As Iran's clerical branch of the government is aging, the moderate parliament will in all likelihood be tasked with picking replacements in the near future. This could be a new era for Iran and the Middle East as the timing is perfect for this shift.
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As Iran's clerical branch of the government is aging, the moderate parliament will in all likelihood be tasked with picking replacements in the near future. This could be a new era for Iran and the Middle East as the timing is perfect for this shift.
Won't the clerics who replace the aging clerics be just as cleric-y?
As far as I understood it, the clerics are actually the ones who shape policy and hold power. The parliament is secondary to them in terms of decision making power.
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As I understand, Iran is the most likely place in the Middle East for a genuine liberal change to result purely from demographics. Western foreign policy has spent the last 40 years trying to make this not be so.
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Until they disband the Clerics council (I think its called over there) Seperate the Clerics from public policy (never going to happen), and either dis arm or disband their Revolutionary Guard, the crazies hold the power and the sway.
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Headline should really be 'Iran stops rigging elections'.
Unfortunately not, most of the reformists were barred from running in the election so the reformist slate was in fact mostly just slightly less conservative or just younger candidates.
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See, my question is always "what do you mean by that term". Does a "moderate" in Iranian terms mean they want to throw gay people out of the window of the 8th floor instead of off the roof?
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“There were a number [of candidates] … that weren’t really moderate,” Matt McInnis, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former senior analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense specializing in Iran, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. He explained the idea that moderates won a victory over hardliners is “not really accurate” based on the fact that a significant portion of the true moderates were barred from running before the election even began.
All candidates running for office in Iran must be cleared by the Guardian Council, a small group of jurists and experts in Islamic law, handpicked by the supreme leader. Guardian Council members tend to weed out any potential candidates that could pose a threat to the hardline — the theocratic bloc led by the supreme leader. Over half of the candidates running for the Iranian parliament (Majles) and 80 percent of those running for Assembly of Experts were barred from running in Friday’s election.
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As I understand, Iran is the most likely place in the Middle East for a genuine liberal change to result purely from demographics. Western foreign policy has spent the last 40 years trying to make this not be so.
Been trying to tell people this for a long time, there is an inevitable change coming purely because of the demographics of the young people.
Iran if we stop messing with them and giving the clerics reason to blame everything on the west will modernize and liberalize.
Unfortunately not, most of the reformists were barred from running in the election so the reformist slate was in fact mostly just slightly less conservative or just younger candidates.
From the OP's article:
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Out of 3,000 reformists who applied to run in this year's elections, just 200 made it through the vetting process.
Vox does a pretty good summary of what the 2016 election could mean:
This isn't an overnight revolution, but it's a step in the right direction. It could mark a gradual change that takes place over the next generation. It has the potential to be an organic change, which I think is better. Fast revolutions are almost always bloody and if there is one thing we have learned is that violence begets violence.
Even the USA, which many consider the "leader of the free world", had slavery for almost a century after their democratic revolution and massive civil inequality until 40 years ago. Positive results aren't always instantaneous.
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Moderates Win In Iran's Election
