stridently anti-reform.

Associates of Khatami say concern over violent backlashes from reformist and conservative camps has prompted the president to moderate his public stands, despite attacks first from hard-line conservatives and now from hard-line reformers.

Khatami "is genuinely wary of the reform movement's impatience and zeal," Iran Focus, a political newsletter published by the private Tehran-based firm Atieh Bahar Consulting, said in its November edition. It added that the president wants the reform movement "to be more in tune with political realities, instead of getting carried away with its own wish list."

Since Khatami's election, the political landscape in Iran has emerged as increasingly diffuse, with radical and moderate factions battling for control on both sides of the ideological divide, according to many analysts and activists in Iran. "There's good and evil in both camps," said Baquer Namazi, who runs an umbrella agency for nongovernmental organizations in Iran. "The radicals on both sides want to move to violence."

At the same time, moderates on each side are willing to compromise to bring about change acceptable to both factions, with many moderate conservatives supporting Khatami's formula for change. Khatami said in his Sunday speech that he had not attacked his conservative opponents more harshly because he supports "the preservation of calm in society and prevention of tension."

There is no obvious reform candidate to replace Khatami if he decides not to run, analysts said. And, expecting Khatami to run and win--even if by a smaller margin than in his first election--conservatives have no candidate who they believe would beat him.

"The mood of the people created Khatami," said Namazi. "It was not Khatami who created this mood. Maybe other people will emerge out of this, more aggressive than Khatami."

"Welcome to Iran," the woman said and kissed me. I was in the market in Tehran on the first day of taking photographs in Iran. Nothing like this had ever happened to me in 15 years as a working photographer. Yet this kiss from a stranger would become the norm throughout my visit to what I had assumed would be a hostile country.

People shared their food, invited me into their homes, led me up to their rooftops and asked me to dance at their wedding receptions. The "Death to America" graffitti that I saw in plain view along a few streets and buildings was dismissed by these new friends. "Oh, that's just politics." The travel guides hadn't prepared me for this, or for the smog that covers Tehran, and even smaller cities such as Isfahan and Yazd. This is Yazd seen from atop a mosque. The haze isn't just smog. A dust storm was passing over the city when I reached the top of the minaret.

Click on Picture for more

Date: 3/7/00
Time: 11:47:19 AM

Letters

I really want to visit Iran someday. I like to communicate via E-mail with people of all walks of life, including Iranians. If there are any Iranians who wish to get in touch with me, my E-mail address is broadfoot@nas.net.

Date: 2/29/00
Time: 4:29:40 PM

Letters

After 15 years I made a trip to my hometown Tehran, Iran. One of the best decisions that I have ever made. First of all it didn't feel like I am taking a trip, I was going home. When I was setting at the terminal in the Frankfort's airport It still didn't hit me but as soon as the sign for departure changed to Tehran, something in my stomch twisted. What a feeling that was. I arrived at Mehrabad airport at 2Am. It was peach dark but I could see the airport and the IranAir jambo jets on the ground and it was a fantastic feeling. I was HOME. The next 30 days was just a blast.Seeing all the family members and close friends brought back memories and good times. I forgot how to love and be loved. I forgot how having your parents on your side feels, how chatting with your brothers and sisters feel, how being pampered feel. I could sleep at night and not worry about tommorrow, about bills and payments, about work work work. I lived for 30 days. Tehran has changed, for better. It is much cleaner and more beautiful than before. High rises every where, new bulidings and highways. Shopping malls and now metero. Yes all these are adding to the old charm and making it one beautiful civilized europian persian unique city in the world. People are still kind (mehrabon tar az hamisheh), open arms and smiles covering their faces. The only thing that really made me sad was the air polution. the polution is above limited level. Despite that, everything was fantastic. I wish every Iranian around the world to take a trip back to the homeland and keep the cord. Be omideh rozi ke har Irani be Iran safar kardeh va az nazdik shahedeh zibayihayeh an bashad. Pirooz Iran/ persian pride.

