Letter from Iran
In a gritty neighborhood of South Teheran not long ago, Iran’s animated opposition movement gathered at a mosque to mark a grim occasion. It was November 23, 2000 a year since state security agents assassinated Dariush Foruhar, the longtime leader of an old, outlawed party of left-liberal nationalists. In the courtyard, pictures of Foruhar were wreathed in flowers. Koranic chants wafted over the crowd from the mosque’s arched entrance. In the course of an overcast winter afternoon, several thousand mourners came, conversed and went. Outside the gates, the Islamic government’s goons might as well have worn sandwich boards.
