Iran: Former President Khatami supports student protesters
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami talks to Reuters correspondents in Tehran in this January 22, 2008 file photo. REUTERS - Caren Firouz
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The third day of general strike in Iran was concentrated around universities.
On the occasion of Students' Day, youth organizations had called for it to be transformed into a “day of terror for the state”.
They had received a sign of support from former President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday.
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It is the Iranian student press agency which relates this position of the man who was at the head of Iran from 1997 to 2005 and a hope for the reformist current.
Mohammad Khatami expressed his particular support for the slogan "
Women, life, freedom
".
“
A beautiful message
” according to him “
which shows a movement towards a better future
”.
He also spoke out against the arrest of students and called on the authorities to reach out to them, regretting that freedom and security are pitted against each other.
Since his support for the major protest movement during the disputed re-election of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Mohammed Khatami has been banned from speaking in the media.
Three weeks ago, the Iranian reformist newspapers quoted the former president as a supporter of a movement calling for change from within the system established by the Islamic Republic.
He then considered that a "
reversal (of this same system) was neither possible nor desirable
" and called on the authorities to self-correct.
Today, protesters appear to reject the regime in its entirety.
During the last legislative and presidential elections, the main reforming candidates had quite simply been disqualified.
Many figures of this political movement are currently in detention or in exile.
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