The same comes true for any kind of relationship with the West, no matter if it is cultural, religious, political or scientific. Dozens in the country have been arrested in recent years, under the pretext of getting involved in paving the way for Velvet Revolution, by communicating with the Western political, cultural, academic and religious think thanks, or reporting the aggregating condition of Human Rights to the related International bodies. Dozens of foreign scientific and academic exchange services were banned or put on the black list, such as JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) or DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) -which did a lot in the past in different fields of Crises Management, Scholarships for Iranian talents, cultural interface, etc. - since the government is very much afraid of public awareness, these kind of international activities may bring about. Women activists as well are under constant pressure and prosecution and many of them are now living in exile or being put behind the bars. The former Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, was a little bit successful by presenting the concept of “Dialogue among civilizations, but unfortunately, his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in no ways agree to any kind of interface with the world.
The same is true in many countries of the Third World in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and East Asia. So by noticing the above-mentioned it becomes quite clear how a democratic system may flourish cultural interface, by paving the ground for such debates. The question is how to overcome these barriers in these set of countries? How the people could be informed of their basic rights in choosing among different schools of thought, faiths and philosophies? How shall we address to the problem of the people under dictatorship, regarding making them aware of democratic and universal values and the necessity to respect all different cultures? This is what we shall include in our debates from now on, to my mind.
Mehdi Javadi: Democracy as a Threshold to Interface Dialogue
Nov. 8, 2011, 3 p.m.
In the course of our meetings, some truly pointed out that democracy is a threshold to any dialogue relating to cultural interface. It is quite obvious that you can just start of thinking about any kind of dialogue among cultures, civilizations and religions, when your setting is quite open and tolerate to embrace these debates. For instance, it is quite impossible to initiate any kind of such concepts in dictatorships, with a tough stance against any other idea but their own. For example in Iran, Baha’is, Sufis, Sunnis as religious minorities are under constant pressure and humiliation, since they are not following the Shiite faith. Baha’is are being accused of having relationship with Israel, an arch foe of the Iranian regime, since the shrine of the founder of this religious is in Haifa, Israel. But, nobody pays attention that this shrine was built up almost a century before the establishment of the state of Israel. Sunnis are resembling with Vahabi’s, in Saudi Arabia, and Sufis are being treated as atheists. Since after the Islamic revolution there is a growing tendency among Iranian youth to be absorbed by a faith other than the model being presented by the government, the pressure increasingly being put on the strongholds of these attractive faiths and new ways of worshiping God.