I am delighted to be among you on the hundredth birthday of secularism in
the capital of the Enlightenment where the Paris Commune was established. I
am glad to talk about the rise of a massive secularist movement in Iran and
the urgency of fighting to eradicate political Islam and fighting the battle
for the enlightenment in the Middle East.
I recently
participated at an internet discussion forum and talked about Islam and
religion to several hundreds Iranian youth, the majority were from inside
Iran. All spoke about the ever growing anti –Islamic sentiments of people,
one articulated it like this: Iran lies on an anti – Islamic bomb. I believe
that this expression is to a large extent true. There exist a particularly
youth popular cultural movement in Iran which aims to free the society and
particularly the youth from the rule of religion, and to challenge the roots
of Islam. This is the anti Islamic bomb. In Iran, the bright and
freethinkers must be sought among the generation who is involved in a life
struggle; a generation who sets up satellite dishes on the roofs and risks
intimidation and arrest in order to make a hole in the wall of suppression
built around the country to know what the outside world is saying.
The past 26
years have been some of the darkest in the memory of Iranian people. The
Islamic regime, the first established government of political Islam in the
Middle East, brought nothing but repression, torture, and death. Women and
the youth were amongst the very first targets attacked by the Islamic
Republic.
In the past
three decades, we have seen the emergence and development of political
movements that have organised themselves under the banner of Islam in the
Middle East. This is a movement, which seeks wealth, power and the state not
only in the East but also in the West. Political Islam is a major force that
has imposed serious setbacks on people’s lives in the region in general and
in Iran in particular, in the recent decades. Political Islam is a political
movement which came to the fore to destroy the secular and progressive
movements for liberation and egalitarianism; it is against cultural and
intellectual advances. It forcefully opposes the freedom of women and
women's civil liberties, and the freedom of expression in the cultural and
personal domains, it is for the enforcement of brutal laws and traditions,
not to mention killing, beheading, and genocide.
As the first
victims of political Islam, women and the youth also became the pioneer
forces fighting against political Islam in Iran. In fact, the
post–revolutionary period in Iran has seen extraordinary gender and cultural
awareness among Iranian women. Women’s resistance against Islamic laws has
been a daily fact of life. The penalty for breaking the rules of segregation
and Hijab has been insult, cash fines, expulsion, and deprivation from
education, arrest, imprisonment, beating, and flogging. Tens of thousands of
women, the great majority born after the establishment of the Islamic
Republic, have defied the rules and have been attacked by Islamic moral
squads with fists, knives, cutters, and acid.
Women in Iran
have struggled to open spaces and make opportunities for themselves. They
have organized associations for the defence of women and children’s rights.
Increasingly, large numbers of Iranians are taking to the streets, as they
did in July 1999, October 2001, November 2002, and July 2003, December 2004
and 10th and 12th June 2005. Over the past eight
years, the secular movement at the universities has grown rapidly. Even the
average student who is politically naive and uninvolved will tell you in
plain language that religion is a personal and private matter and that it
must not interfere in politics, in the state and in the public life. And
yet, secular organizations cannot operate openly and freely under the
current regime. For this reason, students are attempting to establish
chapters and plan activities at their campuses across the country.
Previously,
Europe was the centre for the struggle against religion; consequently
secular states were established and religion was pushed back and became a
private matter for individuals. It seems that currently, a similar battle
against Islam and religion in general is being waged in Iran. This movement
ought to challenge the roots of Islam in the same way that thinkers and
philosophers challenged the Christianity and shook the society off religion
and backward thoughts and traditions.
In Iran there
is a massive social hatred of Islam which will hopefully break the dams.
Islam should and will suffer a major defeat in this country. The movement
against Islam primarily will be a mass popular movement against the
political and social expression of Islam. Now, 26 years has passed and the
fact is that Iranian society has changed dramatically and deeply since 1979.
The movement for secularism and atheism, for modern ideas and culture, for
individual freedom, for women's liberation and civil liberties has been
widespread and deep. Women and the youth are the champions of this battle -
a battle that threatens the basic pillars of the Islamic system. The most
hopeful signs and the most remarkable stimulus for change continue to come
directly from Iranian women and youth both in Iran and in exile. Any change
in Iran will not only affect the lives of people living in Iran, but will
have a significant impact on the region and worldwide.
The government that Iranians want is a government that accords freedom and
equality to all; uncompromising equality between men and women and Abolition
of all the laws and regulations that undermine this principle. Also complete
abolition of executions and stoning. It is a secular government whose
principles recognize the dignity of human beings. Our objectives must be the
complete separation of religion from state; the elimination of religion from
law and from education; the declaration of religion as a private affair for
individuals, and freedom of religion and atheism. Unconditional freedom of
expression, media, assembly, organisation and freedom to strike is another
foundation for a free and secular Iran. Complete equality of all citizens
regardless of their gender, religion, nationality, race and citizenship must
be recognised.
For the first time in the history of humanity in the Middle
East, there will be a movement for subordination of God’s and religious
rules to the Human, and the movement to criticise Islam, and a movement to
push religion back to where it belongs.
The people of
the world must rise up and support our struggle to eradicate this right
wing, active, genocidal and murderous Islamic movement, and support our
battle for the Enlightenment in the Middle East. I call you and all
atheists, secularists and freethinkers to join our camp and strengthen our
movement to free ourselves and Iranian society from political Islam, to get
rid of Islam, and to abolish it from the state, education and the public
life.
The
establishment of a secular and egalitarian state in Iran will definitively
break the chains that Islam and backward cultural traditions and customs
have put on people and the societies in the Middle East. We along with all
progressive and secularist forces in the world should fight a joint battle
for the Enlightenment in the Middle East.
Adapted from
the speech delivered at the plenary session of the 16the World Congress of
the International Humanist and Ethical Union, held on 5-7 July 2005 in Paris
- France.