Karroubi Meets with Mousavi

Karroubi and Mousavi has another meeting and this is what they discussed:

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi’s third meeting; Condemning violence against people especially against women

Tagheer News Agency: Yesterday afternoon Mir Hossein Mousavi went to Mehdi Karoubi’s home in order to while meet and sympathize with him for what happened on November 4th, have a talk with him regarding the actions committed against people and especially women on that day.

According to Tagheer’s report, at the beginning of this meeting Mr. Mousavi while condemning the actions of plain clothes militia committed against Mr. Karoubi on November 4th, said: “I was really saddened because of this attack against you but your behavior shows the heights of bravery and resilience of you and the people.” Mr. Karoubi in response while thanking for Mr. Mousavi’s sympathy, described people’s reactions as very kind.

In continuation Mr. Karoubi added: “Even if I put myself in government’s shows, I can’t convince myself why should such treatment be done against the people. I fought against Pahlavi’s regime (monarchist dictatorship before the 1978 revolution) officially for at least 15 years. Of course I consider myself a small soldier in the path of revolution but I saw demonstrations, I saw protests, I went to jail and I was on the run [from Shah’s security agents]. I remember it was around 1962 that the freedom movement had reached its heights. Those days we had similar demonstrations in Tehran and in front of Tehran University. Students chanted, the police would come and would disperse demonstrators. There wasn’t this kind of [harsh] confrontations. I announced that I would participate on November 4th but also everywhere I had interview I said [to people] that act in a way that doesn’t upset the establishment. Also from the previous day there were messages sent to me that “Don’t attend the ceremony. They are going to confront you.” and on the morning of that day also there was a letter sent from one the security agencies that Rigi’s terrorist group is planning on a suicide attack against me so I told my bodyguards anyone who was not willing and felt in danger should not accompany me but because of the promise I have made to people I should attend the ceremony.”

Mr. Karoubi then regarding the attack on him and his bodyguards said: “When it was not possible to continue with the car, we got out and joined the people that suddenly I saw that the head of my bodyguard is cracked and is bleeding. I first thought that they had hit him in head by a baton but then I realized that this had happened because of the direct shot of tear gas at us which had hit my bodyguard’s head. Meanwhile I notice a strange object in front of myself and started to suffocate. It felt that all of my face, my beard and eyebrows were on fire. During the revolution I was exposed to tear gas at least twenty times but this was something else.”

Mr. Karoubi while considering some of the slogans of the people radical, said: “One of the university academics came here the next day and said that because of some of the slogans people were chanting he had uncontrollably cried. Note that those who are beating people have escalated things to a point that encourage people to have radical slogans. I really don’t understand what kind of service is this that they are providing to the supreme leader. Of course if people were allowed to have a peaceful demonstration some would have come [from the government] and chanted death to America and the people would have chanted God is great and it would have been done.”

He continued: “I sometimes wonder if they themselves send a few among the people to abuse people’s enthusiasm and encourage them to show aggressive behavior so that they have an excuse to attack the people. People should avoid aggressive behaviors.”

Karoubi then referred to the attacks by Keyhan and other chain newspapers (which are run by the government and support the coup administration) against himself and Mr. Mousavi, and said: “It has been fifty years that I am involved with this revolution. The day Imam [Khomeini] passed away I had five commissions from him. You were Imam’s Prime Minister. The chain newspapers make false accusations against you and me that we have deserted Islam and the revolution but their accusations do not make us deserters of Islam and the revolution. I don’t know what kind of behavior is this that they consider themselves the scale of [good and bad] deeds and consider themselves like Imam Ali (the first Imam of Shi’a). If when we had newspapers, we would have published that for instance Mr. Asgar-Oladi or Mr. Morteza Nabavi (conservatives) are against the revolution, would that have made them so?”

Regarding the harsh confrontations with women, Mr. Karoubi added: “I remember that in the time of Pahlavi, when we went to an office or we were in line somewhere, when a lady would walk in the person in charge would ask for permission to first look after the business of that lady or in buses that men and women were not segregated then, men would stood up for the ladies to take their seats. But now in the Islamic Republic they treat women so brutally that we received constant news of bashing of the women with batons. I really don’t know who has issued permission for such behavior against people.”

Mr. Mousavi also in this meeting in describing the presence of people on November 4th said: “When that morning I was going to the Cultural Center for Art from home, I saw that they had put so many [security] forces in front of Tehran’s University that it seemed as if they were going to war. I told myself even if today not a single person comes out this still proves the power of the Green movement.”

Regarding the confrontation of the plain clothes militia with him, Mousavi said: “Around 9:00AM some gathered in front of the Cultural Center and started chanting. Then several plain clothes militia on bikes blocked both doors of the Center in Vali-Asr and Saba streets to prevent me from leaving and by closing down the parking door prevented me from having the privilege of joining the people and have a share in this spiritual reward.”

Mir Hossein added: “These people were trying to show their power by preventing my presence among the people but at the end it was the people who showed their power. They should recognize people’s right. What was wrong with people attending this demonstration? People would come and have their say peacefully. The footages of these brutal behaviors and attacks again people and beating ladies with batons will not have a good outcome [for them].”

Mousavi added: “This great movement is defending the fundamental values. It says don’t lie. It says lie is doomed. It says fraud is doomed. Those who beat people should not think that by terrorizing people can force them to stay home. Islam has taught are people not to be scared of anything on the path of justice. This imagination that repression is going to solve their problems is wrong. Repression can stop a riot but what we are witnessing in the country is not riot but rather demand of the legal rights.”

Mr. Mousavi added: “Radical slogans are often the result of brutality of security forces who unfairly attack old, young, woman or man. Especially the attack on women is the outmost of failure in our society’s acceptable traditions.”

He continued: “The Green movement condemns repression and will not be trapped in violence. All the people know that our weapon is our peaceful and wise slogans even if on this path we suffer damages. We demand complete execution of the constitution. We demand release of the political prisoners. We demand assurance for healthy elections. We demand freedom of press, media and speech. Islam is the religion of logics. It is not the religion of breaking pens and group close down of newspapers. Our people have the historic experience of putting flowers in the nozzles of rifles. Today even though they are being attacked, they know that the power of wisdom and peace defeats the all kinds of weaponries.”

Mir Hossein Mousavi added: “Despite all this unusual military and security show down, the extent and spread of people’s presence in many parts of Tehran and several other cities shows that the presence of people is not a passing excitement but rather a deep concern and wisdom for the future of the county.”