Tucson eyes on Iran
Monday, February 9, 2004
JUDY CARLOCK
Tucson Citizen
The Feb. 20 elections will not be legal and free. My party will not participate in this election."
- Deputy Speaker Reza Khatami, barred candidate for parliament
Though Iran's hard-line regime faces perhaps the most significant challenge of its 25-year history, some Tucsonans from Iran are skeptical it will lead to major change.
With "feet in both countries," they have seen a loosening of some strictures - most visibly the dress code imposed on women. But the conservative clerics known collectively as "the mullahs" retain a solid grip on government.
A showdown may be imminent. Of the 8,000 candidates for the 290-seat legislature, 3,600 reformists were barred from running, spurring mass resignations and a call for voters to boycott elections, though some candidates were later reinstated. Most recently, Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, brother of parliament's deputy speaker, has told Iran's supreme leader that elections will go forward, but only under orders.
Tucsonan Kasra Massarat, 44, will have a front-row seat for the controversy: He left for Iran Friday.
Like many Iranians of his generation, he came to America in his teens. Two years later, the Islamic revolution of 1979 erased much of the Westernized life he had known under the shah.
He first returned in 2000.
"It was quite a shock to see the country had gone back 50 years while 23 years had gone forward," he said. "People didn't seem very happy. The women had to wear head scarves."
In the 1970s, "as I remember, my girlfriends were wearing microskirts."
But, he adds, "I expected more of a police state than I encountered. I was shocked at how openly defiant the general public was against the government."
Another surprise: "I had not realized when I went over there how much the common people like Americans in general."
Massarat came here to attend the University of Arizona, where he received a degree in mechanical engineering.
"I never practiced," he said. "During the hostage situation, nobody would hire me, so I started a business" - Asian Trade Oriental Rug Center. On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students had seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, eventually holding 52 hostages captive for 444 days before they were released on the day of President Reagan's inauguration.
Since President Clinton partially lifted a trade embargo, allowing importation of Persian rugs, Massarat has been back to Iran about a dozen times.
"I was there the day before we started the war in Iraq," he said. "I went back two months after the war had ended.
"Everybody was saying, 'When are they going to come and free us up?' "
Most people he talks to, he said, believe that if the United States wanted the hard-liners gone, they would be gone.
In fact, many suspect that it was the United States - which reinstalled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in a 1953 CIA-backed coup after he was forced from the country - that ultimately engineered his ouster.
"Eight out of 10 people fully believed that we overthrew the shah because the price of oil was getting out of hand," he said.
Of the current regime, he said, "This has gone on far longer than anyone imagined.
"I asked a taxi driver, 'Why don't these guys loosen up?' He said, 'They realize the day this regime is overthrown or changed there'll be a mullah hanging from every tree branch in Tehran.'
"These people aren't going to give up power easily, because they have no place to go."
There have been changes, he acknowledged.
"Every once in a while they loosen up on one thing or another," he said. "Eventually, it's gotten better for the people."
But the Iranian people are tired of fighting, said Elahe Peyghambarian, 39, a local health-care professional.
At first, she said, the revolution didn't have a huge impact on her hometown of Mashhad, near the border with Afghanistan.
"It's a religious town. We have a prophet that's buried there. So things are a bit different," she said.
Still, "by the time the shah left there were a lot of women who were not covering themselves."
After the revolution, the dress code was enforced by roving morals squads. In some cases, she said, extremists would throw acid on the faces of uncovered women.
Like Massarat, she was 17 when she left, finishing high school in Albuquerque, N.M., and receiving degrees at the University of Massachusetts and Boston University.
Her last visit was 10 years ago. "Things were a lot better than how it was in the beginning, but there was still a lot of oppression," she said. "Things are looser now. Even looser since the U.S. went into Iraq."
That may be enough for many Iranians, she said.
"In the war with Iraq, so many people died," she said of the 1980-88 war that claimed at least 300,000 Iranian lives. "The people are tired."
They are also often deeply conservative.
"The thing this government has going for it is there are religious people that are concerned about their country," she said. "People feel a little more comfortable that things aren't going to go wild and out of control."
Mo Ehsani, a professor of civil engineering at UA, is openly critical of the government in one area - but it has little to do with the regime.
Ehsani, 49, came to the United States in 1972 to study engineering at the University of Michigan and has lived in Tucson since 1982. An earthquake expert, he predicts that if a temblor - such as the one that killed 43,000 people in Bam in December - hit Tehran, a million of its residents would die.
Without a system of continuous inspections, he said, actual construction may bear little resemblance to approved plans.
That kind of oversight in Iran is "almost unheard of. I hate to say this: I think it's more or less part of a culture. If government thought this was a valid cause, they should enforce it. But they don't. They are very lax."
Though he believes this system was not much different during the shah's reign, he said it is up to the current government to do something about it.
The crisis over elections may spark changes, he said. But that's far from certain.
"Obviously, this system isn't right," Ehsani said. "I don't think you can have democracy if you cannot vote for the person you want to vote for. It's not democracy the way it's known in the rest of the world."
Many reformists are asking voters to stay away from the polls - even though low turnout would likely benefit the conservatives.
That's if the elections go forward. All 28 of Iran's governors have disavowed administering ballots that they consider illegal.
"If large numbers (don't vote), the legitimacy of the election could be questioned," Ehsani said. "I'm not sure how that kind of outcome could be ignored. But at the same time, especially for people who live in Iran, this is not such an easy thing."
He would welcome more openness, to foster intellectual exchanges and bring more visitors to Iran.
"If they were to open the doors of this country, there would be tremendous potential," he said. "Here is a country that has so much natural resources and natural beauty. It would be a wonderful place to visit."
Americans might be surprised at the reception they'd get.
"I would say by far the majority of Iranians have very warm feelings toward the U.S.," Ehsani said, noting a candlelight vigil residents of Tehran held in support of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"At the human, individual level, there is a lot of good will," he said. "But for the governments, it may be advantageous to have a so-called 'axis of evil.'
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=020904a1_iranians