of Islamic hard-liners in everyday life. Young couples were weary
of being chastised by frowning religious officials for holding
hands while strolling down the street. Young women were press-
ing—privately, at least—for broader educational opportunities
and relief from the laws and customs that gave men overbearing
privileges. People of all ages and classes were tired of living in
uncertainty and fear of what their government might do to
them if they were even suspected of challenging the system.
“We didn’t expect so much austerity,” one Iranian political
commentator explained.^72 It’s estimated that approximately a
million Iranians left after the revolution, settling in the United
States, Europe, and Canada.
Journalist and author Geneive Abdo, in her book Answering
Only to God, described a 1994 press conference with President
Rafsanjani:... [A] brave young, female journalist asked if Iranian women
could wear pink chadors and yellow head scarves in public.
“Why do we always have to be cloaked in black? It is so
depressing,” she said. Rafsanjani replied that there was no
religious edict requiring women to wear black. Bright colors
would be a welcome change, he added. I was intrigued by
his response, but Iranians explained later the president’s
assurances were in keeping with an entire tradition of telling
people what they want to hear; everyone knew never to
assume such comments would lead anywhere.^73
Many of Iran’s ruling Muslim clergy are what Mackey and
other commentators termed “radicals” or “hard-liners.”^74
“Portraying themselves as the champions of Islamic purity and
the rights of the deprived,” Mackey observed, “the hard-liners
draw their following from the lower classes, the younger gener-
ation of clerical students, elements within the bureaucracy, and
the all-important Revolutionary Guards.”^75
Other clerics might be described as “moderates” or “pragmatists.”
The difference between them and the hard-liners has little to do
with religion beliefs—for they, too, are devout Shiites. Rather,
84 AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI
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