Date: 1/18/00
Time: 2:59:47 PM

Comments from a USA fan at the Rose Bowl Iran vs. USA soccer game

Posted by Keith , Jan 17,2000,02:56

Hello. I was one of the very few US team supporters who gathered in one corner of the stadium to cheer on the American squad; in fact I drove all the way from San Francisco to be there. The other 97% of the stadium was filled with classy fans of Iran, who also showed appreciation for the US team. A great atmosphere all around. I should add that I saw the Iran-Mexico game in Oakland last week as well. And because I am a big fan of Japanese soccer, I've seen Iran play many times before in Asian tournaments. So I have a good sense of Iran's strength. In general, as others have commented, there is no question that Iran has superior individual talents. The US has no one to compare with Azizi's brilliant penetrating runs and breakthrough passes, or Ali Daei's dominance in the air and fine finishing (which he did not get a chance to show in this match). At the same time, Iran has a very weak team concept and game plan, and a lack of understanding among the players which would allow for sustained buildup of attacks, whereas the US has always been very strongly organized and well-disciplined, and team unity is perhaps the Americans' greatest strength. These qualities definitely showed in today's match. Having scored a goal, Iran became too passive with the exception of some occasional fireworks from Azizi. This allowed the US to exploit our ability to control the ball and methodically work for shots; we ended up with twice as many as Iran, 18-9. But our lack of even a marginally competent finisher meant only one resulted in a goal. How Eddie Lewis contrived to miss a cupcake shot which Cobi Jones, after a brilliant run on the right flank, had delivered to him on a platter, four yards in front of the goal with the keeper out of position, will forever remain a mystery. That would have been the gamewinner for the US. But Azizi also had a seeming sure thing run just wide. A draw was fair and in fact it's what I predicted when some Iranian television station interviewed me before the game... somebody tell me if it runs, please!

For the future, both teams need to make significant changes to have an impact in the next World Cup. Iran needs a serious coach with a plausible game plan for taking advantage of their outstanding talent, something more sophisticated than the "8-0-2" counterattack as some other post described it. The US needs a striker who can finish, and a midfielder who can play vertically and break down defenses, neither of whoch Claudio Reyna seems willing to do, though he is an efficient ballwinner and good at moving the ball horizontally to the wings. In fact, we need clones of Azizi and Daei.

I heard a rumor in the US crowd that Azizi may move to the LA Galaxy; I've been hoping he would get picked up by a J-League team (there are a TON of Iranians in Japan who would turn out to see him). Either way, I hope he can quit rotting in Germany, he is too great a talent to be wasted.

My man of the match for Iran was Azizi, obviously, and for the US Cobi Jones was brilliant, one of the best matches he's played for us. His ball control has markedly improved in the past five years and it makes him much more dangerous.

Let's do this again sometime!

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd send a blanket message but only to ""special"" people,
telling about my whirlwind trip to Iran from April 21 - May 1. I went with
two other teachers who have both traveled far more than I have. We had to
hire a travel agency in both Bahrain and Iran to pull this off--and pay
bribes, I suspect. Then we had to pay for the required guide and driver who
may have been government people for all we know. We are the first Bahrain
School teachers in twenty years to get into the country. Several tried last
year but couldn't get visas.

Iran is a wonderful country, and I want to go back. I'm not sure if it's
the forbidden fruit or just what the attraction is, but all three of us
think it was the most interesting trip we have ever done as DoDDS teachers.
One of the teachers had been to Iran many times before the revolution; she
was fascinated by the changes and kept up a running social and historical
commentary.

The extraordinary thing is that despite all the rumors, government warnings,
and CNN sensation, the Iranian people were exceptionally friendly. Happy
smiles and consistent welcomes everywhere! The minute anyone discovered we
were Americans, it was like a light shining. The guide kept telling us to
lie and say we were Canadians, but we were not very co-operative because
when it slipped out that we were Americans, people would gather around out
of curiosity. Why lie? Most people recognized the accents anyway.

