The streets of Tehran in recent days have seen the worst violence in Iran since Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution and the fall of the Shah twenty years ago. Shops in Tehran's bazaar were forced to close yesterday as students defied calls from conservatives and reformers alike for an end to their protests. Plain clothes police fired in the air, armed militia members with automatic weapons directed traffic, and protesters clashed with anti-riot police and the elite Revolutionary Guard on the sixth consecutive day of protests. The protests have spread to cities throughout Iran, and the scenes are threatening to become uglier on the streets of Tehran today following calls from the conservative clergy who control the Organisation for Islamic Propaganda for a mass counter-protest.
Iran's reformist President, Dr Mohammad Khatami, now faces his most difficult political crisis since his stunning victory in May 1997 when he was elected on promises of political reform and progress towards a civil society. That election success was a vote for an end to the climate of fear that pervaded Iranian society for two decades. But despite Dr Khatami's landslide victory two years ago, conservative clerics, dominated by Iran's supreme spiritual guide, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, have struggled to maintain the upper hand, often with the support of vigilante groups. Hardliners have used a number of extreme measures to frustrate Dr Khatami's reforms. Conservative clerics still control key centres of power, including the police, security agencies and the armed forces. In recent months, this struggle for power has seen cabinet ministers attacked, dissident clerics silenced, pro-reform newspapers banned and prominent secular dissidents murdered.
Now the voters who propelled Dr Khatami into power - women, intellectuals, students, pro-reform clergy and the people of Tehran - are increasingly frustrated that little has been done to defend their interests. Beneath the surface lies widespread anger that Dr Khatami is moving too slowly. The immediate trigger for the present protests came last week when President Khatami's opponents steam-rolled tough new media restrictions through parliament and then banned the most influential pro-Khatami newspaper. The first protests resulted in an assault on a Tehran University dormitory, and the students have been on the streets every day since.
The crisis has shaken Iranian society and is putting pressure on the President to speed up his promised reforms. The conservatives, who were caught off guard initially, have now moved to reassert their authority, and have tried to shift the blame for the unrest onto Iran's outside "enemies" - a reference to both the US and Israel. But the protests appear to be gaining support from ordinary people on the streets of Tehran and are spreading. The violent handling of the protests has sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public support for the students and outrage against the police. The rules of the game appear to be changing in Iran to the discomfort of the conservatives who are trying to keep their grip on power. As a result, Dr Khatami and his allies may yet take full control over the police and security forces, putting him in a position to move ahead with the reforms he promised two years ago.