Politics in 2014: Rouhani's Tough Year

December 15, 2014
            It was a year of political paradoxes for President Hassan Rouhani. He faced challenges from the other two branches of government—the judiciary and parliament—as well as limits on his powers by the virtually omnipotent Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
      Throughout the year, Rouhani made eloquent pledges to expand freedoms in the press, speech, education, and individual rights. But little actually changed. The challenges were reflected in human rights. Under the judiciary, the number of executions, including of non-violent criminals, actually went up in 2014. Journalists were detained. And several newspapers were ordered to close. Rouhani was unable to win the release of two former colleagues and presidential candidates—Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi—who had been imprisoned since 2011.
      Parliament, a bastion of conservatives and hardliners, impeached Rouhani’s minister of science, research and technology in August. It then blocked approval of three other nominees despite Rouhani’s personal appeal on the floor of parliament. The position is key for its power to supervise most state-run universities. After diplomatic talks on Iran’s nuclear program were extended, several law-makers shouted “Down with America” on the floor of parliament.
            The paradoxes of 2014 were also reflected in social media. Top government officials— including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif—all had active accounts. Khamenei had Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts. But ordinary Iranians were banned from using them all. Iran was even working on its own infrastructure to control access to all internet content. It also began filtering mobile phone applications, shutting down virtual private networks, and cracking down on on-line activists.
 
Highlights
 
● Iranians still receiveded harsh prison sentences for online activism. Major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook remained blocked.
● Four journalists, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were detained in July. In October, 135 journalists wrote Rouhani a letter criticizing his administration for failing to improve the media’s working environment.
● Iran still had the highest execution rate per capita in the world. More than 850 people were executed between July 2013 and July 2014.
 
Chronology
 
Feb. 20 – The judiciary banned newly launched reformist newspaper Aseman for publishing an article allegedly insulting Islamic law.
 
March 6 – Khamenei warned Rouhani against loosening the administration’s grip on cultural issues.
 
April 26 – The judiciary shut down reformist newspaper Ebtekar for “spreading lies,” according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency. It was the third such publication to be banned since the beginning of the year. But Ebtekar was allowed to reopen just four days later. 
 
June 2 – Amnesty International claimed that Iranian universities had seen no meaningful improvement in academic freedom since Rouhani’s inauguration.
 
June 5 – Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, an influential ultraconservative cleric, challenged Rouhani’s more liberal interpretation of Islam. Yazdi asked, mockingly, if the president had learned his Islam in England rather than at a seminary in Qom.
 
June 23 – Iranian police arrested two people for appearing singing and dancing in London-based Ajam Band’s World Cup music video.
 
June 26 – Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli was summoned by parliament to explain why the ministry was not cracking down on dress code violations, such as women wearing leggings.
 
July 22 – Four journalists were detained in Tehran, including dual US-Iranian citizen and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. His wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi, was also arrested.
 
Aug. 19 – Human Rights Watch reported that more than 60 prisoners in Karaj, near Tehran, were being detained for exercising freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.
 
Sept. 18 – Six young Iranians received a suspended sentence of six months imprisonment and 91 lashes for appearing in a video dancing along to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” that went viral in May.
 
Sept. 20 – Iran’s judiciary wrote a letter to Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi giving him one month to shut down WhatsApp, Viber, and Tango. Jokes about Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had been circulating on the messaging apps.
 
Early October – Yeganeh Salehi, wife of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, was released on bail.
 
Oct. 3 – More than 130 journalists wrote a letter criticizing Rouhani for not fulfilling campaign promises to create a better working environment for the media.
 
Oct. 7 – Rouhani called for greater academic freedom during a speech at Tehran University. He claimed that restrictions in academia stifle innovation, and that Iran should increase interaction with the rest of the world for the sake of scientific progress.
 
Oct. 21 – Iranian police arrested four men suspected of carrying out acid attacks on women in Isfahan.
 
Oct. 22 – Thousands of Iranians protested in Isfahan against the acid attacks.
 
Oct. 25 – Iran executed a woman convicted of killing a man trying to sexually assault her, despite Rouhani’s efforts to commute her sentence.
 
Oct. 27 – Four journalists from the Iranian Students News Agency were arrested for their connecting the acid attacks to the government’s strict dress code in their news coverage.
 
Nov. 3 – An Iranian woman, who was arrested in June after attempting to attend a men’s volleyball match, was sentenced to a year in prison.
 
Nov. 11 – Iran’s committee for filtering the internet announced a two-month deadline for Iran’s government to regularize the use of Instagram. If authorities fail to gain access to the site’s contents, it will likely be blocked.
 
Nov. 18 – The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling on Iran to end human rights abuses.
 
Nov. 26 – Iran’s parliament approved President Rouhani’s fifth candidate for education minister. Parliament rejected Rouhani’s earlier picks due to their suspected links to the 2009 protests.
 
Parliament also approved Mohammad Farhadi as the new minister of science, research and technology. In August, conservative lawmakers sacked Reza Faraji Dana on charges of trying to bring back reformist professors and students purged under Ahmadinejad.
 
Dec. 1 – Iran’s Interior Ministry approved the reformist “Voice of Iranians” party led by Sadegh Kharazi.
 
Dec. 7 – Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian was formally charged during a court session. The court did not specify the charges.
 
Dec. 8 – Rouhani denounced corruption in what was widely interpreted as criticism of the Revolutionary Guards. “If guns, money, newspapers and propaganda all gather in one place, one can be confident of corruption there,” he said at a conference.

Photo credits: President Rouhani by Robin Wright,