Iran: Infiltrating Schools With Clerics

In order to combat Western influence and political opposition, Iranian authorities have ordered to send 1,000 clerics into Tehran schools, according to Mohammad Boniadi, deputy director of Tehran’s education department. According to a piece in The Washington Post, these same measures were taken right after the 1979 revolution, when morality police were placed in schools to “promote the government ideology.” Seeking to enhance the government’s influence on the Internet, Fars News Agency has also reported that they will increase the number of pro-government blogs. Head of the Basij militia force, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has also declared that the Basij will “increase its Internet capability threefold” by the Persian New Year, March 21.  Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, former reformist member of the Iranian Parliament who is currently a visiting fellow at Stanford University, argued that despite the government’s attempts to enhance its epistemological influence over the youth, it will inherently fail. In spite of years of attempts to Islamize universities in Iran, last year’s uproar around campuses during and after the presidential elections showed that Iranian youths have already “developed their own political and cultural views,” which according to Khoini will be difficult to change.

On the same note, the Hejab and Chastity Conference that has been announced in Iran, has gained significant critique from the rest of the world, since the government’s intentions are to ensure people’s adherence to Islamic dress code and to punish public socializing between opposite sexes while outside of marriage. According to a very interesting observation at Tehran Bureau, “While free expression within the rigid legal and cultural confines of the Islamic Republic has never been easy, enforcement of these draconian guidelines becomes ever more difficult as more and more Iranians adopt Western styles.”