Iranian Opposition Figures Hold Event In Canada To Call For Unity
Prominent Iranian opposition figures who have joined hands to create a united front against the Islamic Republic held another event reiterating determination to end the regime.
Prominent Iranian opposition figures who have joined hands to create a united front against the Islamic Republic held another event reiterating determination to end the regime.
Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion, whose daughter and wife were killed in the shooting down of Flight PS752 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in 2020, as well as US-based, journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi and Secretary General of Komala Iranian Kurdish party Abdullah Mohtadi held a panel in Toronto, Canada, on Saturday to discuss Iran's democracy movement.
They also delivered speeches during the street events held on the sidelines of the meeting, titled “Unity; A Bridge To Freedom.”
The group, which calls itself the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran, announced its existence in a February event at Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) -- titled ‘The Future of Iran’s Democracy Movement' and issued a Charter of Solidarity and Alliance for Freedom (Mahsa Charter) earlier in March.
Defending the contents of the Mahsa Charter, Mohtadi talked about “the spirit of pluralism” as a necessity to overthrow the Islamic Republic. He pointed out that the charter is based on minimum common grounds to defend the rights of minorities and ethnic groups, which paves the way for a transition from the Islamic Republic. He noted that the united opposition is trying to have a coalition as inclusive as possible.
Prince Pahlavi reiterated his ideas for a democratic Iran, stressing the need for joint efforts to hold a free election in the country. "The first rule of the democratic system is to respect the ballot box,” he said.
"I firmly believe in the power of the people. Let us not underestimate the power of public opinion, because it creates the necessary motivation to feel responsible and accountable," the exiled prince said.
He said the Iranians inside the country as well as the expatriates should prove to the world that the overthrow of the regime would not leave a power vacuum in the country. “Iran will not become Syria, because we have so many capable and efficient experts inside and outside the country."
He also talked about supporting the labor strikes as the most important factor to put pressure on the regime from inside Iran, adding that experts are examining ways to create a fund to support strikes and create channels to transfer money to the striking workers.
During his speech to a crowd of Iranians who had gathered outside the venue, Pahlavi greeted Nowruz – the Persian new year that started on March 21 – expressing hope that the next Nowruz celebrations would be held in Iran, free of the regime. "We hope this will be the last Nowruz in exile and we Iranians can celebrate freedom in our own country."
Alinejad, who is known for her frank and practical views about the regime, also defended the Mahsa Charter, acknowledging that a lot of people criticized its content for some phrases that seemed not to reaffirm the territorial integrity of Iran. Emphasizing that "the most separatist person" in Iran is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, she said, "We have gathered together based on the minimums and we are at the beginning of a union to show a more pluralistic face of Iran."
"None of the members of the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran claim a 100-percent agreement, but we understand the power of solidarity," she said, accusing the Islamic Republic of sowing discord among the opposition to ensure its survival. "Islamic Republic has survived by separating us and turning us into wandering islands,” she added, noting that the regime has labeled Kurds and Baluchis of separatism, but Kordestan and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces have become symbols of unity representing the voice of the Iranian nation.
Esmaeilion talked about mechanisms to contact representatives of other groups and ethnicities in the united opposition front, highlighting that “this revolution will bear fruit with unity and hope.” "There is no room for despair,” he noted.
Boniadi addressed the artists and celebrities who have stood against the regime, saying that “you are our role model; we are with you, and we fight for you."
General Hassan Karami told Entekhab News on March 25, that the special forces are preparing to simultaneously confront unrest at 400 locations.
The protests that started in September 2022 raged in more than 100 Iranian cities for over five months before they receded in February, although protests in some regions and chanting from rooftops still continue and pockets of street protests have also been observed.
In Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan Province protests have taken place every Friday since September. Hundreds have been reportedly killed or wounded during the protests over the past six months.
Gen. Karami called the ‘Woman, life, freedom’ protests “Super Sedition” and claimed that his forces have overcome the unrest “successfully.” Using military terms for treatment of civil disobedience, Karami said: “We have grounded the enemy and its human resources and media backing it and badly defeated them.”
Since the start of the protests Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and military commanders attributed the protests to “conspiracies” hatched by foreign powers and media.
The special force of the Iranian police was only one of the units the government used to suppress the protests. Karami characterized it as “A specialized force with unique capabilities.” He said: “We designed our operations based on the location and nature of threats.” Karami also boasted that most of the equipment used by the special forces are made in Iran.
