Where Is Iran Headed?
In the course of the past twenty years, Iran has undergone profound social and demographic transformations. These changes have sharply altered the nation’s social structure, and have produced a population that is increasingly youthful, literate, urbanized, politically conscious, and even globalized. Increasingly materialistic and secular in outlook and orientation, the children of the revolution those who were born after or shortly before the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah lack the Islamic and/or leftist idealism and fervor of their parents’ generation that was responsible for ousting the monarchy. Instead, they are much more interested in improvements in their standards of living and the removal of irksome restrictions on their social and personal lives. They also want to be governed by a democratically elected leadership that is responsive to their needs rather than a group of self-perpetuating, self-righteous, and sanctimonious individuals who justify their exclusive grip on
By: Dr. H. Izadpanah With the Parliamentary -Majlis- elections, a few days away, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have reached perhaps the most fateful watershed of its history. Whichever of the two contending factions, the reformists and the conservatives, wins the majority of seats, it will also gain -if not immediately, but surely as time goes on- a firmer hold on the helm of the government machinery, as well as the destiny of the nation. This statement, however, is truer of the likely reformists’ victory than with that of conservatives, who already control the key instruments of the state. For if the conservatives win, they will win only through the interdicting and obstructing tactics of the Guardian Council, which tries to disqualify and eliminate as many as it could of the candidates who are feared to diverge from the Conservative lines. Ever widening the grounds of its disqualification criteria, the Council lately announced that even the record of a failure, on the part of a c
