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CMA head slams political parties : Dr. Brian Day brianday.ca | Political Parties ssrsi.org | Yoga in Iran : Iran Yoga yogafinder.com | Legislative Affairs - NJHA Links to Political, Legislative and... njha.com |
See also: List of political parties in Iran Political parties in Iran gives information on the political parties in Iran. Iran has regular presidential and parliamentary elections. Only those candidates and parties that are approved by the clerical Guardian Council can be elected. The system as a whole is presented as a "republic" based on Islamist ideology. Currently, there are 223 [1] registered political parties, associations and organizations that have been given legitimacy to operate, but not as an opposition to the religious system of the governance. They usually operate in loose alignments within two main coalitions, the conservative and the reformist.
[edit] Parties inside IranThese parties can operate inside the Islamic regime. They are separated between two factions: the Conservatives (Extremist and ultra-religious right-wing parties) and the Reformists (moderate religious right-wing parties). [edit] Conservative AllianceSee also: Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran [edit] Main Parties
[edit] Ultra-conservatives[edit] Reformist CoalitionMain article: 2nd of Khordad Movement [edit] Main Parties
[edit] Dissident GroupsThere are many tolerated groups not allowed to participate in the elections. They are close to the reformists and grouped in a coalition named the Nationalist-Religious Forces whose spokesman is Ezzatollah Sahabi. The main party of the coalition is the Freedom Movement Party of Ebrahim Yazdi, but also the Movement of Muslim Militants of Habibollah Peyman. There is also the Kurdish United Front. [edit] Opposition parties active in exile[edit] Generality[edit] IdeologiesThere are 65 political parties outside Iran (they fled the Islamist Regime). Only 13 are fully active of which 4 are powerful. These 65 parties can be divided into 5 ideological branches from left to right :
[edit] Notability of these partiesIn fact a lot of Iranians do not know the majority of these 65 exiled political parties. The parties known by nearly all Iranians are the Mojahedin, the Monarchists (around Reza Pahlavi), the National Front (known in Iran as the Jebhe-ye Melli), the Fadayan-e Khalq and the Tudeh Party. Only 4 parties out of the 65 could be considered as powerful, in order :
see also List of political parties in Iran. The rest of the Opposition is insignificant : they are rather tiny clubs of individuals than political parties and do not influence the political arena of Iran. But 9 of them are of some importance : - The Tudeh Party and the Communist Party of Iran (of Ebrahim Alizadeh), which were important parties in the past, exist today in a very anemic state. - The Worker-Communist Party of Iran was formerly powerful and led by the charismatic Mansoor Hekmat before splitting into three weak parties [1] when the latter died in 2002. Among the three parties the Hekmatist Party is the most vocal. - The National Movement of Iranian Resistance (NAMIR) of Shahpour Bakhtiar [2], the Party of the Iranian Nation (PIN) of Darius and Parvaneh Foroohar and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK) of Abdul Rahman Qassemloo, although prominent parties in the past, have almost been destroyed with the killings of their charismatic leaders by the Islamic Republic. The NAMIR has almost ceased to exist, whereas the PIN and the DPIK struggle to expand their activities. In December 2006, the DPIK split another time into two groups. - The Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar) has isolated itself by rejecting joint actions or even dialogue with non-communist parties (they do not have a good relation even with some communist parties deemed not too radical or "traitor" like the Tudeh Party). The Rahe Kargar is seen by many right and left parties as a sectarian and inflexible party. [3] The Party split into two groups in August 2009. - The social-democratic Komala (not to be confused with the communist Komalah with an h), although an important party, can't be classified among the four powerful party of the Opposition cited above since its modest activities are only concentrated in the kurdish-inhabited provinces of Iran. Furthermore Komala split into two parties in August 2007[4]. - The Islamic Society of the Iranians has few members but has a prominent leader (Abolhassan Banisadr). - The Union of People's Fedaian of Iran is the Iranian Party with the most ties with other Opposition parties (it has warm relations even with the Rahe Kargar). It has been designated as the twin sister of the Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian-Majority (OIPF-M) but has far fewer members. Some members told their Party will soon merge with the OIPF-M. [edit] Important individuals without partyThere are important exiled individuals with no party who are also important : Ali Afshari , Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir, Ahmad Batebi or Manuchehr Mohammadi from the student segment, Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Abdolkarim Soroush or Dariush Shayegan, influential secular and religious intellectuals, Roya Toloui, a woman activist, Akbar Ganji, the well-known political activist and journalist, Abbas Amir-Entezam, the longest political prisoner of Iran (27 years), Simin Behbahani, one of the most prominent figures in modern Persian literature, Nasser Zarafshan, a famous attorney, Abolhassan Banisadr, the first president of Iran, etc… Even among the clerics based inside and outside Iran, there are numerous radical dissidents but some are more prominent, for example : Hossein Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, Ayatollah Ganjei (exiled in Paris), Ayatollah Mehdi Haeri Khorshidi (exiled in Germany) or Hojjatoleslam Ezimi Qedimi, etc. Several mullah dissidents around the world created "the Free Muslims" : [5]. [edit] History[edit] Past (1990-2003)Before the year 2003, a lot of parties tried to form a coalition against the Islamic regime and failed. Only two unions succeeded; but even them - which are the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the Workers Left Unity - Iran - are just an alliance of two parties : the religious-leftist People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and the marxist Organization of Iranian People Fadaee Guerillas for the first one and the Iranian fedaian communist league and the Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar) for the latter. Some Communists (the Tudeh Party for example), the Socialists (above all Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian-Majority), the Nationalists (for instance the National Front), the Monarchists (as the Constitutionalist Party) and the Ethnic nationalists (like the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan) several times discussed how to come together in the past, but without results, given that : 1) Almost all the Communists (for instance the Rahe Kargar [6]) are opposed to cooperating with non-communist parties. 2) The main challenge comes from the Monarchists, for leftist or some pro-republican parties are reticent to form an alliance with them. 3) Few are also opposed to dialogue with the Mojahedin. Because of that, western journalists and Iran experts have repeatedly said that the Opposition is ineffective, discredited and inflexible. [edit] Present (2003-2008)However, since 2003 the leftist activists did what no others had done in the past : they created the United Republicans of Iran (URI), a federation of three pro-republican parties : [7],[8] . Over one thousand personnalities took part in the inauguration of the URI in Berlin. At the same time, in Paris, other leftists created another alliance named the Democratic and Secular Republicans of Iran (DSRI). The DSRI is considered more leftist than the URI and its members belong to three socialist parties : the Union of People's Fedaian of Iran, the Organization of Iranian Socialists and the Provisional Council of Iranian Left Socialists [9]. The URI is more prominent and is a federation of three parties, namely the Democratic People's Party of Iran of Babak Amirkhosravi (a separated fraction of the communist Tudeh party), the Iranian National Republicans of Hassan Shariatmadari, son of the late Grand Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, and the Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian-Majority. The Democratic People's Party of Iran has ceased to exist and was absorbed by the URI, the Iranian National Republicans (http://www.iran-jommelli.com) exists by name but all its activities is done within the URI, but the OIPF-M continues its activities inside and also outside the URI.[10]. Both the URI and the DSRI are still discussing how to forme a single union to form a strong "republican" (=leftist) force [11]. Both have also invited two ethnical parties (the DPIK and the Komala), a centrist party (the National Front of Iran), a far left party (the Provisional Council of Iranian Left Socialists) and even a conservative party (the Islamic Society of the Iranians) to these negotiations which took place on September 22 2007. [12]; [13] Moreover, since September 2005 a greater spectrum of these exiled parties who used to be very divided (even among groups of similar philosophies) have begun to unite. Reza Pahlavi had dinner in Berlin with some of the leftists who had helped to overthrow his father, and it generated outrage on both the left and the right. For the first time, a Republican (the late spokesman of the National Front of Iran) Parviz Varjavand wrote in an article in August 2006 [14] that Democracy is compatible with both a Constitutional Monarchy and a Republic and that the issue should not be between Constitutional Monarchy and Republic. The Green Party of Iran led by Kayvan Koboli said the same thing months before Parviz Varjavand : [15]. Heshmat Raeisi, ex-member of the Central Committee of both the Fedai and the Tudeh Party [16], participated in the sixth Congress of the (monarchist) Constitutionalist Party of Iran in November 2006 and gave a speech : [17]; in February 2007 Dariush Homayoun of the rightist Constitutionalist Party of Iran wrote a friendly letter to the major leftist party (the OIPFG (M)) [18]. Hossein Bagherzadeh of the latter party answered : [19]. [edit] Gathering together (2009)The situation as of 2009 is clearer. Four political groups are emerging : - a leftist bloc comprising 4 parties :
- a liberal nationalist bloc comprising 10 center-right parties :
- a religious party : the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main Opposition group. - an ethnical bloc grouped in the "Congress of Iranian Nationalities" (16 parties) :
 [edit] Names and websites of the OppositionHere are the names and the programs of all known Iranian political parties based in exile (Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, and sometimes Turkey, Iraq, Dubai, Israel, Pakistan) : [edit] The CommunistsThere are 17 Iranian communist parties. However only two out of them could be considered alive, namely the Hekmatist Party, and the Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar). The Rahe Kargar, the Organization of Fedaian (Minority), The Communist Party Of Iran (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) and Azarakhsh formed a coalition named the United Supporters of Left and Communist Groups [20], [21]. [edit] Historical partyThe well-known Communist Party which used to be very powerful. No longer very active. The oldest political party in Iran.
