Roundup: Iran's Hardliners Vow Rigidity Against Wrongdoers As Reformists Mull Effects

Iran's hard-line clerics have showed zero tolerance to social corruption by carrying out a growing number of public floggings recently, causing deep concern among reformist who care about political and international ramifications of the punitive measures.

The move has pitted conservatives who stick to fundamental Islamic principles against reformists, including President Mohammad Khatami, who have failed to see eye to eye with their powerful political rivals on a series of issues, with the public whipping being a case.

Lashing in front of people was used in ancient societies to punish social or moral dereliction, but it was rare to impose the punishment on citizens in Iran even before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

However, the archaic punishment staged a comeback last month when Judiciary Chief, the Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi, okayed the harsh punishment in a bid to deter rising criminals and breachers of Islamic teachings in Iran.

Many lashings, sometimes public hangings for murderers or drug traffickers, have been carried out in Iran's holy cities since then. The latest case was reported Sunday evening from Qom, center of Shiite theology and the most devout city in Iran, where two robbers received 74 lashes each for theft.

So far, over 200 young men charged with harassing women or drinking alcohol, banned by Islam, have been flogged in public. As Iranian newspapers, both pro-reform and radical, have continued to splashing news on public whippings, polemical disputes between the two antagonistic camps have deepened.

The wave of sensational public hangings and whippings has drawn criticism from reform-minded officials who claim that such punishments might harm Iran's reputation abroad at a time when President Khatami fights hard to project Iran as an example of Islamic democracy in the world.

They feared that the judiciary's clampdown on what it sees as degrading moral codes would derail Khatami's efforts to revise Iran's unyielding and fundamental image in the international arena. Khatami himself has denounced the punishment, saying "in a society where discrimination, poverty and graft abound, ... tough punishments alone cannot eradicate all forms of corruption."

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has also urged Hashemi to consider possible side effects of the strict punishments, which could scare away potential foreign tourists and investment.

But the judiciary chief has turned a deaf ear to calls from the reformist camp by claiming that the repressive measures will be meted out publicly and those who undermine social decency, such as rapists, do not need to be defended.

Voicing their support for Hashemi, Iran's conservative Friday prayers leaders called Monday on Hashemi not to hesitate in his " iron will" and expressed appreciation for his initiative of public lashing, the official IRNA news agency reported.

They called on the judiciary chief to instruct his colleagues across the country to carry out the Islamic codes thoroughly and publicly, so that "the hooligans and law-breakers would feel insecure everywhere in Iran."

With the conservative purists upholding their stance tough, Iran's reform-majority parliament has held a top-level emergency meeting in a bid to put a lid on the controversial censure while the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), headed by Khatami, has been called to investigate the matter.

The issue of public punishments "is not just a legal matter, but also carries political, security, social, domestic and international" importance, said Mohsen Armin, parliament's deputy speaker.

The public thrashing has gained momentum at a time when Khatami has just kicked off his second term in office after winning a landslide victory in the June elections by promising voters a freer society and a more open Islamic system.

The ongoing ideological warfare came after a constitutional crisis last month, during which the popular president was forced to postpone his oath-taking ceremony due to a row between the Majlis (parliament) and the conservative judiciary over the election of members of the Guardian Council (GC), the constitutional watchdog body.

The reformist-dominant Majlis yielded to the headstrong judiciary in the political stalemate, ushering in new rounds of clashes in Khatami's next four-year tenure.






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