By any yardstick, Awad Ali Kordan should not have had any trouble acting as Minister of Interior in Iran. A militant Khomeinist since his teens, he has passed through all the usual security and military channels that select members of the ruling elite in the Ayatollah's regime.
And, yet, Kordan has just become the first senior official of the country to be impeached by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Iran's parliament.
The reason for the impeachment is a Ph. D that Kordan claims he has obtained from Oxford University.
Last summer when, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed Kordan to his cabinet, few found anything odd with the new minister's claim of having an Oxford Ph.D. Within days, however, it had been established that Kordan had no contact with anyone remotely connected with the esteemed British institution.
Clarification
Oxford University issued a statement asserting that it knew nothing about Kordan and his claimed Ph.D. This prompted Kordan to claim that his Ph.D was, in fact, an honorary degree granted by Oxford in recognition for his academic work in Iran, through an Iranian intermediary.
Within days, however, that claim, too, was denied by Oxford University, forcing Kordan to admit that he had, in fact, bought the fake degree from an Iranian charlatan who sold hundreds of doctorates to officials and academics in Iran before fleeing to Europe.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that the scandal has shaken Ahmadinejad's administration in a way that none of his real or alleged political errors has done so far. There are several reasons for this.
To start with, Ahmadinejad has built his image as a leader who offers a credible alternative to a "corrupt" Western civilisation in decline that has lost all moral and scientific authority.
In a speech at the Amir-Kabir University in 2005, Ahmadinejad claimed that Western education was designed to "brainwash young people" or prepare them to "serve the satanic forces of materialism and perfidy".
Against such a background, one might expect Ahmadinejad's ministers to hide any Ph.Ds they might have obtained from the "corrupt West" rather than brandish fake ones as a banner of academic legitimacy.
The second reason why the scandal is hurting Ahmadinejad is his ongoing, though never open, fight against the older generation of clerics who continue to see themselves as the sole custodians of the Khomeinist movement.
Many of these clerics are lampooned by the people for the lofty, but often undeserved, titles they have given themselves.
Ahmadinejad has tried to deflate these clerics by simply referring to them as Aqa (Mister). Instead, Ahmadinejad has insisted on emphasising the title of Doctor (Doktor in Persian) for himself and members of his Cabinet.
Ahmadinejad's doctorate, issued by the University of Science and Industry in Tehran, is not fake. But the admission that one of his most senior ministers has a fake doctorate is certain to raise some eyebrows.
The Khomeinists have built their ideology on a rejection of the modern world they condemn as "a satanic creation of Crusader-Zionist" forces. And yet, they feel their legitimacy cannot be insured without their acceptance by a world they reject.
This is not limited to the Khomeinists. Much of the elite under the Shah was also afflicted by it.
To the Khomeinist, Oxford is a den of conspiracies. And, yet, a doctorate from Oxford, even a fake one, enjoys greater moral value and prestige than one from Kordan's own university in Mazandaran, on the Caspian Sea.
Iranian author Amir Taheri is based in Europe and is a member of Benador Associates.
Send us your comments
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Gulf News may edit comments for length and clarity but will not change the tone of the message. Comments will only be accepted if all fields (including name) are filled correctly and the message isn't abusive, defamatory or offensive. The Gulf News website will only print your first name along with your comment. Please state in the message if you wish to remain anonymous. All comments sent may be forwarded for use in the Gulf News newspaper.
