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Dear Mr. Seyed Ali Khamenei,
Your statements today directs all of the events of the recent days towards yourself. On the other hand yesterday it was reported that Mrs. Rajai, wife of the martyred president Mohmmad Ali Rajai [killed in a terrorist attack in the first few years of the revolution], the prime minister and later president that was loved and approved by ayatollah Khomeini, was arrested in the shrine of Lady Masoumeh [in Qom] because she had, like millions of other Iranians, protested against the oppression and injustice imposed upon this nation, and the government functioning under your supervision could not even tolerate her voice. The right of ayatollah Khomeini’s beloved prime minister and the prime minister of your own government [Mousavi was prime minister when Khamenei was president] has, based on many documents and lots of evidence, been violated in a glorious and unique election, and you have rushed to put your approval upon such an enormous lie, even before the old men appointed by yourself [the guardian council] officially validated it. By doing this you have not only acted against what the law requires you to, but also undermined your "justice", which is one of the most basic characteristics of a vali-e-faghih [the official name of the position of the supreme leader in Iran, based on a theory by ayatollah Khomeini]. Aside from all of this, a more important question arises here, do you know what you are doing? Do you know where you are going?
Mr. Khamenei!
I am known as a famous Iranian writer, some may also add the adjective "good" to this description. One of them is a dignified cleric who told me seven years ago, after my release from prison: "Agha [referring to Khamenei] told me you and [...] are good writers, why don’t you write?". This was when I had just been released from prison because of what I had written, and my life was destroyed because I had chosen to preserve the sanctity of the "pen" upon which God had sworn [referring to the Quran] and which your judge had violated. Then I still believed that my pen could have more effect than just bringing a smile to people’s faces, I had read the fascinating poetic account of AbdolFattah AbdolMaghsoud of the life of Ali-ibn-AbiTaleb [first Imam of the Shias] and intended to spend three or four years of my life writing an account of Imam Hossein’s [the third Imama of the Shia’s who was killed in an epic tragic battle and is a symbol of heroic persistence on what you believed in and martyrdom] life.
A non-believer like me was not the only one to temptation to write about this grand character, but many from my tribe have experienced this urge. From AbdolFattah AbdolMaghsoud himself to many other famous Persian and Arab writers and poets, even the great contemporary Iranian writer Gholamhossein Saedi [who was a Marxist] also wanted to write a version of the "maghtal" [the final scene where the Imam is beheaded]. More than being religiously inclined, we were all bewildered souls that had a love tangled with affection and wrath for God, not like your companions whose relationship with God is only that of a servant. As that "pir" [wise old mentor in Islamic mystic tradition] says, I was not an obedient servant, and my path to heaven did not cross the humiliation of others, but I knew where the sun was and I knew the meaning of "words" very well, and I knew that someone can be a narrator of the east only if the sun of love has risen in his heart, not those whose souls are occupied by darkness and whose words vanish when they start to speak. But that never, never, never happened. The prosecutors and executioners of the dark system made me flee because I coul not bear the awful prison and heavy toll any more. Now I am stuck these monsters, but you see, they are still more dignified than those street bandits with their sticks and boots.
Anyway, I don’t intend to tell my story, it was only an excuse to remind you who it is that is talking to you. You had also done something a few years ago which made me angry, and I wrote something that put me into trouble and as they say left you with a grudge. They also say that your grudges are very tough and once you have one against someone, it persists. I guess when I heard of what is going on these days and saw it’s reflection in all the media, I should have bit my lip and stayed quiet and chosen the path of silence ... but it seems like this time things are so out of hand that silence would be meaningless, when three million people suppress their hatred towards injustice and oppression in their hearts all the way from Enghelab [revolution] to Azadi [freedom] [square], and only express their stolen victory with a gesture of two fingers.
You were not to spill blood, which you did, you were to keep the boundaries, which you did not, and you were to preserve respect, which you violated, you trampled the right of a whole nation with utmost inequity and total injustice. You trampled over the right of millions of people so the city’s famous liar could call a great and dignified nation "dust and twigs", he who was an obedient slave that you bought at the price of selling all the elders of the tribe. I am not talking about your rationality, your justice, your dignity, your wisdom, your intelligence, your ability to distinguish what is best, let’s forget about these, I just want to ask: why couldn’t you calculate the price correctly?
