Rouhani In Iran

Fast forward twenty-five years, and we arrive at the beginning of the Iranian Revolution. In August of 1978, riots and civil violence were escalating dramatically within Iran, as supporters of the Iranian Shah and the Supreme Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini clashed in demonstrations that frequently turned lethal. The problem for American President Jimmy Carter was that both sides represented different evils, as the Shah employed the use of the SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, as well as torture to maintain control; but Khomeini represented a vehement hatred for all Western influence in his country, and his supporters often lit cinemas and other Western symbols on fire (Farber, 92). One incident in particular sparked the beginning of a

Iran has made headlines consistently in the past few years. Yet, the most horrific and large scale events to take place in the country since the Iranian Revolution failed to make headlines in most parts of the country. The headlines that it had managed to make didn’t focus on the people. This is because dehumanization, one of the eight stages to genocide, was utilized by the Iranian Government following the 2009 election in order to force a silence and content over their population that continues today. I will be arguing the extent of dehumanization by examining three major tactics as well as examining Iran today. The three major tactics for dehumanization a through their use of rigged elections, civilian clothed militant squads, and post-election procedures including undocumented and uninvestigated disappearance of deviants.

In the early 1950s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was forced out of Iran by leftist and Democratic forces and Mohammed Mossedeq was elected as Iran’s new leader (Bowden, 2006, p. 6). In 1953 with strong influence from the British intelligence the Central Intelligence Agency conducted operations that lead to the return of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the shah of Iran which many and in particular Khomeini and his followers holding the hostages believe was a coupe (BBC, 2009). The Shah created and used the SAVAK, secret police, to keep a strong hand on the people until the revolution in 1979(White, 2014, pp. 209). 16 years prior to the revolution in 1961, the Shah exiled the Ruhollah Khomeini, who was a master of Islam to Iraq (PBS, 2013a).

After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, president Ali Rafsanjani came on power. One of his goals was to ameliorate relation with Western powers. Then, in 1997, Iran elected President President Muhammed Khatami. He was a reformist. Thanks to him and his efforts, relations with the western society was

The Iranian Revolution determined who would have the power to govern the country. In Khomeini’s document, “Unveiling the Mysteries”, he apprises who should have the power to govern a country. He believes the religious leaders should take control when he says, “... the Government must be directed and organized according to the divine law, and this is only possible with the supervision of the clergy”. According to Khomeini, religious leaders should control the government. There would be a president

Asghar Farhadi, an Iranian man, said in an interview with an Australian reporter “It's very difficult to talk about religion in Iran because religion has gotten so mixed up with politics,” (Matini 1). The country of Iran is greatly influenced by religion and government power.

During the height of the protests on January 14th, 2010, pro-reform professor at Shahid Beheshti University Javid Etaat's challenged Khamenei directly in a broadcasted debate. He argued that calling the Green Movement a “velvet revolution” implied that the regime was admitting to being a dictatorship, because a velvet revolution by definition characterizes revolts against dictatorships. By issuing this challenge over the airwaves, Etaat forced the government to either admit “people cannot achieve their goals through the institutions the system offers...and face real revolution, or allow the constitution—its democratic principles—to prevail” (39). Sure enough, Khamenei stopped calling the protests a velvet revolution and started calling them fatneh, or “troubles.” He started treating them as such too. Following a situation where Khamenei was initially suppressing the voice of the opposition, he ultimately returned to an attentive role and responded to the people's

Additionally, the deal with Iran will not only give relief for Iran but also give guarantee for the United States and the rest of the world that Iran’s nuclear capacity leftovers solely nonviolent with no probable military dimensions and with sufficient time for the international community to notice a breakout, should Iran ever feel the unlikely need to “dash for the

The current, existing institutions set up in Iran would qualify this country as both consensual and majoritarian. The Iranian executive branch is composed of a Supreme Leader elected by the Assembly of Experts, a president and vice president, oversight bodies and a cabinet (World Fact Book). The Supreme leader is appointed for life by the Assembly Experts, not through the people. Iran also has a weak, unicameral Islamic legislative branch. It is also important to note that Iran does not put a lot of its attention toward formalized political parties and interest groups. Iran is a mixture of consensual and majoritarian government, but recent events and other governmental acts prove otherwise. While most aspects in its written Constitution label Iran as consensual, the government does not always act that way. With nearly seventy-seven million people in the country with ethnic groups including Persian, Azeri, Kurd, Lur, Baloch, Arab, Turkmen and Turkic tribes, and others, Iran should make the educated decision to move towards a more consensual government to better represent their people and include minority representation (Iran). To make this transformation, the Iranian government should make changes dealing with the election system, executive power sharing, balance of power, political parties and federalism.

