Calls for Allah-O-Akbar chants atop rooftops during NAM summit

This article was last updated on May 21, 2022

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Protesting continued house arrest of green leaders

Reformist activists are calling for nightly chants of Allah-O-Akbar during the summit of the Non-aligned Movement in Tehran to protest the continued house arrest of ailing opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

The 16th summit of the Non-aligned Movement member states will be held between 26-31 August, during which Iran will assume the rotating presidency for the next three years.

The summit comes just days after Mir Hossein Mousavi, a leader in the opposition Green Movement, was hospitalised due to cardiovascular problems after more than 500 days of illegal house arrest.

“At a time when all forms of protests have been banned, security in the city is tight and authorisation has still not been granted for demonstrations against the health condition of Mr Mousavi, our nightly chants will be a show of protest against the status quo,” the activists said in a statement.

They called on Iranians to shout Allah-O-Akbar from rooftops at 10pm on Wednesday and Thursday.

In the aftermath of the rigged 2009 presidential election, the slogan became a rallying cry for protesters who believed a massive fraud had taken place to ensure the victory of the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In a letter to the heads of states and governments of the Non-aligned Movement in mid-August, the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, the movement’s highest decision-making body, said that Iranian authorities intended to “use the conference to boost its tarnished international image, and buttress its precarious political position at home.”

The Council called on the body to utilise this opportunity to promote the “democratic aspirations and just demands of the Iranian people, including the release of all political prisoners and the leaders of the Green Movement under illegal house arrest.”

Also, Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, a top Mousavi aide and spokesperson for the Council, has urged the Secretary-General of the United Nations to exert pressure on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for the release of the country’s political prisoners, in particular opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. He called on Ban Ki-moon, a participant at the summit, to utilise his visit to the country to meet with Mousavi, Karroubi, Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, “families of political prisoners, and representatives of illegally banned civil and political organizations.”

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