Iran - Then and Now

In college, I had a pretty modern Iranian roommate. She usually wore rather tight bell-bottomed jeans.  She and her friends were somewhat negative about the Shah, whose regime had allowed her to come to the U.S. They had heard about the Ayatollah in France who might improve human rights in Iran. Lots of Iranians felt the same way. But when "the revolution" came, she quickly became suspect because she had lived in America. In those days, back in Iran before the Revolution, Iranians dressed like this.

NOW, women are gang-raped and murdered by government militias for failing to cover themselves sufficiently. And 12-year-old girls are encouraged to become prostitutes, in "temporary marriages" near religious shrines. With permission of their father or male guardian. To protect public morality.  There is unrest in Iran again. Before the American action against Saddam Hussein, hated (by the Left) "neo-conservative" Michael Ledeen had recommended non-military action to support revolutionary forces in Iran rather than invasion of Iraq. He hasn't changed his mind.

As the regime increasingly wages war against itself, the comings and goings of seemingly powerful people have become almost impossible to sort out. There have been repeated purges in the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards, and the supreme commander, Gen. Jafari, has now publicly stated that many senior officers had actively sided with the opposition. Why then, the general was asked, had he not punished them properly (with torture and death)? His answer was telling: it’s better to convince them of the error of their ways.

This is a surprising answer, to be sure, but after all it is the same answer that the supreme leader has implicitly given to the much asked question: why have you not properly punished the leaders of the Green Movement, Mousavi and Karroubi? In both cases, the regime is afraid to move decisively against their opponents. Khamenei & Co. are real tough guys when it comes to torturing and killing students, political activists, homosexuals, Bahais, Christians and women. But even when it comes to their favorite targets — the women — they retreat in the face of strong protests, as in the recent case when they suspended the stoning of a poor woman unfairly accused of adultery. Her plight has attracted international attention, and the regime backed off.