Iranian reformist 2005 Presidential candidate Mostafa Moin (L) and former Iranian reformist Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari attend the opening ceremony of the 10th Congress of Islamic Iran Participation in Tehran October 26, 2007.
In a 2006 interview with Nature (click title to entry - thank you), Moin, a former minister for higher education and for science, argued that building a stronger civil and democratic society in Iran was key to the country's scientific development and it becoming a knowledge-based society. In an exclusive new interview, he discusses where the current situation leaves those ambitions.
...In our last interview, you said that support by Iranian young people and women for the principles of a civil and democratic society were what would "shape Iran's future". Has that shaping moment come?
Yes. The recent growth in Iranian women's and young people's political and social awareness has set the stage for their current demands for greater civil liberties, and structural and democratic reforms. The outcome of the 2005 presidential election, combined with the subsequent mismanagement of the government, has catalysed this process — and explains the 85% voter turnout in last month's presidential election, and the demand for change. The youth, and in particular the supporters of the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, played a major role in creating the extraordinary enthusiasm and motivation surrounding the elections. I remain optimistic as to the role, and the movement, of Iran's youth....
