He battles on despite clerics' snub

MASHHAD, Iran - Four times he has submitted his name as a candidate for Iran's Parliament. Four times the watchdogs of the Islamic establishment have said no.

Each snub changed Mohammed Sadegh Javadihesari - from surprised to stubborn to angry.

After the latest rejection - being included among more than 2,500 reformers disqualified from Friday's ballot - the teacher and activist traveled 540 miles to the capital, Tehran, to join a sit-in protest with lawmakers and become a spokesman for the drive to boycott the elections.

"The conservatives are trying to conduct an ideological cleansing," said the 44-year-old Javadihesari, flicking jade green worry beads.

The story of one recalcitrant reformer is just a speck in the momentous showdown between Iran's nonelected theocracy, which claims divine leadership, and liberals who say the popular will demands more openness and opportunities.

Javadihesari jabs his finger as he talks about "the Iranian pyramid," ruling clerics at the peak with unlimited powers and answerable to no one. It's turned an unflinching supporter of the 1979 Islamic Revolution into an equally vehement critic of the system it produced.

"We insist on democracy instead of despotism," he said. "This is what the revolution was about. We have been betrayed."

There are millions like Javadihesari. They were eager foot soldiers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the Western-backed shah. Now, they are branded as dissidents by the Islamic regime for challenging their conduct.

Javadihesari was on the streets battling the doomed monarchy, then joined a volunteer militia at the front lines of the 1980-88 war with Iraq. He returned to teach high school in Mashhad, one of the strongholds of hard-line Islam in Iran.

Over the years, Javadihesari said, he became convinced that things were not right in Iran. The old activism began stirring inside him.

"I was always involved on the edge of politics by organizing student groups and teachers," Javadihesari said. "People kept asking me to run for Parliament. I never expected what would happen."

The Guardian Council turned him down for the 1992 elections. The 12-member panel - hand-picked by Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - has the power to block any candidate from running for high office.

Javadihesari said he demanded a reason for the rejection. "I was told I wasn't being loyal to the revolution," he said. "I was, frankly, shocked."

There was more to come. He had left teaching to become an editor at the newspaper Khorasan, named for the large northeastern province where Mashhad is the capital. He claimed conservative forces pushed him out of the job. He left to begin a rival paper, Toos.

He tried another Parliament bid in 1996. Again, he was stopped. Two years later, authorities closed Toos and Javadihesari spent 35 days in detention.

"These narrow-minded people have stolen our revolution," he said.

Javadihesari often repeats the goal described by President Mohammad Khatami: an Islamic democracy - acknowledging Iran's Islamic character, but allowing the will of the people to dictate policies and directions.

"We don't have to make terror in the streets," said Javadihesari. He expects no more than 20 percent turnout in Friday's elections - an outcome that would be perceived as a resounding pledge of support for reformers and their boycott.

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