Iran Politicians Racing For Elections While Protesters Want Regime Change

Following an ambivalent speech by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier this week, stopping short of clearly setting out a policy regarding the enforcement of hijab, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Qalibaf) criticized the police over their harsh treatment of women with loose hijab.

Describing hijab as the inevitable duty for all Muslim women, at the same time Khamenei had emphasized that no Iranian woman should be labeled as non-religious or anti-revolutionary if she fails to fully honor the Islamic dress code.

During a TV program that aired January 5, Ghalibaf said "What right do we have to say that we don't let a woman ride the subway when she is not wearing hijab properly?"

Describing the issue as polarizing, he said that both extremes of no Islamic dress code and harassing women for hijab “benefit the enemies.”

Signaling a sign of retreat, Ahmad Alamolhoda, a senior firebrand cleric who is President Ebrahim Raisi's father-in-law, said earlier in the week that people cannot be forced to adopt the culture of wearing hijab. It is certain that police measures will not do job because it is not possible to teach people what is right just by harsh and negative actions, he said, noting that it is not possible to make hijab a culture with threats and arrests, there should be a clear and comprehensive plan for that.

Last year in March, the staunch hardliner had urged people to reproach women with poorly-fitting hijab to stop “debauchery.” “If a woman in the street removes her headscarf, she must face the complaints of the people to see that she has no place…In such a case, you can be sure that she will wear even two scarves."

The hardliner cleric's apparent retreat from his harsh position seemed to come after Khamenei sounded a bit more lenient about those who are not observing hijab according to the ideals of the regime.

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It was forcible enforcement of hijab in the streets that triggered popular protests in September -- the boldest challenge the Islamic Republic has ever faced.

The Islamic Republic faces a dilemma: Allowing people to wear whatever they desire in public means the utmost failure of the regime's ideology, while enforcing hijab with strict punitive measures can only lead to further resentment in society. Now, the three branches of the Islamic Republic’s government are mulling over new methods to enforce hijab.

Reformist Shargh Daily said Thursday that new measures include banning those who unveil from leaving the country, imposing fines, denying employment, and community service as well as restrictions on using public services.

Apparently, these are parts of the measures that the parliament is considering for hijab enforcement.

On January 1, Fars news agency, affiliated with the hardliners and the IRGC, cited an unnamed police source as saying that a new phase of a plan to enforce hijab has started across the country. The news agency also confirmed reports that many people had received warnings via SMS about removing hijab in their cars.

Defending the decision, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told Rouydad24 website Friday that “Observance of hijab is a legal issue and one of our religious values. Most of our women also observe this issue.”

A lawmaker said in December that the regime is making some decisions about hijab rules, explaining that the methods for enforcing hijab may change. He added “it is possible that women who do not observe hijab would be informed via SMS, asking them to respect the law. After notifying them, we enter the warning stage... and last, the bank account of the person who unveiled may be blocked."

On Saturday, Khamenei appointed Ahmadreza Radan, an IRGC officer who was transferred to police forces many years ago, as the country's new Commander-in-chief of Law Enforcement Force replacing Hossein Ashtari.

Sources had earlier told Iran International that Khamenei had "harshly scolded" Ashtari over his "incompetence" in quelling anti-regime protests.

Radan served as a deputy police chief from 2008 to 2014 and played a key role in the crackdown on protesters after the disputed 2009 presidential elections and in the formation of “morality police”.

Radan was heading the Center for Strategic Studies of the Law Enforcement Force.

He has been designated by the United States as a person who is, "among other things, responsible for or complicit in, or responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, the commission of serious human rights abuses against citizens of Iran or their family members."

In 2007, Ahmad-Reza Radan launched a "Public Security Plan". The police arrested dozens of alleged criminals for what it called “increasing public security”. The people were sometimes beaten on camera in front of city inhabitants.

In his Saturday decree, Khamenei urged Radan to ensure that people are satisfied with the police's performance in providing security, a rhetoric indicating security for the regime amid protests.

Anonymous and other global hacking groups threatened in October to launch cyberattacks on Iranian institutions and officials in support of anti-government protests and to bypass internet censorship there.

Several hackings did take place and a throve of government secrets have been put online by hactivist groups since October. The most notable were secret briefing files stolen from Fars news agency that reveled texts of secret briefings for senior officials.

Amir Mohammadzadeh Lajevardi, head of the Infrastructure Communications Company, said the central bank was targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Thursday night, the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

DDoS attacks attempt to cripple servers by overwhelming them with internet traffic.

"These days, the largest volume of foreign attacks is against banks and financial institutions, internet providers and communications infrastructures, which have been repelled," Lajevardi said. IRNA gave no further details.

The central bank said in September that a cyberattack briefly took its website offline.

Internet access has been severely limited in Iran since widespread protests erupted over the death in mid-September of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of the morality police over enforcement of mandatory dress code laws.

