Letter to Ayatollah Montazeri

Akbar Ganji, FreeGanji: This is Ganji's third letter from prison, on the 42nd day of his hunger strike. The letter is addressed to the leading dissident Iranian Ayatollah, Montazeri. Montazeri has been under house arrest for many years and is a major critic of the present regime.

Parrots of sugar-sweet words and pleasant songs we were
By you turned into birds that do naught but on death ponder

Freethinking clergy, fighter for justice and supporter of the oppressed
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri,

Your kind letter on 16 July sent fresh blood in my bloodless veins once more. For many years you have become the symbol of courage and resistance against the tyrants in my eyes and I have always wanted to learn courage from you.

After the widespread executions of the [political] prisoners in the summer of 1988 and the general silence against this crime against humanity, you were the only one who stood up against it; everybody else seems to have forgotten that remaining silent against crime, shares equally in that crime. Afterwards, when they kept you prisoner in your own house, you still defended all political prisoners regardless of their different beliefs and view and you were and still are a serious patron of their families. Your courage and consistency is such that even your serious enemies have had to acknowledge it many times. READ MORE

Although you were one of the main writers of the constitution [of the Islamic Republic] and one of the theoreticians of the theory of the rule of the jurisprudent, you realized very early that the main problem is because of this very theory. This theory, once it descends from the abstract world to our earth and becomes reality, shows its true inhuman face. You tried to reduce the rule of the jurisprudent to the “supervision” of the jurisprudent so that the stagnation of the Islamic Republic might be resolved; but Iran’s problem can only be resolved through the decline of the concept of the rule of the jurisprudent and its instance.

Me and my dear friend Mr. Hajjarian consider the sultanist system to be the most central problem of the Iranian political arena. Mr. Hajjarian published a long article prior to 22 May 1997 in the magazine “Etela’at-e Siasi-Eghtesadi” (Political-Economic Ettela’at monthly) about the sultanist system and the methods of transition from it to a democratic system. Hajjarian wants to reduce the power of the sultan and to turn him into a figure like that of the Queen of England [in the British political system]. But I say we don’t need any king or queen. The issue in dispute is the choice between constitutionalism and republicanism. In my view, civil disobedience is the most important tactic in the transition from sultanism to democracy. Saeed Hajjarian has coined the term “pressure from below” for civil disobedience. He wants to reduce the power of the sultan (the leader) through pressure from below.

"Non-cooperation" with the personal ruler, is another tactic on which I have stressed. Here me and Hajjarian are on the same side. The day after Abdollah Nouri was imprisoned in Evin, we held a meeting with the late Dr. Nouri [Note: a different person] in the office of the daily paper "Sobh-e Emrooz" about the question “What should be done". It was decided that Dr. Nouri should tell Mr. Nouri to give back the leader's decree by resigning from his seat in the Expediency Council, since someone who is convicted of propagandizing against the system is obviously not qualified to decide the expediency of the system.

This is an example of the above mentioned non-cooperation with the personal ruler. Mr. Karroubi followed the same tactic after the present election, when he resigned from his position as an advisor to the ruler and his seat in the Expediency Council. All the rulings of the sultan are devoid of any legitimacy and for the transition to democracy we must choose the path of non-cooperation with the tyrant.

As far as Mr. Khatami is concerned it is clear that after August 3 [when his second and last term as President finishes] Mr. Khamenei [the Leader] will appoint him as a member of the Expediency Council, and the High Council of the Cultural Revolution as well as an advisor to the Leader. Mr Khatami lacks the courage of Mr. Karroubi, so he is going to accept the decree and take part in the sessions [of these assemblies]. But he will gradually participate less and less until he won’t participate at all, ie what Mr. Mirhosseyn Mousavi and Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha have done before him; but the transparent non-participation is something else altogether.

Doesn't Mr. Khatami know how Mr. Khamenei used him to hold the illegitimate seventh Majlis and the [ninth] presidential elections in order to unify the government, and forced him to declare both elections clean and democratic? Mr. Khatami knows what a fair and free election is. Nevertheless, he calls Mr. Khamenei's life-time rule democratic and introduces him as the role model for the youth.

