Rebels With a Cause.

• Author: Sachs, Susan
• Position: Young Iranians are driving political change

IRAN'S YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LEADING A MOVEMENT TO OVERTURN A HARD-LINE GOVERNMENT

Wrapped in long black chadors, cloaks that cover their hair and the shape of their bodies--but with their sneakers peeking out impertinently from underneath--the young women in Tehran's Shirody Sports Stadium scream out the name of their hero.

"Khatami! Khatami!" they yell, invoking the name of Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. "Khatami, we love you!"

From across the basketball court, a legion of young men in blue jeans and casual shirts take up their chant, stamping their feet and thrusting their fists into the air with the same loud excitement. "Greetings to Khatami!" they yell. "Yes, we love you!"

President Khatami was not physically present in the cavernous stadium for this mid-February campaign rally, which like all public events in Iran seated unmarried men and women separately so as not to offend the religious authorities. But he was present in spirit. This 51-year-old Muslim scholar breaks the tradition of stern Iranian rulers with his gentle smile and his talk of increasing his people's personal freedoms. And he has given many of the country's young people an opportunity to be heard about the future of their nation.

In return, they have enthusiastically granted the President a mandate for change, along with the adulation usually reserved in the West for rock stars and movie idols. Iran's youth, who can vote at age 16, have helped transform the political landscape in this often-dreary and straitlaced nation. This happened first in May 1997, with the surprise landslide election of Khatami, and then on February 18, with the election of a reformist parliament.

A SWEEPING VICTORY

When the votes were counted in the first round of voting last month, the reformers had won 73 percent of the seats. In Tehran, the capital, 29 of 30 parliamentary seats were won by pro-Khatami candidates. Most political analysts predict that this commanding majority will allow the government to relax many of the restrictions imposed by previous, conservative-dominated parliaments in the fields of culture, economy, and law.

"Our youth culture has become politically mature," says Ali Reza Haghighi, an Iranian journalist who actively supports Khatami. "They are making history."

The demands of Iran's young people may not seem extraordinary, but they amount to a rebellion against the system. Young people say they want the insular economy to open up to the outside world and so create...