As Opposition Grows, Iranian Hardliners Claim Protests Help Them

In comments on Thursday, outspoken Sunni religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid praised Mousavi’s proposal and described it as the result of his understanding about the realities of society, demanding that other politicians see these realities.

“With his recent statement, Mousavi showed that he understood the realities of society. It's time for other politicians and ulema (religious scholars) to think about saving the country and see the facts,” he said. In November, the top Sunni cleric himself had called for an internationally monitored plebiscite, saying that by killing and repression the government cannot push back a nation.

Abdolhamid also criticized over a decade of house arrest imposed on Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, and Former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, calling it an example of the Islamic Republic’s injustice. 

Mousavi and Karroubi both were presidential candidates in 2009, when a highly disputed vote count gave the presidency to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggering large popular protests that became known as the Green Movement. Eventually, both Mousavi and Karroubi were put under house arrest in 2011.

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Referring to the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters, Mousavi said in his statement that such events have “demonstrated major truths for the nation.” The rulers of the Islamic Republic are not willing “to take the smallest step to meet the demands of the people.” Iran needs a“fundamental change” based on “Woman, Life, Freedom” and constitutional change, he said earlier in the month.

The leader of the Green Movement is known as a staunch reformist, or someone who believes the Islamic Republic can be reformed to become a more democratic and tolerant polity. But Mousavi’s statement rejected reform as a viable alternative, urging fundamental change, a new constitution and a constitutional assembly. Although he did not openly call for regime change, but his demands, if implemented, could lead to a new and democratic political system.

Mousavi in his statement implicitly repeated what exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi has been saying for years, and other opposition activists have echoed in the past five months – transition from the Islamic Republic.

Abdolhamid who has become an outspoken critic of the regime, has stopped short of calling for a new system of government, but endorsing Mousavi’s statement clearly aligns him with political forces that believe the people should be given a chance to decide what kind of government they want.

The 2009 Green Movement leader’s rejection of the reform option in the Islamic Republic has been met with admiration and antipathy alike. Some reformists, including seven prominent political prisoners and over a dozen figures of the ‘religious intellectual movement’, and its mentor Abdolkarim Soroush, have welcomed his proposal, others have strongly rejected it. The political prisoners, including leading reformist politician, Mostafa Tajzadeh and the daughter of Iran former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Hashemi, who are behind bars, announced that "they will do their best to advance this proposal and a peaceful and non-violent transition to a completely democratic and developed Iranian structure." 

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Mousavi’s volte-face can be seen as a milestone in the reformist camp as another bigwig of the movement former president Mohammad Khatami also believes reformism in Iran has reached a deadlock. Mohammad Javad Haqshenas, a prominent reformist figure, said earlier this week that Khatami's statement, which was issued on the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, should be construed as a premonition for the regime that the Islamic Republic cannot be reformed. 

February 11, 2023, marks the forty-fourth anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and many people on social media believe that it is the last time the regime is celebrating the event.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated in an interview with National Public Radio in the United States on Wednesday that “It's very easy to relabel the person who has been detained. You could, at any moment, call that person in question a defendant of human rights, a journalist, among others.”

Numerous reports by human rights groups, activists and media have said that at least 60 Iranian journalists were arrested since late September, and many are still behind bars.

He once again blamed the West for staging the protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini saying that they “carefully” and “meticulously” targeted the “riots”.

He also alleged that no students were detained at the universities or premises of the universities during the riots, while not only many were arrested but some were even killed during protests. Hundreds of Iranian professors demanded the release of students in November.

Referring to the recent release of prisoners after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s pardon, Amir-Abdollahian claimed Khamenei pays special attention to the issue of clemency. Khamenei’s partial pardon came after thousands of people were arrested and kept behind bars for months without due process of law.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Amir-Abdollahian asserted that there is democracy in Iran and people can freely voice their views.

Two journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who had reported Mahsa Amini’s death have been in prison for more than 100 days.

Alieh Mottalebzadeh, Saba Kordafshari, Fariba Asadi, Parasto Moini, Zahra Safaei, Gelareh Abbasi and Sahereh Hosseini expressed support for the protests movement shortly after being freed from jail saying that the "the oppressive regime must be destroyed".