At one point when I had wimped out of climbing yet another slippery slope in
sandals, I sat down to rest in the shade of a museum entrance and was
literally mobbed by a bevy of black-cloaked silly geese--school-aged girls
who wanted to talk and talk and talk and take pictures. They were just
great kids! Curious and articulate and sensitive. They gave me water and
ice cream and advice on how to tie the scarf. I complained about the dress
code, and the response was, ""But there are much more important things in
life besides what you are wearing. And since we don't have to worry about
that, we have time for the important things."" Not a bad rationalization, I
suppose, but it sounded like the party line to me.

The highlight of the trip was in Isfahan where I met my son-in-law's cousin
Ahmed and his family. I especially enjoyed talking to his wife and getting
a perspective of what life is like in Iran for women. One evening while
Ahmed and the boys watched a soccer game on TV, the two of us went to a posh
hotel and smoked a water pipe. I have pictures to prove it!

Isfahan seems like a European city with an Islamic overlay. It's
fascinating to sit and watch the assortment of people walking by. You could
be in any European city, but you don't have to worry about pickpockets.

Another highlight was a religious mourning parade something like the
Catholic Holy Ghost celebrations of the Portuguese people back in my
hometown in California. The people had a similar spirit: a subdued
celebration for a community of worshipers. In Bahrain this Islamic event is
much more somber, and God help any Westerner who would dare to take a photo!
They grab your camera and take out the film, I'm told. Not so in Iran. I
did ask the people standing around me--with gestures--if I could take
snapshots of a procession. A policeman actually pulled me out into the
middle of the street and stopped the parade for me to take some shots! I
was embarrassed but delighted to get the pictures.

We were invited to a soup kitchen for part of the religious celebration.
The obligation is to feed the poor. Groups of men from neighborhood mosques
have lodges similar to the Knights of Columbus. They use ritually
slaughtered sheep as a base for making huge kettles of soup which they serve
with French fries. Standing in the cement-floored soup kitchen and eating
out of Styrofoam bowls, we ate one of the best meals of the trip. It was
delicious!

The one difficult thing was the dress code for women: long cloak and scarf
at all times. It was very hot, already in the 80s and 90s every day! I
bought a tan cloak with sleeves in it and along with a green cotton scarf
was miserable for days. Ahmed's wife gave me a black cotton garment with
bat-wing sleeves that was much more comfortable!

The men supposedly have a dress code too: no tight clothing and a
long-sleeve shirt and never a tie. For several days our guide showed up
with a short-sleeved shirt. On the last day in a fit of discomfort, I
snapped at him, ""If I have to suffer in all this stuff, I'm not going to be
seen with you in that short-sleeved shirt."" I was joking, but not really.
You know the tone. He disappeared and showed up later in a long-sleeved
shirt. I couldn't stop chuckling. He said that I reminded him of his
grandmother, but I don't think that was a compliment.

At any rate, I've lived to tell the tale. And I'm still wondering where the
myth started about the hostility of the Iranian people. Does it really only
go back to the hostage situation in '78? Or is it propaganda from Uncle?
We, of course, were very careful to follow the dress code, especially about
the scarf, even if we were miserable at times. No ""ugly American"" attitude
here! I hope we did our bit to reassure people that Americans are ""just
people"" the same as they are.

We even learned some Farsi, but I can't remember how to say good-bye.

Can't wait to go back!

MaryEllen
","Submit","5/12/99","11:51:48 PM"

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small
 coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one
 fisherman docked.  Inside the small boat were several large
 yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on
 the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch
 them.
    
 The Mexican replied, only a little while.
    
 The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and
 catch more fish?
    
 The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's
 immediate needs.
    
 The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest
 of your time?"
    
 The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little,
 play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria,
 stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and
 play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
    
 The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help
 you.  You should spend more time fishing and with the
 proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the
 bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you
 would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your
 catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the
 processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would
 control the product, processing and distribution. You would
 need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to
 Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run
 your expanding enterprise."
    
 The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all
 take?"
    
 To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
    
 "But what then?" 6
    
 The American laughed and said that's the best part.  "When
 the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your
 company stock to the public and become very rich, you would
 make millions."
    
 "Millions..  Then what?"
    
 The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small
 coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a
 little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife,
 stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip
 wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

"Submit" "5/24/99", "6:59:45 PM"