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Political Lines Blurred for Iran Vote
Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani gathered at a rally in Tehran on the last day of campaigning.
(By Damir Sagolj -- Reuters)
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Agents from his previous government murdered dissidents inside Iran and overseas. And as recently as 2002, Rafsanjani championed the strict dress codes that kept Iranian women draped in black cloaks and head scarves snug on the forehead.
"A strand of woman's hair emerging from under the hijab ," he had said, "is a dagger drawn towards the heart of Islam."
But in the current campaign, young women wearing no cloaks have cavorted in street rallies for Rafsanjani, 70, who now argues for the freedom to watch satellite television, drink in private and dress largely as one wishes in public.
"No nudity!" he joked recently with an audience of young people.
One of Rafsanjani's campaign handouts has blanks for a name, phone number and e-mail address. A campaign official explained it was a pick-up card, intended for a young man to give to a young woman who catches his eye.
"There is no use imposing tastes, being strict and going backward," Rafsanjani, a cleric widely described as the wealthiest person in the country, told Iranian reporters last week. "Whoever becomes the president cannot work without considering the demands and conditions of the society."
That sentiment was not always apparent to Iran's traditionalists. Eight years ago, they were stunned by the 70 percent landslide that swept Mohammad Khatami into the presidency on promises to provide "personal space" in private life and supply jobs to a huge wave of young people entering the work force.
Four years later, with key initiatives stifled by the clerics in the appointive posts that Iran's constitution installed above any elected government, Khatami won reelection on a vain promise to persevere.
Today, Iranians' attitudes toward another election are defined by continued economic hardship and Khatami's ineffectiveness against his appointed bosses.
"I'm not in favor of any of the candidates," said Morteza Akbari, 20, who said he felt betrayed by his vote for Khatami four years ago. "What we want is freedom. If someone gets it for us, okay. I'll vote for him next time, after he does it."
Yet the campaign to succeed Khatami is taking place on the terms that he defined. Despite all the battles lost, reformers can claim to have won the war.
"In comparison with eight years ago, everything has changed," said Javad Emam, a senior official in the campaign of Mostafa Moin, the leading reformist candidate who polls show as the second choice.
