Fast Times in Tehran

(5 of 5)

Among the dwindling number of progressive intellectuals and writers who remain politically active, some have joined the Establishment, which at least offers better computers and shinier offices than the independent media start-ups that the judiciary routinely shutters. Some are even working for Shargh, a newspaper widely believed to be controlled by former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is favored to win next week's presidential election. Kambiz Tavana, a voluble reporter in his early 30s, joined me at Cafe Mint in midtown Tehran to make the case for his journey to the Rafsanjani camp. He described the reform era as "a flailing moment, not a movement" and said its legacy was to illustrate the clerical regime's insurmountable power structure. Rafsanjani, Tavana said, is a player within the system and a powerful pragmatist and can be more effective than the current President, who holds lofty ideals but has been reduced to a lame-duck opposition figure. I asked Tavana whether he felt conflicted about working for Rafsanjani, who has been criticized by human-rights activists for allegedly ignoring the killing of dissidents in Europe. He assessed Rafsanjani and his newspaper in the same breath: "They're both just a little better than the rest."

On my last night in Iran, I caught the kickoff of the Rafsanjani campaign blitz, appropriately staged on Fereshteh Street, one of Tehran's high-end thoroughfares and a cruising route for the young. The 70-year-old cleric's grinning face was plastered on a new-model Mercedes-Benz, and dandyish young men and pretty young women in snug, bright tunics leaped into traffic to slap stickers on passing cars. Some drivers swerved to avoid them, with expressions that seemed to say, This is all a lie. Others stared, as if they were taking in a strange exhibit at the zoo. You can see the uncertainty on their faces, as they drive into the night, chased by the gorgeous sticker-wielding Rafsanjani girls. If the moment had an anthem, it would surely belong to 127: "As the new sky's falling, no one's running. No one's running but me."

AZADEH MOAVENI wrote Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran (Public Affairs)