Demand for the removal of the house arrest.

Ahmad Zeidabadi

I may have written and said more than a hundred times that the 15-year house arrest of Sheikh Mehdi Karroubi, Engineer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and Mrs. Zahra Rahnavard is unjust and illegal, and its continuation brings nothing but dissatisfaction among a significant portion of society.

From my perspective, any citizen who is sensitive to the human and civil rights of other citizens has the duty, both as a citizen and a human being, to express their dissatisfaction and objection to the continuation of the house arrest by any possible, rational, and effective means.

One of the legitimate ways of political protest in many modern societies is through gatherings and street presence. This right is also recognized in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic; however, in practice, the right to gather and be present on the streets is only accepted for a specific group of supporters of the current system and opponents of any reform or change in the administration of the country. Other groups not only have been deprived of this right, but their declarations of gatherings are typically met with security and police intervention, detention, the formation of cases, and punishments such as imprisonment, flogging, etc.

Therefore, one of the main demands of the opposing forces has always been that the government must accept this right. If it is concerned about chaos and insecurity, it should create the necessary mechanisms, including allocating a specific area in each city for political protests.

However, all governments, despite initial promises, have either been unwilling or unable to fulfill their promises in this regard. Thus, the issue of “peaceful street presence” to announce political protests has remained an unsolved problem and continues to carry unforeseen dangers.

One of the major risks in this situation is that street gatherings in the current circumstances in Iran cannot be controlled and managed by their organizers. They can easily be infiltrated and misused by outsiders. In this case, not only will it not help achieve the declared goal and alleviate the pain and suffering of the distressed, but it will also create new misfortunes and pains for other members of society.

For this reason, I have previously written several times that as long as the street cannot be managed and controlled by its recognized organizers and its security and tranquility are not guaranteed, it will generally produce the opposite result, exacerbating the suffering of our society. This is especially true in the current situation, where two opposing forces have interests in creating insecurity, security measures, and eliminating any change or reform in the current processes.