Good treatment of guests and taarof (i.e. being polite and affable) have become two known attributes of Iranians. But just as the first is good and desirous in politics, taarof is bad as it is the opposite of being straightforward and transparent which are the essentials in the politics of the modern world while also being in contradiction with national interest and expediency.
Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s trip to the United States and his speech at Columbia University in New York once again threw light on these two traits among domestic and international public opinion, including the media. The president revealed the first trait (good treatment of guests) when he responded to the irrational and insulting – yet proper and rightful – comments of the president of Columbia. The second point, taarof, has been displayed through the behavior of Iranian politicians, especially among the critics of the regime and in Iran known as “government reformers.”
It would be nice if on the eve of the forthcoming eight Majlis elections, and when there is growing widespread concerns over the basic requirements of free and, healthy and competitive elections among the political factions, reformers and independents, the issue of taarof in politics should be analyzed, presenting its destructive consequences so that after the elections, the public and the parties would not use words such as “those admitted to the Majlis” for the “elected” representatives.
It is of course clear that there are more requirements for holding free, healthy and competitive elections such as a free media, absence of censorship, freedom of parties and free party activities, including civil society activities, whose absence these days does not require much insight or debate. Ahmadinejad’s press conference at the Press Club in New York and his responses to sharp questions raised by independent journalists resulted in all kinds of reports and the international media about his “lies” and the dishonor disrepute he brought to Iran and Iranians.
But what is the relationship between taarof and politics? Let me raise an introduction first. I have raised the issues that have come up since the way journalists respond to the tactics of the Islamic Propagation Organization (Sazemane Tablighate Eslami), led by ayatollah Ahmad Janati, one of which relates to the commemorations of the 1979 revolution and the other to the support for the rights of the Palestinians My emphasis is that there are many Iranians who still believe in the progressive claims of the 1979 revolution in democratization and the spread of freedoms and establishment of national sovereignty, but stay at home during the annual celebrations because they do not wish to celebrate under the banner of the hardliners and authoritarian and chant their slogans, which would be diluting the pro-democracy and populist movements. My call to them has been to form their own independent marches and demonstrations and slogans. At the least, such an act would be a means to organize and expand these groups. And just as those who do get into the Majlis lack the qualifications to be called true “representatives” of the people – because of the structure of the elections – Ahmadinejad too cannot enjoy public legitimacy and acceptance because of his tactics in winning the last elections by interjecting the para-military groups into the elections process, even though the presidential elections may appear to be “legal” in appearance.
But despite this, some of my friends desire to provide a legal façade to the “unaccepted” and “illegitimate” presidential elections and call its winner the “representative of the Iranian nation.” Logically, even if one can find a legal sanction for the elections, its results are clearly far from legitimate and acceptable, and more importantly representative.
Ahmadinejad’s comments in the US about freedoms, civil society, respect for human rights etc in Iran which have earned the label of “lies of the Iranian president”, are now also affecting the image of Iranians who have been know throughout the ancient world for their honesty in faith. These unnecessary taarof comments that are now being used in politics are hurting the Iranian nation.
The reality is that as political groups position themselves for the two important upcoming elections within the next 20 months and as they have conditioned their participation to the elections being “free, independent and competitive”, these types of taarof are ways of legitimizing and accepting the results of the forthcoming unjust elections. These taarof are in line with the programs and interests of the hardliners, and in contrast to the interests, goals and policies of the reformers and pro-human rights activists.
Onlymehdi 