“A student must yell against liberal thoughts and the liberal economy.”
This is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for action against liberal and secular students and professors, according to the BBC News.
Students against liberal economy? Does President Ahmadinejad really think that Iran will have enough state-jobs to provide the kind of employment all these young people will be looking for upon graduation? I personally doubt it. Does he want youths to line up and wait for a hand out from the government, rather than taking the necessary steps to create and shape their own future? It seems so, although I doubt this is the future many of the young people would want to see.
I see in statements by Ahmadinejad the recognition that economic freedoms as well as political and social ones are one and the same. Coincidentally, CIPE operates in the same kind of framework, with one key difference being that we seek to promote those freedoms rather than curb them, as Ahmadinejad proposes.
What do students think of these propositions? Here is one:
“It’s horrible. I did not expect at all that Ahmadinejad, who during his presidential campaign said he is also a university teacher, would try to deprive others from their jobs because of political differences,” said Reza, a university graduate who did not wish to be identified further.
I would think there are many more with the views similar to that expressed by Reza. If I am right, and that is in fact the case, there is clearly a disconnect between what young people want and what government says they can have. Earlier bans on Western music, for example, were not well taken by the young people, who were seeing the move as government meddling in their personal lives a bit too much. Such a disconnect between the youth and the government should ring the alarm bells in Iran and elsewhere in the world.
Published Date: September 05, 2006