Conventional Wisdom vs. the Inside Scoop

Conventional Wisdom: A simmering opposition movement is waiting for the right moment to seriously challenge the regime.

Women at a political rally for President Ahmadinejad

“Conservative women members of parliament have started some moves to change the laws on inheritance, so this is something that can be negotiated,” says Sanam Dolatshahi, an Iranian journalist, blogger and social activist. She describes the current women’s rights movement in Iran as one of the country’s widest and most organized efforts.

Western media coverage of the movement has often done more harm than good, Dolatshahi says, because rallies and other activities have been "conceptualized as civil disobedience and regime-change activity, so the government decides this is a threat to national security and starts cracking down.”

Iranian journalist Omid Memarian concurs. He believes that stories of change can and should be told by the media, but not in the context of potential regime change, because these movements have no intention of overthrowing the government.

Grassroots activism appears to be finding ways around and through the existing framework to influence public policy. Kaveh Ehsani, a research scholar at the University of Illinois, points to the impressive results of a birth-control campaign that has reduced the country’s booming population growth in recent years. “These movements are changing the political and ideological discourse of the state,” says Ehsani. “People do not feel powerless.”

It can be a risky venture trying to change Iran, however. Anti-government cartoons and blogs persist, though cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar says most take great care to “self-censor.”

And Iranian physician Kamiar Alaei, an HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention pioneer who broke through taboos and persuaded government officials to approve billboards in support of condom use, was recently arrested after ten years of innovative clinical work in Iran. His inside knowledge of the culture had enabled him to succeed where others had failed by remaining low-key and flexible, assessing the needs of the community and working within the system.

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