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CAIRO, Egypt - In the aftermath of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's ascendancy to the presidency of Iran,
the country's opposition is beginning to show signs
of unifying as the clerical regime wages a war
against internal dissent.
Yesterday, the regime closed all schools in Tehran,
citing poor air quality, after word leaked of the
first major demonstrations since the summer.
Nonetheless, a rally at Tehran University attracted
300 demonstrators amid a heavy police presence on
campus. Of note is that before the rally against the
new president, a coalition of Kurdish students also
signed on to the call.
In Brussels on Monday, a meeting of 250 delegates
for a new "World Congress of the Iran Referendum
Movement," an outgrowth of efforts last year to find
support for changing the charter of the Islamic
Republic, agreed on a slate of principles and a plan
to begin drafting a new constitution by the end of
2006.
The developments in Iran and abroad are significant
after many activists became despondent after the
hunger strike of dissident author Akbar Ganji did
not end with his release from prison. Mr. Ganji,
according to his wife, has been confined to a
solitary cell for over 90 days at Evin prison. For a
brief moment over the summer, his open letters
against the supreme leader catapulted him to
national attention as he subsisted on water for
nearly three months. But as he has remained in jail
and the former intelligence commander, Mr.
Ahmadinejad, has placed hardliners loyal to the
ruling clerics throughout the government, the space
for political opposition has dwindled.
But, according to Iranian author and former
political prisoner, Amir Abbas Fakhravar, the era of
Mr. Ahmadinejad has also spurred previously warring
factions among the opposition to come together.
"You cannot imagine to what extent the selection not
the election of Ahmadinejad has had a hidden
benefit," Mr. Fakhravar said in a telephone
interview."All the sectors of the student and labor
organizations and young people have become much
closer than before, and became more united. There
has been a hardened unity created."
Mr. Fakhravar was first sentenced in November 2002
for writing a book, "This Place Is Not a Ditch,"
which included a brutal assessment of Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and urged Iranians
to reject the current regime. He was temporarily
released from prison this spring to complete his
university degree, but has not returned to prison.
In October, he learned from his sister that there
was a warrant from the government-aligned militia,
known as the Basij, to arrest him and is now
plotting his escape from the country.
Mr. Fakhravar also noted the participation of three
Iranian opposition leaders in the proceedings in
Brussels over the weekend. Because they plan on
returning to the Islamic Republic, he requested that
their names remain anonymous. According to a
spokesman for the organization, Pooya Dayanim, other
exile leaders at the conference were affiliated with
the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, the
Constitutional Monarchists and former supporters of
reformist president Mohammed Khatami.
The statement of principles from the group in many
ways clarified earlier misgivings some members of
the opposition held regarding the strategy of
pursuing a constitutional referendum in Iran prior
to regime change.
"The referendum is not going to replace the
political struggle to change the political regime or
the format of the future Iranian government," its
statement of principles said. "The referendum
movement is going to attempt to expand and bring in
people and political organizations of various
political persuasions." The document also expresses
support for granting ethnic minorities "cultural
social and linguistic rights." It did not, however,
embrace the principle of federalism, which would
invest powers of taxation, for example, in the hands
of ethnic geographic conclaves, similar to the
arrangement currently in Iraq.
Mr. Fakhravar said that in prison, Mr. Ganji is
increasingly emerging as a leader of the opposition
as it unifies. "The best person to lead the movement
is Akbar Ganji. He is behind bars, but he would be
the leader," he said.
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