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Iranian University Students' Politics in the Post-Reform Movement Era: A Discourse Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Majid Mohammadi
Majid Mohammadi*
Affiliation:
Classical and Near Eastern Studies Department, Binghamton University
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Abstract

Based on the discourse analysis of the statements of the university student organizations in the period between 1996–2006, this paper will address the pros and cons of five approaches to politics in the post-reform movement era based on five discourses among university students in the past decade of Iranian politics and their consequences for reshaping the Iranian polity. This article first discusses five socio-political processes, i.e., Islamicization, social differentiation, limited political competition, transformation of Shi'ite authority, and personalization of power, which led to four social and political schisms in Iranian society; inequality; political, social, and cultural discrimination; and secular/Islamist tension. Referring to these schisms, political discourses shape the ideologies and actions of Iranian student movements. These discourses are social justice, tradition, totalitarianism, pluralism, and Islamic democracy. Even if these discourses were no more than intellectual pronouncements by the university students, they have been powerful enough to extend to the Iranian political society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 5 , December 2007 , pp. 623 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2007

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References

1 The Iranian national censuses of 1956, 1966, 1976, 1986, 1991, and 1996, Salnameh-ye Amari-ye Keshvar, 1355/1976 & 1375/1996.

2 The Iranian national censuses of 1956, 1966, 1976, 1986, 1991, and 1996, Salnameh-ye Amari-ye Keshvar, 1355/1976 & 1375/1996.

3 Some recent evidence for this claim are the statements from the Students Consolidation Office on detention of tens of bus drivers in Tehran including Mansour Esānloo, the secretary of Tehran's Bus Drivers Syndicate (Khabarnameh Gooya, 1 Feb. 2005, http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/043339.php) and oppression of women's demonstration on June 12, 2006 (Khabarnameh Gooya, 13 June 2006, http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/049486.php).

4 On 12 Dec. 2006, Iranian students staged a rare demonstration against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, burning pictures of him as he delivered a speech at Amir Kabir University. It was the first time after the end of the Reform Movement for a group of dissidents standing in front of a president with a military and intelligence base and expressing their protest against the trends in the country. The protesting students interrupted Ahmadinejad's speech with slogans, including “Death to the Dictator,” “Get lost Basijis”—a reference to right-wing students who support the government—“Get lost liars”—referring to the state-run press—“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, agent of corruption and discrimination,” and “Political prisoners must be freed.” The students slogans of ‘Down with Dictator’ were not referring to Ahmadinejad as a dictator, but intended to refer to the leader of the country (Khabarnameh Gooya, 11 Nov. 2006, http://1384.g00ya.com/politics/archives/2006/12/055657.php). On 13 Dec. 2006, Shiraz University students Ètemad Melli Newspaper, 14 Dec. 2006, http://roozna.com protested against the Minister of Interior, Mostafa Pormohammadi, during his address for like-minded students and university officials.

5 The Nationalist democrat faction of Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat, Allāmeh faction, strongly criticized Afshāri and Atri's participation in a panel discussion of the Senate on Iran in March 2006 (Melli Mazhabi Information Site, 12 March 2006, http://mellimazhabi.org/news/032006news/0603tahkim.htm).The statement proclaims that despite challenges the students face, the participants should have exercised discretion and not joined two of the most right-wing politicians in the U.S. with a certain agenda. The statement contends that in its seventy-year history, the student movement in Iran has looked to the internal dynamics of the democratic process and has never appealed to foreign interests to interfere in its political developments. This criticism is totally understandable with resort to Iranian students' long tradition of an anti-West agenda. Nationalist Democrat and Enlightenment fractions believe in Islam as its guide and see religious intellectualism as a way to address different readings of Islam in the student movement, while the other fraction, i.e., the Modern fraction, has no ideological limitation on its membership (ISNA News Agency, 11 Nov. 2006, http://isna.ir/Main/NewsXML.aspx?ID=661921). The Modern fraction was open to secularists as well as students who believed in religious intellectualism.

6 Ahmadinejad accused the student who interrupted his lecture in Amir Kabir University of being on the payroll of the U.S. (Tahkim Vahdat News Website, 11 Nov. 2006, http://advarnews.us/university/3448.aspx).

7 Abdollāh Mo'meni, “Religious Identity Should Not Be Used as a Labeling Gun,” http://advarnews.org/idea/664.aspx (accessed on 12 Dec. 2006); Maryam `Abbāsi, “Right to Identity,” Sharq Daily, 26 June 2006; Mehdi Sirzad, “Ignorance Upon Ignorance,” Sharq Daily, 31 May 2006; Hamid Jalāeepour, “It's a Mistake to Ignore Religious Identity,” Sharq Daily, 17 May 2006.

8 Khabarnameh Gooya, 5 Nov. 2006, http://gooya.eu/politics/archives/2006/11/055221.php.

9 This policy could be seen in a letter from this organization to the Head of Judiciary, Mahmud Shāhrudi, regarding the judiciary's delay in prosecuting corrupted individuals and making decisions about those cases Labor New Agency, 30 June 2006, http://ilna.ir/shownews.asp?code=321736&code1=1.

10 Teun A. van Dijk, “Politics, Ideology and Discourse,” accessed 12 Dec. 2006, http://discourse-in-society.org/Politics,%20ideology%20and%20discourse%20(ell)htm .

11 BBC Persian News Website, 28 Aug. 2003, http://bbc.co.uk/persian/forum/030822_mf-h-forum-braindrain.shtml

12 Iranian Labour News Website, 25 Nov. 2006, ilna.ir/shownews.asp?code=370386&code1=3; Iranians in the U.K. Website, 25 Nov. 2006, iranianuk.com/article.php?id=3761; Iranian Parliament Official Website, 25 Nov. 2006, http://mellat.majlis.ir/archive/EXCLUSIVE%20REPORTS/KHODKOSHI.HTM

13 The news on scientific progress of Iran posted by the authoritarian media is focused on cloning and proliferation; no independent media has ever confirmed this news: Quds Daily Website, 13 April 2006, http://qudsdaily.com/archive/1385/html/1/1385-01-24/page9.html; Kayhan Daily Website, 20 Aug. 2006, http://kayhannews.ir/850529/12.htm.

14 Khabarnameh Gooya, 5 Dec. 2006, http://khabarnameh.gooya.com.