Irans Road to Democracy



April 13, 2005 -- Sazegara narrates a unique journey - from his arrival in Tehran on a plane with soon-to-be-leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, to imprisonment, hunger strike and flight from Tehran under threat of death in 2004: the extraordinary story of the cruel disenchantment of the "generation of the revolution."

In a major statement published on openDemocracy.net Sazegara asks for worldwide support for a referendum to change the Iranian constitution:

"We need democracy, but not by means of invasion. We must grow it ourselves" he says. "I realized that there were big mistakes underlying the ideas of the revolution. I saw a kind of fascism at work in the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Reform in Iran is impossible, he concludes, with the present constitution.

Sazegara opens an important new debate on openDemocracy.net - Democracy and Iran - which will examine Iran's options at this critical moment in her history.
Twenty-five years after revolution the reform movement seems to be defeated. But the young, web-savvy, culturally and politically literate population wants democracy and George Bush has Iran in his sights. Which way will the mullahs turn Can a democracy movement head off the threat of American military intervention

Read the full article: http://www.opendemocracy.net/entry_points/sazegara.jsp
Iranians from around the world debate the referendum and Iran's political future on www.openDemocracy.net
Visit the debate: http://www.opendemocracy.net/entry_points/iran.jsp

For more information email Caspar Melville
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openDemocracy was founded in 2001 and has 45,000 members. It offers a unique global space for democratic debate and high quality journalism.





Irans Road to Democracy