Political prisoner Golrokh Iraee posted an extensive letter on social media in response to IRI media attacks on progressive political prisoners. The English translation below is by IEC volunteers.

My former cellmate, Bahareh Hedayat, sits in an online studio in Tehran provided by the Islamic Republic and declares solidarity with the monarchists. By stirring up the nationalist sentiment of a people whose nationalist tendencies were humiliated due to living under the shadow of a theocratic government, she is trying to destroy revolutionary forces and, by ignoring the regime's opponents, reduces the opposition to a monarchist movement.

We and they have always been different. Previously they had been active in the [IRI-]authorized  student and party organizations. They were members of the Office for the Consolidation of Unity, that was founded by and acted at the behest of Ruhollah. They always sat at the table that the regime spread for them, and their political work followed in the footsteps of the murderers of the 1980s, who later declared that they had become reformists, in order to preserve the regime.  They were not made into strangers in their own homes, like we were. Under the current repression, they have been allowed to register organizations and establish parties, and the possibility of engaging in political work was always available to them.

But we are among the excluded and outcasts. We did not change under government pressure, and we did not abandon our honor for a seat at the table that the regime had prepared, and we paid the price for our resistance by being ostracized from the authorized circles. The people remember, and are not deceived.

After December 2017, the reformists lost their social base forever. Twenty years of efforts by Khatami's followers failed. The reformist parties were dissolved, their offices closed or abandoned. The reformists lost their previous persuasive power. In addition to losing popular support, the reforms collapsed from within, leaving only a weak shell of its former self, which is unable to be the savior of the regime as it is before. This is especially true in a situation where the regime itself is on the verge of collapse. It is no longer possible for them to save the existing order and preserve the system by using loopholes and pressure valves.  They must turn to the military. And, to preserve the power structure and save their authoritarian regime, the army must use the darkest methods.

It is about the survival or destruction of the system that is willing to make some changes. It can change its clothes, its words its slogans, in order to remain in power and to preserve the power structure itself.

Therefore, a coalition must be formed and this alliance is forged between the reformists and the monarchists — forces that have similar aims. Both seek the restoration of absolute power and seek authoritarian rule.

In the 1980s, we experienced the rule of the reformists, and have lived under the security, judiciary, and military forces in their service and their cultural activities.  And, we are familiar with the monarchists, regardless of the historical period of their authoritarian rule, with their plans to revive SAVAK. Their reactionary and eliminationist slogans that point to the measures they intend implement, in order to reach a one-voiced/unified society.

It is not possible for them to flee from this accursed state into the embrace of another one, merely by explaining the similarities between "jurisprudential jurisdiction" and "royal jurisdiction. They must create an atmosphere of sentimental [nationalism] to negate the revolutionary atmosphere, and destroy or dismiss the revolutionaries. When comparing  authoritarian regimes, one cannot fail to note rulers’ use of one or the other of these  ideological tools  (religion and nationalism) to consolidate the power and legitimacy required to establish and maintain their rule.

Let us not forget the "triangle of power" and the rulers' reliance on military and religious forces, which changed over time to the rulers' reliance on military force and nationalism;  and the use that dictators have made of religion or nationalism to consolidate power and mobilize the masses. Unknowingly contributing to the formation of another authority places a heavy responsibility on our shoulders, and if we consciously beat such a drum, we have no other goal than opportunism and to take advantage of the humiliated feelings of the oppressed people.

The seeds planted by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi  and the alliances he always had with the reactionary religious forces led to the elimination of progressive and revolutionary forces,  and  the rise of rule by the Islamists and the theocratic regime.

The revolutionary youth of Iran are the result of a seed that was planted through more than a century of struggle against oppression and exploitation in Iran, and each of them is a link in the chain of freedom fighters. Iran's revolutionary youth will not accept authoritarianism and tyranny in any form or guise and the platitudes of opportunistic intellectuals will not derail them from the path of the struggle against authoritarianism.

Golrokh Iraee

April 2025

Evin Prison

#No_Sheikh_No_Shah

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