PARIS: The sister of Iran’s Supreme Leader has criticized his “despotic” regime and supported the protests sparked by Mahsa Amini‘s dead, in a letter published Wednesday by his son.
Protests have gripped Iran since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died on September 16 after being arrested in Tehran for an alleged violation of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Tehran says more than 200 people have been killed in the unrest, but the Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights says the country’s security forces have killed at least 458 protesters, including 63 children.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, has accused Iran’s nemesis, the United States and its allies, of stoking the protests, which Tehran has sought to call ‘riots’ .
Rights activists say the protests were sparked by anger over the repression of women, before spreading to include other grievances.
“I oppose my brother’s actions”, Khamenei’s sister Badri Hosseini Khameneibelieved to be in Iran, said in a letter posted online by his France-based son Mahmoud Moradkhani.
“I express my sympathy to all the mothers who mourn the crimes of the regime of the Islamic republic”, from the time of its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei” , she wrote.
“My concern has always been and always will be the people, especially the women of Iran,” she added.
She accused the regime of bringing “nothing but suffering and oppression to Iran and Iranians” since its inception following the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the shah.
“The Iranian people deserve freedom and prosperity, and their uprising is legitimate and necessary to assert their rights.
“I hope to see victory for the people soon and the overthrow of this ruling tyranny in Iran,” she said.
Badri Hosseini Khamenei called on the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to “lay down their arms as soon as possible and join the people before it’s too late”.
She lamented that “due to physical ailments” she was unable to take part in the protests.
“My brother does not listen to the voice of the Iranian people and wrongly considers the voice of his mercenaries and money thieves as the voice of the Iranian people.
“He rightly deserves the disrespectful and impudent words he uses to describe the oppressed but brave Iranian people,” she wrote.
Protests have gripped Iran since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died on September 16 after being arrested in Tehran for an alleged violation of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Tehran says more than 200 people have been killed in the unrest, but the Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights says the country’s security forces have killed at least 458 protesters, including 63 children.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, has accused Iran’s nemesis, the United States and its allies, of stoking the protests, which Tehran has sought to call ‘riots’ .
Rights activists say the protests were sparked by anger over the repression of women, before spreading to include other grievances.
“I oppose my brother’s actions”, Khamenei’s sister Badri Hosseini Khameneibelieved to be in Iran, said in a letter posted online by his France-based son Mahmoud Moradkhani.
“I express my sympathy to all the mothers who mourn the crimes of the regime of the Islamic republic”, from the time of its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei” , she wrote.
“My concern has always been and always will be the people, especially the women of Iran,” she added.
She accused the regime of bringing “nothing but suffering and oppression to Iran and Iranians” since its inception following the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the shah.
“The Iranian people deserve freedom and prosperity, and their uprising is legitimate and necessary to assert their rights.
“I hope to see victory for the people soon and the overthrow of this ruling tyranny in Iran,” she said.
Badri Hosseini Khamenei called on the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to “lay down their arms as soon as possible and join the people before it’s too late”.
She lamented that “due to physical ailments” she was unable to take part in the protests.
“My brother does not listen to the voice of the Iranian people and wrongly considers the voice of his mercenaries and money thieves as the voice of the Iranian people.
“He rightly deserves the disrespectful and impudent words he uses to describe the oppressed but brave Iranian people,” she wrote.