In the past weeks, Narges Mohammadi, spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), said in a report how women are being physically and sexually abused, following their arrests as a result of protests across the country, which began in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

According to her, 57 out of 58 female prisoners have experienced "terrible inhumane torture" and have been imprisoned for a total of 8,350 days in the security cells of the ministry of intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards.

The seven female political prisoners, who were released Wednesday were among the tortured detainees.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer who is on medical leave from prison, in an interview with CNN stated, “while a brutal state crackdown has succeeded in quieting the demonstrations that gripped the country for months, many Iranians still want regime change.”

Maryam Arvin, who was arrested on September 26 during the Sirjan protests, was released on December 13 on bail.

Mohsen Nikvarz also claimed that Maryam Arvin, "had a history of suicide attempts by taking drugs, and her hospitalization and treatment records are available."

However, he did not mention any possible link between Arvin’s suicide and torture during the detention and interrogation reported in her case.

“Creating fake news is not new and for sure such lies and rumors will not be accepted by the people at all,” added the Sirjan prosecutor.

Arvin's case was appealed after a ruling by the preliminary court and was being discussed in the appeals court, he said and claimed that she was among those pardoned by the Islamic Republic ruler Ali Khamenei.

This is not the first time that a detainee commits suicide after being released from prison. In recent months, several other prisoners have died shortly after their release.

On Tuesday, Baluch Activists Campaign announced a teenager Benyamin Kouhkan arrested during protests has attempted suicide in Zahedan prison, southeast of Iran, due to severe physical, sexual and mental torture.

According to the human rights organization, the teenager was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard intelligence in Zahedan on January 3, but he tried to take his own life after being severely tortured.

Khamenei who has been dismissing popular protests as “riots” instigated by “enemies” said in a speech that Iranians should "make sure these differences do not turn into faultiness" that would tear apart the nation.

Nonetheless, Khamenei's state of denial about dissent in Iran appears to continue. He repeated that sowing discord and creating differences is the "enemy's strategy."

"The enemy is determined to bring the Islamic regime to its knees," Khamenei said on Wednesday when tens of Iranian army's air force personnel went to visit him on the anniversary of a similar visit to the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The air force then paid tribute to Khomeini in defiance of their allegiance to the Shah, but the visit to Khamenei was not politically or otherwise significant.

He said, "15 years ago, a US President, [presumably George W. Bush] wrote to me in a letter that the United States did not intend to overthrow the government in Iran, but intelligence reports indicated that they were mulling a plot to destroy the Islamic Republic."

Reiterating that "the enemies" were adamant to sow discord and create distrust among the people, Khamenei advised that Iranians need to strengthen their unity to foil that plot. He claimed that the rallies to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution will manifest this unity.

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In fact, five months of protests in the streets against the government have left a fragmented society in Iran where trust in the regime is at its lowest point since Khamenei created his ideal all conservative government and barred others from taking part in the 2020 parliamentary and 2021 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, his insistence on the Islamic revolution being alive and kicking was in sharp contrast to months of protests by women and the youth demanding an end to the Islamic Republic. This time there is no doubt that protesters do not want any reforms or concessions. They demand a secular and democratic government and Khamenei is their first target.

But Khamenei sojourns in his own world and claimed that the Islamic Republic is moving forward toward the peaks of its material and spiritual progress. Material progress seems more like a myth as the government has recently decided to sell public assets and properties to finance its everyday administrative affairs. The national currency is at its historic low and inflation is well above 50 percent.

Meanwhile, sociologists and political observers in Iran have said in numerous studies that the generation-Z was the driving force behind the recent protests and most of those who were jailed for taking part in the protests were born after 2000. But Khamenei claimed that the regime has the hearts and minds of the young generation, showcasing a recent regime stunt of having youngsters in a Quran reading marathon.

In another controversial comment, while he has the final say on all matters of state and dictates all policies to the government, he called on unnamed officials to deliver what people need.

Khamenei also called for national unity, while he had earlier ruled out politicians' suggestions for an attempt at national reconciliation by putting an end to the violent crackdown on protesters.