Institutions
The Cultural Revolution Headquarters was established June 12, 1980 and charged by Ayatollah Khomeini with making sure that the cultural policy of the universities was based on Islam, that selected professors were "efficient, committed and vigilant," and dealing with other issues relevant to the Islamic academic revolution.
It was continued by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council in December 1984. It is described as "the highest body for making policies and decisions in connection with cultural, educational and research activities within the framework of the general policies of the system and considered its approvals indispensable." The body is not stipulated in the Constitution but "was formed under the special circumstances that were prevailing in the early stages of the revolution. The council took its legitimacy from the 9 December 1984 decree of the founder of the Islamic Republic."
In fact, this group of seven (in 1980-83) and then 17 (in 1984) that was even expanded to 36 in 1999 was expected to compile all the cultural policies of the country. Hojjatol-Islam Mohammad Khatami was appointed as a member of the High Council for Cultural Revolution in 1996 and in 1997 became its head. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the head of the Council in 2005, succeeding Khatami; Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has oversight over the Council.
The Council has been active in fighting the student movement of 1983-1989 "banning many books and purging thousands of students and lecturers." The council controls the affairs of the university and its students through supervising the selection of applicants to the university and by controlling the formation of university institutions.
Since 2001, the council has been active in demanding state control or government-imposed filtering of the internet to prevent the dissemination of blasphemy, insults to Iran's Supreme Leader, opposition to the constitution, the creation of "pessimism and hopelessness among the people regarding the legitimacy and effectiveness of the system", and similar vices.
Read more about this topic: Iranian Cultural Revolution
Famous quotes containing the word institutions:
“There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“You may melt your metals and cast them into the most beautiful moulds you can; they will never excite me like the forms which this molten earth flows out into. And not only it, but the institutions upon it are plastic like clay in the hands of the potter.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Have we no culture, no refinement,—but skill only to live coarsely and serve the Devil?—to acquire a little worldly wealth, or fame, or liberty, and make a false show with it, as if we were all husk and shell, with no tender and living kernel to us? Shall our institutions be like those chestnut burs which contain abortive nuts, perfect only to prick the fingers?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)