In some factors though, it could be argued that they stepped a little step forward. Being that the people of Iran let a corrupt man named Ayatollah Khomeini into power who held rigged elections and made decisions for the whole country without listening to their opinions. He also created tons of protests which eventually led to violence and the deaths of some civilians. Satti explains,” …I heard gunfire outside. Since this was no longer unusal, I was not really alarmed” (Farmaian 313.) This shows that even a day to day civilian did not care for seeing weapons on the street being used as commonly as seeing day to day occurrences like going to the store or going to work. The Islamic Revolution also did step backward towards the Iranian people by how after Ayatollah Khomeini was elected into power, the riots against him started after they stopped agreeing with him. Sati states, “On December 2, 1978, Moharram arrived and during its ten days the violence increased again. Ayatollah Khomeini exhorted everyone to unite and sacrifice themselves in blood like Iman Hossein, until the soldiers threw away their arms to join the people’s cause. Crowds large and small filled the streets, angry men and black-veiled women with waving fists and bulging eyes. Neighborhood organizers and the “beards” kept the protests disciplined, but it was impossible to go near a crowd without fearing

The purpose of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution is to restore the role of Islam in government. He argued that the Sha was overthrown by Islam and the people who did during the struggle were Muslim. Khomeini also stated that those people were peasants, tradesman, workers and committed religious followers. He believes that an Islamic state base on the Quran should be created and the uloma should manage public affairs. Ayatollah Khomeini make attacks against the west and made sure to discredited them and all the people who allies with them. He argued that superpowers only care about themselves.” Is human rights they really care about, or the rights of the superpowers?” On top of that, Khomeini tried to convince Iranian to not attempt to westernize

Iran was known as Persia before 1935 and was the ultimate empires of the olden period. When the monarchy system ended in 1979, Iran became an Islamic republic and the political system was under the control of the supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Now it is known as the Islamic republic of Iran. The ‘Iranian revolution’ was the finish line for the Shah rule that had isolated affective political and religious powers with programme linked to Westernization and modernization connected with huge oppression of rebellion.

Beginning in Tehran in 1978, where the people hoped for the regime to collapse and organized “down with the Shah” protests–including Marji voicing her support for the movement at a young age. Her uncle, Anoush, pointedly said the people must be trusted in the election because it cannot be worse than under the Shah—who was considered a tool of Western oppression. 99.99% voted for the Islamic Republic. Nationalism and religion united the people as forced secularism had been a major factor behind the revolutionary movement in the first place. “The people, then, were united in their dissatisfaction, and when the demand for an Islamic republic was raised, no one opposed it. The whole country in unison demanded the foundation of an Islamic

President Hassan Rouhani recently called the nuclear deal the shining sun which everybody does witness, he may be right but what he does not mention is that the shining sun of the nuclear deal has not warmed the ordinary Iranians. Iran’s statistical center announced the disappointing growth rate of 0.7 percent between March 2015 and December 2015 for Iran’s economy. The stagnant growth is combined with an increase in the Gini Index, which measures inequality. After almost three years, Rouhani has failed to deliver his economic promises. The partial sanction relief and the consequent removal of sanctions have not translated into steady growth and prosperity. In 15 months, Rouhani faces re-election contest, his economic failure puts him on

The MEK has a turbulent past and a background of information is needed to understand their relationship with the Middle East and West. The People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK) came into existence in the 1960s as an armed guerrilla movement inside of Iran. The original founders of this movement were university students led by Mohammad Hanifnezhad. Homa Katouzian asserts that, “After the arrest and military trial of their leaders, and especially in consequence of the military suppression of the revolt of June 1963, they, like some other young dissidents in Iran and the West, reached the view that the only avenue open to them was armed struggle. However, they were raided by SAVAK and almost all their leaders and members were arrested in 1971, before they had taken any effective action.” Their movement almost died with them, however they had ideals that appealed to the Iranian people and more would soon follow. Most of the organization adopted a practice of following Marxist-Leninists ideals and political philosophy. The MEK was a militant organization that intended to overthrow the Iranian government. They were deemed as terrorist organization by many western governments. MEK at first was against the West and their influence as they tried to topple the shah in the 1960s and 1970s.