Scholar Reflects On Violence, Green Movement
After violence plagued Iranian protestors on the holy day of Ashura, when protestors were run over by police cars and thrown off bridges by plainclothes agents, some have asked, “How much longer will Iran’s Green Movement remain nonviolent?”
Noted scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo, who spent time in an Iranian prison in 2006, tells Radio Farda that the Green Movement is spontaneous in the sense that it teaches itself how to abstain from violence.
“Currently, a fundamental relationship between morality and politics is being shaped in Iran, which, in my belief, is very important for the country’s youth as well as the political future of this civil movement,” he says.
[read in Farsi]
Subsidy Cuts To Be Implemented In Iran
Iran’s Guardian Council has approved the government’s plan to cut subsidies on energy and food. Analysts believe providing a significant amount of money to a government considered unaccountable even to legal institutions would only fuel a demonstrated lack of financial restraint.
An economist tells Radio Farda that the government, which faces a number of severe economic crises, wants to cut the subsidies in order to redistribute the funds itself as it sees fit.
[listen in Farsi]