Zealots tightening their hold on Iran

Press, 4 September 1980, Page 17

Zealots tightening their hold on Iran

ALEX BRODIE., who was ordered to leave Teheran after six months as a reporter for the “Observer” and the 8.8. C. 9 reports on the growing bigotry and xenophobia.

Slowly but surely the grip of Islamic orthodoxy is tightening on Iran and Its people- Islam is a way of life as much - asi a; religion and in an. Islamic ■ republic there .- can be; no separation between religion and politics. ; Just as every aspect of an. individual’s life should be • guided by- the Koran, so every function of government must conform. But conformity to rigid rules is not being achieved in the classic authoritarian way, from above through the apparatus of the State. It is coming . through chaos and anarchy. As a- religious. code,_ itdepends on individuals for its enforcement;- Thus, a fudge was summarily given 25 lashes-when revolutionary guards, caught him smoking during tne t -

fasting month of Ramadan.- A group of ‘‘pleasure seekers’’ were flogged for drinking alcohol ’ by the same, revolutionary guards who arrested them. j . The new Iran’s sexual 'mores are being enforced. Revolutionary guards ar•rest '■ men- and • women caught bathing together in the Caspian Sea, and frequently they .are 'flogged. Beaches are-firm-ly segregated. ; ■

Fewer women than ever now appear on:the “uncovered” and the head scarf is compulsory in Government offices.. Alcohol is, of course, _ prohibited. Most cinemas have closed down. Universities will _ remain . closed after the summer and moone knows. when they .will reopen. Left-wing:lecturers ‘ are being purged, but be-

yond that the process of “Islamisation”' is unclear; no-one seems to -know .what is necessary to convert higher ■ education to true Islamic principles. The Islamic Republican Party,, led. by Ayatollah Beheshtiand dominated by the ambitious political clergy, has marshalled all the necessary forces and has captured control of most of the institutions of the new Iran.

It already had pervasive influence in the revolutionary institutions, . including the courts and the judiciary. Now it has the legislature, the Prime Minister, and the ability to decide who is in his Cabinet — the executive. It is a matter ,of how fa r the I.R.R. and its allies will go,. They, can press on, and sew everything up

tight, in which case President Bani-Sadr . could be politically destroyed, * or they can keep the moderates on board, albeit, as window-dressing. The I.R.P. has picked off its opponents. On the Left, the mujahideen and the fedayeen — guerrillas who fought the Shah — have been branded as stooges of Moscow and Washington, vilified, and attacked by street mobs. The liberal National Front party has now suffered a similar fate. Admi-

ral Madani, the N.F. strongman who . accused, the I.R.P. of seeking a . one-party State, is in hiding, having been accused of United States links. If the I.R.P. is seeking a one-party State, it is in a strong position to achieve it. The prevailing mood of insinuation, baseless charges, and witch hunts against those damned as anti-Islamic or anti-revolu-tionary, has the air of demagoguery. Iran has also become xenophobic. Even though

Ayatollah Khomeiny and many other revolutionary leaders were in exile in the West, such a past is now suspect. When Mir Salim, was rejected as Prime Minister by Parliament, an official of the hard-line Islamic Republican Party noted that “anyone, who spent 10 years in France is suspect.”

Even patently ludicrous accusations of spying are probably not cynically produced. The guards who pick up a British missionary or a Catholic priest really do think they are spying for England, the C.1.A., or Israel. Once in the hands of a local revolutionary committee it is anyone’s guess when those detained may emerge. The arrest of Jean Waddell, aged 58, took place under the eyes of a

Farsi-speaking British dip* lomat who was then denied access to her. British protests to the Foreign Ministry have had little effect, not necessarily because officials at the Foreign Ministry did not want to do anything, .but because they could not. In a key speech recently,. Khomeiny condemned the last Government, now going . out of office, and the first postrevolution government of Mehdi Bazargan, as insufficiently Islamic and revolutionary. The new one, he said, must be 100 per cent Islamic, revolutionary and firm. Parliament was given the task of deciding who fitted : this bill. ■ and who did not. As far as the majority of Parliament is

concerned, Bani-Sadr certainly does not. Parliament cannot remove him, yet, but it can make sure his people do not get- ministries.

This speech, could have been written by the I.R.P. "The zealots took off their gloves. Parliament, dominated by the 1.R.P., forced on Bani-Sadr a Prime Minister of its choosing. The President faced a hostile majority’in Parliament. He still has his 11 million votes, true, but he has precious little else.-’ The basic narrowness-of this brand of Islamic orthodoxy is regimenting society without a tight ' authoritarian structure; But that structure may be on the. way. Copyright, London Observer Service.