Faezeh Hashemi Crosses Several Regime Red Lines on Clubhouse

Prominent political activist Faezeh Hashemi has called for Iranians to protest against the ruling regime of the Islamic Republic by refusing to vote in the forthcoming presidential election, which is due to take place in June. She said she held the regime responsible for the current disastrous economic and political situation the country found itself in, and for the lives of millions of Iranians who had been held back from having an active role in society.

Taking part in a Clubhouse debate on politics in Iran, Hashemi spoke publicly on a wide range of topics including the forthcoming election, Donald Trump, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent offer to form a coalition, and her father’s reputation and legacy.

Hashemi, who has increasingly become a controversial figure, voiced her opinions on the Clubhouse program Elections Roundtable on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, taking questions from Iranian journalists and activists based inside and outside the country. Clubhouse estimates that more than 16,000 people followed the conversation live on the app, with others going on to Twitter to follow the debate. The conversation took place over a six-hour period.

Hashemi, who served in parliament from 1996 to 2000 and who is the daughter of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the key architects of the Islamic Republic and a former Iranian president, repeatedly stated that she will not be putting herself forward to run in the 2021 presidential election. In fact, she promoted refusing to vote as a viable and effective protest tactic. "Consider not voting as an act of protest,” she said. “When protests in the streets are suppressed, how else can we protest? There is no alternative.”

She indicated that this advice was given as a last-resort option. “When we vote, they interpret that people came to the polls and voted because they accept the situation — just like Mr. Zarif, who said that everyone who went to Ghasem Soleimani's funeral accepted the policy of resistance."

Hashemi was asked during the Clubhouse event what she thought about her brother Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani putting himself forward as president. ”I accept this and I know he is more of an expert than a politician or a decision-maker. But even if he becomes a presidential candidate, I will not vote, because I do not believe in voting." She further explained that in a situation where no improvements had been observed, she would not be persuaded to vote on the basis of one candidate, regardless of his or her policies."Unless I feel that the whole system or trend is moving towards reform, I will not vote. For example, if Mr. Raeisi comes forward and says that all political prisoners will be released because their detention is against the Constitution and ... my opinion changes; it means that my opinion changes with a change in circumstances, not because of a certain person.”

Hashemi expressed profound frustration throughout the discussion. "Right now, the situation is such that no one can do anything, and only conditions of survival are relevant. Some people tell me we are all in the same boat and if something happens we will all drown together. But I cannot adapt myself to this situation."

The era of voting for "bad" or "worse" is over, she added, and that assessment of the political environment was now irrelevant.

An “Unacceptable” Coalition

During the Clubhouse event, Faezeh Hashemi confirmed that former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had contacted her and suggested forming a coalition for the 2021 presidential election, suggesting she would be appointed as his first deputy if he was elected. It was a proposal Hashemi flatly rejected. ”It was clear that I would not accept the offer," she said. "His character is unacceptable and I cannot forget how he behaved. I have not forgotten the way he insulted my father and our family during TV debates. His offer was quite strange to me."

Hashemi described how Ahmadinejad had invited her to a debate with him prior to suggesting the coalition idea, but she rejected this offer too. “A debate has conditions. I will debate with an opponent, as long as it is a healthy debate; the parties taking part must have principles. But as Mr. Mousavi said, Mr. Ahmadinejad is the only person who can look into a person's eyes and lie."

Faezeh Hashemi also had harsh words for the state media, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). She said she followed the news published by Persian-language media abroad and tended to check it with foreign media to ensure its accuracy.

Known in recent years as a human rights activist, Hashemi recognized the work of US-based Masih Alinejad, whose campaign for women's rights she described as effective. "A woman who takes off her hijab in protest and for her rights and pays the price does this consciously. This shows that the efforts of women's rights activists have paid off and women are now aware of their rights."

Asked if she now considers herself to be subversive or whether she was still a strong supporter of the Islamic Republic, she said: "I am still far from wanting to 'overthrow' the regime. I am not attached to the system, but I believe that this system can be reformed according to the Constitution. If they move towards rationality, they can save the country.”

