August 06, 2021
The Imam Ali Society, one of the most respected civil society institutions in Iran, was ordered to shut down a few weeks ago. Now 12 Iranian civil society organizations have complained that the Islamic Republic has no interest in non-governmental organizations or the causes they champion.
Civil society institutions began flourishing when Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997, and allowed society to open up for a change.
But during the presidency of Mahmud Ahmadinejad, official skepticism and hostility toward these organizations grew, and continues to this day. The government has been setting up parallel quasi-governmental institutions working on the same causes in an effort to control the activities of charities and to block members of the public and civil society activists from setting up independent, non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The regime has unveiled restrictive policies for operating independent institutions. These measures were recently discussed during a meeting of representatives of 12 NGOs organized by the Institute of Humanities and Social Studies of Jihad Daneshgahi. The institute published the conclusions in its quarterly journal, Theoretical Policy Research.
The 12 organizations described the role government agencies and officials play in smothering private charitable work. These included bureaucratic hurdles that distract the NGOs from their main purposes and direct government intervention in their operations, often barring them from doing things they have long done.
A major problem, they said is that the government adopts a national security approach to civil society groups, effectively treating these organizations as potential threats.
The 12 groups said government agencies often issue contradictory regulations, particularly when it comes to establishing criteria civil society groups have to meet by law, meaning an organization can easily break the law without knowing it because these stipulations are so vaguely worded;
Representatives of the 12 groups that attended the meeting said the quality and strength of relationships between officials and civil society vary from province to province, and even from county to county, and they are often determined by geographical location. Therefore, the position of these institutions in the provinces of Tehran or Fars is relatively strong, while in other provinces, such as Sistan va Baluchistan, these ties are weaker.
The groups also noted that “associations that pursue environmental issues are less threatened (and, of course, less welcomed), but if a civil institution gets involved in political and security matters, or if it enters domains that are considered to be red lines, (for example, studies about women and the actions of women), the institution will be suppressed.”
The study also found that in cases where civil society institutions were set up by former government officials, the activities of these institutions were better supported and their communications with various government departments were smoother due to the fact that their founders are “better acquainted with the ways of talking to the government and are more successful.”