UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT CHICAGO
Department of Political Science (MC 276)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
1007 West Harrison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607-7137

Testimony to Chicago City Council, May 13, 2008
Iran Resolution

Norma Claire Moruzzi
Associate Professor
Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies
Director, International Studies Program
University of Illinois at Chicago

I have been going to Iran since 1992, doing research, teaching at the university, working with women’s groups, students, journalists, publishers, independent researchers, activists, and ordinary Iranians. My most recent trip was during late winter-spring-summer of last year, during the period of the most severe political crackdown in recent years.
I can say the Iranian society is the most vibrant, promising, and forward looking place in the Middle East. Ordinary Iranians have been through a difficult 30 years since the revolution in 1979. They experienced the chaos of the revolution, the devastating and costly war with Iraq, and the repressiveness of an Islamist regime in which they have little faith left.
Ordinary Iranians, and even many of their political leaders, do not want war or conflict. They have been through all that and have had enough of it. But at the same time they are justifiably proud of what they have accomplished on their own. They have struggled to rebuild their country under the most difficult circumstances, and despite all the efforts of the United States to sanction and isolate them for the past 30 years, and despite mismanagement and repression by their own government. They have made great strides and advances which have given them confidence as individuals and as a society.

Iranians do not want conflict with the United States. Only in Iran (of countries in the region) in the days after 9/11, did ordinary people hold candlelight vigils in the streets to honor and mourn the victims of the attack. But at the same time they are profoundly uneasy at the belligerent tone and hostile posturing of the Bush administration. Iran sees itself surrounded by US military presence. Two of its neighboring countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, are occupied. The US 5th fleet is sitting to the south, in the Persian Gulf; and the US has military bases and military presence in all other countries bordering Iran (Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan). The US congress has allocated money for regime change, and the Bush administration officials constantly use inflammatory rhetoric against Iran.

The US threats have worsened the political conditions in Iran. Any voice of dissent is silenced, accused of being in league with the US. Friends and colleagues have been arrested, called in for questioning, suspended from university studies and from public sector jobs, or experienced personal intimidation by the security services. The vast majority of ordinary Iranians do not support the Ahmadinejad administration, who was elected on a platform of fighting corruption and unemployment. They want to lead ordinary lives. They desire security, dignity, and better relations with the rest of the world, including the US. But they are not willing to be bullied by an American foreign policy which is based on unjustified accusations and inaccurate claims. Iranians will not be intimidated.
There is only one solution for dealing with the disastrous situation in the region. Negotiate with Iran without preconditions, and with respect for what can be achieved in our mutual self-interest. Iran can be our greatest ally in resolving the violence and instability in Iraq and Afghanistan. But negotiations mean give and take; we cannot dictate terms and remain unwilling to change our policies. If we continue on this path to confrontation we may end up with a greater conflict which will dwarf the calamities we have created in the region. The Bush administration has offered no solution to the problems of the Middle East, except more military force. It is high time for ordinary citizens and their representatives to step forward and say “Enough!”

Negotiate with Iran, now, without preconditions. The lifting of the threat of military confrontation will give the greatest boost to Iranian activists and political leaders who seek to expand the active culture of democracy, and to normalize their country’s relations with the rest of the world. Iran can be our greatest ally in bringing stability, peace and democracy to the region, but not so long as we continue to threaten an unnecessary and counterproductive war.

A RESOLUTION
OPPOSING WAR

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ARTICLES
5/23/08 CHI TRIBUNE
5/24/08 CHI SUNTIMES

Doug Cassell Worldview
Farrah Hassan IPS
Stephen Kinzer Tribune
Michael Lynn Guardian UK
Norma Claire Moruzzi UIC
John J. Mearsheimer U of C
Scott Ritter truthdig.com
Scott Ritter Antiwar.com

Norma Claire Moruzzi is Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies and Director of the International Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her writings on women and changing conditions in Iran have appeared in Middle East Report, Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and many other publications.