In my opinion, our [intellectual] elite are more than any other time familiar with the culture of democracy. The pioneers of democracy and those who developed the democratic process in undemocratic societies never consisted of as many philosophers and theoreticians as does our elite today. Our problem is not "lack of knowledge on democracy", but not being ready to pay the price. Democracy needs men of action, women of courage, and resilient youth. Self-sacrifice and selflessness open the way to freedom and human rights, not just a knowledge of modern culture. We should get to know modernity and modern society, and to build a bridge between our knowledge with our actions in order to set up a democracy.

You know well why there was an attempt on Hajjarian's life that forced him to sit in the wheelchair and why Ganji was imprisoned and became a death-pondering bird. Why Mohsen Kadivar and Abdollah Nouri were jailed for 18 months and 3 respectively. Mohsen Kadivar has been showing for years that the theory of the Rule (or Guardianship) of the Jurisprudent is baseless and shaky, and Mr. Nouri stood up to the person of jurisprudent. In fact, Mr. Khamenei has so occupied the whole place that wherever one steps, his space is trespassed and wherever a hand is laid, it will come into contact with him.

Esteemed Ayatollah!

You are well aware that the world of politics is different from the world of poetry. Ambiguity and equivocation are in the nature of poetry, but clarity and frankness are natural to the arena of democratic politics. So, Mr. Khomeini frankly said: "Shah must go!" Now we must say with perfect clarity and frankness: "Mr. Khamenei must go!" Why? Since based on Mr. Khomeini's theory, Mr. Khamenei is now automatically removed from Leadership. Mr. Khomeini says: "Any individual from the people of a nation has the right to directly question, in the public, the ruler of the muslims and the ruler has to give a convincing answer; otherwise, if he, ie. the ruler, has acted against his Islamic duties, he is automatically removed from the office of the ruler." (Ayatollah Khomeini, Sahife-i Nur, vol. 4, p. 190)

In the past years, Mr. Khamenei has been repeatedly questioned by different people, but he has not only, not answered their questions, but has oppressed his questioners with force. According to Mr. Khomeini's thinking, Mr. Khamenei is not the ruler of the Islamic Republic of Iran any longer and has been removed from his office.

Eminent Jurist!

For this opinion I have so far endured more than 2000 days in jail in the period of Leadership of Mr. Khamenei. But now the media arm of the chain murders [project] [ie. Hardliner outlets like Keyhan newspaper etc.] talks about the project of Ganji's death, that is they are after killing me. Sunday night, July 17, 2005, Saeed Mortazavi came to visit me and said, my death is 100% in the interest of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but if you die and the foreigners make noise, it is a 50% loss for the system. We brought you to the prison to decrease the level of loss. Death in hospital is natural. He said he would deny it if I reveal his words. On the other hand, Martazavi has told one of the minsters that Ganji's wife has coerced him into the hunger strike with foul language. In an interview on Monday July 18, 2005 he claimed: "Those friends who are advising him to end his hunger strike, in our intelligence, are his main patrons in unconventional activities." Your excellency, Dr. Soroush, Mr. Hajjarian, Mr. Kadivar and other friends have advised me in the media to break my hunger strike, but Tehran's prosecutor claims these dears are encouraging me to continue my hunger strike.

The issue is clear: they want to kill me and blame it on my wife and friends. But they must know that Ganji is not Zahra Kazemi. If Ganji dies in any way, his murderer is Mr. Khamenei. Mr. Khamenei may get rid of Ganji by activating Saeed Mortazavi and the media arm of the chain murders, but he cannot deny his responsibility for my murder. If Ganji is killed, his death is not the death of freedom, democracy and human rights. Ganji's death could be as water in the desert and irrigate the sprouts of freedom.

Akbar Ganji
Friday July 22, 2005
Forty-second day of hunger strike

While I suport Ganji in his quest for freedom, human rights, and real democracy in Iran I do not support reformists like Mr. Hajjarian. To learn more about him and the reformist movement, read this.