Photo by: Amir Hesam Zarafshan
The disputed presidential election and the bloody crackdown on protesters in Iran gives America the opportunity to support dissension in another country. As the domestic turmoil reaches a boiling point with voting irregularities, we can stand back and call the government a dictatorship.
We can show that everything is controlled by the state and women are second-class citizens. As the most advanced democracy in the world, we can prove that our systems operate efficiently, and our citizens are satisfied. Political problems are resolved without bloodshed except for the civil war and the riots. That was years ago, and we are too civilized to return to violence to resolve conflicts.
Iran is not our friend and their ideology of human evolution is outdated and traditional. State television and state media control the freedoms that are non-existent in the society. Iran’s influential Guardian Council is made up of religious individuals, who control and operate as the election authority.
In Iran the Supreme Leader is the most powerful and influential person in the country. The Assembly of Experts is responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader. To western thought and thinking, this type of arrangement makes no sense, and religious and spiritual endeavors have no place in political affairs.
Nevertheless, in Iran everything is connected to religion and spirituality. Theoretically and traditionally, the citizens submit to the will of the Supreme Leader and the president operates in conjunction with his expert advice. For thirty years, this system has worked with limited dissentions and challenges.
With technological advancement and the younger generation’s challenge of tradition, a new and different model is emerging in the society. The challenges that the society will have to address are no different from the civil rights movement. The fundamental freedoms that were denied a certain portion of the society will have to be addressed.
Dissention and legitimate protest is extremely difficult to resolve legally, because the nature of rebellion is outside of the box of the status quo. When the Supreme Leader declares President Mahmoud Ahmadinejah the winner, that decision is not going to change, and it becomes imperative that the protestors develop a new strategy.
As a new paradigm emerges in the Iran society, the international media needs to move to a noncombatant and impartial position. Sticking our nose in a society, which we really do not understand will create a contemptuous relationship with the government. Today Iran has unrest and charges of ballot fraud. Their leaders will eventually resolve their conflicts, and the international media and governments may not accept their solutions.
Nevertheless, it is my hope that Iran can resolve their challenges without violence and bloodshed.
Tomorrow there can be a riot in any major city in our country, and the government will be forced to handle the crisis. People who live in a country where unemployment continues to rise, and major businesses continue to go into bankruptcy, are walking on extremely shaky ground.
People, who live in glass houses, must be careful, because the stones that they throw could come back and hit their glassy homes.
