Reformists See Room for a Better Iran

TEHRAN —  The once-bustling offices at 15 Taheri St. are eerily silent, the corridors empty of life, the computers shut down, the lights off. Gone are the young reporters who defiantly worked here for two years--through constant criticism by conservatives, frequent charges by the judiciary, occasional jailings of the editor and publisher and, finally, five renamed versions of the same paper banned over and over again. One version lasted only a day.

The case of Iran’s first fully independent newspaper, which opened in 1998 as Jameh, or Society, and closed in April under the name Asr-e Azadegan, or Emancipated Era, is a microcosm of the challenges facing Iran’s new parliament, which began business this month.

At the top of the agenda is the issue of free press and free speech, both key to a reformist campaign to guarantee rights and restore the rule of law.

“The reform movement won’t have legitimacy--and won’t survive--unless it acts on these basic rights,” said Hamid Jalaipour, beleaguered publisher of all five papers.

Plans to Allow Banned Newspapers to Reopen

Although the new reform majority still faces considerable conservative opposition, the bloc intends to take steps allowing all 18 newspapers banned this spring to reopen--for good. It also intends to lift the ban on satellite dishes that bring foreign television into the country and to pave the way for the first private television and radio, all radical steps in a country where the media were state-controlled for 19 of the Islamic Revolution’s 21 years.

And that’s only a taste of the dozen bold initiatives the reform coalition plans to undertake in the next four years, steps that could end up changing everything from the basic judicial system to women’s rights.

But the agenda of Iran’s sixth parliament, or Majlis, is not the only major change. One of the first things to strike a visitor to the cavernous chamber, which has been carpeted in royal blue since the monarchy and lighted by a massive chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling, is the absence of turbans. In the early 1980s, about half the theocracy’s first parliament was made up of clergy.

Today, only one out of nine in the 290-seat Majlis is a mullah. And not a single member of parliament from Qom, the religious center, is a cleric.

Almost as striking is the fact that three of the 11 female legislators don’t wear black chadors. To meet requirements of Islamic modesty, they instead have opted to wear the tight navy or gray head covering called maghnieh, a seemingly small but highly significant change.

Another major shift is the role of new political groups, the embryos of formal parties. Most members of parliament are now attached directly or indirectly to these groups. The largest bloc is from the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the reformist group created by new Deputy Speaker Reza Khatami, the brother of moderate President Mohammad Khatami, whose election in 1997 launched the reform movement. One of the reformers’ goals is to open the way for formal parties to operate, unrestricted, in future elections.

The third major change is parliament’s leadership. The power of the speaker, traditionally one of the three most important political jobs in Iran, is being weakened. The election this month of Mehdi Karrubi, a speaker in the third parliament, reflected the reformers’ willingness to accept a centrist to calm conservatives nervous about the scope and pace of change.

But several key members of parliament said Karrubi is likely to be only a transition speaker, a position for which parliament holds annual elections. They also said the post will increasingly be administrative rather than one that defines the legislative agenda.

The toughest job facing parliament may be overhauling Iran’s complicated court system. Reformers hope to introduce juries, which are called for in the constitution but have never been established, and to separate the jobs of prosecutor and judge, now held by one person. They also hope to put more women on the bench.

Reformers are also targeting the basic process of elections, which is complicated both by the open-ended powers of the courts and the conservative Council of Guardians, which can disqualify candidates.

“We’ll try to change the election law in a direction that will give candidates greater freedom,” said Ali Reza Nouri, a new member of parliament. His brother, charismatic cleric and reformer Abdollah Nouri, was slated to run for parliament and expected to win, until the judiciary charged him with un-Islamic activities and sentenced him to five years in jail. Ali Reza Nouri ran in his place.

In a sign of the broad range of proposals on social issues, the new female members plan to push hard for new laws promising equal pay for equal work, ensuring all jobs are open to women, guaranteeing mothers have child custody rights after divorce and raising the minimum age of marriage from 9.

Their goals are in stark contrast to the previous parliament, where women pushed for segregation of all medical services so that only female doctors and technicians could treat female patients.

“We want to remove all discrimination of women as a top priority,” said Elaheh Koolaee, who was the first female lawmaker to shed the chador. But she also noted that the number of female legislators is actually down three from the last parliament.

“Unfortunately, there’s not that much difference between the way the left and right deal with women,” she said. “Both are still under the influence of culture and tradition. We hope to change that too.”

Recalcitrance Among the Conservatives

But the new energy behind the reformers’ ambitious agenda is matched by a stubborn--even angry--recalcitrance among Iran’s conservatives, including senior clergy who control the judiciary, the military and the country’s top post, the supreme leader, who can veto virtually everything.

The reformers acknowledge the hurdles ahead, but many remain optimistic that they will eventually be able to transform Iran.

“Of course we’ll have some difficulties. It’s natural because we’ve never gone through a transfer of power before,” said Mohsen Mirdamadi, one of the leading new members of parliament. “It’s particularly difficult for conservatives to accept because they thought their power was endless. But that period is now over.

“And they know they face limits on what they can do now. They see from the elections what the public wants,” he said, referring to three elections over the past three years for the presidency, parliament and local councils that have all been swept by reformers.

Besides the judiciary, the two main obstacles are the Council of Guardians and the Expediency Council.

The Guardians, six clerics and six lawyers, can veto legislation, disqualify candidates and nullify public votes. The Expediency Council, chaired by former President and parliamentary Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani, is empowered to weigh in when there is a standoff between parliament and the Council of Guardians. Technically, both have the potential to kill any legislation.

“These two councils can create obstacles, but they can’t stop lawmaking, due to public opinion. That’s why conservatives wanted to close us down,” Jalaipour said. “Conservatives said three years ago that Khatami wouldn’t last six months, but now we also have parliament and the city councils.”

Reformers acknowledge that they may have to move slowly. “They want to make the process durable--a slow train that can’t be run off the tracks rather than a fast train that can be derailed,” said Tehran University political scientist Hadi Semati.

But they point out that parliament has a variety of means besides legislation to push the reformist agenda. Similar to the U.S. Congress, Iran’s Majlis is empowered to investigate any public issue or institution and summon anyone in Iran to testify.

It also approves the budget, including allocations for institutions such as the official television and radio service, which has given conservatives a virtual monopoly on news since the independent press was shut down. Iranian radio also broadcasts complete parliamentary hearings, and each lawmaker is allowed five minutes to speak, which could prove even more effective than newspapers in outlining the reformers’ goals.

Parliament also appoints the six lawyers to the Guardian Council. Three terms are up this year and three more within the four-year parliamentary term. In theory, parliament could change the makeup of the council itself.