Iran, Democracy and International Community

Abstract

This article explores the interactions between Irans democratic process and international community. Iranian people established the Islamic Revolution in the 1970s under the leadership of Imam Khomeini. Although the Islamic Revolution has caused many changes in political and social issues in Iran, the process of reform and alteration is still going ahead. To understand the process of democratization in Iran, we need to study the nature of Iranian religious psychology. Irans contemporary history provides the best background to analyze the current situation. This paper argues that any attempt to impose democracy by foreign players would face defeat; democratic reforms should be shaped by Iranian indigenous struggle. During the past 27 years, the Iranian society has been moving forward and has now gained great success in this regard. American involvement, especially military intervention, would be counterproductive and expensive. The international community should recognize the Iranian situation and the US needs to take lessons from its past failures in Iran and should respect the Iranian right to shape their own destiny.