Iran: A reoccurring nightmare

The population of Iran is about 68 million, somewhat less than Germany at 82 million and about where France is at 63 million. Its size is a little larger than Alaska. Two-thirds of the population is under the age of 30, and they have a literacy rate of about 82 percent. Women compose about half of the incoming university classes.

These are an intelligent people.

The area occupied by Monaco is about three times the size of the Mall in Washington, D.C. I've walked it. (The Mall, that is.) Monaco's population is 32,796. Yet we Americans know more about Monaco than Iran. Monaco is the stuff of glamorous and exciting Hollywood movies and other glitterati of the entertainment world. In other words - useless information.

We hear about an Iranian president, a disputed election, a lively and boisterous legislature, and a powerful judiciary, and we think: Hey - we have a lot in common with Iran.

Wrong - but interesting to examine - and a bit of a scam on closer inspection. Let me explain.

The Iranian electorate have no control over the selection of nominees for office. All candidates for president or parliament, as well as candidates for the Assembly of Experts have to be qualified by the Guardian Council in order to run for election.

On the surface the most striking difference is that Iran is an Islamic theocracy, and that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the "Supreme Leader" - think "God," as would an Iranian - exerts political and ideological control over a theocratic system controlled by clerics. This is the Islamic theocratic guardianship based on the Koran known as The Guardianship Council, a constitutionally mandated 12-member council composed of six "Islamic" jurists selected by The Supreme Leader, and six jurists, specializing in different areas of the law, selected by the Iranian parliament.

But the ruse is that parliament candidates - Majlis - and all legislation must be approved by this same Guardian Council. So an "election" is really a pseudo-election process where thousand of candidates are disqualified from running for office by the council.

You will recall that more than 400 candidates for president were disqualified in the recent election that ultimately had incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad facing off against Hussein Mousavi and Akbar Hashemi Rafsenjani. The council consistently disqualifies reform-minded candidates.

And although the presidency is the second highest ranking office, and has a high public profile, its "power" is subordinated entirely to the Supreme Leader. The president has no control over the commanders of the armed forces and no authority over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, an ideological fighting force separate from the Iranian army that reports to the Supreme Leader. It has been labeled a terrorist group, similar to the Soviet KGB, and is in control of 400,000 Basij volunteers, who are the baton-wielding thugs we have seen on TV beating up and killing protesters.

The most obscure of Iran's governing bodies is the Assembly of Experts, which consists of 86 "virtuous and learned clerics" who are elected by the public for eight-year terms. But guess what - the Council of Guardians selects the candidates. So once again, the voter has no control over the process. These are the guys who then pick the Supreme Leader from their ranks. (In a way something like the Vatican's College of Cardinals.)

So why are the young people in Iran pressing for the victory of Hussein Mousavi over Ahmadinejad, given that both were anointed by the dreaded council - and not the voters? Some observers think they see Mousavi, former prime minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and his popular academic wife, who campaigned alongside her husband, as a metaphor for democracy. Both had an active role in the success of the Iranian revolution against the monarchy. More than 100 Mousavi supporters and reformist leaders and their relatives have been arrested.

And Rafsenjani was president of Iran from 1989 until 1997, and - get this - is currently chairman of the Assembly of Experts. Some say that he is trying to replace the Supreme Leader and has the support of Iraq's Ali al-Sistani. Who knows? It is said that both believe that Islam can exist in a democracy. There are highly placed officials in the government who have little respect for Ahmadinejad. All this has served to highlight deep divisions in Iran after three decades of Islamic rule.

Pearl Buck (1892-1973) said it all in "What America Means to Me": "None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free."