Theocracy versus democracy: Iran considers political parties

Middle East Journal

Volumn 52, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 16-30

  Fairbanks, Stephen C ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0004724096     PISSN: 00263141     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. See, for example, Akhbar (Tehran), 8 June 1997, and Hamshahri (Tehran), 18 March 1997. One "election watcher," however, cautioned that Iran lacks the experience and "technical know-how" to conduct reliable opinion polls, and complained that those conducting the polls were usually affiliated with one political faction or another. Iran News (Tehran), 30 April 1997.
2. See, for example, Akhbar (Tehran), 8 June 1997, and Hamshahri (Tehran), 18 March 1997. One "election watcher," however, cautioned that Iran lacks the experience and "technical know-how" to conduct reliable opinion polls, and complained that those conducting the polls were usually affiliated with one political faction or another. Iran News (Tehran), 30 April 1997.
3. See, for example, Akhbar (Tehran), 8 June 1997, and Hamshahri (Tehran), 18 March 1997. One "election watcher," however, cautioned that Iran lacks the experience and "technical know-how" to conduct reliable opinion polls, and complained that those conducting the polls were usually affiliated with one political faction or another. Iran News (Tehran), 30 April 1997.
4. Iran (Tehran), 4 February 1997, as cited in Ettela'at-e Bein al-Mellali (New York), 5 February 1997.
5. Iran (Tehran), 4 February 1997, as cited in Ettela'at-e Bein al-Mellali (New York), 5 February 1997.
6. Akhbar, 8 June 1997.
7. Hamshahri, 6 March 1997.
8. In fact, no woman was on the cabinet list that he presented in August 1997, though he did name a woman to the post of vice-president for environmental protection and claimed she would have "cabinet status."
9. Keyhan International (Tehran), 23 February 1997.
10. Ibid.
11. Resalat (Tehran), 11 March 1997.
12. Iran News, 2 November 1996. The best-organized political organization of clerics, the JRM is also the oldest, originating in 1936 as a means to organize the clerics against Reza Shah. It helped unite clerical forces behind Khomeini in his 1963 uprising against Muhammad Reza Shah and in the 1978 uprisings that eventually toppled the Shah. Iran Focus (Cambridgeshire, UK), "Special Report on the 1996 Majles Elections," March 1996.
13. Iran News, 2 November 1996. The best-organized political organization of clerics, the JRM is also the oldest, originating in 1936 as a means to organize the clerics against Reza Shah. It helped unite clerical forces behind Khomeini in his 1963 uprising against Muhammad Reza Shah and in the 1978 uprisings that eventually toppled the Shah. Iran Focus (Cambridgeshire, UK), "Special Report on the 1996 Majles Elections," March 1996.
14. There was some controversy over whether Rafsanjani had acquiesced in the JRM's selection of Nateq-Nuri as its candidate. Some JRM members maintained that Rafsanjani's presence during the JRM central council meeting when Nateq-Nuri was selected was proof of Rafsanjani's support. But Rafsanjani declared several times his impartiality, saying he would not even disclose his preference to his own children. Iran News, 19 May 1997.
15. Non-clerical leftists, such as the Tudeh Communist party and the Mojahedm-e Khalq, have been barred from participating in the Islamic Republic's electoral politics.
16. Akhbar, 20 April 1997.
17. The Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), "The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran," (Tehran: n.d.), available on the Internet (http://www.ipis.org/iran/constitut.html).
18. Asghar Schirazi, The Constitution of Iran: Politics and State in the Islamic Republic, translated by John O'Kane (London: I.B. Tauris, 1997), pp. 126-27.
19. Kar va Kargar (Tehran), 5 October 1996.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Tehran radio, 14 December 1988, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service-Near East South Asia (FBIS-NES), 15 December 1988, p 48.
23. Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), 25 December 1988, in FBIS-NES, 27 December 1988, p. 52.
24. The FMI is the most important liberal, opposition political grouping in the Islamic Republic. Its original founders in 1961 included Engineer Mehdi Bazargan, Ayatollah Mahmud Taleghani, and ten others, all loyal followers of former prime minister Muhammad Musaddiq who felt the need for an Islamic-oriented party that could bridge the gap between the nationalist parties at that time and the clergy. Though opposed to clerical domination of the state, the FMI continues to be tolerated because of Ayatollah Khomeini's esteem for Bazargan, the Islamic Republic's first prime minister in 1979. See H.E. Chehabi, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (London: I.B. Tauris, 1990).
