Iran International
In a letter from Evin Prison, Faezeh Hashemi, harshly criticized Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for unconstitutionally objecting to a referendum in Iran.
Iran International received a copy of the statement Sunday and verified its authenticity.
“Objection to a democratic provision of the Constitution by you is flabbergasting,” Hashemi, the daughter of Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, wrote while criticizing the “extensive and systematic violation of Iranians’ citizen rights”.
“It appears that unwillingly you expressed what was in your heart for a long time in a surprising manner and without attempting to keep up appearances,” she said.
In a speech at a meeting with students on April 18, Khamenei strongly objected to suggestions to allow people to decide crucial matters through a referendum.
“[Who says] the country’s various issues can be put to referendum? Where in the world do they do that? [Who says] all the people participating in a referendum have the faculty of analyzing that matter? What kind of demand is that?” Khamenei had rhetorically asked.
In her letter, Hashemi responded to Khamenei’s questions by reminding him of Article 59 of the current constitution, which was approved by a referendum after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Article 59 stipulates that in extremely important economic, political, social, and cultural matters, the functions of the legislature may be exercised through direct recourse to popular vote by holding a national referendum.
She also enumerated some of the most recent referendums in other countries including in Britain’s 2014 (Scottish independence) and 2016 (Brexit) as well as Spain’s 2017 Catalan independence referendums.
“How is that Palestinians can decide the type of their government [through referendum] as you have proposed but not the Iranian people? She asked. “It seems that those who support you have the power of analysis and others lack such powers and are sometimes even traitors and mercenaries of foreigners?”
Faezeh Hashemi and several other political prisoners including former reformist Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh and prominent political commentator and researcher in poverty, drug addiction, child abuse, and prostitution, Saeed Madani in a statement in February said they would do their best to advance the proposal to hold a referendum and a peaceful and non-violent transition to a completely democratic and developed political structure in the country.
“The only way out of the impasse for the government is to surrender to the right of the people to determine their own destiny,” they declared.
Former President Hassan Rouhani and others, mainly reformist politicians, have repeatedly suggested holding referendums on “important issues” in domestic and foreign policy.
On April 5, Rouhani for a second time since the beginning of nationwide protests in mid-September said the answer to people’s demands in the areas of foreign and domestic policies and the economy could be found by holding referendums as envisaged by the Constitution of the Islamic Republic.
In February, former Prime Minister (1981-1989) and leader of the 2009 Green Movement Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was a reformist presidential candidate in 2009 and has been under house arrest since 2011, said in a statement dubbed “To Save Iran” that there was no hope of reforms and demanded a free and untainted referendum about the necessity for a new constitution.
Such a referendum could potentially put an end to Velayat-e Faghih (rule of the Islamic jurist) which gives a cleric such as Ali Khamenei extraordinary powers including the power to overrule all elected bodies and officials and hence, people’s choice.
Any request for such direct recourse to public opinion must be approved by two-thirds of the members of parliament according to the Constitution. This condition practically blocks any chance of a referendum as currently the parliament is dominated by hardliners and Khamenei loyalists.
The member of parliament’s national security, Shahryar Haidari, attributed the weakness to the Raisi administration's inefficiency.
"While government revenues increased under President Raisi's government, it did not manage the resources as efficiently as the previous government [of President Hassan Rouhani] that had succeeded in controlling inflation to some extent…," Haidari said.
However, he did not mention that the Rouhani administration had more access to the national foreign currency reserves although both governments are accused of wasting the national savings.
Recent statements by officials revealed successive governments spent $140 billion of Iran’s National Development Fund in 15 years, with the Rouhani administration in power for eight years.
On the other hand, the current government's "better financial status" is based on claims by its officials about rising oil exports, while economists, politicians and the media have reiterated every now and then that, the government has not been able to repatriate the hard currency for selling the oil at a price discount of 30 to 40 percent.