During the protests, apart from improvised vans that were turned into anti-riot vehicles, all the weapons, including shotguns used to blind the protesters were imported from other countries.
Although Karami’s remarks reveal the Iranian regime fears a new round of nationwide protests in the spring, Interior Minister Ahmadi Vahid who is the highest-ranking officer in charge of the police said in remarks about the protests: “We had to face some problems and nuisance in the past year but we cannot say that it was a tough year.”
He said that the National Security Council under his supervision was tasked with dealing with the protest, and we accomplished this mission successfully.” Ironically, Vahidi did his best to avoid the word “protest” and referred to it as "this matter” or “the nuisance.” He also said that “It was a problem the Islamic Republic’s enemies had created.”
Vahidi said that the protests did not distract Iranian officials from focusing on what they needed to do for the country. What he said is in contrast with remarks by many Iranian politicians including members of the parliament who have been constantly criticizing the government for its inaction in the face of the country's most serious economic crisis in modern history and for failing to solve Iran's foreign policy problems.
During the past months, observers have warned the government that popular discontent persists "like a fire under the ashes" and that protests might erupt at any moment with small events that can ignite big upheavals. Even Khamenei's top military adviser former IRGC Commander Yahya Rahim Safavi has warned him that protests might reoccur if the officials do not stand by the promises they have made to the nation.
Other Iranian observers such as reformist commentator and political activist Hamid Reza Jalaeipour have warned that : "Iran has not yet entered a revolutionary situation, but if the current unrest continues, the country will move toward a revolutionary phase."
“His highness the Supreme Leader is the best personality [created] after the Imam of the Age,” Kazem Sadighi, Friday imam of Tehran told his congregation Friday in his first sermon of the new Iranian year.
In Shiite eschatology, the twelfth imam, Mahdi, is a messianic figure thought to have been in occultation by divine will since 941 CE. He is referred to as the Imam of Ages who will appear at the end of time to cleanse the world of sin and evil. Khamenei’s devotees often refer to him as the representative of the Imam of Ages, with absolute power to rule.
Sadighi also promised that Iranians will make the world a better place under Khamenei’s banner who he said is the commander-in-chief of all of the world’s oppressed people and “the resistance front” against the world powers and “an example [for mankind], an imam, a leader and divine executive.”
“The esteemed Leader has waged war on Satan and named this year as the year bridling inflation and boosting production,” another imam in the southern city of Shiraz, Ayatollah Lotfollah Dozhakam said in his sermon while exhorting his congregation to obey Khamenei.
“We can’t claim we are Muslims and awaiting the appearance of the Imam of Ages but do not obey his representative (Khamenei),” Dozhakam said.
Another Khamenei appointed Friday imam, Hojjat ol-Eslam Mahmoud Noorpour who also represents him in the northern Golestan Province told his congregation that hijab is “the most important institution of the Islamic Republic” and urged the authorities to enforce it at government offices, public places, hospitals and pharmacies, shops, and schools and universities.
Many women have been refusing to wear the compulsory hijab since September when anti-government protests engulfed the country in reaction to the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Aamini in the custody of the morality police. The young woman was arrested and taken to a detention center because the morality police patrols deemed her hijab not appropriate enough.
Photos and videos posted on social media these days show many women stepping into shops and banks and riding on public transport with no headscarf. To the religious and hardline political establishment, refusal to wear the hijab is nothing short of open defiance of the regime and its ideology.
But it is not only the hijab that they are worried about these days. The month of Ramadhan has arrived. For decades, the regime has banned all eating, drinking, and smoking in public including at workplace and schools before dusk when those who fast can begin eat and drink.
Clerics have even coined a term for the acts of eating, drinking, or smoking in public during the fasting hours which could very loosely be translated into “showing off in public that one is not fasting”. This ‘crime’ is punishable by ten to sixty days of prison or up to 74 lashes.
Even girls as young as nine are required to abide by the fasting rules at school because it is the age they are believed to be mature enough to wear the hijab and to fast. For boys the age of maturity comes much later, at fifteen.
“Respecting the holiness of the month of Ramadhan is a must for all. Showing off that one is not fasting is even worse than not fasting,” Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, the Friday imam of the city of Arak said while his peer in Gonbad, Noorpour, urged the police and state-sponsored vigilantes who are mainly responsible for warning those who do not abide by the hijab to “take decisive action against those who break the law.”