Iran's culture war intensifies

"There is no law in Iran that prohibits displaying and wearing neckties, or selling dogs, or refusing food to women in makeup. They are imposing their own interpretations of Islamic rules as law," Karim Arqandehpour, the deputy head of the Press Guild Association, told the Associated Press.

Now, young Iranians are watching anxiously to see whether the president, who has generally avoided confrontation with the hard-liners, can prevent a return to a repressive social order.

On Sunday, Khatami, a middle-ranking cleric, gave them hope with a spirited speech to parliament. He denounced the tougher Islamic rules, including public floggings, which his reform camp fears are alienating the public and damaging Iran's attempts to cultivate an image abroad as "a model of religious democracy."

"In a society in which there is discrimination, poverty, and graft, you cannot expect youngsters not to break the law and stay the right course," he said. "With tough punishments [alone], you cannot remove social corruption.... Social corruption has deep roots and to remove those roots we should work together."

The reformist interior minister, Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, also challenged the police crackdown, and he denounced the public lashings. "The [judiciary officials] have not thought out the consequences of such punishments.... We need to tune in divine teachings with our social situation to avoid hurting Iran's image."

In what analysts see as a positive sign, the floggings have spawned a lively and serious public debate on subjects once considered off-limits. Reformers, buoyant after Khatami's huge election victory, are preparing to use their muscle in parliament to pass laws forbidding public floggings. Even some senior religious leaders have questioned the validity of public punishments according to Islamic law.

"It's the first time that figures within the system have publicly criticized the use of Islamic punishments," says a Western diplomat. "It has become center stage in the political debate.

Although those convicted of morality offenses are routinely flogged in detention centers, public lashings had been extremely rare until recently. Hard-liners insist that the Koran, Islam's holy book, sanctions 80 lashes for drinking alcohol. Others say the punishment is discretionary, and that the application of such sentences in public is an incorrect interpretation of the Koran.

Most analysts in Iran say the timing of the cultural backlash, coming on the heels of June's presidential elections, proves it is primarily politically motivated. However, they add that many conservative judges are also genuinely concerned at what they perceive as a rise in immorality, which they blame on Khatami's tolerant policies.

"There is a trend in the Islamic world generally that when people get worried about social problems, the old guard, or fundamentalists, resort to fundamentalist punishments," the diplomat said.

Morteza Tehrani, a hard-line cleric in Qom, denounced reformers for challenging Islamic punishments. "What are these clownish words? You are destroying religion, challenging God's edicts," he sneered. "You think you can say anything just because you got the people's votes?"

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