Iran's Resilient Civil Society: The Student Movement's Struggle

In analyzing Iran, there is always the danger of underestimating the Islamic Republic's survival skills. Its demise has been predicted many times—during the tumultuous early years after the shah fell, during the Iran-Iraq War, after Khomeini's death, and during Khatami's presidency—yet in each case the regime managed to endure. It would be ill-conceived to point to Iran's modernizing youth and a growing student movement as evidence of the regime's inevitable collapse. They are good signs for the future of democracy in Iran, but it will take time and energy to organize these promising pieces into a greater democracy movement.