Iranians have lost their fear

Dadbeh Gardarzi:

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On the surface, things may look as if they are back to normal after the crushing of the biggest protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution. On the way to my office, I check out the headlines at a newspaper kiosk and yes, it's business as usual: "The West miscalculated with unrest in Iran."

Some of us still go up to our roofs and balconies at 10pm every night and for about 10 minutes shout: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! ("God is great".) It was the gesture that helped topple the Shah in 1979.

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From morning to night, we are told that while the Islamic Republic is well on its way to delivering divine virtues, the rest of the world is in a state of moral and economic collapse. Sooner or later, America and its allies will implode. The ceaseless repetition of this message has helped to prolong public tolerance of the sovereignty of the mullahs. It also means that for the 70 per cent of Iranians who have no access to foreign TV via satellite, the treachery of the super-powers is as active as it was during the Cold War when British intelligence really was busy orchestrating a coup against Iran's democratic government.

But even if they won't admit it, our rulers must be worried. They know that after last month's unrest and the violent suppression that followed, the nation is still in deep crisis. And they also know that something profound has changed. Because never at any time since the revolution has public criticism been as open and as bitter as now.

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Until recently, it was almost unheard of to utter criticism and the name of the Supreme Leader in the same breath. But now, even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does not escape, and I don't mean just in conversations between trusted friends. My own father, seriously mistrustful of talking about anything meaningful on the telephone, has given up observing his own cautious rules after almost three decades.

The people who are now daring to speak out like my father are not all intellectuals from north Tehran. Nor are they organised resistance. They are fed up with their salaries being eaten by inflation, or that their university-educated children have no prospect of a job. And they seethe at the unimaginable gap between them and loyal members of the Revolutionary Guard who have recently enjoyed salary rises.

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While the regime may have crushed the demonstrations, it has been less successful in crushing the resentment against the hated regime. It may never regain the legitimacy it craves, but Obama and Clinton may lend it some with a futile attempt to negotiate a deal with the religious bigots in charge.