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Iran's leaders listen,

grudgingly, to new voices

TEHRAN: The Iranian housewife, polite but insistent, had a message she said would surprise the West.

"We want to be brothers and sisters with the whole world...Yes, the Americans too, despite our problems.

"Western countries think our Islamic revolution means Iranians want to be isolated. That is wrong," said the veiled figure standing outside a Tehran polling booth.

Touran Orujnia, another voter, cautions change in Iran is fine "provided change doesn't lead to dependence on America."

Seventeen years after the 1979 Islamic revolution a novel range of voices is competing for the attention of ruling clerics who have seen little need to change their strident anti-Western rhetoric or allow the protected economy more foreign contact.

The loudest new voice comes from pragmatists who support President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's plans to liberalise the economy and cautiously allow more social and political freedom.

Their views were among others on offer at parliamentary elections this month that followed a mud-slinging campaign not seen since the revolution's early years. The polls produced what could be one of Iran's most argumentative assemblies.

The fact that candidates were pre-screened for ideological purity made the campaign all the more notable, diplomats say.

Official tolerance of the new voices can seem grudging.

At least two reporters to whom voters spoke were taken in for identity checks at a police station in a sign of heightened political and security sensitivities on polling day.

Conservatives of the Combatant Clergy Association (CCA), suspicious of foreign contacts that could lead to more Western influence, won most seats but lost outright control of the chamber. Pro-Rafsanjani centrists will form the second largest bloc.

The result sits uneasily with conservatives. A CCA leader, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, said: "We have no problem with a variety of views" provided all MPs support "revolutionary values".

"So if anyone is contemplating breaking these boundaries then it's natural there will be a confrontation and it could go as far as expelling a deputy from parliament," he said.

In all previous assemblies one group has always dominated. Parliament is one of several important and often competing centres of power in Iran's loosely structured political system.

Analysts say the poll result was the latest in a series of indications that the revolution appears to be at a turning point. It either draws in on itself and enforces ideological purity or adopts an inclusive, flexible approach, they say.

"For the first time Rafsanjani has an established group in parliament he can rely on and which can propose ideas that cannot automatically be voted down," a senior diplomat said.

"It's quite a balanced result which at least means that Rafsanjani is strengthened in his last year."

The parliamentary elections, held every four years, have significance as an indicator to what is likely to happen in the presidential election next year. Rafsanjani completes two four-year terms in June 1997 and cannot stand for re-election.

Another sign of change occurred when a close aide of Rafsanjani launched a weekly magazine in January which blasted conservatives for seeing "election rivals as opponents of the revolution, of the state and of any religious government".

"Either we take a such a narrow view...and so every day more people get off the train of revolution...Or we could adopt a view based on common aspects so that all groups and individuals could...participate," wrote Bahman director Ataollah Mohajerani, who is vice-president for parliamentary and legal affairs.

Mohajerani, who has been a close aide of Rafsanjani, caused an upproar in 1990 by calling in his column for direct talks with the United States. He had to take back his proposal.

Diplomats say that despite the widening variety of views the government retains its traditional powerbase comprised mostly of mostazafin -- poor and dispossessed -- who regularly attend prayer gatherings and official rallies.

"Seventy percent of the people have a broad sympathy with the goals of the revolution. Iranians don't want nightclubs. They don't want their daughters in miniskirts. They don't want lots of Americans wandering around," said one diplomat.

"There is disenchantment with mullahs over corruption and prices. But even anti-regime elements have a broad patriotism and nationalism derived in part from the revolution."

But some Iranians insist they have problems like inflation that rhetoric alone will not solve.

In a Tehran street a civil servant smiles wryly at the slogan "Death to America" painted in giant letters on a wall.

Referring to Iranian authorities, he said: "They don't listen to the students. They don't listen to the people. They only listen to themselves. They can't see that if we don't have friends, we are nothing." he said.

At a street demonstration this month by high-school students against the United States and Israel, one participant told reporters he and several fellow students had turned up only because they had been told to by teachers. They would rather be back at school studying, he said.-Reuter