NEW YORK - Thirty-two years after the Iranian Revolution, people in Iran are now wondering whether anything has actually improved for them. Was the late Shah a better ruler than the ayatollahs or not? On January 16, 1979 the Shah left Iran. Two weeks later, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to the country and the Revolution was launched. What the people wanted from the Revolution was social justice, equality and freedom of speech. But the only difference they've noticed is a shift of power: the dictatorship of the Shah has been replaced by the dictatorship of the ayatollahs! The first ten years of the Islamic Revolution were the darkest time for this nation. There were executions, while opposition, political activists and the intelligentsia were all crushed. Freedom of expression had become a dream. Many young Iranians, born after the Revolution, obviously don't remember the Shah. But they feel sympathetic towards him, because of what they have suffered since the Revolution. The way the suppressed opposition was crushed by the government two summers ago hasn't been forgotten. In today's Iran, there is no room for opposition. The most recent example of this is the elimination of opposition leaders Mir Hossine Mosavi and Mehdi Karobi, who were among those who protested the presidential election results. Readers will be disappointed to know that many angry, frustrated Iranians in Tehran, who chanted: “Where is my vote?”, probably didn't even vote in the elections! I asked some of the people I know who participated in most of the demonstrations in Tehran whether they voted: every one of them said no. In my opinion, many people were protesting against the system, the dictatorship, not against the election results per se. The results were just a pretext for them to take to the streets. The target was the system, which people want to change; they want to have a referendum to undermine the power of the Supreme Leader. The post-election trauma was an excellent opportunity for the demonstrators to do this. As Ali Khameni, the Supreme Leader, quite rightly said: “It wasn't about the ballot boxes. They wanted to topple the regime.” According to the Iranian judiciary, some of those arrested in the demonstrations were members of the ‘Monarchy Association of Iran', an organisation whi---ch hardly anyone has ever heard of. It is not clear how active this association is in Iran or whether it has many supporters, but the fact is that people are sorely missing the days right after the Revolution. Back then, Iran had a powerful status in the region and the economy was booming; the country's image was quiet different. What caused the Revolution, according to Ayatollah Khomeini, was a lack of justice, freedom, the suppression of the opposition and the lack of free media. Khomeini and his supporters stood against the Shah White Revolution. They described it as un-Islamic and a trick, and they asked the Shah to abdicate. Today, when we look back at the White Revolution, we see social reform in favour of the poor people who worked for a pittance for many years for the big landlords. Women had little freedom and couldn't vote. Khomeini told people that the White Revolution would spell an end to the power of the religious leaders and that it would lead to the industrialisation of the nation, transforming Iran from a conservative, traditional society into a westernised, modern nation. “The Shah wasn't too bad,” a 21-year-old Iranian man told me, on condition of anonymity. “But he should have crushed the protesters and killed many of the opposition, instead of fleeing Iran and leaving the country to those who chanted for his death that day.” “Over 30 years on, we can judge the king much better,” added the man, a student at Tehran University who was visiting Dubai with his family. “The Shah loved Iran and his people, which is why he chose exile instead of ordering his army to shoot the protesters or kill Ayatollah Khomeini. He wanted his people to listen to Khomeini and then make their choice. But it's all too late now. May the Shah rest in peace.”