It is said that everything has a price, and that whatever you get, you have to pay its price. Didn’t you consider the value of what you were attaining before paying so much for it? How much did you pay for this servant of yours who is worth nothing in the tricky market of lies and deception? At the price of breaking the head, cutting the tongue and injuring the body of your own nation? At the price of those of a dignified nation and free people that only wanted the rights that you had promised them being killed? At the price of curses, bitter words and ill-wishes of millions of people who walk in silence in fright of the heavy-booted militia, rootless bearded armed thugs, and riot police, who say nothing so you may have a chance to think of what you’ve done?
You bought this slave at the price of millions whose rights you have violated cruelly shouting "Allah-u Akbar" in the heart of darkness? You have let this unmannered incapable person attack people like a wild creature, loosening the dogs and shaking the foundations of your own establishment, and put the head of your Expediency Council under house arrest? You should have at least had some respect for Hashemi because he was your neighbor for twenty years or so and a friend for more than forty, do you really need no friends anymore? I’ve heard that you’ve said that those who take to the streets are responsible for their own lives, why is that? Are the streets of this countty the personal property of your late father? Don’t people have the right to defend their rights in the streets of our cities?
Mr. Khamenei!
You do believe in the day of judgment! I’m not talking about the Armageddon that has started now in Tehran, but you do believe in a judgment day in the next world, don’t you? I don’t want you to believe that there will be a day when the secrets of a stupid lie that nobody has believed will be revealed, but you do believe in "the day all secrets will be revealed" [phrase from the Quran], don’t you? How are you going to meet your teacher and mentor [ayatollah Khomeini] in that judgment day that you believe in and tell him that you have rejected all of his family? And that you have put everyone who he considered an "insider" outside of your circle of insiders? How are you going to tell him that in your just reign, you imprisoned Rajai’s wife, he who had been the most favorite government official in the eyes of the ayatollah? That you denied the right of an honest man like Mousavi and put a toady liar in his place?
How will you confront him and say that they called one of his most trustworthy companions, Hashemi Rafsanjani, a thief in front of your eyes and banned his children from leaving the country, and not only did you say nothing, but it made you happy? How will you tell the commanders that were martyred while fighting to defend their country in the [Iran-Iraq] war that you betrayed their families, who they had trusted you in leaving with you, and preferred a bunch of hypocrites and liars? How will you tell ayatollah Khomeini that you put pressure on the best of his students and preferred a bunch of power-thirsty clerics to them, just because they liked you? I guess there will be a time before that day when you can answer these questions. You may ask why someone like me who believes in nothing is worried about you? No, I’m not worried about you, I just want to say that things will not come to an end so easily. There is nothing left of those who ruled over the [ancient] Madain throne, what do you think you can do with your Pastor street building?
Mr. Khamenei!
These days there are voices in the city. Hear them. Thirty years ago a man ruled this country who heard the voice of this people when it was too late. When he heard it he promised that the next elections would be free and fair, but it was too late. His fate was such that he was wandering around, unable to find a place to be buried in this world that is full of graveyards. Albeit we and you acted such that some are constantly praying for his soul, and repenting a hundred times what they did to him. But there is not always time. Sometimes it happens before you expect it [referring to a poem by Forough Farrokhzad]. When the hurricane comes, everything will be destroyed. I don’t care if the regime changes, what I worry is about the blood that will be shed, although blood has already been spilled on the streets. Beware of the consequences of opression.
People would not tolerate oppression, if you burn them their flames will rise into the air, if you beat them their screams will, if you pressure them from above they will flow like a river, and then it will be such that no one can do anything. It is not right to rule unjustly. Maybe it would be good that I add, and do not forget this, that your center of governance is not a sanctuary, and it would not last forever, it is not well respected as a sanctuary that people will still respect its boundaries when your soldiers attack them with their swords. The Islamic Republic has been through a lot, do not think that people will tolerate and be tame no matter how much they are oppressed. In the elections out of the hundred highest ranking officials of this very establishment, at least seventy of them backed Mir Hossein Mousavi and hardly twenty of them supported Ahmadinejad, people voted for Mousavi. By approving the great farce of an election, you have eliminated seventy percent of your own establishment. Beware that any command you may issue, many of those close to you may even not obey.
Mr. Khamenei!
