The Rise of a Massive Secularist Movement

Azam Kamguian

I am delighted to be among you on the hundredth birthday of secularism in the capital of the Enlightenment where the Paris Commune was established. I am glad to talk about the rise of a massive secularist movement in Iran and the urgency of fighting to eradicate political Islam and of fighting the battle for the Enlightenment in the Middle East.

I recently participated at an internet discussion forum talking about Islam and religion to several hundreds Iranian youths, the majority from inside Iran. All spoke about the ever growing anti-Islamic sentiments of people. One articulated it like this: Iran lies on an anti - Islamic bomb. I believe that this expression is to a large extent true. There exist a youthful popular cultural movement in Iran which aims to free society and young people in particular from the rule of religion, from the yoke of Islam, and to challenge the roots of Islam. This is the anti Islamic bomb. In Iran, the bright and the freethinkers are among the young generation involved in a life struggle; a generation that set up satellite dishes on the roofs and risk intimidation and arrest, in order to dig a hole in the wall of suppression built around the country to know what the outside world is saying.

The past 26 years have been some of the darkest in the memory of the Iranian people. The Islamic regime, the first established government of political Islam in the Middle East, brought nothing but repression, torture, and death. Women and the young were amongst the very first targets attacked by the Islamic Republic.

In the past three decades, we have seen the emergence and development of political movements that have organised themselves under the banner of Islam in the Middle East. This is a movement, which seeks wealth, power and the state not only in the East but also in the West. Political Islam is a major force that in recent decades has seriously set back people's lives in the region in general and in Iran in particular. It is a political movement which came to the fore in order to destroy the secular and progressive movements for liberation and egalitarianism; it is against cultural and intellectual progress. It forcefully opposes the freedom of women and women's civil liberties, and the freedom of expression in the cultural and personal domains. It enforces brutal laws and traditions, not to mention killing, beheading, and genocide.

As the first victims of political Islam, women and the young also became the pioneers in fighting against political Islam in Iran. In fact, the post-revolutionary period in Iran has seen extraordinary gender and cultural awareness among Iranian women. Women's resistance against Islamic laws has been a daily fact of life. The penalty for breaking the rules of segregation and hijab has been insult, cash fines, expulsion, and deprivation from education, arrest, imprisonment, beating, and flogging. Tens of thousands of women, the great majority born after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, have defied the rules and have been attacked by Islamic morality squads with fists, knives, cutters, and acid.

Women in Iran have struggled to open space and make opportunities for themselves. They have organized associations for the defence of women and children's rights. Increasingly, large numbers of Iranians are taking to the streets, as they did in July 1999, October 2001, November 2002, and July 2003, December 2004 and 10th and 12th June 2005. Over the past eight years, the secular movement at the universities has grown rapidly. Even the average, politically naïve and uninvolved student will tell you in plain language that religion is a personal and private matter and that it must not interfere in politics, in the state and in the public life. And yet, secular organizations cannot operate openly and freely under the current regime. For this reason, students are attempting to establish chapters and plan activities at their campuses across the country.

Previously, Europe was the centre for the struggle against religion; consequently secular states were established and religion was pushed back and became a private matter for individuals. It seems that currently a similar battle against Islam and religion in general is being waged in Iran. This movement ought to challenge the roots of Islam in the same way that thinkers and philosophers challenged Christianity and shook off religion and backward thoughts and traditions in society.

In Iran there is a massive social hatred of Islam which will hopefully break the dam. Islam should and will suffer a major defeat in this country. The movement against Islam primarily will be a mass popular movement against the political and social expression of Islam. Now, 26 years has passed and the fact is that Iranian society has changed dramatically and deeply since 1979. The movement for secularism and atheism, for modern ideas and culture, for individual freedom, for women's liberation and civil liberties has been widespread and deep. Women and the youth are the champions of this battle - a battle that threatens the basic pillars of the Islamic system. The most hopeful signs and the most remarkable stimulus for change continue to come directly from Iranian women and youth both in Iran and in exile. Any change in Iran will not only affect the lives of people living in Iran, but will have a significant impact on the region and worldwide.
The government that Iranians want is a government that accords freedom and equality to all; uncompromising equality between men and women and abolition of all the laws and regulations that undermine this principle. Also complete abolition of executions and stoning. We want a secular government whose principles recognize the dignity of human beings. Our objectives must be the complete separation of religion from state; the elimination of religion from law and from education; the declaration of religion as a private affair for individuals, and freedom of religion and atheism. Unconditional freedom of expression, media, assembly, organisation and the freedom to strike are the foundations for a free and secular Iran. Complete equality of all citizens regardless of their gender, religion, nationality, race and citizenship must be recognised.
For the first time in the history of humanity in the Middle East, there will be a movement for subordination of God's and religious rules to the Human, a movement to criticise Islam, and a movement to push religion back to where it belongs.

The people of the world must support our struggle to eradicate this right wing, actively genocidal and murderous Islamic movement, and support our battle for the Enlightenment in the Middle East. I call on you all: humanists, atheists, secularists and freethinkers to join our camp and strengthen our movement to free ourselves and Iranian society from political Islam: to rid ourselves of Islam, to abolish it from the state, from education, and from public life.

The establishment of a secular and egalitarian state in Iran will break once and for all the chains with which Islam and backward cultural tradition and custom have bound the people and societies of the Middle East. We, along with all progressive and secular forces in the world should joint battle for the Enlightenment in the Middle East.

/strong>Adapted from the speech delivered at the plenary session of the 16th World Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, held on 5-7 July 2005 in Paris, France.