The president of the Islamic Republic, a religious from the ultra-conservative wing sponsored by Khamenei, blames the US and Israel for the incidents in the country after the death of young Amini and is cracking down to please the most reactionary sectors
Many Iranians and human rights activists welcomed the 2021 election victory of Ebrahim Raisi (Mashad, 1960) and recalled his role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s. Three decades after those events, the ultra-conservative cleric is at the forefront of the regime as president of the Islamic Republic and his mandate will be remembered for the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of the vice squad and the subsequent suppression of irreconcilable civilian protests.
The streets of Iran shout “woman, life, freedom”, the slogan that has crossed borders for the past forty days, but the Islamic regime’s leadership is not listening and is blaming the United States and Israel for instigating the most serious protests in the country since 2009.
Wearing the veil for women has been mandatory since the triumph of the Islamic revolution in 1979, although the application of the rule, especially in cities like Tehran, has been relaxing and the youngest adapted the hijab to their style, taking advantage of the apparent tolerance. Barely a year after his election as president, Raisi, who is the father of two daughters, tried to crack down on this behaviour, tighten police morale on the streets and ban women from even some banks, government offices or public transportation. to enter. His pledge in last year’s election was to fight corruption, but his priority was to tighten control over women’s clothing.
A few weeks after his order, the vice squad arrested the young Kurdish Mahsa Amini, who had left her native Saqqez to visit Tehran, and did not leave the police station alive. Calling it a “tragic accident”, the family denounces ill-treatment and torture, and protests and riots have been registered in the country’s main cities since then.
After the two presidential terms of moderate cleric Hasan Rouhani, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, 83, sought a religious from the ultra-conservative wing in the presidential seat and chose Ebrahim Raisi, whom he has close to him. . radio since he was 15 years old and went to Qom seminary. Khamenei trained him and watched him grow within the system over the years. As the Guardian Council made the final selection of seven candidates for the presidency, no one doubted his victory and the vote was just a formality. Khamenei didn’t want it to happen to him like it did in 2017, when he was defeated by Rouhani.
Raisi is ‘seyyed’ (a descendant of Mohammed, which is why his turban is black) and was head of the judiciary until he became head of government. He is a man linked to the regime from the beginning, respected by the Revolutionary Guards and although he is “hoyatoleslam” (rank below Ayatollah), some analysts place him in the pools of succession to the Supreme Leader, the highest ranking political and religious authority in Iran. The president has never publicly expressed a desire to become a Supreme Guide.
With a past marked by his positions in the justice sector and no previous experience in politics, in the long year in power he has shown his face as a leader of the most radical wing, without charisma, without concessions and with the determination to please the most conservative sectors of his country. He knows these circles very well, as his father-in-law is Ahmad Alamolhoda, a religious hardliner who has long led Friday prayers in Mashhad and who has become known for his ultra-conservative speeches.
On his recent trip to New York to participate in the United Nations General Assembly, the president of Iran didn’t mind founding Christiane Amampour, a prestigious British-Iranian journalist working for CNN. Ebrahim Raisi’s office demanded that the veteran TV star cover up the interview, but she refused and there was no meeting. The president’s empty chair next to an Amampour without a veil had a double reading. Amampour’s support for the Iranians protesting against the mandatory use of the hijab and Raisi’s nod to that part of Iran that demands a stronger hand and less tolerance with the West.
In response to protests over the death of young Kurdish Mahsa Amini, Ebrahim Raisi has closed ranks with his security forces, betting on a strong hand and reiterating over and over that everything is the fault of the Islamic system’s external enemies. Nor has he hesitated to salvage Khomeini’s historical definition of the United States and attack the interference of the ‘Great Satan’. After Rouhani’s two moderate mandates, Raisi is the return of the most purist ultra-conservatism of the Islamic revolution.
Source: La Verdad
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