Human Rights and Democratization in Iran - Research Proposal Example

Human Rights and Democratization in Iran after Revolution in 1979 A RESEARCH PROPOSAL Table of Contents 3 2. Introduction 3 3. Research Question 4 4. Aims & Objectives 5 5. Methodology 6 6. Future Recommendations & Conclusion 8 7. Bibliography 10 1. Abstract The purpose of this research is to investigate into the actual realisation of human rights and democracy in Iran following the Islamic fundamentalist revolution that took place in the country in 1979. It is basically a qualitative proposal with a methodological approach aligned to the analysis of the historical backdrop of the revolution and its aftermath. 2. Introduction Ever since the revolution in 1979, Iran has enjoyed a steady attention from the world. It has been the case because Iran is politically an important country in the Islamic region of the Middle-East, exercising its religious might to the other Muslim countries. The far-reaching bearing of the 1979 revolution can be best understood if one takes into account how it led to the dichotomy of the primary Islamic axioms – religiosity and secularism.1 The Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 was very significant in the context of the global power game and shifting of socio-political hierarchies in the Middle East. As it were, the nation went through turbulent phases of ghastly war and flouting of human rights. The dream to establish a democratic government seemed like a utopian conjecture, as the core of Islamic values in Iran acted as an impediment to accept pluralistic cultural and social ways of life. Three uprisings in the past had similar goals – setting up a democratic parliament with people’s representatives in it2. The role of the West, particularly with regard to how the Islamic nations should be encouraged to espouse liberal democratic processes, has always been a topic of intense debate in international summits and conferences. Issues such as decentralisation of political authority and global economic development are common in the post 9/11 era, when threats of political subversion by acts of militancy loom large over the world. The 1979 revolution in Iran witnessed not just the actual instance of monarchic overturn, but also the effect it had on mass conscience. The brave act of defiance exhibited by the revolutionist under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini indeed heralded the beginning of an optimistic era in the modern political history of Iran. 3. Research Question The key research question to be addressed involves an area which has been studied sporadically at academic levels. It is to do with the nature and consequences of a rebellion which declared itself to be pro-democratic in the beginning3 but eventually turned out to be of a Islamic political propaganda4, eschewing possibilities of establishing democracy and human rights in Iran. Initially guided by strong ideological motivations and will to establish a new political hegemony, the revolution soon changed its course and assumed a fundamentalist nature.5 It promised reinstatement of the basic human rights and transparency in the judiciary system6, which is of course the preliminary condition for a democratic setup. However, the lust for fundamentalist supremacy by the newly appointed regime did very little to give the impression that true democracy had risen in the Iranian sky7. The oath to restore people’s fundamental rights to exercise their freedom of speech did not comply with what happened after the overthrowing. The legislative act involving the inception of an Islamic Republic let the people of Iran believe that good times were only round the corner. Hence, they exercised their electoral rights without showing any sign of distrust in the new power. The newly ascribed constitution, just as its previous edition, emphasised on the power of God, a fundamentalist approach to Islamic democracy, and ruled out the people’s rights or proscription of autonomy8. The seeds of such outcomes were in fact sown during the period leading to the revolution. Human rights abuse in Iran was reported throughout the 1970s during the Shah regime, and it soon spread to other nations as well.9 The proposed research will try to critically evaluate the post-revolutionary phase in Iran, especially in the contextual framework of human rights and democracy. 4. Aims & Objectives The primary objective of the research will be underlining the failure of democracy in Iran since the 1979 revolution. Needless to mention, the thesis is a qualitative one which excludes any necessity for data collection or empirical support10. It is just the reading and synthesis of the existing material that is going to provide the required leads into the research. Now what does the reading materials say? It is worth noting in relation to the thesis topic that the political orientation of the Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Sudan primarily followed a tangible pattern since the 1970s. All these three countries adopted the status quo of Islamic states11 following domestic rebellions that were intended for overpowering autocratic dominations. The 1979 revolution in Iran was brisk and it focused on involving the younger brigade of the country as much as possible12. In the initial phases, the activists operated under a central command which was solemnly given to generating an intense mass awareness in favour of a partisan system of governance. Such a