Under fire from US, Iran reacts by cracking down at home
The government has restricted media, targeted academics, and, in one month this spring, stopped or detained 150,000 people – including four Iranian-Americans. [Editor's note: The original subhead mischaracterized the number detained.]
from the July 13, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
'They're trying to instill fear'
But the US-Iran tug of war is just one factor in a growing number of hard-line moves that some argue have been aimed at preemptively quelling wider unrest, when the regime is under intense pressure both at home and abroad.
"They are trying to instill fear in the population, to let people know that while Iran may be getting a bit beaten up internationally, they are still very much in control domestically," says Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "And people should not think for one second that it is safe to agitate politically, to indulge themselves by engaging in criticism."
Iranian news organizations have been instructed not to report negative news regarding social unrest, gas rationing in the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, the nuclear program, or the impact of UN sanctions on Iran.
Last week, the head of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance warned darkly that he saw "signs of a creeping coup" in the Iranian media. On Wednesday, a ban was reinstated on a moderate Iranian news agency, just as, last week, a ban of seven years on Ham-Mihan newspaper was extended after a brief interlude of publishing.
In a one-month period this spring, security forces stopped or detained 150,000 people – women for insufficiently covered hair and tight-fitting clothes, and men for Western haircuts and attitudes. Most were released quickly, but many "hoodlums and thugs" were arrested, police said.
"This is a comprehensive security plan of the whole [Islamic] system, not just Mr. Ahmadinejad," says Saeed Laylaz, an economic and security analyst in Tehran. The crackdown is being pursued on three levels, says Mr. Laylaz: First, by "attacking ordinary people" to increase the police's street presence. Second, going after student activists – including eight who were arrested after chanting to Ahmadinejad "Death to the dictator" last winter – and intellectuals like the Iranian-Americans, and purging universities of liberal professors. And third, arresting a top insider on spying charges – former nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian – "as a warning notice to people who are thinking that they could do something against the system," says Laylaz.
Economic woes on the rise
Ahmadinejad was elected on the promise of bringing Iran's vast oil wealth to the "dinner table" of poor Iranians. But instead unemployment has risen, along with inflation, and Iran's small refining capacity – Iran imports 40 percent of its gasoline, at $4 billion each year – has forced an easing of long-standing subsidies at the pump. Now cars are limited to just less than a gallon a day, and motorists are fuming.
RSS feed