Defending her Father

The Clubhouse audience also quizzed her on the political influence of her father Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017. Though quick to criticize the Islamic Republic and its policies over the last 40 years, stating that the system had become irrelevant and out-of-date, she praised his father's political performance. But there were some tough questions: What was her father's role in the Mykonos Restaurant assassinations in 1992, she was asked?  "My father worked hard to establish relations with European countries at that time; Why would he do anything to ruin this relationship?" She attributed the assassination to insiders trying to undermine her father's efforts to establish relations with the United States.

Sadegh Sharafkandi, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, along with three other Kurdish oppositional political figures and their translator, were murdered at Mykonos restaurant in Berlin, Germany in September 1992. A German court linked Ali Khamenei, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was president at the time, Ali Akbar Velayati, who was foreign minister, and intelligence minister Ali Fallahian to the murder, and summoned them to appear in court in connection with the case.

Hashemi was also asked about her father's role in suppressing government critics and intellectuals, including the imprisonment and killing of many of them. ”Newspapers and journalists constantly criticized my father, but they were not suppressed,” she said.

But the audience pointed to a few key cases, including that of Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani, who criticized the government during Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s presidency and was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in March 1994, imprisoned for nine months without permission to visit his family, and who died in December 1994.

Faraj Sarkohi was another case raised during the roundtable discussion. The journalist, who had also been critical of the government, was abducted by the Ministry of Intelligence at the airport while on a trip to Germany during President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's last year in office. He was tortured for more than 40 days in a secret prison controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence and was finally forced to make a false confession. He later fled the country.

Faezeh Hashemi no doubt has ample knowledge of these and other cases. But she told the Clubhouse audience her father was not responsible for these crimes. "Some ministries, such as the Ministry of Intelligence, were not under the control of the government during my father's presidency, and they took orders from elsewhere," she said, without elaborating.

Among the Islamic Republic’s prominent and elite statesmen, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was a symbol of aristocracy and wealth. In addition to the crimes highlighted by the activists and journalists on the Clubhouse session there were numerous rumors and accusations of corruption and nepotism during his lifetime, including the granting of lucrative contracts among his children — and the Clubhouse audience drew attention to this too. In response to a question about her source of income, she said: ”My husband is a doctor; but I have no income. I used to teach at university, but I have not had any income since I was expelled. Of course, we have a small inheritance on which we live. We have an average and good life. We are not like others to promote poverty and simplicity. We lived an average and good life. My father believed that wealth should be distributed among the people.”

Trump and the Sanctions Debate

President Trump also came up in the discussions, and in particular, Faezeh Hashemi’s public declaration that she hoped he would win a second term. "I wanted Trump to win," she had said in an interview with Ensaf News. "Maybe if Mr. Trump continues to apply pressure, we will eventually have to change our policies."

In addition to her controversial support for Trump, Hashemi had faced criticism from reformist activists when she came out in support of US sanctions. This led to a fierce open argument between Hashemi and reformist Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, who claimed that sanctions were to blame for Iran’s lack of vaccines and shortage on various medication. But Hashemi stood firm, insisting that pharmaceuticals,  medical equipment and goods and vaccines were exempt from US sanctions and always had been. Vaccines for coronavirus, she said mysteriously, were banned by someone else.

When Jalaeipour stressed that Trump was responsible for sanctions and the misery of the Iranian people, Faezeh Hashemi replied: "People do not hold Trump responsible for the sanctions, otherwise they would not have chanted: 'our enemy is here, they lie about it being America." In response, Jalayipour said that credible polls reveal that 70 percent of Iranians oppose sanctions, to which Hashemi replied: "Yes, people oppose sanctions. But the enemy is not considered to be America; the enemy is seen as Iran's policies.” This was her top line throughout the question and answer session. The disastrous policies of the Islamic Republic had led to sanctions, she said, and to the current catastrophic isolation the country found itself in.

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