Twitter-mania reached a new high this week as a key means of communicating the events in Iran, where the aftermath of last week’s presidential election is still playing out.
The State Department asked the service, which has yet to make money and that many people are still trying to figure out how to use, to delay scheduled maintenance so that information could keep flowing as Iran cracked down on media inside the country.
And while it is modern methods the protesters are using to voice opposition to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the battle they’re fighting is really quite old.
To better understand the events of today and what happens from here, let’s take a look back.
The power structure in Iran
First, it’s important to recognize that Iran’s president is only the second most powerful person in the country. The real authority lies with the Supreme Leader—currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—the top religious and political figure, who in turn appoints many of the leaders in the various governing bodies in Iran and also the head of the state media. Khamenei is the one who called for an investigation into last week’s election after announcing support for Ahmadinejad, and is the one who now says no fraud occurred.
Democracy and religion intersect heavily in Iran andclerics hold many key posts in government, including on the powerful Guardian Council, a 12-member body that can disqualify political candidates and veto legislation passed by parliament. The council is controlled by conservatives. This is the group that reviewed the results of the latest election.
The 1979 Iran Revolution
Iran’s unique government structure dates back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Leading up to the revolution Iran was led by the Shah, a monarch who tried to westernize Iran and who came to power with help from the U.S. CIA. While Iranians experienced more social freedoms under the Shah, his rule was also repressive and clashed with traditional norms in the Islamic country and he was eventually ousted in a popular uprising.
After the revolution, a new constitution formally brought Islam into the nation’s political structure. Its first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, railed against Western powers and famously labeled the U.S. the “Great Satan.”
Many of us remember the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, when 52 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. A military attempt to rescue the hostages in 1980 failed and they were released the same day Ronald Regan took office in 1981.
Life in Iran and Western relations
Religion has always played a central role in Iran despite the Shah’s attempts to separate it from government. The revolution put much of the country’s power into clerics’ hands. Since 1979 life inside Iran has become quite strict. Women once again had to wear veils and lost the right to divorce and even the right to hold certain jobs (like judges). Inflationsoared, the country has suffered under some Western-backed sanctions, and despite being oil-rich, the poverty rate is high. The revolution marked the end of U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran.
The big picture
The protests in Iran are really symbolic of the freedoms many Iranians hope for. An estimated 70% of Iran’s population is under the age of 30, meaning they haven’t experienced the social freedoms that existed prior to 1979. For now those hopes seem wrapped up in the one man—Mir Hossein Moussavi—who has at least so far lost the election.
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Super helpful! Thanks for the background Stacey!
Posted by: Debbie Leight | June 19, 2009 at 04:35 PM