Iran, Islam and Democracy by Ali M. Ansari

Author:Ali M. Ansari [Ansari, Ali M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Political Ideologies, Democracy, History & Theory, International Relations, General, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9781862031173
Google: epeKAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Royal Institute of International Affairs
Published: 2000-01-15T22:34:10+00:00

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1 Aftab-e Yazd, 17 Shahrivar 1381/8 September 2002, pp. 6–7. Habibollah Asgarowladi was leader of the hardline Moutalafeh Group.

2 Mohammad Hashemi, for example, urged conservatives not to seek revenge, while his brother, former President Rafsanjani, urged the new Majlis to take the ‘long view’: Aftab-e Yazd, 3 Esfand 1382/22 February 2004, p. 11. For an insight into conservative tactical reflections and appreciation of public opinion, see the letter from Ahmad Pour-Nejati and Mohsen Mirdamadi to President Khatami, reproduced by ISNA, 7 Esfand 1382/26 February 2004).

3 This aspiration was pronounced by Haddad-Adel, the new Speaker of the Majlis; see Aftab-e Yazd, 3 Esfand 1382/22 February 2004, pp. 1, 11. One reader hoped that the new Speaker did not intend to raise income tax to the level of Japan (apparently 67 per cent): Aftab-e Yazd, 10 Esfand 1382/29 February 2004, p. 5.

4 ‘Readers’ Comments’, Aftab-e Yazd, 3 Esfand 1382/22 February 2004, p. 11.

5 The Rashidian brothers were merchants in the pay of British intelligence who helped orchestrate the coup against Dr Mosaddeq.

6 See also ‘Readers’ Comments’, Aftab-e Yazd, 20 Bahman 1382/9 February 2004, p. 11. 7 ‘Readers’ Comments’, Aftab-e Yazd, 23 Bahman 1382/12 February 2004, p. 7.

8 Ibid. As if to emphasise a point, one reader commended the US assault on Bin Laden’s hideout in southern Afghanistan, expressing the hope that the ‘terrorist’ would be caught: Aftab-e Yazd, 5 Esfand 1382/24 February 2004, p. 5.

9 ‘Readers’ Comments’, Aftab-e Yazd, 3 Esfand 1382/22 February 2004, p. 11.

10 ‘Iranian Weekly Shut Down for Insulting Clerics’, AFP, Tehran, 15 March 2004.

11 As with corruption under the shah, it was not so much the existence of abuse that riled the public as the tendency towards excess.

12 Even his closest advisers admitted this failure to lead: see the interview with M. R. Khatami in Newsweek International, 1 March 2004; A. R. Alavi-Tabar, Yas-e No, 20 Bahman 1382/10 February 2004, p. 2.

13 For Ahmadinejad’s interpretation of ‘fundamentalist’ see Didgahha-ye Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (3) [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s political views (3)], on IRNA website, 4 Tir 1384/26 June 2005. IRNA provided a comprehensive list of Ahmadinejad’s views following his victory in the first round of the presidential election.

14 See above, p. 57.

15 The sense of continuing grievance is well expressed by a war veteran’s complaint in the newspaper Aftab-e Yazd, 20 Bahman 1382/9 February 2004, p. 11, that, having given everything for the war and forsaken the pleasures of this world, he is struck by the fact that those who sent him to fight and to think of the afterlife are now driving expensive cars.

16 The narrative broadly follows that of Dog Day Afternoon.

17 This early ‘golden age’ was central to the reformist interpretation of the revolution. Indeed, both reformists and the neo-conservatives shared the conviction that Rafsanjani had perverted the legacy of the revolution.

18 This is a play on the name of Saeed Eslami, who was convicted of organising the chain murders of 1998. ‘Saeed’ comes from the Arabic root for happiness.

19 Mohammad Hajizadeh, ‘yad bad an roozgaran, yad bad!’ [Remember those days! Oh, remember!], pp.

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