Shayan Ghajar

Opposition website RoozOnline, run by Iranian exiles living abroad, published an interview with prominent opposition leader Zahra Rahnavard. Rahnavard, Mir Hossein Moussavi’s wife, is very popular within the Green Movement and has proven to be a bellwether for signs of change in its internal dynamics.

In the interview, Rahnavard addresses the concerns of many in the Green Movement that censorship within the movement has become problematic, and a warning of the possibility of the movement to shift from its inclusive principles into a more restrictive, radical entity.

RoozOnline asked Dr. Rahnavard if criticism and disagreements within the Green Movement, particularly that which is targeted against Moussavi, will serve to weaken the movement by introducing internal schisms or providing the government with propaganda against the Greens, as some have argued.

Rahnavard answered that criticism, if intended to help the Green Movement, and if made in a constructive rather than antagonistic spirit, helps to revitalize the Green Movement and keep it from becoming “stagnant like a marsh.” Dr. Rahnavard continued, “The fact that criticism of the movement makes the current totalitarian regime happy and that they view this criticism as somehow weakening the Green Movement is of no importance.”

Rahnavard emphasized that the Green Movement is very ideologically diverse, and that this should be perceived as a strength rather than a weakness inasmuch as Greens are willing to overcome difference for common goals such as free elections, freedom from government interference in people’s private lives, and so on.

Apparently defending her husband, Rahnavard also said that criticism shouldn’t be limited to him, as the Green Movement has no one leader, but to all the prominent Greens such as Khatami, Mehdi Karroubi, and herself as well. Moreover, Rahnavard reiterated to RoozOnline that Moussavi has no representatives outside the country, and no one may claim to speak for him in the expatriate community.

Rahnavard’s statements are a reaction to the heated debate currently ongoing within the Green Movement regarding the uses and legitimacy of internal criticism. One of the events that precipitated the debate was the removal of a political cartoon by Nikahang Kowsar, a prominent Iranian satirist currently in exile, which lampooned Moussavi for issuing statements while refraining from direct action. After a spate of angry responses to the cartoon, RoozOnline took it down, prompting many to decry the self-censorship as embodying the suppression of free speech the Iranian government engages in, the very activities the Green Movement claims to deplore.