Ghoncheh Ghavami’s defiance will not ruffle Iran’s realpolitik
|
Version 0 of 1. The story of Ghoncheh Ghavami, a young British-Iranian woman who was detained by the Iranian state authorities in June following a civil and peaceful protest against the exclusion of women attending volleyball matches, has fortunately received extensive media coverage. Her legal status and future in the Islamic Republic’s penal system, however, remain far from clear. Since her detention she has endured 41 days of solitary confinement, a hunger strike, and systematic psychological harassment. The thugs who run what Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji once called Iran’s own “gulag archipelago”, have sought to break Ghavami, and thus far they’ve come up short. She has remained defiant. Even following her closed trial at the hands of Branch 26 of Iran’s revolutionary court, where she stood accused on the fittingly vague, catchall charge of “propaganda against the regime”, her exact status remained unclear. She did not even have the opportunity to confer with her lawyer until her closed court hearing, from which her family were refused entry. Ghavami’s case is not merely that of a single individual. It represents the fundamental injustice of a legally entrenched and institutionalised system of gender discrimination with which Iranian women battle on a daily basis. And it sums up the capriciousness of the wayward and vindictive judiciary which can descend on Iranian citizens without notice, deprive them of their rights and effectively flush them down a legal black hole, until the powers-that-be deem otherwise. Given Iran’s many parallel security services – recently it was revealed some 16 such agencies are currently in operation – it’s often unclear to all, including the accused, who exactly is overseeing their case and detention. Ghavami is not a seasoned activist with a list of impressive credentials. It appears she took President Hassan Rouhani’s slogan of “hope and prudence” seriously and returned to Iran in just such a spirit. Rather than openly challenge the ruling theocratic doctrine, she saw the prospect of change in civic activism, and solidarity with everyday struggles. Rouhani may have galvanised voters with his exhortation of “hope”, but he has two major issues of pressing concern. The first, of course, is the all-encompassing nuclear matter and the prospect of detente with western powers. The second is improving the fortunes of the Iranian economy which has been in dire straits due to mismanagement by the previous Ahmadinejad administration and western-imposed sanctions. In pursuit of these two agendas, Rouhani has the broad backing of both the reformists and so-called “principalists” (or establishment conservatives) within the political elite. As his government’s lukewarm, if not non-existent, response to Ghavami’s case makes clear, Rouhani is not going to jeopardise this careful balance for the sake of human rights or the arbitrary arrest of a dual-national citizen, which Iran in any case doesn’t recognise. The president has neither the means nor the will to open up a front which might put him at odds with darker elements in the judiciary or the security services. It’s worth remembering that Rouhani isn’t known to western politicians for his human rights activism, but for his 15-plus years as secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council. It would be premature to interpret Ghavami’s arrest as part of an intra-elite struggle, as some have done. Arbitrary arrests are indissociable from the Islamic Republic’s three-and-a-half-decade lifespan, and the judiciary, along with more murky actors, might have no intention of wrecking Rouhani’s nuclear mission, which still seems to have Khamenei’s cautious, qualified backing. Likewise, western powers have no intention of breaking off negotiations with Iran because of its human rights violations. This conviction could simply be a matter of the judiciary asserting its prerogatives and testing Rouhani’s “respect” for the Islamic Republic’s own dubious excuse for the separation of powers. Ultimately, Ghavami’s case is yet another tragic testament to the sacrifice of individual justice on the altar of realpolitik. A mixture of cynicism and utilitarianism prevails as one is faced with the question, what are the rights of a smattering of individuals against the ineluctable weight of power politics? While Rouhani will have a freer hand in some areas, he’s expected to observe the “red lines” in those spheres which are held to be sensitive, and others such as the leader’s office, the judiciary or revolutionary guards have a stake. What use has hope but for the cynical mobilisation of voters? Ghavami’s ongoing defiance, however, shows us that hope will persist; the demands of justice will not die. |