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Iranian
academic’s tribulation paints a diabolic image
of the ruling clerics
A.
H. Jaffor Ullah
The
nation of Iran is in the news lately but for all the wrong reasons.
First, it was the news about a rigged national election in which
the liberals were barred to participate; democracy was maligned very
badly by that act. Second,
came the news that Iran was trying to build a “Green” nuke by hook
or by crook; that news gave Iran a black eye amongst it peers in the
international community. Third,
the news of Iranian academic, Hashem Aghajari, receiving a five-year
prison term for using derogatory language against the mullahs made the
headline; which brought a deluge of condemnation from outside world.
Fourth, on July 24, 2004, an Iranian court has acquitted the
defendant in the murder of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, a case
that has severely threatened diplomatic ties between Canada and Iran.
This
article will only deal in the Iranian government’s dealing with the
case of a lecturer at a university, Mr. Hashem Aghajari, who had
received a stiff sentence for speaking his mind.
This sentencing of a liberal academic by Iran’s harsh judiciary
has opened a can of worms. The
country’s stature was maligned, clerics were vilified, and dissidents
were baffled by court decision.
First
things first, the case against the academic from Hamadan, the
west-central province of Iran. Mr.
Aghajari’s 2002 speech touched a raw nerve at the heart of clerical
rule in Iran because the teacher asked question relating to Shi’ite
Muslim doctrine in which ordinary believers are obliged to emulate a
senior cleric qualified to interpret the Koran.
With a tinge of sarcasm Mr. Aghajari had commented, “Are people
monkeys to emulate someone else?”
This comment by the academic had brought ire among Iran’s
ruling clerics. Not only
was Aghajari arrested, he was issued a death sentence by a provincial
court in Hamadan. This in
turn had sparked some of the largest and noisy student protests in
years; it fueled international concern about restrictions on free speech
in Iran. Under mounting
world pressure, the blasphemy verdict was finally overturned by the
Supreme Court in June 2004. Even
some of Iran’s senior clerics had opined that the sentencing of
Aghajari was too harsh. Then
a retrial was held in Tehran earlier in July 2004.
The
recent verdict by the Tehran court sentenced the history teacher,
Aghajari, to five years in prison for insulting Islamic values.
Pending an appeal, the court had agreed to free Aghajari, the
reform minded activist, on bail of 1 billion Rials ($117,000).
To this ruling, Mr. Aghajari said, “I am only a university
professor and all I can afford to pay as bail is my 20-year-old Paykan.”
The lecturer was referring to the ubiquitous national car (Paykan)
that only sells for around 6,000 dollars new.
Mr. Aghajari also said, “I do not have anything registered in
my name, so it is up to them to accept it.
Otherwise I will remain in prison.”
Aghajari's
wife, Zahra Behnoudi, was upset hearing the new verdict, which was light
as compared to the capital punishment meted out two years ago.
She said her husband should have been acquitted.
She told a Reuters’ correspondent, “Why should a professor be
given a prison sentence for making a speech?
If he had been acquitted we would have felt that wisdom had
prevailed in the judiciary.” With
a blithe disregard to freedom of speech the court also banned Mr.
Aghajari from holding public office or taking part in any activity
requiring state permission, such as teaching, for five years after his
prison term is completed.
Mr.
Aghajari is still defiant. In
his final oral defense to the court earlier in July 2004, he spoke out
strongly in favor of democratic reforms and criticized those who put the
clergy on a pedestal. The
lecturer is a feisty man who said, “Some think that touching a
clergyman's robes will cure people or is a blessing ... (But) clerics
are not sacred.” The
small town lecturer is a war veteran who lost a leg fighting in the
1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. To
show his difference with the Iranian Mullah as far as Islam is concerned
he said that he supported an Islam that brings about freedom and is
compatible with democracy and human rights.
The
news of Mr. Aghajari’s trouble with the Iranian clerics had made
headlines in July 2004. The
news had also reached The U.S. State Department.
