On Nov 18, 2006, at 1:55 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
I would not call that a "left-social democratic model" but labels matter little after all. But if that's what Ali means, it's odd for him to hail Daniel Ortega as a beacon of hope*, while getting despondent about the Middle East. IMHO, Hizballah, the Ahmadinejad faction, etc. are more "left-social democratic" than Ortega! But Ali is from the Islamic world, so the religious grass must look to him greener on the other side of Muslim-Christian divide.
Tariq Ali, interviewed by me, November 2 <http:// www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#061102>:
23:29 [Ahmadinejad declared that women would be allowed to go to football matches], which surprised everyone because they thought he was a hardliiner. He said, what's this got to do with the Koran? Women should be allowed to go enjoy a football match. That's been a change. Then he said that the religious police shouldn't be deciding how women should wear the hijab, as long as they wear it and they're modestly dressed. On which the hardcore clerics attacked him from the right and said, "No, this is absolutely wrong, all their heads have to be covered. Some of these women are defying us and flaunting it...." All this nonsense goes on all the time that gives indications of some of the social tensions in the country. If Ahmadinejad were clever - but he will not break from this way of looking at things - and he ended the social controls on the everyday lives of the people, women especially, his popularity would soar. But he's not going to do that because he might lose other parts of his base. But that's what is needed. Iran is desperately in need of social and economic reforms. Whoever does them will be king for a long time.
