Imagine going to war for your country in Iraq. Now, imagine losing a leg while defending the principles your nation and its people stand for. You come home and are celebrated as a hero and a liberator. That is until one day you use the most powerful weapon of all – speech. The next thing you know, you find yourself facing a death sentence after enduring 74 lashes and eight years in prison. Not what you would expect for a disabled war hero, or for any citizen of a civilized nation.
Hashem Aghajari, university professor in Iran, now faces this grim fate. He is accused of the crime of apostasy for calling for the separation of church and state in Iran and saying that Muslims should not “blindly follow” clerical authority. (Apostasy is an ancient crime originating in the 14th century in which one renounces one’s faith.)
Iran is a nation where the power really rests with the hard right Islamic religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Whatever power he, and fellow government clerical extremists, feel like giving to popularly elected president Mohammad Khatami and the parliament is very limited. This oppressive, unrepresentative regime has been lumped into President Bush’s so-called “Axis-of Evil” along with Iraq, and North Korea.
The interesting thing about the arrest and subsequent sentencing of Mr. Aghajari is the response of university students throughout Iran. Over 4,000 students rose up in demonstrations only to be brutally put down by members of a hard-line government militia. The bravado shown by these individuals is evident in the remarks of student Abdullah Momeni, who was quoted in The New York Times saying, “We demand unconditional release of Mr. Aghajari but demand freedom of speech and opinion for everyone and forever.” The student’s active response penetrated even the thick skull of Ayatollah Khamenei who has agreed to review the case, creating a glimmer of hope that the death sentence might be revoked.
Americans need to remember students like Adullah Momeni when using a rather broad brush to paint the people of the Middle East and, in particular, countries like Iran, as terrorists and haters of all things American. The power of students and professors like Hashem Aghajari have led to pro-democratic legislation such as a bill in parliament that will limit the power of the mighty religious Guardian Council (six religious scholars appointed by the Ayatollah and six Muslim lawyers approved by the Parliament who ensure conformity of legislation with Islamic law) with respect to overturning acts of parliament and vetoing bills. Another pro-democracy bill currently being worked on aims at strengthening moderate President Khatami’s constitutional authority over the nation’s courts currently virtually monopolized by the religious right. All people yearn to be freed from the yokes of oppressive.
Iran would seem to be an unlikely place to find modern day patriots, but indeed it is. We students in America have tremendous power to speak, write and express ourselves. Politically, this nation needs to be shaken up. Dialogue from college campuses has in the past been monumentally important in shaping social reform. If we could push more for democracy from within and less from above, perhaps the world could come closer to living in peace. A nation’s people are where the real power lies. Let us savor and be thankful for the rights and liberties we have here and help people achieve the same. Let us do it not with 25,000-pound “daisy-cutter” bombs, but with words and actions.
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