Saturday 19 May, 2001
Iran: A Land Of Contrasts
Iran's eighth presidential election takes place on 8 June. Whilst the popular, reformist President – Mohammed Khatami – is likely to win a second term, his plans for change, backed by millions of Iranians, have been blocked by hard-liners who still hold most of the power.
So what is the reality of living in Iran? Ahead of the presidential election, BBC Tehran Correspondent, Jim Muir, reports for Assignment on the state of the nation.
Tehran White-out
In February it snowed quite heavily in Tehran. It often does, though people who’ve never been here somehow imagine the country is composed only of hot dusty deserts and lots of camels. That’s what it’s like in summer. We have skiing here too.
On the heaviest night of the snow, I was at a wedding on the other side of town. Driving back through the blizzard late in the evening, the highway leading to my part of north Tehran was almost blocked by snow.
Being a mad romantic, I thought I’d play the eccentric Brit and go for a Dr Zhivago-style lone walk through the snow in the big park at Jamshidieh, which climbs steeply up the mountainsides towering over the city.
My notion of striking solitary poses in the white out was shattered as I approached the park. Hundreds of Iranians had had the same idea. One o’clock in the morning, and there was a traffic-jam of cars slithering up and down the approach road and fighting for parking space.
In the park, crowds of mad frolickers hurled snow at each other, or just walked round hand in hand. And it wasn’t just wild young people either. There were some very normal, middle-aged people also wandering round in the snow in the middle of the night.
I told the Swedish ambassador about this the next day. He said: “Hmf. In my country when it snows, people go home and go to bed.” Not in Iran.
| ‘In this country, people seize any chance they can to have some fun. Especially when it’s free. Because there isn’t much of it around.’ | |
Fresh Air And Freedom
Mountain climbing with your lover can cost you your liberty in Iran, but fewer and fewer modern Iranians are buying into the idea that such activities go against Islam.
Every Thursday and even more so on Fridays, thousands of people disappear from Tehran and traipse up the ravines that cut through the Alborz mountains, the big barrier between Tehran and the Caspian sea (Mount Damavand is 5601 metres, nearly 17,000 feet).
Some are fitness freaks out for some serious exercise. Others – many of them young – just want to cut loose and have a good time in fresh air and freedom. The morals police (‘Forces for Promoting Virtue and Combating Vice’) often hang around at the bottom, scrutinising and sometimes arresting young couples. But their devotion to duty peters out with altitude. So further up, there’s music, dancing, and other unseemly, un-Islamic behaviour.
Social Problems
But this is Iran, land of contrasts.
| ‘In keeping with the image of Iran prevailing abroad, some people do go to Friday prayers and chant slogans like “Death to America!”’ | |
I go there from time to time, and it’s a good reminder of the roots of the system I’m living in. But they’re a dwindling band these days.
Leaders of the Islamic Republic are concerned about the drop in mosque attendance – and a whole range of other social problems. One of the things that have surprised me is how virtually none of these problems are taboo any more.
Issues like prostitution – a growing phenomenon – are now being discussed openly in the press. In several recent TV stories, we were shown drug addicts (there are officially 1.2m of them) openly shooting-up. To my surprise, there was no comeback at all. That’s not to say that everything’s suddenly become free and easy. It’s still very patchy.
Election Tension
With election tension rising, there’s a bit of a backlash going on. Literally, in some cases. Various friends of friends were arrested in police raids at raunchy parties at New Year (Western, not Iranian – that’s on 21 March). Many were severely lashed before being released.
There is still compulsory virginity tests for girls. Extra lashes for failure. Not nice. There’s a similar duality in our daily work. Recently, we did a story pegged to the 20th anniversary of the war with Iraq. Things that I thought would be impossible – like filming along the strategic Iraqi border – fell into our lap like ripe plums.
Things that I thought would be easy – like showing Iranians who are still dying of lung collapse years after being gassed in the war – turned out to be very hard indeed to get. That’s just one of the things that makes Iran an interesting place to be.
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| Election Candidates |
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The Guardians Council – which vets candidates to ensure that they comply with Iran’s Islamic values - has approved 10 men as candidates for the 8 June poll.
As well as Mohammad Khatami, the approved council selection includes Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani and Ahmad Tavakoli, who won four million votes when he ran in 1993.
Farah Khosravi, the most prominent woman to have registered, stepped down before the final list of approved candidates was released. The council has now disqualified all of the other 24 female candidates. |
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