Prospects for Democracy in Iran

Ladan Boroumand

Is Islam compatible with democracy? Can a Muslim society like Iran ever become a secular democracy? For more than twenty years, Western democracies have favored an implicitly negative answer to these questions. Thus, their policy toward Iran was made up of a series of hesitant, inconsistent, and ad hoc decisions aimed at countering Iran's terrorism in the world, while manifesting a total lack of concern about the tyrannical and oppressive nature of the Islamic Republic.

Those who profess the incompatibility of Islam and democracy could rightfully refer to some theological and historical traits. Much of Islam's history reveals the continuing influence of a founding prophet who made law, waged war, dispensed justice, and ruled his people. From these observations, one might be tempted to conclude that the secularization and democratization of Iran cannot proceed without confronting the religious order. This conclusion seems all the more valid, since the leaders of the Islamic Revolution claim to have restored a "pure Islamic order."

Yet, a closer examination of the history of the Islamic Revolution raises questions about the validity of these arguments…

Ladan Boroumand is Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation. She is also Visiting Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies and is researching the Iranian Islamic Revolution.