Niece of Iran’s supreme chief urges world to chop ties with Tehran

Niece of Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has known as on different nations to chop ties with Iran over crackdown on anti-hijab protests.

Tehran,UPDATED: Nov 28, 2022 08:40 IST

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece stated Iran’s regime isn’t loyal to any of its spiritual rules. (Photo: File)

By Reuters: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece, a well known rights activist, has known as on international governments to chop all ties with Tehran over its violent crackdown on widespread unrest kindled by the demise in police custody of a younger girl.

A video of an announcement by Farideh Moradkhani, an engineer whose late father was a distinguished opposition determine married to Khamenei’s sister, was being broadly shared on-line after what activist information company HRANA stated was her arrest on November 23.

“O free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime,” Moradkhani stated within the video. “This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power.”

Khamenei’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

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HRANA stated 450 protesters had been killed in additional than two months of nationwide unrest as of Nov. 26, together with 63 minors. It stated 60 members of the safety forces had been killed, and 18,173 protesters detained.

The protests, sparked by the demise of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian girl Mahsa Amini after her arrest for “inappropriate attire”, pose one of many strongest challenges to the nation’s clerical institution for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a member of parliament from the primarily Kurdish metropolis of Mahabad, stated on Sunday that as many as 105 folks had been killed in Kurdish-populated areas in the course of the protests. He was talking in a debate in parliament as quoted by the Entekhan web site.

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Challenging the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy, protesters from all walks of life have burned photos of Khamenei and known as for the downfall of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim theocracy.

The video was shared on YouTube on Friday by her brother, France-based Mahmoud Moradkhani, who presents himself as “an opponent of the Islamic Republic” on his Twitter account, after which by distinguished Iranian rights activists.

On November 23, Mahmoud Moradkhani reported her sister’s arrest as she was heeding a court docket order to look on the Tehran prosecutor’s workplace. Farideh had been arrested earlier this yr by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and later launched on bail.

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HRANA stated she was in Tehran’s Evin safety jail. Moradkhani, it stated, had earlier confronted a 15-year jail sentence on unspecified expenses.

Her father, Ali Moradkhani Arangeh, was a Shi’ite cleric married to Khamenei’s sister and lately handed away in Tehran following years of isolation because of his stance in opposition to the Islamic Republic, in line with his web site.

Farideh Moradkhani added in her video: “Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries.”

On Thursday, the United Nations’ prime human rights physique determined by a cushty margin to determine a brand new investigative mission to look into Tehran’s violent safety crackdown on the anti-government protests.

ALSO READ | ‘Pack your luggage and depart’: Iranian girls tackle clerics as anti-hijab protests intensify

Criticism of the Islamic Republic by kinfolk of prime officers isn’t unprecedented. In 2012, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of late former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to jail for “anti-state propaganda”.

Iranian authorities launched on bail the activist and blogger Hossein Ronaghi on Nov. 26 to endure medical therapy, in line with his brother writing on Twitter.

Concerns had been rising about Ronaghi’s well being after he went on a starvation strike final month.

Published On:

Nov 28, 2022