25. IRNA, 14 January 1989, in FBIS-NES, 18 January 1989, p. 67.
26. Akhbar, 21 January 1997.
27. Ibid.
28. Resalat, 28 January 1989, in FBIS-NES, 2 February 1989, p. 59.
29. Resalat, 28 January 1989, in FBIS-NES, 2 February 1989, p. 59.
30. Salam (Tehran), 13 March 1996.
31. IRNA, 8 August 1995.
32. Resalat, 21 August 1995.
33. See particularly Bahman Baktiari, Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996).
34. See, for example, Akhbar, 14 February 1996, where Salam editor 'Abbas 'Abdi welcomes the establishment of the Kurgozaran because it would break the monopoly of the JRM
35. IRNA, 6 February 1996.
36. See "Special Report on the 1996 Majles Elections," Iran Focus, March 1996.
37. Ibid.
38. See, for example, Iran News, 15 April 1996.
39. Ayatollah Khomeini had called for the assassination of this British author because of his book, The Satanic Verses (New York: Viking Press, 1989).
40. Iran News, 1 May 1996.
41. See, for example, Resalat, 10 April 1996, where Ansar-e Hizballah leader Husayn Allah-Akram describes the need to strengthen Islamic ideology, and to stand up to America, by voting for fundamentalists.
42. 'Asr-e Ma, 25 May 1995.
43. Jomhuri-ye Islami, 25 May 1996; Akhbar, 24 April 1996.
44. Jomhuri-ye Islami, 25 May 1996; Akhbar, 24 April 1996.
45. Resalat, 16 May 1996.
46. Avoidance of the "liberal" label continued throughout the months leading to the 1997 presidential election. A noteworthy exception was when the Ansar-e Hizballah's patron, Ayatollah Jannati, declared in a Friday sermon on 28 February that Ayatollah Khamene'i had said that no candidate for the presidency should be a liberal (Resalat, 1 March 1997) Khamene'i did not confirm Jannati's remarks.
47. Jomhuri-ye Islami, 22 January 1997.
48. Kar va Kargar, 14 October 1996.
49. The MRM did not explain how conditions had improved. MRM Secretary General Karrubi only said that the propagandist attacks and accusations against the group had proven to be fallacious (Hamshahri, 15 October 1996). The MRM probably felt its chances had improved when it became apparent that President Rafsanjani would not seek a third term. Also, there was some speculation at the time that the Kargozaran had asked the MRM to return, arguing that together they could defeat Nateq-Nuri (Iran News, 16 October 1996).
50. Tehran Times, 21 February 1996.
51. Ibid.
52. Tehran Times, 16 October 1996.
53. Iran, 22 October 1996.
54. Ibid.
55. Jomhuri-ye Islami, 25 January 1997; Ettela'at-e Bein al-Mellali, 27 January 1997.
56. Jomhuri-ye Islami, 25 January 1997; Ettela'at-e Bein al-Mellali, 27 January 1997.
57. Tehran Times, 21 February 1996.
58. Iran, 16 March 1997.
59. Iran Daily, 11 August 1997.
60. Ibid.
61. Iran News, 31 July 1997. On 30 July, for example, it gave permission to "nine political groups and guilds": the Islamic Association of Athletes, the Society of Followers of the Imam's Line, the West Azerbaijan Association of Graduates, the Khorasan Construction Servants, the Association of Retirees from the Tehran Educational Department for Children with Special Needs, the Association of Industrial Hygiene Experts, the Cooperatives Islamic Movement, the Association of Urban Engineers, and the Welfare Workers Association of Retirees.
62. Akhbar, 14 June 1997.
63. Iran News, 3 July 1997.
64. Kar va Kargar, 8 May 1997.
65. Iran News, 7 August 1997.
66. Tehran Times, 16 February 1997.
67. Resalat, 13 February 1997.
68. Akhbar, 21 January 1997.
69. See Valla Vakili, Debating Religion and Politics in Iran: The Political Thought of Abdolkarim Soroush (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, Studies Department Occasional Paper Series, No. 2, 1996).
70. Salam, 9 May 1996.
71. Though the Leader is supposed to be above politics and has no official role in vetting candidates, Khatami, and the three other candidates who ran for president all reported having first met with Ayatollah Khamene'i to secure his approval. The Council of Guardians would not have approved a candidate that Khamene'i disliked.
72. Resalat, 24 July 1997.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.
76. Salam, 10 July 1997.
77. Resalat, 4 August 1997.
78. See, for example, Ayatollah Muhammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani's interview in Abrar (Tehran), 21 May 1997.
79. Iran, 16 March 1997.
80. Melliyun and Mardom were formed officially in 1957 as a majority party and a loyal opposition, the basis for a two-party system. Iran Novin became the dominant, pro-crown party after 1964. In 1975, the Shah created Rastakhiz as the basis for a one-party state.