Iran Document: Mousavi on the Green Movement's Strategy and Goals (22 April)

Khordaad 88 translates the Rah-e-Sabz report of Mir Hossein Mousavi's meeting with the National Religious Front on Thursday:

In a meeting...with a group of religious-nationalist activists, Mousavi said: “To achieve our national interests and a desired society, there is no solution other than insisting on Green Movement. This is a process that needs patience, perseverance and call for great endurance against the hardships and challenges ahead.”

The Latest from Iran (24 April): Speaking of Rights

Mousavi expressed that the Green Movement sets and follows up on goals that are originated in the values and demands of the Iranian people. He said: “We must create a coherent civil society using all the available resources in the country.” He then expressed how necessary it is to create “people’s green institutions” in different affairs of the country to push forward for gradual creation of the desired civil society. He added: “What happened in the 25th of Khordaad last year in Tehran with that heavy and kind presence of people together accompanied by an environment of peace, endurance, perseverance and kinship along with their reaction as civil dissidents is a perfect example of a desired civil society.”


He further insisted on the “necessity to live with political goals and value” and said: “Our task is challenging, and the road ahead of the Green Movement is long and full of twists and turns. Although it is possible that the Green Movement would reach its goals much earlier than what many expect, however, we must be patience and maintain our perseverance. To continue the Green Movement, we must live with the Green Movement.”

Being patience, and maintain perseverance is costly

In this meeting Mousavi said: “Of course it is costly to remain patience and maintain perseverance on the goals of the Green Movement. There is no escaping that. Hardships, challenges, constrain, pressures, clampdown, and prisons are there, but we have no way other than going through these costs and hardships.” He alluded to discussions on how parties tend to orient themselves to gain power and added: “That is not a flaw for parties, but in the green movement the goal of acquiring power is only something on the side relative to the main goals of the Green Movement. The purpose of the Green Movement is to revolutionize the society to achieve a civil society that Iranians deserve. This approach that insists on sidelining the acquiring of power can bring us calm. If we can somehow expand this view in the society, it will be very beneficial and affective for us.”

Change is brought about through new Ideas

Mousavi insisted that “raising awareness is to be a very important priority” and said: “Change would be possible through birth of new ideas. In our case, it seems that the idea has been born already. The more we expand it, the more we can expand the range and possibilities of the Green Movement.” He added: “More than ever, we must try to raise awareness among the citizens living in the ‘gray area’ who neither accompany the Green Movement nor advocate the authorities. We must tell them about the ‘lucid area’, and attract them to the Green Movement.” He further added: “Those who hold the power are most wary about the increase in awareness. In fact, they are so worried that they are react extremely harshly to raising awareness on the number of martyrs in the movement, the realities of what happened in the clampdowns, clarifications of the movement goal, or publishing news of inhumane behaviour towards the detainees."

Press and media are critical issues for us

Mousavi said: “Press and media are critical issues for the movement but unfortunately, for different reasons, we lagging behind on these fronts [Press, media, and raising awareness in the society]. He went on: “We are still not fully utilizing the Internet and the Cyberspace.”

In another part of his talks, he emphasized: “We must all be together, stand by each other. We must agree on some of the minimums, and choose aims and slogans that are capable putting the most of together. Just as all dissident citizens have realized the Green color as a minimum common point, we must find minimum requirements that we can all share and push together to expand the Green Movement.”

We are concerned with National Interests

In this meeting Mousavi said: “It must be clear to all that we are only concerned about national interests. There is not self interest here. We do not want to stand behind oppression and the oppressor. We stand behind the oppressed. I must add though that the Green Movement is in favour of talks and negotiating to settle somewhere. We must all participate in a dialogue, put our thoughts together with all the groups who care about Iran and follow up on our national interests so that we can continue on this long and challenging path ahead.”

Advocates of Compassionate Religion

He emphasized that “we are advocates of a compassionate reading of religion, a reading that necessitates the maximal tolerance for differences of opinion.” He added: “Promoting such compassionate readings is a difficult task, but the Green Movement can feel it weigh on its shoulders. I feel a danger lurking in how our new generations are getting away from religion, and religious values. Harsh reactions, violence, clampdowns under the name of Islamic Governance could possibly push away many of the youth from any religion.”

Mousavi also alluded to recent changes and the point that “instead of sticking to one way of governance, we must be more flexible [to switch to other forms that would meet our needs better.]” He explained: “Modern artists have two approaches. A group of them put what they have seen or imagined into the painting. The other group, start without any vision of what the final piece would look like, and gradually give birth to images that create the painting. What is going on in the Green Movement could be characterised as the latter.”

