After the niece, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's sister also opposed Iran's spiritual and political leader.

Badri Hosseini Khamenei spoke out against the bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations, saying her brother's "despotic caliphate" brought nothing but suffering.

"I think it's time to declare that I am against the actions of my brother," she wrote in a letter posted to the Twitter account of her France-based son Mahmud Moradchani on Wednesday.

"I also offer my condolences to all mothers who are suffering from the crimes of the Islamic Republic from the time of Khomenei to the current era of Ali Khamenei's tyrannical caliphate." support before it's too late.

Resistance against the “criminal system”

The letter is dated “December 2022”.

According to the British daily The Guardian, the announcement came a day after the country's former President Mohammad Khatami issued a statement expressing his support for the protest movement, increasing the pressure on the regime from influential political figures.

Badri Hosseini Khamenei always felt it was her duty to talk to her brother about the needs of the people, "but he didn't listen to me and continued to oppress and kill innocent people".

So she cut off contact with him.

She fled to Iraq with her family in the mid-1980s.

She now lives in Iran again.

She describes how her family resisted this "criminal system" soon after the 1979 revolution.

Her husband, Ali Teherani, lived in exile in Iraq for years and regularly criticized the Islamic Republic in radio broadcasts.

After his return in 1995, Tehrani spent ten years in prison.

He died in October of that year.

Arrest of daughter triggered open letter

Her daughter Farideh Moradkhani had also been arrested several times before because of her human rights activities.

At the end of November, Moradkhani called for Iran's international isolation in a video message.

She justified her call with the violent action taken by security forces against demonstrators.

She was arrested.

Her mother then decided to speak out publicly about the regime's machinations.

Finally, Badri Hosseini Khamenei stresses that she hopes for the victory of the people and the overthrow of this tyranny that rules the country.

She expressly apologizes for the fact that physical ailments prevent her from participating in the protest movements.

"But my heart and soul is with the people."

There have been protests in Iran since mid-September.

They were ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Dschina Amini.

The Kurd died in police custody on September 16.

The so-called vice police arrested her because she was said to have been dressed inappropriately.

The protests have since grown into the greatest challenge to spiritual leadership since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Last Sunday, the Attorney General in Tehran announced that the moral police had been disbanded.