Ignorance in Action

Jihad and jingoism on Iran's streets Robert Tait in Tehran Saturday October 29, 2005

Guardian

Carrying a large Palestinian flag and decked out in a chequered kaffiyeh and black Arabian chador, Monir Kohandani looked every inch the committed freedom fighter and willing martyr deified by Iran's Islamic regime.

But as she participated along with thousands of others in yesterday's annual al-Quds (Jerusalem) day march - organised by Iran's ruling mullahs in a show of religious strength against Zionism - it was unclear whether she appreciated the stakes involved in the cause for which she was marching.

Asked for her views on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remark that Israel "must be wiped off the map", Ms Kohandani, a 21-year-old law student, was unreflecting. "Whatever he says is right, his words are Islam's words," she said. "Israel is of no importance to Iran. We don't believe in it as a country. The word 'Israel' doesn't exist on our maps. We write Palestine instead."

Ms Kohandani's response represents the unyielding view of regime loyalists on Israel, to whose destruction Iran has been committed - at least rhetorically - since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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