Thursday
May132010
Iran Transcript: Mousavi "Do Iranian Mothers Have Rights?" (12 May)
Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 6:13 
Mir Hossein Mousavi, speaking with families of political prisoners on Wednesday. Translation from the Facebook page supporting Mousavi:Issuing visas and letting the mothers of these three individuals [US hikers detained in Iran since summer 2009] is very good and this is the right of these mothers and we agree with this, but the problem is whether this right is also considered for the Iranian mothers as well....
If this issue is analyzed, we would be able to enlighten ourselves on the reason for our lack of development in the economy and domestic and foreign politics, for these cases are all following each other and are related.....
In the past year the role of women and mothers in analyzing and considering the main issues of the country has been very high....
Our movement is a peaceful movement. It is not after violence. A year since it was born, one can judge how important it has been for the movement to denounce violence. This movement has been against terrorism and killing from the very beginning because this movement is a deep and comprehensive movement....
We neither have weapons; nor do we want to have any. We condemn terrorists, regardless or the group, nationality, ethnicity, or culture they belong to. We came to the scene with dialogue, with the slogan of “Where Is My Vote?”. We came with logic, and the more we stay logical, we turn the course for the benefit of the movement. Our asset is to strongly persevere with our demands....
Our goals were the outcome of the issue that occurred at that time [the Presidential election], and people came to the scene to get their votes back. When they were repressed, and people analyzed and studied the issue, people’s demands, not accidentally or out of anger but because of the analysis and considerations that happened in the society, were extended....
People have realized that there have been some problems in the society, and one of these problems caused them to take to the streets and unite. To help unify these massive number of people, we demanded the full implementation of the Constitution....
People voted for the Constitution so that it would be implemented fully, not that some parts of it such as the freedom of press and freedom of assembly would be ignored entirely. One cannot only consider part of the Constitution and ignore the rest of it. This makes the whole Constitution meaningless.
When the Constitution is implemented in the country, one administration cannot dismiss all the managers of the country in a short period of time and replace them with its own friends and relatives. A financial corruption case cannot be opened and discussed in the parliament, with even the head of the judiciary talking about it, but then after a while we witness that the case is closed in an unusual way and then there would be no discussions and talks about it again....
Does the judiciary move toward independence today? Did the judiciary regarding the recent accused [five Iranians executed on Sunday] move in this path? Is the judiciary controlling the security forces, or it is the security forces that are controlling the judiciary? Are the sentences which judge an issue based on justice or they are based on some other considerations? In that case, why is one person is sentenced to several years in prison only because of participating in a peaceful protest, while in that peaceful protest millions participated? All these [matters] question the justice of the judiciary system.....
Any form of freedom in the country depends on the existence of free media, the reform in even the smallest organizations, and the moral matters of the society....
How is it that an Islamic country that claims to have had Cultural Revolution and in which we talk about spirituality and purity has the highest number of executions? The problem in not with individuals. The problem is that we governed the country in such a way that we reached to these numbers....
Even the guiltiest of people have human dignity and must be punished comparable to the offense they have committed. Their families and their dignities should not be attacked because otherwise their rights will be violated.....
This is what unfortunately is happening today in our country. Now your brothers and loved ones are in prisons without any guilt because they didn’t have unreasonable demands but were arrested. This is not the end of it....There are tortures; there are forced confessions, and outside [prisons] there are attacks on the families. It is the right of the families to know where their children, their loved ones, are imprisoned and how they are doing, but this right of theirs has been violated.....
These events show how violent they have become in the society; all to satisfy their special interests....
Is hosting a banquet for the members of the [United Nations] Security Council in such a situation going to solve our problems? Wouldn’t it make the government more powerful if it would have the backing of the people? Given the turbulent condition of the area, wouldn’t it better for the government to hear the people and achieve a national unity? Which one is better? Increasing the pressure and building new cells in Evin Prison despite the slogan of the early days of the revolution which was for eliminating the Evin Prison, or hearing and working with the people?...
We expected that the government before anything else would consider the situation of the suffering families and follow up on the crimes committed [after the election], not accuse Israel for one and US for another one. This approach only increases the problems of the country. It was not supposed that we rule the people, it was supposed that people would rule us. It was supposed that the transfer of power would happen with people’s will and continuously. One should be concerned of a time when it is thought that the solution is a continual repressing, pressuring and restricting of the [political] atmosphere.
Reader Comments (3)
He's becoming better and better at this since his 17th statement . Very clear and to the point.
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