Political 'Purification' Leads To Rift At The Top, Says Politician
A conservative Iranian politician has alleged that those advocating "political purification,” aim to unseat Parliament (Majles) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf."
A conservative Iranian politician has alleged that those advocating "political purification,” aim to unseat Parliament (Majles) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf."
The term "purification" was coined by former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani to characterize ultraconservative allies of President Ebrahim Raisi, who wish to dominate the government by pushing out all other politicians and officials.
Mansoor Haqiqatpoor told Entekhab website on Saturday that "the refit between Speaker Ghalibaf and President Ebrahim Raisi has developed into a political faultline."
He said: "I do not think these conflicts are part of a political show. These are real conflicts. This is the continuation of the political purification initiative, and those who are behind it see Ghalibaf as an obstacle on the way to reaching their objectives and wish to get rid of him."
According to Entekhab, conflicts between Ghalibaf and Raisi have been intensifying recently as the ultraconservative Paydari Party, where the bulk of Raisi's supporters are, has been launching more serious attacks on Ghalibaf, blaming him for the government's problems.
Haqiqatpoor went on to say that Paydari's members had started challenging Ghalibaf's authority from the very beginning of the current Majles in 2020. He reiterated that after getting rid of former Speakers Larijani and Nateq Nouri and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Paydari Party now seems to be adamant to omit Ghalibaf from the Iranian political scene.
He added that the ruling ultraconservatives are too arrogant to accept their responsibility in the government's economic, political and cultural failures and try to put the blame on Ghalibaf.
Haqiqatpoor said that Ghalibaf has now realized that the presence of reformists and moderates in the parliament would have been in his interest because they could have counterbalanced Paydari's pressure.
He said: "I hope those on top of the government, - presumably Khamenei and his aides - are intelligent enough to prevent handing over the government to a group that would push the Islamic Republic toward an abyss."
In the meantime, a similar purification process appears to be going on in the Iranian academic centers. A university professor, Ali Sharifi Zarchi wrote in a tweet on August 18 that "based on a document circulating in Iran's academic circles, the Raisi administration has secretly started the urgent process of hiring 15,000 faculty members without observing due scientific standards. This is a catastrophe, which, for instance, leads to hiring 100 non-experts for every medical school." Calling on the academics to protest against the action, Zarchi wrote: "The silence of the academic and scientific community [in the face of this action] will be a treason against Iran."
Meanwhile, Iranian journalist Maryam Shokrani has confirmed Zarchi's warning and further reported that "According to Farhikhtegan daily, following the dismissal of a large number of faculty members at the University of Tehran, Sharif University, Teachers Training University, and the University of Science and Technology and several medical schools have been demoted."
In another development, reformist journalist Mohammad Sadeq Javadi Hesar reminded the Raisi administration that what has kept the country backward is the absence of experts rather than the need for political purification. He added that getting rid of experts and highly qualified personnel has deprived the country of the growth and development it deserves.
He further said that the political purification is based on the old idea of insiders versus outsiders which has divided the country and alienated many for several decades now.
In an article published on Monday, Ham-Mihan newspaper stated, “Only 10 members of the parliament, with a certain political inclination, passed a bill in a week that is expected to impact the lives of 85 million Iranians, including dissidents.”
The paper added that the law will lead to accusations against a significant portion of society over issues related to women's dress code and hijab. Details about the enactment of the new bill are still unknown, as parliament moved earlier in August to make the new hijab regulations even more opaque by approving the regulations without an open session, fearing further backlash.
Iranian lawmakers voted that the bill can be considered under Article 85 of the constitution, which allows the parliament to delegate the bill's approval to an internal committee, effectively sidelining any opposition.
According to Ham-Mihan, the internal committee consists of the same lawmakers who added about 55 articles to the original "Hijab and Chastity" bill, which initially comprised only 15 articles when submitted by the administration of Ebrahim Raisi.
The paper quoted Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as saying that discussing a bill with 70 articles in an open session would take a lot of time, especially because about 1,500 points have been suggested by lawmakers to be considered during the discussions. “Some say the parliament is reviewing the bill under Article 85 of the Constitution so that no one understands what is being approved, but this is not true,” Ghalibaf said.
The uprising sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 has made it increasingly difficult for the clerical regime to enforce the mandatory Islamic dress code. Since the beginning of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, tens of thousands of girls and women have shed their compulsory hijab. The regime seeks to criminalize hijab defiance, but no branch of government wants to be solely responsible for the complications of such a provocative and risky action in society.
The fate of the hijab bill, which legal experts claim is against the Iranian Constitution and not practical to implement due to the government's limited means, is still in limbo as conflicting reports circulate about the process. But what is clear is that the government has to devote extensive police and other resources to monitor millions of women, stop those who appear without hijab, issue fines or summon them to court.
This means thousands of confrontations in the streets every day between ordinary women and teenage girls with police and special hijab enforcement agents. It was one such confrontation and arrest that led to Mahsa Amini's death and the most serious antigovernment unrest in 44 years.
Some wonder why the regime has chosen to go the extra mile to force hijab on women, risking another round of protests. Hardliners have answered the question, insisting that the clerical regime cannot retreat from the hijab issue, otherwise it will lose its authority to control the society.
Lawmakers are still voicing opinions and disagreements about how the bill should receive its final seal of approval. Apparently, once the committee approves a bill under the particular constitutional provision, the full chamber has no right to alter it. The Guardian Council, which has the right to review all legislation, will probably review the hijab law too.