See The Doom You Brought - Jailed Opponent Tells Iran's Khamenei
Daughter of former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani has written a harshly worded letter addressed to Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei, telling him “Enough is enough!”
Daughter of former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani has written a harshly worded letter addressed to Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei, telling him “Enough is enough!”
Enumerating the names of some of the iconic victims of the regime, jailed MP-cum-activist Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani asked the Supreme Leader, “How many Nedas, Navids, Mahsas and Armitas must be sacrificed and how long this destruction must continue until you realize the severity of the situation?"
"If you have no compassion for the people of this country, be concerned about your own position," read parts of the letter a copy of which was obtained by IranWire.
Hashemi, daughter of late President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was arrested in September 2022, days after nationwide anti-regime protests broke out, as the government tried to control the situation by detaining well-known critics and many journalists. She was sentenced to a five-year prison term in January.
She told Khamenei that he has brought Iran to the “peak of oppression and discrimination, poverty and corruption, hypocrisy and immorality, mismanagement and inefficiency” and criticized the regime for its “terrorist” acts.
Faezeh’s father – who died mysteriously in a swimming pool in 2017 – was the second most powerful man in the Islamic regime in the 1990s and early 2000s, when he served as president (1989-1997) and held influence and key positions, until Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gradually pushed him aside. Rafsanjani was the key cleric who helped Khamenei succeed the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini when he died in 1989, although Khamenei did not have the required clerical rank and credentials for the post. Khamenei’s men continued to persecute members of the Hashemi clan, who had become affluent and had legal vulnerabilities that could be exploited by Khamenei’s courts and intelligence services. Faezeh Hashemi who served as a member of parliament, became increasingly estranged from the regime and began defending women’s rights and hurling criticism at the regime, indirectly targeting Khamenei.
Elsewhere in her letter from prison, Hashemi listed the mistakes made by the last shah of Iran that culminated in the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty in the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. She told Khamenei that he is making the same mistakes and more. She said a lack of flexibility in politics and resistance against social demands will only lead to people’s revolt and an end to autocracy.
Hashemi specifically mentioned the case of Armita Geravand, a teenage girl in coma in a heavily guarded hospital following an encounter with hijab enforcers. Armita allegedly fell into a coma after being assaulted by hijab enforcers on her way to school at a Tehran subway two weeks ago. Authorities have significantly restricted the family's access to Armita at Fajr military hospital. Armita’s mother was briefly detained by security authorities earlier this month after protesting the authorities’ refusal to allow her to see her daughter.
Armita’s serious head injury, which authorities claim she sustained when she fainted in a subway car, serves as a stark reminder of the death of Mahsa Amini in September last year. Mahsa's death ignited months of protests and unrest across the country, and the government is still refusing to accept responsibility for it. The news of another young girl's life-threatening injury, along with televised interviews with her parents and classmates, which many believe were "forced," has outraged many Iranians who are being kept in the dark about her circumstances.
