‘Regime responsible for post-election unrest’ says conservative MP

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Ali Motahhari slams regime’s handling of 2009 protests

A conservative Iranian lawmaker has blamed the country’s officials for the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential elections.

Ali Motahhari made the comments during a debate with pro-Ahmadinejad student leader Mehrdad Bazrpash at the Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology.

“The main people to blame were those who managed the [post-election] crisis,” he said. “Some of the population was discontented. But how ought they have been dealt with? Let’s even say [for the sake of argument] that their leaders [Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi] were traitors. But all these ordinary citizens and [religious] women in chadors came out and protested. Shouldn’t we have allowed them to assemble in order to gradually extinguish the turmoil?”

“Why did you [the authorities] act in a way that directed the slogans towards the leader [Ali Khamenei]?” Motahhari asked. “You didn’t even give them a single minute to speak out.”

Ali Motahhari is the son of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, a leading scholar and close aide to Imam Khomeini who was killed in a terrorist attack three months after the 1979 Revolution.

Despite being considered a conservative politician, Motahhari is known for his outspoken attacks on the Ahmadinejad administrations and pro-government lawmakers.

“There are [even] MPs in the Majlis who say I am a lawyer for the government and are proud of this,” he said. He denounced those who attempted to undermine the role of the parliament and bashing its members while hiding behind the Supreme Leader.

Motahhari expressed his disapproval at Ahmadinejad’s slanderous comments about Hashemi Rafsanjani during the televised presidential debates in 2009. “I defended Hashemi in 2009 and I continue to do so. Hashemi faced injustice in the 2009 crisis. In front of 50 million viewers they [Ahmadinejad] asked [Hashemi] ‘How have you made this much wealth?’ They didn’t even give him a chance to defend himself.”

Some in the conservative camp have even accused Hashemi Rafsanjani of fomenting the post-election unrest, a charge denied by the former president and parliament speaker.

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