Thursday, December 4, 2003
(Via Blog-Iran)
Obviously not a scientific sample, but AEI sponsored a one-time event of Iranians broadcasting their views on reform into Iran from LA via shortwave and internet. Not surprisingly, no one was particularly optimistic, to say the least, about the prospects of reform under the current regime. Sadly, it's only "conservative" groups that are seen as supporting real efforts at reform, the BBC piece frames AEI as "close to the Republican Party and Bush administration."
BBC NEWS | Americas | Washington tunes in to Iranian radio
"We have given them a lot of chances, especially when Mr Khatami was being chosen.
We have given him six-and-a-half years but nothing has happened and we don't trust them any more," she said in comments translated from Farsi for the Washington audience.
A woman student said bluntly: "Reform in Iran is dead."
She said there were some "tricks" that could persuade some that there was some form of democracy in Iran but added she was not fooled: "Believing in reform is nonsense."
A poet called Mohammed said even those people who had pioneered promised reforms admitted that they had got nowhere.
"Because of the ideological framework, reforms are not possible in such a regime," he said...
