Zahra Rahnavard on Green Movement

Here is what she said:

How have you been all these months given that you have been under constant pressure?

When I decided to stand beside my husband, during the presidential campaign, I knew that I was placing myself in a difficult position, even suicidal. I knew that all fundamentalist groups that are very misogynistic and the government would concentrate their violent attacked on me. I knew this from the last thirty years of my life being a woman in this country.

In my opinion freedom, democracy and rule of law is always associated to the end of discrimination for women in Iran. Before the revolution, I was in the U.S. and I already had this speech in countless debates. I even wrote a book on the role of Muslim women. The fundamentalists attacked it when it was published in Iran.

So in March 2009, I published a statement entitled "The feminist claims and the presidential elections", saying that women should no longer be abused. And I must say that my presence in this campaign had attracted the attention of many young Iranian men and women. But then we were victims of an electoral coup and Iran has turned into a huge prison. Many of those who fought for freedom have found themselves in detention centers known as Kahrizak or Evin. And this time, women were equal with men, for ill-treatment, torture or executions based on unproven accusations.

The government has not arrested my husband and I, despite the policy of police repression because they don’t want to encourage people more; but they have used other means of pressure. Thus, they arrested my brother Shapur Kazemi, an electronics engineer who is not involved in politics, and he spent six months in solitary confinement, subjected to physical and psychological pressure. Even his son was arrested for a month. Then, the nephew of my husband was killed during demonstrations in the celebration of Ashura.

Since then, the government media have launched programs slandering and insulting me and other figures of the Green movement and have used a policy of "character assassination". But my husband and Mr. Karoubi (former Speaker of Parliament and one of the leaders of the Green movement) and Mr. Khatami (former President of the Islamic Republic) will resist all the pressure until the demands of the Iranian people are met.

Do you feel in danger?

After the election, I was physically attacked during a rally at the University of Tehran, by persons in civilian clothes who have sprayed pepper spray on me. Then, during the demonstrations of February 11, the anniversary of the revolution, the Special Forces hit me with an electric baton. Since then I have a headache and I have lung problems. But I'm willing to get killed if I can save all those who fight for freedom. I am ready to sacrifice, to go to prison, to be tortured, on behalf of freedom. I'm not afraid, I'm a believer and I feel protected by God. But know that if my family would be a victim of a serious issue, or a conspiracy, I say now is the regime which would be liable.

How would you describe the Green movement?

It is a movement that echoes the demands of the Iranian people that actually date back to over a hundred years, to the time of the constitutional revolution of 1906. And the presidential election was an opportunity to remember: freedom, rule of law and democracy. The Green movement does not want to topple the regime; what it wants is reform. It comes from civil society and peaceful means. I repeat, peaceful, even if the other party has no shortage of weapons, and uses violence.

This movement is expressed in various ways through meetings and gatherings of civil society, all layers of society: teachers, workers, athletes, artists, representatives of ethnic minorities ... Women, who represent half of the population, and students who have played a special role and have an important place within the movement.

My message to Iranian women is to say: "Move on, raise your level of knowledge and studies to be eventually accepted as full citizens." I campaign for it, against polygamy, violence and decades of discrimination. Iranian women have no choice, they must continue the fight.

Your husband has evolved from being a presidential candidate to a discrete charismatic leader of the opposition ...

But he've always been very determined in the affirmation of his ideas, and he is very brave to enforce them. He does not easily give up his goal. If he went into the election campaign because it the country's situation was delicate, even dangerous. And he continued after that because of his courage and his personality. But I want to stress again that he is not the only one; there are also Karroubi, Khatami and many others who continue the struggle for democracy. And I'm on their side.

Do those in power listen to you now?

Unfortunately, the authorities don’t realize that they cannot maintain their authority over the country by force. The Green movement's demands all fall within the framework of the Constitution (end of censorship, free elections and freedom of political parties ...). We also call on the release of political prisoners. But the government has not listened to our message. However, if they want, they can do so at any time. We're going to hold commemorative events for the anniversary of the presidential election. I think the victory will come back one day to the people.

Protest at Tehran’s Azad University

Protest Against Ahmadinejad

Here is what happened:

Students of Shahid Beheshti University protested an unannounced visit to their campus by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this morning, opposition website RaheSabz reports. The students were met with a large number of security forces upon entering the university grounds, with members of the police, security forces, and basij militias guarding key routes around the campus. The pattern of secrecy and security surrounding Ahmadinejad’s university visits is emblematic of a concerted approach to possible protests against the government in the weeks leading up to the June 12 anniversary of the controversial presidential elections in Iran last year. On April 27, opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi called for Green Movement supporters to protest on the anniversary of the elections.

While RaheSabz reports that the students were numbered at approximately 1000, RajaNews, a pro-government website puts the number at roughly 100. YouTube videos of the demonstrations show that the numbers far exceed that which was reported by RajaNews.

Ahmadinejad refrained from visiting any universities following widespread student demonstrations against the current Minister of Science, Research, and Technology who was formerly a member of the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of counting votes, during the disputed 2009 election. While it has always been customary for the president to visit the University of Tehran for the new school year, the minister gave a speech in an auditorium sealed off to students.

The visit to Shahid Beheshti University marks the second surprise visit by the president to a major school in a little over a week. On May 1, Ahmadinejad surprised the students of the University of Tehran by giving an unannounced speech in commemoration of Iran’s Teacher’s Day. Upon hearing of his arrival, students began protesting near the university’s Persian Literature Department and went on to the school’s main amphitheater, while shouting “death to the dictator,” “long live Moussavi, long live Karroubi,” and “the coup d’état government must resign,” according to opposition sites Kaleme and RaheSabz.

This pattern of surprise visits by Ahmadinejad marks a change in the government’s approach to universities, traditionally a hotbed of opposition sentiments and calls for reform. Lately, attendees of the president’s speeches at universities have been heavily pre-screened and are issued passes for attendance long in advance. Security and militia forces are deployed on short notice in force to strategic locations around entrances to the building and area of campus the president uses, to prevent protesters from gaining any access or proximity to the event.

This may signal a more ubiquitous approach by the government as the anniversary of the June 2009 election draws near. Traditionally, every June the president visits the University of Tehran to give a speech on the anniversary of the presidential election. It remains to be seen whether Ahmadinejad will visit the university this year, but given that Moussavi and Karroubi have already signaled a call to demonstrations, exceeding security measures are being carried out across universities in Tehran.

Eyewitnesses tell InsideIRAN that both the University of Tehran and Sharif University have had security cameras installed in key locations on campus as part of the crackdown.

In a meeting with journalists, the interior minister, formerly the defense minister, declared today that the president “puts great emphasis on responding to those who act illegally and undermine the country’s security.” He made these remarks in response to a question about the government’s plans to respond to growing “hooliganism and delinquency” in society. The government has long been known to use those terms in regard to pro-opposition protesters.

The coming weeks will reveal how the government will adapt the strategies used at universities to the public at large as the election’s anniversary, barely a month away, draws nearer.