The sister of the supreme guide of the Islamic Republic of Iran denounced a “despotic” regime and supported the protest movement, sparked almost three months ago by the death of the young Mahsa Amini.
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“I oppose the actions of my brother” Ali Khamenei, wrote Badri Hosseini Khamenei in a letter published Wednesday on the internet by his son based in France, Mahmoud Moradkhani.
“I express my sympathy to the mothers who mourn the crimes committed by the regime of the Islamic Republic from the time of (its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini until the current period of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei,” continues Ms. Hosseini Khamenei, who is said to be in Iran.
Iran has been the scene of protests since the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, arrested three days earlier, who had been accused of not respecting the dress code requiring women to wear the veil in public.
Portraits of the Supreme Leader were burned, women walked the streets without veils and demonstrators defied security forces.
The crackdown on the movement has left at least 448 people dead, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).
Authorities arrested thousands of people, 11 of whom were sentenced to death in trials related to the protests.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, has accused the United States, Iran’s sworn enemy, and its allies like Israel of encouraging “riots” in the country.
“My concern has always been and always will be the Iranian people, especially women,” Hosseini continued in her letter, accusing the regime of bringing “nothing but suffering and oppression (. ..) to the Iranians”.
“The Iranian people deserve freedom and prosperity, and their uprising is legitimate and necessary to assert their rights,” said Ayatollah Khamenei’s sister, saying she hoped “the overthrow of this tyrannical power in Iran”.
Citing health problems preventing her from taking part in the protests, she attacked her brother who “does not listen to the voice of the people”.
She also called on the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, to “join the people before it is too late”.