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On 11 September 2001, while many Arab streets filled with dancing crowds hailing the attacks on New York and Washington, thousands of young Iranians demonstrated in support of the United States. One year later, almost to the day, Iran’s National Institute for Opinion Polls and Research found that 74 percent of Iranians favored good relations with America—Khomeini’s “Great Satan”—and more than half of the population approved of American criticism of Iran’s government. The official pollsters also discovered that Ayatollah Khamenei, the powerful “Supreme Leader,” was the most unpopular figure in the country. The head of the institute and the editor of the newspaper that published the story were naturally accused of “spreading false information ” and thrown in jail. Such government action has been common for more than a decade.
The opposition movement started long ago, almost immediately after Khomeini’s demise in 1989. Indeed, in 1990, Ayatollah Montazeri, formerly Khomeini’s heir-designate, accused his colleagues of betraying Islam and was put under house arrest. Civil conflict has intensified in the years since the 1999 student revolt; skirmishes and demonstrations occur almost daily in cities across Iran and the regime routinely employs massive and brutal repression to confront mounting dissent. Common practice includes public hangings, floggings and stonings as punishment for dissent. In July 2002, the senior cleric of Isfahan, Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, resigned and declared that the regime’s policies
were jeopardizing the future of Islam in Iran.
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