YOUNG IRANIANS gave out flowers and sweets in Tehran's Revolution Square yesterday in celebration of the overwhelming mandate for change given to Mr Mohammed Khatami in his presidential election victory.
About 29 million people out of an electorate of 33 million voted on Friday; of those 20 million voted for Mr Khatami. His nearest rival, Mr Nateq Nouri, the powerful speaker of parliament, won 5 million votes, a result which many analysts see as a rebuff to the elderly radical clerics of Qom who backed him.
Yet the outgoing president, Mr Hashemi Rafsanjani, denied yesterday that the huge vote for Mr Khatami could be considered a protest vote against the system of strict controls which govern social life and freedom of speech.
"The majority of our young people would like to be compatible with the values of the revolution and Islamic principles," he said.
Asked if such principles could allow people to read and entertain freely in their homes, he said: "Some of these requests are not possible to meet."
However, people were already predicting that the size of Mr Khatami's vote would embolden young people to reject the system.
"The Khatami vote shows they want change quickly and both sides could get aggressive. There could be a backlash from the revolutionary police forces," said a psychologist.
A Tehran mother claimed her eight year old returned from school yesterday saying the girls had spent the morning discussing when they were going to rip off their headscarves.
However, as the celebration rallies by students began, police were active in maintaining dress and behaviour codes. In one incident last night, a woman was seen being stopped in her car and taken away for wearing makeup.
The apparatus that controls public morals in Iran is huge involving thousands loyal to the regime. Private morals are the domain of the civil police but other volunteer squads, such as the Bassij, the force which fought the IranIraq war, are also involved.
Another prominent force is the Elimination of Vice and Propagation of Virtue Squad, and its detention centre in north Tehran was busy as usual yesterday. Two mixed parties had been raided several days ago.
Relatives of people detained at the centre said 40 teenagers had been arrested at one party. "We haven't had any news of my son since Thursday, when they forced him onto a bus," said one woman.
Usually, families are asked to pay large fines to secure the release of their relatives.
It is unlikely that Mr Khatami will be able, or even want, to stop such activities by the moral police forces. He has to work with a parliament dominated by conservatives and also with the Guardians' Council, a body of traditional right wing clerics.
Mr Rafsanjani could play a key role in his new post as head of the Expediency Council, which mediates between parliament and the Guardians' Council, and advises the Supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Reuter adds:
Iran's conservative Islamic parliament swung behind the country's moderate president elect yesterday in a dramatic political about face after his huge election victory.
More than 200 members of the 270 seat Majlis sent a message to Mr Khatami pledging to co operate fully. "No doubt, this great epic is a reinforcement of the ideals of the late Imam Khomeini and a renewal of allegiance with the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," deputies said in a statement read in open session.
In editorials assessing the surprise outcome, Iranian newspapers said the people had sent a message which must not go unheeded.
There was once a time when it was popularly believed that the sky would fall on the day the leader of the Islamic revolution, the late Imam Khomeini, ceased to live," said the English daily Iran News. But he had died and one of his closest disciples, Mr Khamenei, had filled the gap. It said the election confirmed that a philosophy, not a person, was the basis of the Islamic system.