Yashar Gulshen - January 4, 2011
The Asian Cup has provided an opportunity for the presentation of an incongruous combination of religious fascism with Aryan revivalism in front of the world. According to reports, at the request of Iranian officials, the title and slogan on the bus carrying Iranian athletes were chosen as "Persian Princes." At first glance, the use of the term "prince" by the Islamic Republic's authorities may seem strange. Isn't it true that the rise and survival of this regime were essentially aimed at overthrowing the monarchy and abolishing everything related to kings and princes? Isn't the ideology of this regime fundamentally based on rejecting the nationalism of the Pahlavi era and emphasizing the Islamic Ummah? So why now, all of a sudden, is there a discordant note being played, where instead of Islam, the Ummah, religion, and faith, we hear talk of Persia and princes? These questions would likely remain unanswered for an average observer who is unaware of the background of the Islamic Republic and the theory behind its survival. But what is the real story?
The reality is that the Islamic Republic, in order to gain and maintain its rule, has always relied on the support of a misinformed, ignorant public, in addition to its machine of terror, murder, and repression. For both achieving hegemony among revolutionary forces during the revolution and consolidating its absolute power after the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime, this government was supported by groups that, due to their religious delusions, formed a powerful social base for the regime. The existence of such a large social class is one of the reasons why all leftist and liberal forces were pushed aside in the early days of the 1979 revolution, and one of the most extensive massacres and repressions in modern Iranian history occurred with little serious public reaction. However, now, thirty years later, the regime finds itself in a dilemma: the large, powerful, deluded, and uninformed class that once supported it no longer exists. Apart from the younger generation, who, with the help of information explosions through the internet, satellite, text messages, and other communication tools, have no ideological delusions of the regime, the religious and traditional segment of Iranians has also distanced itself from this government due to the disastrous experiences of the past thirty years. As can be seen, the regime's current supporters are primarily its internal and external mercenaries and beneficiaries, who see their survival and material interests tied to the preservation of the regime. There is also a small group of regime supporters who are occasionally hired and have recently become known as "sandwich eaters" — they are not driven by internal conviction, but rather material need, and are sometimes seen in support of the regime.
With these premises in mind, it becomes easier to understand the new tactic of Iranian officials in resorting to Aryan revivalism and racism, remnants of the Pahlavi era. In fact, the Islamic Republic, by using these slogans, hopes to gain the support of a class of Iranians who, due to their economic and social affiliations, have a louder voice both inside and outside the country and have powerful connections and lobbies among foreign politicians. A policy that, with an emphasis on "Iranian identity," the "Iranian school," the "Cyrus cylinder," and even claims that the Prophet of Islam himself was Persian, aims to attract the youth and circles that are fed up with the restrictive social policies of the Islamic Republic and are looking for something to serve as an ideological shield against these impositions. Ironically, they turn to something that was once promoted by Reza Shah as the foundational ideology for building a unified nation in Iran.
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| Mahmoud Ahmadinejad putting a keffiyeh scarf around the neck of an actor playing Cyrus the Great (Source: Mehr News Agency). |
As Khomeini once said, "to preserve the regime, even the principles of religion can be suspended," it is now understandable that the officials of the Islamic Republic, in order to maintain their government, which has minimal internal and external support, cling to decayed ideologies in an attempt to bring together those who still dream of the era of Persian rule 2,500 years ago with this government — or at least a faction of this regime — or at the very least, to weaken the opposition's resolve and enthusiasm in confronting this regime.
However, one should not make the mistaken assumption that the regime has changed its fundamental beliefs. In reality, the core principle of this government's survival is still based on attracting the misinformed and deluded masses, only the nature of the delusions and the type of the deluded have changed. In the past, the regime sought out those with a traditional appearance, marked by the sign of religious devotion on their foreheads. Now, it targets a generation that appears modern and stylish, longing for the lifestyle of the Pahlavi era's secular world and fantasizing about the era of Cyrus, Persia, and the Achaemenids. In fact, the principles of governance in the Islamic Republic have not changed; only the audience and the discourse have shifted.
From now on, while we can expect more slogans and policies of this kind, what is important is how the social groups targeted by this "Persian prince" rhetoric respond. It remains to be seen how long it will take for these seemingly modern, educated audiences to wake up from their dreams, and instead of slogans like "our generation is the Aryan generation" and "Iranian Republic," and instead of banging the hollow drum of historical and cultural differences, they will see themselves as part of a multicultural and multi-ethnic Iran, and turn their focus away from longing for the past—whose reality is unclear and whose fantasies are even more uncertain—and toward the creation of a modern world based on progressive, universal, and multicultural principles that are prevalent in today's global society.
Original Article in Farsi