October 12, 1999
By Dariush Sajjadi
Azadegan daily has recently made a debut in Iran after reformist dailies Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat were closed down over the past two years by the anti-Khatami and anti-reform Judicial Branch.
Having different managing directors, the four papers, nonetheless, have shared one feature: They were run by the same staff who are viewed as religious intellectuals in Iran. This group was first formed in the 1980s with the aim of publishing the Tehran-based "Kayhan-e Farhangi" (Cultural Kayhan) monthly in which they presented their viewpoints through philosophical and cultural articles.
Their guru was philosopher-critic Dr. Abdul-Karim Soroush who, by setting forth the theory of "religious relativism" in Kayhan-e Farhangi, challenged the staunch supporters of traditional jurisprudence.
After some time, this group left Kayhan-e Farhangi due to differences with the then manager of the Kayhan Institute and started publishing the Kiyan monthly. During the presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, they presented their philosophical views under the guidance of Dr. Soroush and his fellow thinkers in Kiyan.
This group is characterized as being outside the sphere of government or better say as not being in the "inner circle".
After President Mohammad Khatami came to power and set forth the idea of "civil community", this group launched the Jame’ah daily which served as a serious and all-out challenge to the conservative wing.
Even though this group was outside the sphere of government, it was allied to the reformists during the Khatami presidency, thanks to the tolerance of the left wing and the Executives of Construction Party (ECP).
Deprived of government support, however, this group is highly vulnerable to attacks by the conservative wing. In a sense, the closedown of the Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat dailies was a move by the conservatives to crush the weakest of all reformist papers.
Although the conservatives succeeded in closing the influential left-wing Salaam daily which belonged to the "inner circle", they paid a heavy price for their action, since the paper’s closure sparked hostile student protests. This was in no way comparable with the low price the wing paid for banning Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat.
The insistence of the religious intellectuals on continuing their journalistic pursuits in Jame’ah Toos, Neshat, Azadegan, without ever revising their policies and strategies is indicative of the group’s positive journalistic activity.
By closing down the papers, the conservatives, contrary to their expectations, failed to make this group relinquish its stances and policies. Ironically, the religious intellectual group launched a new paper every time one paper was shut down, thus promoting its own strategies and trying to increase the tolerance of the conservatives.
The Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) filed a lawsuit against Jame’ah which led to the paper’s closedown. But from then on, the IRGC commanders have given up their pre-Khatami-era commanding tone.
Toos was banned on the charge of publishing an interview with former French president Valerie Giscardestang that insulted the late Ayatollah Khomeini. But after this, Iran’s political community, for the first time ever, witnessed an opening when the issue of serious supervision of the Experts Assembly over the Leader’s performance was raised. This was a taboo until the time, but Toos had managed to increase the tolerance of the power hub in facing former taboos.
By publishing a letter Iranian opposition leader Yadullah Sahabi addressed to the Leader of the Revolution, Neshat, too, was accused of the same charges that led to the closure of Toos. Amidst all the bans and close-downs of papers, the religious intellectuals, however, never retreated from their stances and rather succeeded in boosting the tolerance of their opponents through enlightening the public opinion in the papers they ran. Or at least they convinced the conservative to duly and logically deal with the papers they launched. This was something for which the conservatives never sensed a need beforehand as they previously banned the papers by taking secret decisions.
This is a great success story for the group of religious intellectuals. Amidst this struggle, other reformist press have reaped benefit of the opening created by this group.
Another achievement of Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat was the motion for the impeachment of Judiciary chief Ayatollah Yazdi through articles they published. The religious intellectuals, in fact, succeeded in shaking the foundations of Ayatollah Yazdi’s "empire" in the Judiciary where he had spent eight years with peace and power and the final two years with anxiety and worry.
During the last two years, Ayatollah Yazdi has been the butt of attacks by the press, especially Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat. Failing to exercise self-restraint when addressing Friday prayer sermons, Ayatollah Yazdi has been highly criticized for his performance as Judiciary chief and for the harsh tone and language he uses to attack his critics.
Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat exerted such pressure on Ayatollah Yazdi and the Judiciary that he practically had to give up his post, while nostalgic for the first sweet eight years when he was at the helm of the Judiciary.
This was the fate that Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat, as well as other reformist papers, brought on for Ayatollah Yazdi. The trio did this by sacrificing themselves.
If Hojjatoleslam Nateq Nouri had won the presidential elections two years back, Ayatollah Yazdi would surely have kept the reins of the Judiciary in hand for another term.
On the whole, the conservatives are not familiar with the language which the reformist papers use. Having held absolute power in hand for many years, the conservatives have gotten used to a press which has a submissive tone. They, therefore, deem unfavorable any paper that raises questions or chooses not to be submissive.
The conservatives cannot forget the times when just at a wink they banned the leftist daily "Jahan-e Islam" (World of Islam) during Hashemi Rafsanjani’s presidency on the sole charge that it had insulted the Leader and when they felt no need whatsoever to be accountable to public opinion.
After the May 23, 1997 presidential elections which brought Mohammad Khatami to power, critical papers such as Jame’ah, Toos, and Neshat, along with papers belonging to the "inner circle" such as Khordad, Sobh-e Imrooz, and perhaps Bayan (which might soon replace the leftist Salaam) fully shook the pillars of a management system that was bent on creating submissive individuals.
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