Badpuppy Gay Today

Wednesday, 28 May 1997

In a nation where fundamentalist religious forces seized control almost a score of years ago and where authorities inflict cruel death penalties on men caught making love to each other, Iran's people have surprised keepers of conventional wisdom by voting for a candidate against the wishes of their nation's ruling religious hierarchy, thus propelling into office a presidential figure who opposes privacy invasions, a man believed to be a social liberal. The winner, Mohammed Khatami, received 69 percent of the vote. His foremost opponent, a conservative who got the top clergy's backing, received only 25 percent.

Iranian gay activist, Saviz Shafaie (see this month's GayToday Interview) says that even so, Khatami's election can in no way be viewed as either the result of a truly democratic process, nor as a guarantee that social liberalism, especially for gay males, will prevail. "Khatami was one of only four candidates carefully chosen by a religious council," says Shafaie, "and that isn't the democratic way."

Though many Iranians remain equally skeptical of Khatami's ability to improve the strict social climate, expecting the new president's hands to be tied by his religious superiors, they concede that the enormity of the vote against the Shiite religious establishment amounts to a protest whose size was, in the West, at least, a startling surprise. It shows that the Iranian people are once again on the move and that their religious conservatism can no longer be taken for granted.

For some time there have been reports coming out of Iran indicative of the restlessness of its people, especially as they tire of morality police knocking at their doors to critique their music collections and guard them against the "evils" of satellite dish ownership.

Since the 1979 revolution when the Iranian people rose up against their autocratic Shah, and afterwards when hard-core fundamentalists seized power from Bani Sadr who was Iran's first president, a sophisticate and a moderate, strict rulings have guided social life even in Teheran, the capital. Women must cover not only their bodies in public locales, but their hair. Khatami, say some, won't move things forward all at once, but it may become possible for a tuft of a woman's hair to show from beneath her chaddor without subjecting her to stiff penalties.

There are even beach police. "When I last visited the Caspian Sea, driving all the way there from Teheran," said one Iranian, "there were soldiers parading at the entrance to the beach. A large sign read: "The sea is closed." He laughed at the ironies symbolized by the sign.

No inter-sex socializing, especially in public, is allowed by Iran's religious establishment. Any opposite-sex couple must carry papers to prove they're married. If they are not, they're in trouble. Most notable, as related by both European and American journalists, have been the klutzy pursuits conducted by fundamentalist-hired morality police jumping from rock to rock as they chase unmarried weekending Iranian teenagers who are happily enjoying inter-sexual picnics in the Alborz mountains that surround the capital city. These guardians of morality complain of the arduous gully-jumping jobs assigned them by God.

Sex is becoming a major factor in youthful Iranian rebellions against the status quo. Unmarried "fornicators" are liable to severe punishments, including lashings if sex has been involved. "We're having sex because they're telling us not to even socialize," said one youth. Approximately 75% of Iran's population is aged 25 or under. Many want to wear blue jeans, to watch videos, and to enjoy Western-style films and CD's. Their parents often may wish to play cards, drink alcohol, and invite neighbors to do the same, hopefully without having to submit to ominous searches of their private premises by religious zealots.

Even if Khatami's victory proves somewhat hollow, say some Iran-watchers, the handwriting for the ruling mullahs is clearly--in the long run-- on the wall.