Iranian student debate need for separation of religion, government

Church & State, Feb 2003

Iranian students studying to be Islamic clerics are beginning to debate a question that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: Is it time to separate religion and state?

The debates are taking place among students in Qom, a desert community 90 miles south of the Iranian capital of Tehran. Religion News Service reported in December that young men from all over Iran flock to the city to study Islam at the city's theological schools, or hozahs, hoping to become spiritual leaders known as ayatollahs.

Surprisingly, not all of the students and instructors believe that Iran should be a "faith-based" Islamic state.

"I think the influence of religion will pale in Iran's future politics," said Hojatol-Islam Mohammad Taqi FazelMeibodi, a prominent cleric in Qom. "The youth feel that our attempt at merging religion and government has failed. And the hozah will be forced to listen to them. At any case, neither of us can go it alone."

Ayatollah Seyed Hussain Mousavi Tabrizi, a lawyer and religious leader who favors reform, said the question divides Qom's students.

"There are two lines of thinking here," he said. "The first group thinks religion must meddle in every little detail of government affairs and people's lives and the leader has God-like powers."

Continued Mousavi Tabrizi, "The second group, like myself, thinks there is no mandate in Islam to dictate how a president or parliament or army should operate; the will and vote of the people must decide who shall run a country and how. It is written in a hundred places in the Koran that the will of the people must be implemented. Any other way is not only illegal but against Islam, and such a system is bound for failure."

To be sure, there is still much opposition to separation of mosque and state in Iran. Hardliners are well represented in parliament and view talk of separation as a betrayal of Islam.

"These talks are utterly unacceptable and un-Islamic," Mohammad Mohammadi, a member of parliament, asserted. "Islam does not need to be reformed or changed. Neither does our system. There is a minority making noise about this, but it's pointless, and they are digging their own graves. I'm sure they are being guided by a foreign enemy."

But demographic trends at work in Iran could give the young people the final say. The country's population is overwhelmingly young; 70 percent are under the age of 30. Lately, young adults, including many university students, have been agitating for change.

In December, thousands of students marched in Tehran, protesting a death sentence gien to Hashem Aghajari, a popular instructor at Tehran University and advocate of reform.

Thanks to satellite television and the Internet, young adults in Iran are getting a taste of Western-style freedoms - and they apparently like what they see. During the protest, one student, Sajad Ghorghi, 22, told The New York Times that young people would not create disturbances "if they had basic freedoms, such as wearing what they wish, listening to music or if men and women could freely mingle and have normal lives."

Another student, 24-year-old Reza Delbari, complained then when he graduates he can look forward to a low-paying job and added, "Then I have to be intimidated and humiliated every day by people who want to say what is religiously right. We cannot even decide for our own future."