March 21, 2008: The recent national elections were largely ignored by most Iranians. The Islamic conservative dictatorship did not allow most reformist candidates to even run. The clerics know that they only have the support of about a third of the population, and have no realistic long range plan to maintain their power. What the clerics are doing is trying to apply more pressure, largely via the lifestyle police, to stamp out "un-Islamic" dress and behavior. The Islamic conservatives have a problem in that their own children, and often some of their own number, who are partaking in this forbidden foreign culture. It is common for Islamic conservative politicians and officials being forced to rescue their wayward kids from the lifestyle police. This attempt to change the attitudes of young Iranians is not working, but the Islamic conservatives have no Plan B. |