Some of Iran’s hardliners, including President Ebrahim Raisi and Arbitration Council member Gholamali Haddad-Adel, have spoken out about the need for reform.
At the same time, a pragmatic politician says that the Iranian constitution obliges governments to pave the way for political freedom.
Knowing that his call for reform will sound strange, Raisi said: “Wanting to bring about reform does not mean backing down from our previous positions.” Apparently Haddad-Adel also had the same concern as Raisi. According to the Ebtekar newspaper, he said: “We will not withdraw.”
However, Haddad-Adel made it clear that the Iranian Parliament (Majles) and like-minded government have already begun reform aimed at returning to the early years of the Islamic Revolution in the 1980s; something unlikely to be accepted by Iranian women and youth who have been calling for regime change for the past two months.
Raisi even went so far as to say that those in his government who do not want reform should leave the cabinet immediately. But he used a different term for reform: “Tahavol,” meaning evolution or change, rather than “eslahat,” which clearly means reform.
Ironically, critics of the president have said that the first to leave the government because of his inability to accept change is Raisi himself. However, his reform idea seems to be more progressive than that of Haddad Adel Raisi has said that “realizing women’s potential is part of the reforms” he has in mind.
An undated photo showing Haddad nobility alongside Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
However, Iran’s traditional reformists doubt whether the Islamic Republic is ready for reforms. Former reformist lawmaker Naser Ghavami has echoed this in his recent interviews that, contrary to what former reformist President Mohammad Khatami had suggested, the Islamic Republic is unlikely to want to reform itself.
Ghavami pointed out that some of those in parliament who have spoken out about the need for reform are the same people who have called for the execution of jailed protesters. “What is this reform?” he asked.
Ghavami also questioned whether young Iranians who have taken to the streets would accept the kind of reforms Iran’s so-called reformists have in mind. He pointed out that in the early 2000s the regime would not even allow its own reformist president to implement reforms. “They didn’t even allow him to change the election law,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Former Lawmakers Association is a well-known reformist figure said Yadollah Eslami that “official politics in Iran cannot convincingly respond to the demands of the demonstrators”. He added: “Iranians are determined to follow the lifestyle of their choice and nothing can stop them from complying with their demands.” return”, the young Kurd who was murdered in custody in mid-September and who sparked the current uprising.
He added The death of 10-year-old Kian Pirfalak has given a boost people’s determination to follow their call for change. He pointed out that all the problems Iranians are currently facing are the result of bad governance. This is happening, he said, while all those who speak for the government continue to beat the drums of despotism and totalitarianism.
In another development, pragmatic politician Farzaneh Torkan said in an interview with Mostaghel newspaper: “People insist they want an open political atmosphere and the freedom to elect whomever they want as the country’s key officials.”
Torkan reiterated that “at the last session of Parliament, a majority of Iranians had no candidate to choose from [2020] and presidential elections [2021]. It was obvious that such a situation would lead to deep and widespread discontent.”
Torkan added that Iranian women are highly educated, but their political demands have been ignored by hardliners for many years. “If these demands were met, we would not be witnessing the current protests,” she said, adding that “the only way out of the current crisis is to provide the right response to people’s demands, but unfair accusations from hardliners.” and linking the protests against foreigners are not helpful.”
