Far-left current rises from among Iranian hardliners
Iran’s ultraconservatives have given birth to their worst nightmare — a group so left-leaning that hardliners consider them would-be communists.
Ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 21, Iranian hard-liners find themselves facing an unprecedented challenge: the emergence of a group with left-leaning tendencies spawned inside its own conservative camp.
The mostly young activists of the Justice Seekers current are practically communists in the eyes of their former friends on the far-right. In the latters' eyes, the Justice Seekers represent a threat in their willingness to cross certain redlines. As a result of some of the group's actions, two of its senior members have been barred from running in the elections, and two other prominent members were arrested Feb. 11, perhaps as a warning, given that they were quickly released. The hard-liner-controlled security apparatus has reportedly forced the Justice Seekers to cancel a number of campaign events they had planned.