On July 24, 2004, The State Department’s spokesperson and
Assistant Secretary, Mr. Richard Boucher was asked a question by a
reporter. The question was
the following: “This morning, there's a news report that a academic,
Professor Aghajari, has been sentenced to five years for calling Muslims
who blindly follow cleric leaders "monkeys." And, I guess,
would that be in relation to what we've been speaking of the last day or
two as retribution?”
To
the above question Mr. Boucher replied: “I think, you know, without
reference to particular remarks that the individual may have made, we
certainly see this fits the pattern of harassment and difficulties
created for people who try to speak out, the lack of public _expression
in Iran, the lack of the ability for people to speak out on topics that
are of concern to them, and we've been concerned about the state of
human rights in Iran and, you know, we know there have been
demonstrations, there have been outspoken people, but we also see that
they're being pursued often when they do and this is another example of
that. Okay.”
Iran
was a very modern nation up until 1979.
The King of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, had instituted a program of
modernization a la western model throughout 1960s and 70s.
The clerics and many Muslims had made invidious acquisitions
against the Shah over the issue of modernization of Persia.
The chief critic of Shah, Ayatollah Khomeini, was exiled first to
Turkey in 1964, then to the holy city of Najaf, Iraq and from there, to
Paris in 1978. While
Khomeini was outside Iran for 15 long years, through pamphlet, he roused
the Iranians to oust Reza Shah Pahlavi.
In February 1979, Khomeini returned home victorious to institute
theocracy in his motherland. The
modernity was out and Shia brand of Islam was in.
The Iranian Mullah persecuted many socialists who helped the
clerics to drive out Shah of Iran after they hold thousands of kangaroo
courts. One of the
socialists, Mr. Bani Sadr, who was elected to the office of President of
Iran after the revolution, with Mullahs blessings, found himself at odd
with the clerics. They
crushed Bani Sadr who first went into hiding and then flew out of Iran
to Paris in July 1981 by an Iranian Air Force plane piloted by a
dissident Iranian. Quite a
few associates of Bani Sadr were hanged and killed by the Iranian
clerics after Mr. Sadr had left his motherland.
Iran
fought a bloody war against Iraq soon after the revolution in 1979.
Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989.
Since then, Iran showed some tendency to relax the Mullahs’
grip on power. The Iranian
people elected a reform minded cleric, Mohammad Khatami, to be theirs
president. However
his policies of reform have led to repeated clashes with the hardline
and conservative Islamists in the Iranian government, who control
powerful governmental organizations such as the Guardian Council whose
members are appointed by the Supreme Leader.
As of late, the pendulum however had shifted in favor of hardline
clerics. The parliamentary
election of February 20, 2004, is a case in point.
The
recent election was a watershed in the modern history of Iran.
By limiting the number of electoral contestants, the 12-man
Guardian Council barred around 2,500 reformers from standing for
election. It should be
noted here that the election of the all-powerful Guardian Council itself
is anything but democratic. Hard-line
mullahs control the composition of the Council and so it was easy for
them to decide who would stand for the national election.
Iran
has received some adverse publicity because they ran a very undemocratic
election in February 2004. Now
5 months later, in July 2004, the Iranian judiciary by sentencing Mr.
Aghajari to serve 5 years in prison for his “slighting” remarks
against the clerics made rooms for more condemnation.
Now
that the tribulations of Mr. Aghajari in the hands of Iranian justice
system has drawn attention from outside world, much remains to be seen
what happens next. Stay
tuned. The retrial is going
to be an embarrassment for the Iranian clerics, to put it mildly.
The war hero, Mr. Aghajari, is a fighter all right.
He is giving the judiciary of Iran, who are dominated by clerics,
a run for their money. The
clerics grossly underestimated Mr. Aghajari’s tenacity.
A cultivated mind won’t take no for an answer, I suppose.
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A.H.
Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
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