Iran Document: "Our Sons' And Daughters' Agony" (Sahabi)

Ezzatollah Sahabi, former minister and member of Parliament, editor of the banned journal Iran-e Farda, and leader of Iran's Nationalist-Religious political alliance, writes in Rah-e-Sabz (translated by Khordaad 88):

In the name of God,

To whom can I speak of my sons’ and daughters’ agony?

The Latest from Iran (19 April): Stay Firm, Spread the Word

Enduring the past nine months and seeing the torment experienced by the sons and daughters of this land has been unbearable for this old man – seeing the nation’s potential melt away in the hands of our incapable rulers; seeing the atrocious treatment of the nation’s righteous and courageous children, both in the streets and in prisons. But the pain has gotten worse lately and I do not know how to handle it or object.


These days, I keep hearing that my dear Badressadat Mofidi, Hengameh Shahidi, Shiva Nazarahari, and many more are under intense pressure [during] interrogation. [I hear that] they are subjected to constant insults with the goal of making them break down and forget about everything they are fighting for. The situation is so unbearable that some of these ladies have wished for death.

Government officials visiting the prisons reported that the intensity of verbal abuse makes some prisoners complain about that even more than they do about bthe violent beatings.

I am also constantly hearing that in recent weeks, Ahmad Zeidabadi, Mansour Esanloo, Masoud Bastani, and others, who are as dear to me as my own sons and who are clearly imprisoned because of their beliefs and political ideas, are illegally and unethically kept with prisoners who have committed heinous crimes (though some of the felons are, of course, victims of this unjust system). [My friends] are exposed to direct pressure and pain. Some of them are in danger of serious and irreversible damage being done to their physical and mental health.

It is so sad for me to see political prisoners of a regime that I helped create experience such unjust, cruel, and unethical treatment. [I am referring to] cruelty such as keeping the political prisoners with murderers on death row or insulting women in such a way that they break down and admit to false and shameful crimes on national television. I have been imprisoned and interrogated both before and after the [formation of] the Islamic Republic. [I can guarantee that] the situation is much worse than before.

I do not understand why our rulers have completely forgotten about ethics and religion, resorting to any means [necessary] to protect their short-lived worldly powers. We have not forgotten the days before the Islamic Revolution, when we criticized others by saying that the end does not justify the means.

I am a religious person who understands ethics to be the main pillar as well as the main goal of religion. [I am also a person] whose prophet – a prophet common to all of us – was chosen to raise the standards of ethics. As such, I am ashamed to live in times where the sons and daughters, the men and women of this society are arrested and tortured under the worst physical and psychological pressure and women are treated with the most shameful disrespect. [This is] all [done] to force them into false confessions and to find them guilty because of the facts they speak and the truth they seek; all in the name of God and religion.

Alas, “to lie,” which, in our culture, is recognized both nationally and religiously to be among the worst of sins, has now become a dominant trend. Our authorities lie with the greatest exaggeration. They seek to stamp their hollow (national and international) ambitions into the minds of the people merely by repeating them over and over again, every day and every night. Those people would not be deceived by such trickery and lies and in the seminary schools of Qom, religious leaders further unmask the liar. But unfortunately, they are still forcing male and female prisoners to lie in order to avoid more intense pressure and/or exile. Dear Almighty, where do I go to counsel my pains and concerns; who can I go to?

I hope that there is someone left among the Judiciary or the establishment who will hear my cries and change either the conditions of the prisoners I named or any of the other nameless ones – if only for the sake of God and their own afterlife, so that the families of victims can be spared the torment that they have to bear each day.

Dear God, as you witnessed, the [main] promise of the Revolution was the governance of justice, like the justice created by Imam Ali, the first Imam of the Shi’ites. His governance was strict with the people closest to him, and his mercy reached [even] his enemies who were furthest from him.

This was the promise. However, the ‘justice’ our government perpetuates today, in the name of Ali, is easy-going on political and financial corruption, as well as any theft or murder that those close to the authorities commit in banks, other financial institutions, universities or Kahrizak and Evin prisons. They impose their severity on blindfolded, handcuffed and innocent men and women, who are [merely] insisting on [seeing] the goals and desires of that very Revolution [that created this government in the first place]. Oh dear Almighty, O Saviour of hearts and minds, O Guide of night and day – either transform our days, or else give me death.

Mousavi: "Can Repression & Brute Force Solve Iran's Problems?"

Green Voice of Freedom summarises yesterday's meeting between Mir Hossein Mousavi and the reformist Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution party. Khordaad 88 also has a version:

Mousavi said that the Islamic Republic is facing problems “far deeper” than the widespread street protests, and cannot simply be resolved by putting an end to the protests.

