Because my name is Persian, I am continually fascinated by everything Persian. I once listened to a young Iranian woman complain to high hell about something. The fact that it was in Farsi made it sound pleasing and elegant. I also find myself researching what is going on in Iran right now after the contested election with the leading candidates incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Reformist opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
In summary, the conflict is between two cliques represented by fundamentalist Supreme Leader Ali Khameinei whose champion is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and plutocratic leader Hashemi Rajsafjani of the Assembly of Experts(part of the Judicial Branch) and of the Expediency Council(a deliberative committee that elects the Supreme Leader) whose champion is Mousavi. In the lead up to the election, the urban youth of Iran had appropriated Mousavi into their goals in the same way that the youth of America appropriated Obama as panacea of America’s ills, despite said candidates’ precedents or actual beliefs. I can’t blame either of them. Since Ahmadinejad is essentially an Iranian version of Bush, anything slightly to the left of them would be a relief.
However, the political conflict in Iran isn’t a freedom versus dictatorship narrative that is being proliferated in the MSM. Both sides of the current conflict have a history of repression. At a time like this, I ask myself what Iranian philosopher Ali Shariati would do.
Dr. Ali Shariati developed a Shi’a analogue of Liberation Theology which focused on religion as a tool for liberation instead of repression and maintenance of the status quo by Western Imperialism and Shi’a passivity. With religion, the masses develop an identity to overturn cultural alienation and domination. His ideas were monumental in developing the underrated secularist wing of Iranian Revolution.
What is usually ignored by fundamentalist ideologues who revere him second to Ayatollah Khomeini is that Shariati also spoke out against clericalism that is prevalent in Islam and became the dominant governing system of post-revolution Iran. A number of his ideas found concord with Sufism and its focus on an individual’s connection with God. However, where most Sufis are content with smoking marijuana and spinning around, Shariati expressed the need for action and revolution in ways similar to Frantz Fanon. Shariati’s worldview favored the cycle of revolution over the cycle of dervishes.
It seems that Shariati would approve of taking to the streets to effect change in society as is happening now. But from what I gather, Shariati would support neither side of this conflict. He was a member of the influential communist Tudeh Party which was brutally annihilated in 1988 by none other than Mousavi during his term as prime minister. His demands are fairly different than what any popular political figure in Iran or the United States wants.