Pro-democracy elements trapped inside the Iranian theocracy have gone out even farther on a limb to advance their cause. This feels a bit like watching Poland when Solidarity was making its daring moves, inch by inch, to erode the authority of Polish Communism.
In a daring protest described Tuesday as a "cry of agony," more than 100 reformist lawmakers accused Iran's supreme leader of allowing freedoms to be "trampled" and rigging upcoming parliament elections in favor of hard-line backers.Posted by Alan at February 18, 2004 10:48 PMThe attack -- in a letter sent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- raised political dissent to levels unimaginable just a few weeks ago and shattered taboos about public criticism of Iran's unchallenged political and spiritual authority.
The letter struck right at a core complaint: that Khamenei's regime has corrupted the spirit of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled a Western-backed monarchy. His supporters believe he is incapable of error and answerable only to God.
"The popular (1979) revolution brought freedom and independence for the country in the name of Islam. But now you lead a system in which legitimate freedoms and the rights of the people are being trampled in the name of Islam," the legislators said in the letter, made public Tuesday -- a day after being sent to Khamenei.
The missive also underlined a new and aggressive form of defiance by liberals booted from the political process. Critics call Friday's parliamentary elections a charade after the disqualification of more than 2,400 pro-reform candidates.
"It is a cry of agony for what's happening to our country," said Reza Yousefian, a letter supporter and parliament member who has joined appeals for a mass boycott of the balloting. "We may see a strong social backlash."