“Our [Islamic] system is facing problems and its manifestation is not limited to the protests on the streets. The issues and problems are far deeper than this. One of them is that the state believes that by ending the street protests the protesters’ concerns are [also] resolved.”

The Latest from Iran: Dialogue or Conflict? (9 April)

The former prime minister said during the meeting that all the things that give legitimacy to a state are being “destroyed” in Iran. “Regimes normally use brute force (police, military and security forces) in the end to survive at any cost, but this is happening in our country and this is cause for great thought and attention,” he added.



Mousavi stressed the issue of lies and deceptions in all levels of the state. “The issue of lying has become our main concern and people have an objection towards it,” Mousavi said. “It has created mistrust amongst people towards the very base of this troublesome system and [has created doubts] towards their beliefs. Ethical issues, foreign policy, widespread corruption, etc, these have all created a sense of mistrust towards authorities and the state.”

“Is this problem solvable through repression and using brute force?” Mousavi asked.

During the meeting, the 2009 presidential candidate told the members of the reformist party, “The current situation has totally disrupted the flow of investment into the country because the future has become unpredictable unlike a society like that of Japan’s where the history of investment in certain families is more than two centuries old.”

Mousavi stated that the quick-return of interest [profit] had become the target in Iran because “there is no hope for the future and due to the current condition, no one is seeking to invest in production, in the long-term and in creating long-lasting jobs. Doesn’t the continuation of the current conditions mean more unemployment and poverty?”

Mousavi pointed out that despite the government’s massive spending; Iran was actually far behind in attracting foreign investment: “Is this not a catastrophe?”

On the issue of the current dispute between Ahmadinejad and the Parliament over the government’s proposed subsidy cuts, Mousavi said that the main source of dispute was about the government’s permission to spend around $1 million to buy votes in the rigged June election. Mousavi stated that the sense of mistrust towards the regime was “eating the system and making it void from within.”

According to the popular reformist politician, the misuse of religious and revolutionary values by authorities was playing an important role in portraying an unreal image of Islam, Imam Khomeini, and the Revolution.
Mousavi criticised the violent behaviour of security forces towards people who had recently gathered near the Orumiyeh Lake [in Azerbaijan] protesting the drying of the lakebed as a result of wrong government policies. Mousavi said, “Can all problems be resolved through [increasing] security and militarisation? They want to run the system with the rule of a certain group which is not possible.”

Mir-Hossein Mousavi told those present, that he would even accept the fraudulent results of the 2009 presidential election if the current rulers possessed a “relative efficiency” in running the country: “But we don’t even have this. For instance the government is unable to even carry out an [oil] project in Assaluyeh, and there is a problem in foreign policy every day and the situation is becoming more critical. The nuclear case in the past year is the best example for this.”

Mousavi said that even those currently in power in Iran lack any consensus and asked, “What does this show?”

Once again, Mousavi stressed the importance of the full implementation of the Iranian Constitution as a main demand of the Green Movement. “Many articles of this constitution which guarantee the rights of the people have been forgotten,” Mousavi said. He added:

If these are brought about well enough, an overall consensus will be reached within the movement. The base for any change in society is an idea and this idea has been created in our society and the will for change and amendment has become widespread. The people must be warned that the interests of a few in certain bodies is not allowing for them to easily surrender to the demands of the [Green] Movement and the nation.

On the future of the Green Movement and its activities, the wartime prime minister said, “We must bring about and redefine clear ideas and spread them through resisting and steadfastness and finding ways of working in a more organised way. The regime and state should be told that the least costly way for governing the country is the free activity of groups, media, associations and civil society, not confronting them.”

Mousavi called for more links between the different social groups inside the Green Movement and said that the goal of the movement was to create a better life for everyone, especially more impoverished and vulnerable sectors of society. He defended the rights of workers and teachers and acknowledged their important roles in Iranian life.

Mousavi also urged authorities to return to the Constitution, to remove the current security and military atmosphere in the country, and to open up. “If they do not choose this path, we will be forced to stand firm,” Mousavi said, expressing hope that authorities would return to the path of sanity as soon as possible:

We must stand firm until the issues and problems are resolved. The people have paid a heavy price during this period and they are used to paying such prices because they have great and righteous aspirations. You can see how prisoners have become the champions of the people and how they are welcomed [upon their freedom] and this is a sign of the ineffectiveness of these actions in confronting the [Green] Movement and the people’s demands.

Mousavi concluded with a call for the full usage of the capacity of political parties and an expansion of their activities. He also invited them to issue statements and analyses and to be in constant contact with the people for a “better tomorrow”.