stance also complied with the prevalent Western policies to extenuate the threats of jihad and other extreme forms of human rights violation13. The Western superpowers worked in tandem keeping a firm eye on the developments that were taking place in the Middle East, so that the message of political Islamisation (theocracy) may be conveyed to those fundamentalist nations. Needless to mention, the Western interference was to a great extent motivated by their nationalistic interests, as we have later seen in the Afghan context of war against the former USSR. 5. Methodology The methodological part is based on obtaining qualitative entropy and putting them in the purview of the study. Now in qualitative terms, so far we have examined the political backdrop of Iran immediately after the 1979 revolution. This is a known fact dug out of the existing reading materials which attest more to principles of social evidence than to that of data survey14. It is quite evident from the discussion so far that the occident and the orient reached some kind of unwritten agreement in terms of not taking any radically Islamic stance. But did that help in setting up a democratic model which would also function simultaneously in ensuring preservation of human rights? To find an answer to this question, we need to rely on the conceptual framework of qualitative research methodologies. This type of framework emphasises on understanding socio-cultural values and field observations.15 To do that, we have to bring our attention back to the 1980s and 1990s. These two decades went through a transitional phase underlined by economic globalisation and dissolving of collectivism. Now quite interestingly, the latter element has always been purported by the Islamic culture. The motion of ‘we’ as opposed to that of the individualistic ‘I’ is the cornerstone of Islamic faith and autonomic identity. The role of Iranian women is worth stating in the context of the new era. The global wave of democratic and individualistic living was a welcome relief for the educated Iranian women in that they rose above what they were always taught to believe during the years of autocracy. Despite failing attempts to secure democracy throughout the land, the cultivated women could counter balance the ideological premises with realistic goals and motivations. As a matter of fact, the post-1979 Iran did not bother too much about political idealism or religious convictions. In a time when the world had already transformed into a global village, modernistic schools of thinking provisioned for liberalisation of thought and actions. Women . . . are asserting their identities by peeling off layers of physical and ideological covers imposed on them . . . The new Iranian women’s movements have been able to articulate a far more multifaceted perspective of women’s interests and concerns. These concerns include a greater awareness of human rights, individual rights, individual autonomy within marriage, family independence within the kinship network, and a form of national consciousness against the global diffusion of Western values.16 But the women’s case was just a sporadic event in an otherwise unfruitful attempt to restore human rights in the country following the 1979 revolution. Islamic absolutism can be held accountable for the de-secularisation of political authority in Iran. In the middle of 1981, even a radical Muslim organization named Mojahedin-e Khalq was picked up and directed to carry out attacks against the clerics and ordinary civilians by the new regime which was supposed to be promoting democracy in the territory. The situation was so chaotic and unprecedented in the history of the Middle East that the route to democracy did in fact seem far away. The revolutionary army under Ayatollah coined countless terms to dismiss the imminent radical threats and overpower them in a brutal and one-sided battle17. It would have been a heartening thing if that fight was meant for establishing democracy in the country. But what it actually meant was forceful imposition of religious fundamentalism upon a dreamy nation-state, which never wanted to sign the bond that promulgated marriage of convenience between facades of the imperialistic dominion and that of the religious one. 6. Future Recommendations & Conclusion For the research on Iranian democracy and human rights achievements post 1979 revolution to be materialised, it is critical to interview persons having relevant background in the study of Iranian culture and society. Field observations need to be made and backed by further reading from libraries and online archives18. So it is suggested for the fruition of the research to conduct open-ended interviews and surveys for obtaining authentic information based on subjective viewpoints.19 What such interviews will also fetch is a genuinely unbiased interpretation of the realities of Iranian human rights movements and democratization. To gain a more accurate view of the women rights issues, educated women preferably from academic campuses need to be questioned. This type of first-hand account of a major historical event unearths analytical modes and hidden set of data that collectively help establishing the correlation between conjectural arguments and the facts20. So it is of utmost importance to model the research in such a manner that the quality of output is not compromised with under any circumstances whatsoever. 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