Iran - a form of democracy

“We have more than two million people working for the Government and about 40 per cent of them are women; more than 60 per cent of university students are women

“Of course there are limits. This is an Islamic country and women do not have the same freedoms as they are defined in the West, but even in Australia you have the problem of women being paid less for the same job as men.”

Dr Moghaddam denied that Iran has any ambitions for old-style hegemony in the Middle East. “The time for that kind of dominance has been over for many years,” he said. “Iranians understand this and know their limits. Today you can have leadership only if you successfully compete with other neighbours in economic, political and cultural spheres.

“It is actually a weakness in our foreign policy that we do not initiate developments. For instance, we helped the Afghan people get rid of the Soviets, but we waited to be asked for our help rather than offering it.

“Why don’t the Americans come to us and say ‘let’s have talks on Iraq’. Iranians have no ambitions in Iraq, it is not their country, but they do have influence there because many of the Shiite clerics who are now in the government were given refuge in Iran during the war with Iraq.

“Many Muslim countries respect Iran just because it has stood up to the United States in the past, so it could be a good mediator, a model for political change within other Islamic countries.”

He suggested that Australia could play a bigger and more influential role in the Middle East if it were not seen to be so closely linked to the policies of the current US Administration. “I believe there is a revision of foreign policy towards Iran and the Middle East generally going on in Europe at the moment. You can see a growing divergence with the US over Iraq and a willingness to re-establish relationships, especially in the economic sphere.”

“In view of this it would be wise for Australia to have an independent policy based on its own interests.”

While Dr Moghaddam insists he speaks as an independent academic and has no official connection with the Iranian Government, there is little doubt that much of what he says is official policy - a view supported in conversations with an Iranian Embassy official in the audience.

It will be difficult for Australia or anyone else to swallow his suggestion that Iran does not really mean what it says when it calls for the destruction of Israel and that President Ahmadinejad’s speeches on the subject are nothing more than rabble rousing. However, the current cat-and-mouse game being played over Iran’s nuclear program is increasingly counter-productive.

Either the US will launch a strike against the nuclear facilities (those it knows about) which will add another powder keg to an already dangerously volatile Middle East, or Iran will continue to develop whatever it is developing in an atmosphere of obloquy and half truths, or Iran will use the oil weapon in response to increased sanctions, seriously damaging international economies already reeling under $US100-a-barrel prices and heaping misery and frustration upon the Iranian people which will be carefully channelled into rage at the outside world.

None of these scenarios is worth contemplating and the time may be ripe for less stick and more carrot in the international community’s dealings with Iran.