A senior ayatollah separately agreed with Hashemi that clerics have lost influence and the government has been doing a lousy job both in foreign policy and in domestic affairs.

Hashemi expressed regret in an interview with Jomhuouri Eslami newspaper, which was also carried by many other Iranian news outlets, that one of the country's current problems is that there are no charismatic leaders.

Hashemi, a former chairman of the Tehran City Council, said in the interview that people’s financial situation is "more than critical" as inflation and unemployment have reached an explosive level. He added that in such a situation tackling economic problems should have been the government's first priority.

Hashemi reminded that his father's "reconstruction government" (1989-1997) recognized poverty as Iran's biggest enemy and prioritized economic progress over the ideological campaigns against the United States and Israel and attached high significance to people's food, housing, health and education.

He further pointed out that with the concentration of power in the hands of Iran’s conservatives and the elimination of ‘moderates’ and ‘reformists’ from the political scene in the 2020 parliamentary election and 2021 presidential election, Iran is entangled in political deadlock. Conservatives control not only the parliament and the cabinet, but also the state media, the armed forces, the Guardian Council, and all other political institutions.

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"In such a monopolized situation, the conservatives cannot even blame others for the problems they have created for the country.” They can no longer blame others and “ there is no way out of the situation as no alternative approach has been left," Hashemi said, adding that "In such a situation neither progress is possible, nor a U-turn is acceptable for the 'revolutionaries' in Iran."

Hashemi also pointed out that an unprecedented consensus has been formed in the international community against the Islamic Republic because of mistakes by the ultraconservative government in foreign policy. When foreigners talk about intervention in Iran, we see no serious opposition to that in Western public opinion. He said that no UN resolution has been ever issued about Iraq, Libya and Syria like the resolution that called for a fact-finding committee to probe into the violation of human rights in the Islamic Republic.

The UN Human Rights Council voted November 24 to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, that has killed around 500 civilians.

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He quoted Iranian academics as saying that the Islamic Republic is suffering from a bipolar political situation and a state of near collapse in which neither politicians nor clerics have any influence or control over the society.

At the same time, Ayatollah Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, a former Attorney General, said Wednesday that top clerics have lost their status as a point of reference for the Iranian society. Tabrizi also harshly criticized the government's economic and foreign policies.

He said: "I wish at least there were a group of economists in the government who did nothing other than sort out the economic issues, but it is not clear who in Iran is responsible for solving the country's economic problems."

Speaking on foreign policy, Tabrizi talked about an issue for which solely Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is responsible. He said: "Trusting the Russians brings losses to us. Russians betray Iran and take advantage of us. They pretend to be Iran's friend, but they keep blackmailing Tehran." Tabrizi pointed out: "We need to correct our foreign policy, otherwise, the Russians will plunder our resources and at the end serve other countries' interests."

Fathollahi, a commander of Basij militia unit in one of the neighborhoods of the capital Tehran, was killed Tuesday outside his home after being shot four times by a gunman who fled the scene on a motorcycle. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital near his place of residence. 

He was the commander of the basij base of a mosque in Khani Abad in Tehran, District 12 downtown Tehran. 

Initial reports suggested that he was killed by the people opposed the clerical regime, but later sources close to the IRGC claimed that he was killed during a robbery. On Thursday, sources told Iran International that he was shot dead by IRGC intelligence agents due to his leniency towards protesters. 

According to our sources, the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC had become suspicious of Fatollahi in the past few weeks and had been monitoring him. The sources said that he refused to confront the demonstrators and suppress them during the protests in the area. The regime uses the Basij paramilitary militia extensively against demonstrators. They are hated by many citizens for acting as mercenaries who are willing to use violence indiscriminately against civilians.

Investigating his conduct, IRGC’s intelligence found out that he was not alone and was in contact with a group of the disgruntled members of security forces who tried to refrain from using deadly violence against protesters, including opening fire at them.

According to Iran International's sources, the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Organization is worried about the growing number of security forces who refuse to confront the protesters and has taken measures to deal with this trend. 

He was apparently using a PlayStation device to keep in touch with a network of protesters. The assailant or someone who reportedly accompanied him took this PlayStation device too.

In the past months, there have been several reports that protesters in different cities have been using private chat rooms available in online games on Sony’s PlayStation network to coordinate street demonstrations. The number of games available on PlayStation is countless, and this issue makes it impossible to track and monitor their conversations.

It is not yet clear whether Fathollahi’s killing was a pre-meditated, deliberate full-fledged hit operation or only a collateral incident during the attempt to seize the PlayStation and arrest him. 

Earlier in June, Iran International’s sources said that a commander of IRGC Quds Force unit 840 -- Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, who died under suspicious circumstances in Karaj on May 30, was an inside job. Esmailzadeh died when he fell from the roof of his home in Jahan Nama area of Karaj. 

He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike.