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Today is the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis: It was on November 4th, 1979, that Iranian militants seized the US embassy in Tehran. It was part of an Islamic Revolution and the reverberations are being felt to this day. Today, an official rally in Teheran marked the anniversary. But opposition supporters staged a demonstration of their own. Security forces reportedly broke it up with tear gas and batons. Anchor Marco Werman talks with Robin Wright, author of “Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East.”
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MARCO WERMAN: Today is the 30th anniversary of another out with the old in with the new moment. It was on November 4, 1979 that Iranian militants seized the US embassy in Tehran. It was part of an Islamic Revolution and the reverberations are being felt to this day. Today an official rally in Tehran marked the anniversary but opposition supporters staged a demonstration of their own. Security forces reportedly broke it up with tear gas and batons. Robin Wright is the author of “Dreams and Shadows: A Future of the Middle East.” She’s in Washington. Robin let’s start with the opposition rallies today. In Iran we are still seeing a government divided and there is a potent popular movement there as you know. Do you see this as a start of something bigger?
ROBIN WRIGHT: I think it is. And I think the fact that the opposition managed to come out today despite the enormous risks and the brutality of the regime in putting down anyone who shows up to protest is really quite significant. This is a movement that’s trying to signal that it may not have the tools but it does have the numbers and a certain determination. And this is arguably the most important thing that’s happened to Iran politically since the revolution itself.
WERMAN: So let’s hit rewind just a bit here. Since the hostage crisis in 1979 do you think there’s been something of a predictable ebon flow of how Iranian citizens in the streets there have viewed the ability of people to change things in their country?
WRIGHT: Well there was a period form 1997 until 2005 when the Reform Movement thought that they could put the emphasis in the Islamic Republic on Republic rather than Islamic and that there would be an opening whether it was on freedom of the press and freedom of speech or women’s rights and they failed in part because the president at the time, President Khatami didn’t have much of a strategy and didn’t have the will or ability to stand up to the hardliners. What’s interesting is that the people themselves are now taking the lead and they’re behind what is arguably the most vibrant civil disobedience campaign anywhere in the world.
WERMAN: We began a few minutes ago in Hungary and the beginning of the end of communist rule there, another anniversary. But let’s compare what happened in the former Eastern Block to Iran. I mean tell us why the people power concept took off in Eastern Europe. And it’s been a struggle in Iran but also in so many parts of the Mid East.
WRIGHT: Well I think this is where you get into east versus west and the level of the sophistication of societies, their knowledge of western ideals. This is growing in Iran and you could argue that in fact Iran’s initial revolution was the result of the fact that Iranians of all those in the Middle East, besides Israel, are the most savvy about what’s going on. And that’s why you see a people power movement today. They’re very familiar with what happened in Hungary or at the fall of the Berlin Wall and you know it’s that knowledge base. It’s that strong middle class. It’s a high level of education that helps give people a sense of what’s happening elsewhere in the globe.
WERMAN: I guess we shouldn’t let you go without talking about the political spectrum of youth in the Mid East and how that kind of squares with youth in Tehran. I think we kind of think about this people power in Tehran, especially this summer, as being very driven by young people. But in other parts of the Mid East and the world young people are also distracted by radical Islam. Does that mean it’s going to be a longer time before people power takes root?
WERIGHT: Well I think one of the most interesting things to happen in the eight years since 9/11 is the slow but steady turn against extremism across the board. There are, even as people become more conscious of their Islamic identity, there is at the same time a growing rejection of the jihadist ideology, the militancy, because that in reality doesn’t provide the answers to the basic questions of housing and employment and opportunity, bettering your life, finding a bride. You know the problems that obsess most people are not addressed by al-Qaeda.
WERMAN: I’ve got to say though Robin Wright you sound rather optimistic about change in Iran toady. Do you think it’s inevitable?
WRIGHT: I think Iran is one of the most interesting places to monitor when it comes to the subject of change. How does it happen? How is it legitimate? In Iraq we faced enormous obstacles because the US invasion was not deemed legitimate. And you can see that in the fact that people are happy when they’re polled about the US withdrawal even though they’re nervous about their own security. But there is sense that in Iran you’re seeing some real legitimate change because people are standing up. This is not going to happen quickly. It’s going to be traumatic. It is likely to be very bloody. But I think that the kind of movement we see today is not going to die down even if they can’t take to the streets as often. Again we pay so much attention on days like today when there are protests on the streets but what’s just as interesting is the quiet civil disobedience campaigns that the regime is very nervous about.
WERMAN: Robin Wright, author and journalist and she’s also currently Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace. Thank you.
WRIGHT: Thank you.
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