BY MA'MUD SHIRVANI
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the mayor of Tehran, was arrested April 4 on embezzlement charges. He spent 11 nights at Tehran's Evin prison and was released on bail after Iran's head of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, intervened in the case. While the mayor's arrest was the product of factional disputes in the country's ruling circles, his release was the consequence of mounting mass pressure on his behalf.

The mayor has been in the office since 1989. He is credited with improving public services and beautifying Tehran's public parks. Karbaschi has also imposed fines for violations of city ordinances that have not been popular with large merchants, known as Bazari.

Political tensions have increased since the election last year of president Mohammad Khatami, for whom the mayor campaigned extensively. In the presidential elections, Khatami unexpectedly defeated Hojatolisalm Ali Akbar Nateq- Nouri, who had the backing of key figures in the state and clerical hierarchy and Bazari. This dealt a blow to the conservatives, the so called "traditional right," who have a majority in the Majlis (parliament), and strengthened the faction in the ruling class who favor using the government as leverage to build a modern capitalist state. The judiciary system is controlled by the conservatives and is headed by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. Since the presidential elections, Ayatollah Yazdi has detained all of Tehran's 16 district mayors for a time.

Nateq-Nouri's defeat in the presidential elections last year reflected a shift that has taken place in working-class resistance in the country. This was also registered in February 1997, when hundreds of refinery workers from various cities converged in Tehran and did not budge when they were attacked and some arrested. They forced the government officials to meet with them and agree to substantial pay raises. The news, which spread around the country, carried with it the reputation of the oil workers who initiated the general strike in 1978 that led to the revolutionary overthrow of the Shah's monarchy in 1979.

Early in the March of this year the Bureau for Fortification of Unity (DTV) organized a demonstration of 3,000 students in front of Tehran University. They were protesting the undemocratic action of the conservative Council of the Guardians, who ruled some of the longtime political activists off the ballot in the special Majlis elections. DTV is a student group whose roots go back to the students who occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 to protest Washington's moves against Iran's revolution. The March demonstration was attacked by dozens of Ansare Hezbollah (Supporters of the Party of God), an extra legal formation connected to the Bazari and conservatives. Some students were injured, but the demonstrators held their ground and did not disperse. They marched toward the Azadi Square, chanted slogans in support of president Khatami and one of their chants was "Violence and ossification is Taliban's Islam; Taliban's Islam is the American Islam." They were referring to the Islamic sect of Taliban in Afghanistan that occupied the capital city Kabul in 1996 and imposed undemocratic and reactionary decrees in the areas under its rule.

President Khatami's cabinet condemned Karbaschi's detention and stated that he would continue to act as mayor even from jail. They emphasized their commitment to the "rule of law and order." The government rapidly organized an exhibition in Tehran to show Karbaschi's accomplishments as the mayor of Tehran. Mayors around the country published statements against Karbaschi's arrest, as did Mohsen Makhbalbaf, a well-known Iranian writer and film director. Opponents of Karbaschi countered that judiciary is independent of the cabinet, and said the arrest was in accordance with the law, which permits imprisonment for up to a month without bail. Ayatollah Yazdi, the head of the judiciary, is appointed by Khamenei and is accountable only to him.

On Saturday, April 11, the student group DTV called a demonstration in opposition to mayor's arrest for the coming Tuesday. Immediately they came under pressure to call off the action. The cabinet met on Sunday and appealed for calm and against public rallies in defense of the mayor.

On April 13 DTV called off the demonstration. Nevertheless, between 4,000 and 5,000 students demonstrated the next day in front of Tehran University and then marched toward the Ministry of Interior. The demonstrators chanted in support of Khatami and the mayor, "Karbaschi the hero, Iran's Amir Kabir must be freed!" Amir Kabir was a secular bourgeois reformer who headed Iran's government in the last century but was dismissed in 1851 by the Qajar king and executed soon after. Iran's first revolution rose early in this century against Qajar autocracy.

There was a small counter demonstration April 14 in front of the university at the same time, where people chanted, "Death to Karbaschi!" Other actions took place that day in support of the mayor. Some 2,000 students rallied in the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

The protests became a warning signal to the authorities. Iran Daily, an English-language newspaper published by the official news agency, cautioned the judiciary that "its recklessness is harming the nation's political and social fabric." Ayatollah Khamenei intervened in the situation and Karbaschi was released April 15. Subsequently, former president Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking on the Friday Prayer meeting in Tehran, stated, "If the leader had not intervened in this issue... we should have expected other consequences." Karbaschi's release was not immediately publicized inside the country. But a few hundred people who heard the news still assembled in front of his house, celebrating with flowers and pastries. Karbaschi is still scheduled to stand trial on corruption charges within several weeks.  
 
 
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