What happened in the election was not only a big lie, a lie so great and derogatory that approving it is easier than rejecting it. What made the people angry and brought them to the streets was the president’s outrageous shamelessness and bawdiness in rejecting all obvious facts in front of the television cameras. He not only disregarded their intelligence, but their understanding of simple arithmetic. What outraged them was that he attempted at buying the vote and minds of people at such a small cost. What made them angry was that he lied about what people had seen with their own eyes and told them that what they had seen had not actually happened. What happened in the elections was not a matter of rigging the votes, but a case of not counting them at all. What has made people angry is that the president has called millions of those who oppose him "dust and twigs". Mr. Khamenei, we are not dust and twigs, we are humans.
On the other hand, in these elections, fire was opened on people in the streets after 28 years. Police [note: they were not actually police, but militia forces] killed protesters that only wanted their lawful rights after they had marched peacefully in silence in the streets for four hours. Unfortunately the government has had enough money from the oil revenues in these four years to organize all former bandits and thugs as plain-clothes forces, and they are the ones attacking people with batons and knives in the streets these days.
The sanctuary and respect of the war martyrs was also violated in this election, those who people respect because they have guarded their country by sacrificing themselves. So was the sanctuary of the clerics and "maraje’" [grand ayatollahs], we need to guard this respect because there should always be a house to seek refuge to from oppression. In the course of these elections, 26 years out of the thirty years of the life of the Islamic Republic was undermined, and all its leaders except for yourself were insulted. History does not remember an establishment that has been so hostile towards itself, just because it cannot stand someone else to be elected. Dear sir! What has been disrespected is too huge to ignore. But most importantly, by disrespecting the clerics, the universities, the people, the parliament, the revolution and the Islamic Republic, you have disrespected yourself, was the continuation of Ahmadinejad’s government worth all of this? Up to where are you willing to back such an incapable government that is being cursed every day by millions?
Mr. Khamenei!
Many of the commanders of the war are great men who will not accept such a huge lie, they are not like the roughnecked bullies and riot police that attack people like wild dogs. I assure you that in a time that will not be so far from now, they will stand on the people’s side. Those who have sacrificed parts of their bodies to guard these people shall not confront them. The government employees are also not obedient servants of the president, do not even count on those working at your Intelligence Ministry, they will also not back such a big lie. And most importantly are these people who have now learned what they can do in the streets. These people will not be intimidated by anything any more.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, you have restricted all media access, closing all of the information paths such that only the voice of the people can be heard. No other voice can be heard any more, not the voice of America, not the voice of England, not the voice of Israel, only the sound of the noise inflicted by the government on these channels can be heard. But the people’s voice can be heard, it is loud, up to the heavens, what should they do to get themselves heard? They shout slogans, don’t you hear it? Three million people have spoken with silence and the victory gesture of their fingers, don’t you hear it? They say it on the posters they hold in their hands, can’t you read them? They have written it on the walls in the city, don’t you see it? Don’t you hear them shouting "Allah-u Akbar" [God is great] and "down with dictator" every night on the roofs? How should they express themselves to be heard? They want their right, they have voted for a man who was the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic for a year, the prime minister for eight years and part of the high levels of the establishment ever since, with utmost joy and are now ready to defend their votes with their lives. They have given martyrs for the sake of justice. Don’t you see?
What you have to do is very simple. You should give them back their rights. That is what any dignified person would defend. You should nullify the elections so they would have the chance to choose freely. This is what the people want. If you do not give it to them, then you might have to give them much more. The people of Iran have been angered by your speech in the Friday prayers, but they will not act ungracefully, they will continue their massive peaceful protests. They will get their right without hatred and anger. Mr. Khamenei! The great people of Iran are more powerful than you suspect, They have taken to the streets, they will stay there and get their tight back and they will put you in your place.
There are many graveyards in the world were men of politics who have spoken word similar to yours lie. They had forgot one thing, that death will also conquer the powerful. Hitler, Slatin, Pol Pot, Lenin, the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini all died, and so will you eventually. When a great man dies there are two reactions in the masses, some of them mourn the loss of the great man, and some send him an eternal curse. Dear sir! Take your words back before death has taken over you and you have been left with that eternal curse. Let yourself remain the ordinary Khamenei, the one that is known to people as a powerless figure, full of grudges and without a powerful stance, a weak leader that could probably be tolerated. But if you are tempted to act like someone who is greater than you, and issue commands for killings, we will not believe you, that is not your job brother. And furthermore, our people are not that cowardly, they will not be intimidated. The people are standing and if you plant wind, you shall plow a storm.
Ebrahim Nabavi
June 19, 2009
(Khordad 29, 1388)
