The View from Mousavi’s Daughters
Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s daughters issued an elegant statement today, and I am simply posting it here without elaboration. As they say, they have spoken for themselves.
To our kind friends and companions,
We are concerned these days. We worry, like any other child suddenly deprived of all communication with their parents and left in the dark regarding their condition and well being. It is clear to all that our loved ones are held hostage by individuals who feel hatred and vengeance towards them, purely because of their ideals. We are concerned when newspapers insist that our parents are not in prison, nor are they under house arrest. We have even read in the news that they are being escorted and that we, their children are free to visit with them. Unfortunately, however, this has not been the case. We have not seen our parents, nor have we heard their voices. The contradictory reports [by state owned media outlets] only add to our ever increasing concerns.
Following a flood of false reports and in order to put an end to the rumors and clarify the facts [something that is rare these days], we once again attempted to visit with my father at his residence on Thursday night. Upon our arrival, while peering through the iron gates behind which our parents’ residence is now located, we inquired whether our parents were still there and if so, requested to meet with them. The security agents as: “Who has given you permission?” to which we responded “Keyhan newspaper, Tehran’s Prosecutor, and the Exterior Minister. We were under the false impression that some of these state owned media outlets were reliable. We believed them and are here to see our parents in order to alleviate our concerns.”
The response to our question was once again negative. We were told: “No you may not visit with them. The news is false. Those who published the news have erred. Go to the Revolutionary Court! Go see the judge!”
Our parents are not criminals… they have only disappeared. We will see a judge some day. God will be our judge and we will ask God to render his verdict.
As the children of parents who have been held hostage for more than two weeks and have virtually disappeared, we are concerned. We will nevertheless wait as God himself so eloquently stated: “And keep yourself patient [by being] with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance [Holy Quran: Surat Al-Kahf: 28]. We will continue to wait like our two disappeared loved ones who have remained patient and steadfast despite the misery they have been forced to endure. We will continue to wait like our two beloved who have called upon God to protect them, for we are certain that they too are patiently waiting.
We will remain their companions on this difficult journey. We write to you about bitter days during which we have had no news of our parents. We write to you about their bizarre disappearance, their house arrest, their detention and so much more. We write to you because you have always been our trusted companions. It was the strength, compassion, and perseverance of our people that allowed our parents to give their heart and soul to our nation in June of 2009. For even then they were fully aware that they would stand firm on the promise they had made to God and with the people of their nation.
If we speak of our sorrow we do so amongst friends and confidants. Throughout this ordeal we never heard about their pain, the bitterness, the difficulties and injustices they have had to endure. We are reminded of the night of June 12th, after the repeated attacks when we asked our father worried: “What will happen tomorrow?” With the same calm, dignity and strength he is now loved for he replied: “What is more important than results is holding our head up high in the face of God, our nation and history.” Tomorrow arrived and the days that followed only became more difficult to endure. Though they have endured endless suffering, defamation and slander, like you they have remained steadfast and proud in the eyes of God, our nation and history. This is our only hope, our only wish….
The Iranian people are now into their twentieth month of witnessing the steady consolidation of power by the theofascists in charge of their government. The very recent disappearances of Green leaders is merely another descending step on the country’s downward spiral toward totalitarianism. Dante’s descending nine rings of hell seem instructive.
The theofascism in Iran has already passed determinism, monism, authoritarianism, and now, with the removal of the most viable political opposition, the regime approaches absolutism. Totalitarianism beckons, like a Siren calling passing ships to their ruin.
It’s a sad letter from two loving daughters. But their heart-felt sorrow is not going to slow down the consolidation of power in Iran. The next presidential elections in Iran are scheduled for June, 2013, and how many unimprisoned, un-’disappeared’ or otherwise non-demonized Green leaders will be left by then to compete in what are certain to be rigged elections? The women call upon Allah’s compassion and mercy, but the steadily-crushing consolidation of theofascism in Iran continues. With the Greens gone, perhaps only Rafsanjani remains as a potential check on the downward spiral of theofascist absolutism into totalitarianism.
Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton were caught in the “stability” corner of their own making regarding Egypt and Tunisia. It is so unfortunate, like the daughters’ plaintive cries, that our national leadership are so ineffective at first putting a halt to the growth of a new 21C totalitarianism, and then failing to ally with the Iranian people to help them restore their desired religious democracy.
Only this Michael,thanks for letter.
We live in a brave new world of news and communication, where anyone and everyone is essentially free to publish. Vital information can not be ignored. It can not be bottled up or contained. Yet today, as in the past, the only Western outlet for the unfolding, real-time events in Iran seems to be the blog of one Michael Ledeen. Not the Washington Post, WSJ, NYTimes, or BBC. It isn’t merely that he alone breaks news; it is that time and again he breaks it and no other source picks it up. Is this letter not of interest to the audiences of these high-budget, comprehensive news organizations? Is it not of paramount importance to the entire world? Why do I have to come to this web site to become informed? (Not that I mind, of course.)
I am often befuddled at the willful ignorance of the news media when it comes to Iran. At times, I imagine that Dr. Ledeen must be apoplectic.
And I wonder … Given that this is the only Western outlet for such news, how many thousands and thousands (millions?) of Iranians worldwide come to this site for vital information? This must be something that on some crude level Pajamas Media can track …
not apopletic at all. i’m just grateful for the chance to publish regularly at such a terrific site.
I can only imagine what the daughters are going through.
We are starting to understand a bit more personally the fear and despair of increasingly autocratic government, the difficulties of changing the path of a government with the bit between its teeth.
The Iranians are much farther down this road. From where I sit, their options appear reduced to fearfully tolerating repression increasing to the ultimate, or horrifically bloody rebellion.
Mr. Ledeen,
where is a place where i can send you questions so i do not risk going off topic on your pj blog too much?
or do you mind?
(i have an italy related question and you are one of the only straight shooter when it comes to the ever more bizare topic of italian political history in the cold war)
keep up the good work, sir. it drives my professors crazy when i site this blog, so you must be doing something right
you can send emails to mledeen@defenddemocracy.org
tell your profs i do guest lectures, heh…
A brief follow-up to the prior comment:
Rafsanjani has just been removed from his leadership of the Assembly of Experts, the critically important, pivotal organization that the theofascists in Iran have used successfully since 2000 to push back against any reformers being elected or holding office in Iran. The theofascists never would have moved against a man as powerful and influential as Rafsanjani unless the Greens’ leadership was believed to have been successfully removed from any future role in Iranian politics.
Now, the daughters’ concerns for their absent father can only be even greater.
Has Obama or the State Department mentioned anything about this?