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Mixed Votes for Khatami

Khatami prepares to address an audience at an international environment, religion and culture seminar in Tehran on June 18. Khatami won a re-election on June 8. Photo by Associated Press.

Iranian Americans voice their thoughts on the election

By Avy Mallik

Manzar Maroufi has spent 26 years outside her native Iran, with 16 of those in the United States. But even after such a long hiatus from her homeland, she feels just as strongly about Iranian politics as when she was living in Tehran.

“Islam, like all religions, should be worshipped in private,” Maroufi said. “The government should stay out of the relationship between god and man.”

Mohammed Khatami, who ran in the presidential election as the incumbent, won in a landslide victory on June 8. It will be his second term as the leader of this politically-turbulent nation. But even though Khatami is considered the most popular political figure in Iran, he has seen his support dwindle significantly since the previous election. Although he won with 75 percent of the vote, officials estimate that only 60 percent of the population cast ballots. Four years ago, the voting turnout was nearly 90 percent.

Faced with not only reviving Iran’s business sector, Khatami has also been given the task of bridging the gap between hard-line Muslims and liberal youngsters. His pledge to reform Iran into a democracy has also fallen on disbelieving ears. During his first four-year term, Khatami failed to better Iran’s government or revitalize the economic sector. This was primarily due to the immense power that the mullahs, or religious leaders, had over the president.

“I don’t believe that Khatami will be able to change anything,” admitted Maroufi, whose husband worked for the United Nations. “Religious fanatics led by Ayatollah Khamenei have too much control. There is no freedom or room for reform with them in power.”

There is a palpable frustration that Iranians have about the lack of change in Iran over the last four years. Susanne Pari, author of The Fortune Catcher — a historical novel set in the aftermath of Iran’s 1979 Revolution, said that change won’t come easily.

“Members of a High Council have to approve who the electoral candidates are. The Council, however, is made up of mullahs and other extremists appointed by the Ayatollah Khamenei. They solely decide the outcome. Iran is not a true democracy, and will never be unless Khamenei is ousted,” said Pari, who is half-Iranian and half-American.

Amir Sheibany, a journalist whose writing has appeared in the online magazine called The Iranian, also has strong convictions about Iran. “The clerical regime had already decided that Khatami is going to be president. The election was not democratic, and the counting of the votes was not validated by anybody independent of the High Council,” Sheibany, who moved to the United States in September 2000, said. He has been boycotting the election ever since. He believes that Khatami is just another political tool for the conservative Muslims to prolong their rule. His solution to this dilemma was to encourage a nationwide strike on the election. “By boycotting the election, Iranians could show to the world that the current regime is illegitimate. With Khatami in power, there will be more of the same troubles for another four years.”

Another key factor in this tangled web for power is the viewpoint of the younger population. Roughly 60 percent of Iran’s 62 million population is under 25. This impressionable group has embraced Khatami as their sole answer to the problems facing Iran. “The young are hot-tempered,” Maroufi explained. “They only need one match to explode. They all hope that Khatami can be their savior.

“Most of Iran’s youth was too young to experience the 1979 revolution. They have only seen the aftermath — the war with Iraq, the economic turmoil, the murders, the rapes — they want an end to all this violence.”

Maroufi proceeded to say that Iran’s youth may want their own revolution.

“Khatami cannot pull down the fanatics from power. He doesn’t have enough influence to change the mentality of the bureaucracy.” Pari said.

To further complicate matters, the Bush administration has imposed another round of economic sanctions for Iran. This has enraged both Iranians living abroad and in their homeland.

“The United State’s policy towards Iran has isolated the country. It has limited the amount of contact the West has with normal Iranians,” Pari said. “It is awful for Iran, and politically helpful for the Muslim fanatics.”

One thing that the majority of Iranian-Americans agree on is that they did not have a significant effect on the result of the election. “What is going on in Iran concerns only domestic Iranians. Us Iranian Americans exerted no influence on Khatami’s win,” Maroufi admitted.

Mohammed Khatami is no longer perceived as the bright hope for the future of Iran. Instead, Iranians are faced with what some call a ‘farce’ of a government.

“A referendum has yet to be conducted to allow the people to choose from a Secular Republic, a Constitutional monarchy, a Theocratic republic, or some other form of government,” pointed out Sheibany. “He [Khatami] has even forgotten the original promise of freedom that he gave when he first ran for office. Khatami says he will focus on unemployment now, not on political freedoms.”