Iranian democrats
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies and an expert on the Middle East, recently wrote in International Herald Tribune: "As Iranians have come to know theocracy intimately, secularism has become increasingly attractive. Iran now produces brilliant clerics who argue in favour of the separation of church and state as a means of saving the faith from corrupting power."
Indeed, most Iranians, especially women and the youth, never accepted the theocratic rule without protest. Iranian writer Azar Nafisi, who was expelled from her teaching position at Tehran University for refusing to wear veil, tells about the resistance women put up against the theocratic rule in her book Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Now all taboos have been broken in Iran and it will be impossible for the mullahs to impose the same rule again. Theocracy might have lost all its appeals even to many who initially supported it. As a consequence, repression in the name of religion can longer be possible. Politically speaking, it may lead to a tectonic shift in the entire region.
Bangladesh should be proud of its secular tradition.
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