The Berlin Conference and the Reformist Fallout
In April 2000, the Berlin Conference became a lightning rod for controversy and a symbol of the tension between Iran’s reformist movement and its conservative establishment. Organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany, the conference aimed to explore the trajectory of political reform in Iran and featured the participation of 17 Iranian intellectuals and activists, including Akbar Ganji, Mehrangiz Kar, and Ezatollah Sahabi.
The event quickly became controversial after members of the Workers’ Communist Party of Iran disrupted the proceedings with public nudity and anti-regime slogans. These images were widely disseminated by Iranian state television, which broadcast excerpts of the conference in the middle of the sacred month of Muharram. The broadcasts painted the reformists as traitors colluding with enemies of the Islamic Republic.
In the aftermath, most participants were arrested upon returning to Iran, and the judiciary initiated a wide-ranging crackdown on reformist media outlets. Newspapers were shut down, journalists detained, and civil liberties curtailed. What was intended as a dialogue about reform became a pretext for silencing dissent and intensifying the assault on the press.
The University Dormitory Incident of 1999
The July 8, 1999, attack on Tehran University’s dormitory stands as one of the darkest moments of Khatami’s presidency and the post-revolutionary period. It began as a peaceful student protest against the closure of the Salam newspaper, a reformist publication. On the second night of protests, security forces—reportedly including plainclothes operatives and vigilantes—stormed the student dormitories, assaulting and arresting numerous students.