Iranians on the streets of Tehran marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Imam Hossein in 680
Iran’s electoral controversy of last June is starting to seem like a quaint irrelevance next to the conflict that the two sides are now waging for possession of the country—not simply its institutions and resources, but also its identity and culture. The end of the struggle will almost certainly mean defeat for one party, and not, as once seemed possible, co-existence. There will not only be political winners and losers, but moral ones too. Iranian tradition holds that fortune favours the righteous, and all the characters in this latest epic lay claim to that mantle.
The crisis is part of a struggle between Iranians who want their country to join the community of nations that is roughly in agreement on both the challenges facing the human race and the mechanisms for tackling them, and those who don’t. The supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s main challenger in the June election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, present themselves as modern, plugged-in internationalists. Since the crisis began, they have adeptly used the internet to circumvent the state and publicise their cause to foreign media outlets. The state, on the other hand, has sought solace in principled isolation. Like Kipling’s cat, Iran walks on its own.
Iran withdrew into itself after the revolution of 1979. The Islamic Republic’s semi-democratic, semi-theocratic system of government, topped by an institution known as the Guardianship of the Jurist, is unique. Its participation in the world economy is largely restricted to trade: Iran sells oil and buys capital and consumer goods. Its role in world diplomacy is mostly confined to pursuing its own, anti-western agenda. Ideas and information must get around walls of censorship and official indifference, and sometimes never do. Few Iranians, for instance, seem to know about global warming.
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