In 2002, an Iranian history professor asserted that Muslims “should not blindly follow” clerics. The result? He was accused of apostasy and sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Hashem Aghajari, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war and a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Mujahidin Organisation, a left-wing reformist political group, stated in 2002 that Muslims were not “monkeys” and that they “should not blindly follow” the clerics that lead Iran, a nation that is a mélange of an Islamic theocracy and a democracy. He was promptly handed a death sentence and has spent the past two years in jail. Thanks to popular protest and indignation, however, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered a review of his case, and Aghajari has been freed on bail.

Overwhelmed with joy at his provisional freedom, Aghajari stated: “I hope there will come a day when no-one goes to prison in Iran for his opinions, let alone be sentenced to death … I hope that all prisoners of conscience who have committed no crime will be released soon.”

Iran may not be the glorious Islamic republic that the revolutionaries envisioned in 1979 — indeed, this year hardline clerics abused their power and excluded approximately 2,500 pro-reform candidates from this year’s election — but this event speaks to the power of popular protest to effect change. While American foreign policy has tended to regard Iran — or any theocracy — as anathema to democracy, we should see this event as heartwarming evidence that popular opinion can have a voice in a democratic theocracy.

Mimi Hanaoka