Haidari also praised the Rouhani administration for handling the negotiations over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal more efficiently thanks to its capability and experience without undermining Iran's interests. Meanwhile he criticized the current government's diplomatic weakness.
The lawmaker argued that although not all of the country's problems are linked to sanctions and JCPOA nuclear talks, yet the situation could improve by 70 percent if the negotiations reach positive results.
In recent days, first, an adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei, Ali Aghamohammadi, who is also a member of the Expediency Council admitted that the country's economic situation is far less than desirable and that as a result "at least 19.7 million Iranians are deprived of proper housing, employment, medical care, food and clothing."
Later, former Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi criticized the Raisi administration for failing to stand by its promises of mending social divides, halving the inflation rate and immediately solving problems with the country's investment market. He pointed out that Raisi has lost a lot of his over two million followers on Instagram.
On Saturday, hardline daily Kayhan, whose editor is appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and usually fully and unjustifiably defends the Raisi administration, shyly but openly criticized exiting economic conditions and wrote: "The people's economic situation has not improved under the new government. The cost of housing has continuously grown, and the price of essential commodities have increased, putting the people under pressure."
The Kayhan reiterated that "prices in the market in Iran reflect a chaotic situation." The daily added that the Islamic Republic cannot tolerate rising popular dissatisfaction. The economic problems of low-income Iranians is part of the country's realities, and the Islamic Republic and the ideology of late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Khamenei call for improving the economic situation in the interest of low-income Iranians." However, the daily stopped short of suggesting how this can be done.
The hardliner daily, as many other media outlets and public figures in Iran, steered away from pointing to US sanctions as the main reason for the economic crisis, and the need for an agreement with Washington.
The Tehran neighborhoods of Tehransar, ShahrakEkbatan, Sattarkhan and Aryashahr were rocked by demonstrations Saturday evening that continued until the early hours of Sunday.
Anti-regime slogans were heard elsewhere in areas across the capital.
There were reports of sporadic clashes with security forces attempting to disperse the protesters, who in some neighborhoods had managed to block the roads after setting fire to trash cans.
In the religious city of Mashhad, protesters chanted "The Islamic regime is the killer of Iranians." Demonstrations were reported in several other cities, including Abdanan in the western province of Ilam and Gorgan in the northern province of Golestan.
While security forces came out in large numbers to stop demonstrations being held, defiant Iranians staged protest roadblocks in the streets of their cities and voiced their anger by hooting their horns.
The unrest follows the hanging of demonstrators Majid Kazemi, Saeed Yaghoubi and Saleh Mirhashemi on Friday. Protests outside the jail where they were held and outraged calls by the international community had failed to halt the Islamic Republic's execution machine. The deaths brought to at least seven the number of protesters hanged since nationwide protests broke out in September 2022 following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
The three were convicted over the death of two IRGC’s Basij militia members and a police officer during protests in November last year, in what Persian media have dubbed the ‘Esfahan (Isfahan) House’ case, named after the area, where they were arrested. Human rights campaigners say they were tortured into confessions, and there was no reliable evidence against them.
Leaked audio from police radio chatter from the night the three regime agents were killed indicates that they were killed by friendly fire of plainclothes forces. The victims had alibis for the time the agents were killed, with the family of one of the victims saying there is CCTV video footage of their son at work.
About a day after the executions, regime agents also attacked the protesting family of Majid Kazemi and arrested two of his brothers and his sister.
Iranians abroad have held protests against the Islamic Republic execution spree in dozens of cities around the world since Saturday.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini posed the biggest internal challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.
So far, around 500 civilians have been killed by security forces and at least 20,000 arrested. While many have been released, around 1,500 face criminal charges, and at least 80 detainees face the death sentence.
Opposition activists say the regime is using the death penalty as an intimidation tactic to stop further protests.
The United Nations said earlier in the month that Iran has executed 209 people so far this year, calling the record "abominable".
Earlier in May, Amnesty International urged Iran to drop the execution of the three as well as that of six ethnic Arab men who gave “tortured-tainted” confessions.