An Iranian Icon on Today's Protests

What are the demands of the protesters now? What were they 10 years ago?

As the protesters themselves say, “Where is my vote?” But of course this is more than just about an election. It is about all the many ways in which the regime has failed them over the last 30 years. It is about the things that the regime has failed to provide: a secular government, human rights, women’s rights, etc.

This coup has changed everything…It’s like the reform movement progressed 20 years in a single day!

Ten years ago, the students demonstrated because their rights had been violated. Today, the issue at stake is a lot bigger. The government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has perpetrated a coup d’etat. For two decades we tried to make the young people, who make up some 70 percent of the population, aware of the real nature of this government. Yet people still maintained a level of trust in the regime. But this coup has changed everything. The government has shown its true face to the people and the people have lost all trust in the government. In a sense, the government did the reformers’ job for them. Even if we had another 20 years we could not have revealed the true nature of this regime in the way that the regime itself did in 24 hours. It’s like the reform movement progressed 20 years in a single day! Now everyone knows the truth behind this regime.

Has the regime changed over the last decade, since the events of 18 Tir?

The government of Iran has gone through a 30-year evolution. The first decade of the Islamic republic was all war and economic turmoil and foreign intervention. There was no time for people to think of such things as freedom and liberty.

After the war, Hashemi Rafsanjani rose to power [as president from 1989 to 1997]. At that time, people were mostly concerned about the economy and with rebuilding the country after eight years of war with Iraq.

In the 1990s, when the social and economic problems began to get better, people suddenly started thinking more about freedom. Even the people who were in the government 10 years earlier began to call for greater freedoms. These were the reformists, and they became very active during the Khatami presidency [1997-2005].

With Khatami, the country opened up a bit. People started to change. More newspapers popped up and stayed open despite their criticism of the regime. Books that had been banned before were now published. Films that could not have been made before were released. The first four years of Khatami’s presidency [1997-2001], Iranian society flourished. There was a huge push for greater freedoms. And the government—well, I should say the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guard—realized that if they did not curb the growing power of the people, they would never again be able to contain them. So the Revolutionary Guard became more active in politics and in society. They took control over the courts, the military, and the offices of government. They then used those positions to help Ahmadinejad defeat Rafsanjani [who ran again] in 2005 and become president.

With the backing of the Revolutionary Guard, Ahmadinejad spent the next four years erasing every gain that we had built up during the previous eight years. They imprisoned people and shut down newspapers. They created a closed society.

You spent 10 years as political prisoner so you know what some of the recently arrested protesters and journalists are going through.

I still have nightmares of the torture I endured in prison. I have dreams that I have to return to Iran to help someone, a friend. And I end up getting arrested again. The nightmares have doubled recently, as I see the images of protesters being beaten and arrested.

I learned a lot in prison: how not to be bothered; how to get out sooner. Ironically, I also learned how not to get arrested. Or, rather, how to protest without getting arrested, which is something I wish I could share with the protesters on the streets today. However, I speak with them very little because if I get too close, they will be arrested. The regime is already searching for my brother.

For example, in Iran, when they arrest someone, they often say, “Sign this piece of paper and we will let you go.” But you find out later that paper you signed was not a release form but a confession. Or they take you to the interrogation room and say that your parents have died, and unless you appear on television and confess to receiving money from foreign powers, they will not allow them to be buried.