Volume 52, Number 13 · August 11, 2005
New Man in Iran
By Christopher de Bellaigue
Iran's presidential election, which was held in two rounds, on June 17 and June 24, ended in triumph for an Islamist ideologue, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The vote raised important questions. Have Iranians, by electing a hard-line conservative, turned their backs on the ambition of encouraging the rule of law and promoting the pluralism that was pursued by the outgoing president, Mohammad Khatami? Since voters favored a candidate who promised to set up a pure 'Islamic government' over others who promised social and economic policies more in line with those of the liberal West, has the prevailing American view of Iran's politics, as a struggle between a freedom-seeking people and their repressive clerical rulers, been exposed as false? The answer to both these questions is yes—but only up to a point.
Feature, 4366 words
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