© the eyeranian

You keep repeating this mantra that the reformists are the same as the conservatives. They are not. They have substantial differences from their conservatives counterparts. For example, the current reformist parliment passed several progressive laws including increasing of the age of marriage for girls from 9 to 13, banning torture, joining to convention of women right, limiting what can be considered political crime, ... Most of these were not accepted by the Guardian Council, which shows a significant difference between the two. Reformists are not going to challenge the pillars of the Islamic Republic, but even under Islamic Republic it is far better to live under the reformists rule compare to when Rafsanjani or Nateq rules.

It is wrong to enoucage people to sit and watch just because reformists are not exactly what we want. Once people come in and get actively involved, I believe even the reformists can not limit the demands of people. Reformists should but supported but with clearly stating that the support is for actual fundamental change. For now, people should push for removal of the Guardian Council, or at least limiting its rule.

Just one more note, I support the call for not voting this upcoming election, but at the same time I believe that the resigned lawmakers should be supported.

Mehdi,

I have had a dilemma how to react to the ongoing events in Iran. I am still not sure what is the right thing to do and what is wrong. And I just don't want to say something for the sake of "saying something". But you raise some good points to think about. Thank you.

Pedram,
I second with Mehadi. As I told you before, it is easy to label reformers parliament illegal or illegitimate while we are away from the realities. In the Iranian context, talking about legality and legimaticy is just irrelevant. Reformers (since they branched off from those on top) have been different than conservatives. One more things. There are people who have hard time grasping the complexity of the Iranian politics. They usually prefer to call the elections during the last few years in Iran as sham. This only comes out of conspricy-minded people. I have also had analyses on this over and over in my blog.

But as I have also mentioned many times, reformers' effectuality and time is over. That's why people don't care about them and that's why I don't write about it any more. After visiting Iran recently, like many Iranians talking about reformers and politics doesn't excite me anymore unless I see something with real effects (e.g. a referendum that determines the futue of IRI or the constitution). Until then, like the vast majority of Iranians I am more focused on things that affect my daily life which I think is more constructive and productive than anything else.

I think we should care, not necessarily for Khatami, not necessarily for so-called "reformist", not even for election, but for ourselves. I think we, as Iranian people, have to learn to participate in any event in our country, and more importantly SHOW to our politician and world wide, that WE CARE!!! And we are ALWAYS ready to react when our rights are violated. That is the first step in fighting for our rights. I agree with some of your points but I don't believe in "reformers' effectuality and time is over". I think we have to use all of your resources to get to civil society; I do strongly believe that many of these so-called "reformers" are fake ones, but I am sure that there are very honest, helpful, and hardworking persons among them; so why not use their potential in our benefits.