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Democracy in Iran DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 Other Palgrave Pivot titles Mark Chou: Theorising Democide: Why and How Democracies Fail David Levine: Pathology of the Capitalist Spirit: An Essay on Greed, Hope, and Loss G. Douglas Atkins: Alexander Pope’s Catholic Vision: “Slave to No Sect” Frank Furedi: Moral Crusades in an Age of Mistrust: The Jimmy Savile Scandal Edward J. Carvalho: Puerto Rico Is in the Heart: Emigration, Labor, and Politics in the Life and Work of Frank Espada Peter Taylor-Gooby: The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can Do About It Clayton D. Drinko: Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition Robert T. 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Grigoriadis: Instilling Religion in Greek and Turkish Nationalism: A “Sacred Synthesis” Jonathan Hart: Textual Imitation: Making and Seeing in Literature DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 Democracy in Iran Ramin Jahanbegloo Associated Professor, University of Toronto DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 © Ramin Jahanbegloo 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 ISBN 978–1–137–33016–1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN 978-1-137-33017-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137330178 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. www.palgrave.com/pivot Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction 1 Part I Iran: The Anguished Odyssey of Democracy 1 Iran: A Century of Undemocratic Violence 10 2 Iranian Encounters with Democracy 23 3 Democracy and Lawfulness in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution 33 4 The Road to Authoritarian Violence: From the Coup of 1953 to the Revolution of 1979 49 5 The Two Sovereignties and Islamist Violence in Iran 67 Part II Democratic Nonviolence: The New Imperative 6 Struggle for Democracy in Iran 80 Epilogue 94 Bibliography 101 Index 107 DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 v Acknowledgments It is a pleasant duty to record my debts of gratitude to all those who have supported my research and the writing of this book. First and foremost thanks and respect to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his teachings of nonviolence whose wisdom has had a profound impact on my work. I am also deeply grateful to the Political Science depart- ment at the University of Toronto and especially to its Chair, David Cameron. My interactions with peers and students at the University of Toronto since the year 2008 have allowed me to reflect upon and refine further some of the earlier arguments of this book. A special and grateful thanks to my assistant and friend, Richie Nojang Khatami, for his editing prowess, his good humor, and his hard work. I would also like to thank a number of people for their assistance in making this book possible. Many of these people have assisted me in the past few years in dif- ferent manners: Saeed Rahnema, Farzin Vahdat, Melissa Williams, Elisabeth Young Bruehel, John Ralston Saul, Ashis Nandy, Sudhir Kakar, Michael Walzer, Rajmohan Gandhi, Bhikhu Parekh, Derek Allen, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Nayereh Tohidi, Haideh Moghissi, Roberto Toscano, Giancarlo Bosetti, Nina Von Furstenberg, Fred Dallmayr, and members of the Agora Philosophical Forum. On a higher plane, I hope that members of my immediate family accept this book on nonviolence as a token of my sincere gratitude for all they have endured in the course of the last decade. Thank you to my mother, Khojasteh Kia, whose feedback I value the most in the world, and to my wife, whose love is precious, for helping vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 Acknowledgments vii me see nonviolence through the eyes of Iranian women. Finally, I dedi- cate this book to my daughter, Afarin. I have been forever changed by the time I have been spending with her and watching the future of Iran from a front-row seat. DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 Introduction Abstract: The modern history of Iran has been a narrative of violence in the form of conflicting discourses between the religious and the secular or between the modernists and the traditionalists. However, the ethical moment of nonviolence has become an ethical standard for the Iranian civil society against the absolutist nature of politics in contemporary Iran. The use of violence in contemporary Iranian politics has continuously diminished the power of those who use it. But the power of Iranian civil society has never grown out of the barrel of a gun. It has removed tyrants and changed social values by using its moral capital and practicing nonviolence. Jahanbegloo, Ramin. Democracy in Iran. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. doi: 10.1057/9781137330178. DOI: 10.1057/9781137330178 1 2 Democracy in Iran Few observers could deny that contemporary Iran, in light of its religious and political characteristics, is a country of violence. An observation and analysis of this violence, however, should not be extended to a rapid conclusion that Iranian society is alien and resistant to any nonviolent change. Since 1979, Iran’s republican potentials and civic capacities have been overshadowed by the “Islamic theocratic mantle.” For many analysts, Iran simply became a violent theocracy with no hope to forge a path toward nonviolent and democratic change. One of the central arguments of this book is that while Iran has been involved with politics of violence (especially during the last 100 years), inherited from its long and complex history, it would be absurd to consider nonviolence as an impossibility for Iran and Iranians. Moreover, it challenges a broader assumption about the inapplicability of what we can call a “Gandhian Moment” to Iran. This book seeks to show the potentialities and mechanisms of the “Gandhian Moment” in Iran, situating it firmly in the perspective of intellectual and social movements within the country, but also suggesting methods to understand the levels of violence in Iranian contemporary history. Therefore, in essence, this book is about an idea, namely nonviolence, and the obstacles to its development and consoli- dation. The central motif of this study is to refute the powerful political myth of violent emancipation in Iran, as if every step toward democracy in that country should be accompanied by the exclusion and murder of a religious, ethnic or intellectual minority. History bears witness, and eve- ryday experience confirms, that the truth becomes a vehicle for violence as soon as it strays from the imperative of nonviolence. George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”1 Santayana was one to believe that the pos- sibility of human progress was dependent on our human potential to retain our historical memory and build upon it. Yet, if we consider the generations of Iranians who have endured political violence and tyran- nical rule, it seems probable that the opposite holds more truth in the historical record of the Iranian nation. It might come to us as a question why a nation which remembers its past, lives its past and honors its past is routinely repeating the repertoires of violence that constitute its legacy. After all, to remember an act of violence and to condemn it is to struggle against it, whether there are individuals who were directly or indirectly harmed by it or who directly or indirectly organized it.