Thank you letter to Ayatollah Montazeri (2 September 2009)

Your Excellency Grand Ayatollah Montazeri

Hello,

I would like to extend my admiration and respect for you. I hope God accepts your religious obligations and prayers during this holy month [of Ramadan].  I pray to God for a healthy and honorable life for you.

Following the tenth presidential election and after the aggressive attacks against me, you showed kindness to your humble servant by writing letters of support. You expressed your disappointment in the current situation in your letters and speeches. I apologize for my delayed response, but in this letter I would like to thank you and show my appreciation.

The violent behavior and insults against me and other individuals are not that important. Unfortunately, we have observed our values and standards [as a society] neglected or deliberately trampled on. During the past fifty years, thousands of individuals have spent their lives, youths, health, and financial and intellectual assets reviving and preserving these values. The constitution is an invaluable inheritance. Countless experts, pious individuals, and free men formed and ratified this document after painstaking work. After enduring pain and torture during the oppressive Pahlavi era, they ratified the constitution with Imam Khomeini’s approval and with hundreds of hopes and dreams. Now, the most important articles of this document are being selectively ignored. While some articles are viewed as important as Quranic verses, others are just as easily disregarded. The disregarded articles contain the most basic rights for the people. They guarantee their social and individual rights and provide a safety net to prevent society from falling into a dictatorship and becoming despotic. We have witnessed the delegitimization of the electoral process because of the government’s interference. Free and fair elections are now meaningless. Independent actors [they are supposedly not affiliated with the government] easily violate the rights of political parties and print media. Illegal imprisonments and unconstitutional trials occur commonly.  Most horrifying of all are the attacks, killings, beatings, and torture against our young men and women, which take place under the banner of “protecting security.” These young men and women felt they could freely vote for anyone. The same officials who are now committing these crimes ignited this feeling of responsibility and hope in them. They [the young people] witnessed how the announced election results were against legal procedures and how election officials directly interfered with their votes. They came back to the political scene and offered their protests peacefully, and even without any chants or slogans. We witnessed how they were attacked.

It is more difficult to endure the aforementioned realties than facing the trouble created for individuals. Individuals are faced with physical attacks, insults, and slander for deciding to defend the rights of the people.

I hope the glorious God provides all of our officials with a sense of responsibility, trust towards the people, open-mindedness, just governance, and respect for Islamic values and laws. I hope God provides all social classes, especially the respected clerics of the seminary, with a sense of responsibility and the power to confront lawlessness and outlaws.

Mehdi Karroubi

2 September 2009