Iran: “The conservative ayatollahs are worried about the consequences of this revolution”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, in November 2022. via REUTERS - WANA NEWS AGENCY
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
He is one of the great figures of Shiite Islam in Iran, a conservative, a supporter of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
And yet, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Chirazi criticized this Friday, January 27 the government's policy towards women.
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"
I don't consider violence and pressure to be effective on the hijab issue
," Nasser Makarem Chirazi said in an interview with a minister.
Words that are not the first of their kind.
Nasser Makarem Chirazi, like other conservative ayatollahs, have already criticized the government for its handling of the current crisis.
But for sociologist Azadeh Kian, professor of sociology at the University of Paris-Cité, these remarks nevertheless underline a real concern within the conservative camp.
“
I think that fear has changed sides and that the conservative ayatollahs are absolutely worried about the consequences of this revolution,
she analyzes at the microphone of
Guilhem Delteil,
of the international service of RFI.
Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, for example, publicly criticized the government the other day and even exposed the fact that a number of people who are part of this government, and who are close to power, are in the process of get their capital out of Iran, and will leave if the revolt escalates.
And he said: "And we, religious, we ayatollahs, we have nowhere to go".
It shows the growing concern of the ayatollahs about the current situation;
and they blame the government, that is, they don't criticize the protesters, they don't criticize the women, but they mostly criticize the government and the government's repressive policies.
»
► To read also:
The EU sanctions Iranians, but not the Revolutionary Guards
A challenge to power
Iranian authorities have executed 55 people so far in 2023, the
Norway-based NGO
Iran Human Rights (IHR) said on January 27, adding that the growing use of the death penalty was aimed at spreading "
terror
" in the country rocked by protests.
At least 107 people remain at risk of execution due to the protests, IHR added.
For its part, Amnesty International said that three young people sentenced to death for protesting, the youngest of whom is only 18, had been subjected to "
terrible torture
" in prison .
1. At least 488 people including 64 children and 39 women, have been killed by security forces in the current nationwide protests.
At least 107 protesters are currently at risk of execution, death penalty charges or sentences.#StopExecutionsInIran pic.twitter.com/FFEqebje2B
— Iran Human Rights (IHR NGO) (@IHRights) January 27, 2023
Activists have accused Iran of using the death penalty as an instrument of intimidation to quell uninterrupted protests since September 16, after the death in custody of
Mahsa Amini,
a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested three days earlier for Violation of the dress code for women.
Thousands of protesters were arrested.
► To read also:
30 political prisoners demand an end to the executions of demonstrators
In the eyes of UN human rights chief
Volker Türk
,
Iran's "instrumentalization of criminal proceedings" to punish protesters "amounts to state-sanctioned murder
".
Demonstrations have declined since November, experts say, but the protest movement remains a challenge for the Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Stand up for women in Afghanistan.
Stand up for women in Colombia.
Stand up for women in the US
Stand up for women in Iran.
Stand up for women,
everywhere.
pic.twitter.com/2uuSPgZQN0
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) January 25, 2023
(and with
AFP
)
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