http://www.tudehpartyiran.org/ Now, only a minority of the original members remained in the party. A majority left the party to pursue cultural activities or to join other political parties (as the United Republicans of Iran), but some others were expelled from the Tudeh Party created three other Tudeh groupings : 1) Tudeh path (or Rahe Tudeh) (founded by two excluded party members) [22] http://www.rahetudeh.com/ 2) Tarnegashte mehr led by Afshin Razani (excluded from the party in the 1990s) http://10mehr.org/ 3) People's voice (Sedaye mardom) http://www.sedayemardom.net/ [edit] Worker-CommunismThe four splits of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran :
http://www.for-abetterworld.com
[edit] Anti-revisionism
[edit] MaoismThe two Maoist parties :
[edit] FadaianThe original communist motherparty was called Organization of Iranian People's Fadai Guerrillas. Since 1980, it has split dozens of times. Today there are 7 parties, 5 of them are still communist. The other two (which constitute the large majority of the members) have evolved into democratic socialist parties. http://www.fadaian-minority.org/
http://www.fadaian.org/ or http://www.jonge-khabar.com/ or http://www.iran-nabard.com/
[edit] Others
http://www.komalah.org (for Komalah) and http://www.cpiran.org/ (for the Communist Party of Iran)
[edit] The Socialists/Social-DemocratsOnly the Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian-Majority and the Union of People's Fedaian of Iran are active. The United Republicans of Iran (URI) and the Democratic and Secular Republicans of Iran (DSRI) are not really parties but federations of parties and both are strong. The first six parties cited below are very linked to each other.
http://www.kar-online.com/ or in English/French/German: http://www.fadai.org/
http://www.etehadefedaian.org/
[edit] The Religious LeftNeither secular nor Islamist. They are against the application of the Sharia but at the same time oppose everything opposed to what they call “the main principles of Islam”. They believe in the equality between men and women and at the same time their female supporters are mostly veiled. The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which used to have an "army" in Iraq until 2003, is considered to be the main Opposition party to the Islamic Republic.
http://www.mojahedin.org/ or http://www.hambastegimeli.com/
http://enghelabe-eslami.com/ or http://www.majameeslamiiranian.com/
[edit] The Liberal-Democrats/NationalistsMost of them are republican but some favor a constitutional monarchy as in Spain. The National Front and the Constitutionalist Party of Iran are the most active. Some of them are united in an organization called "Melliun" [23]. The National Front has the particularity of being the only opposition party to have an official bureau in Tehran and in other big cities :
http://www.jminews.com or http://www.jebhemelli.net/
http://www.melliun.org/hezbeir02.htm
http://www.melliun.org/hezbemel02.htm or https://hezbemellateiran.com/
http://www.melliun.org/nehzatm.htm or http://www.namir.info/
http://www.paniranist.org/ or http://www.paniranist.com/
http://www.idfravabet.blogfa.com/
[edit] Ethnic nationalist partiesAmong the ethnic parties, only the Kurdish DPIK and Komala are active. Some of these parties formed a union called "Congress of Iranian Nationalities" whose activities are mainly done by both parties cited above : http://www.iranfederal.org/ [edit] Kurds
http://www.kurdistanmedia.com/ or http://www.pdki.org/ (English)
[edit] Baluchs
http://balochistanpeoplesfront.blogspot.com/ http://www.balochunitedfront.org/
[edit] Azeris
[edit] ArabsFor more information about these parties : [24] http://www.alahwaz-revolutionary-council.org/ [edit] Turkmens[edit] Lurs & Bakhtiaris
http://www.bakhtiar.de/1628235.htm [edit] References[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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