Rasool Nafisi

WASHINGTON–A natural division of labor has taken place within the Green Movement in Iran. As much as Mir Hossein Moussavi is the moral and organizational leader of the movement, cleric Mehdi Karroubi inspires the movement with his courage, and perseverance. The third leg of the leadership is Ayatollah Hassan-Ali Montazeri, who has acquired the de facto position of the religious patriarch of the movement.

As much Montazeri’s fatwas have undermined the religious mandate of the state, the perseverance of Karroubi in accusing the regime of the crimes committed in prisons since the June 12 presidential election has damaged irreparably the regime’s claim to its moral legitimacy. Accusing the prison guards of systematically raping the prisoners has become the most serious issue so far. In an interview, Karroubi’s son said that such behavior with the prisoners has been unprecedented since the “invasion of the Mongols”—a landmark event that the Iranians blame for the near total destruction of their culture.

Authorities are hard at work to whitewash the regime from the rape accusations, but rape victims have provided their stories on the record, and have substantiated Karroubi’s claims. The severity of Karroubi’s accusations about the raping of prisoners becomes more manifest once it is contextualized. It is an anathema to the claims of the Islamic state to safeguard the chastity of the people; a regime that uses its stringent rules for correct sexual conduct as a means to control the population, and as a claim to legitimacy.

Karroubi’s courage emanates largely from his ethnic background. He is from the Lor ethnicity. Members of this ethnic group are known for their outspokenness and forward character. On the other hand, Karroubi is not a stranger to hardship and incarceration. He was arrested nine times by the previous regime, and spent years in prison, where he met cellmates from all political brands: religious, nationalist, and communist. This forced companionships, Karroubi writes in his autobiography, which made him aware of the pain of the others, and relieved him from sectarian behavior.

Karroubi is known for his charitable works. Not surprisingly, the late Ayatollah Khomeini assigned him to establish two main charity organizations of the Islamic state: The Martyrs Foundation, and the Fifteenth of Khordad Foundation. Those foundations provide for the poor, and nowadays are used by the regime to garner support, and votes, from the needy.

Accusations of embezzlement against Karroubi had tarnished his image before the rise of the Green Movement. In one case alone, he had received equivalent of $600,000 from a money launderer (Shahram Jazaeri). Karroubi does not deny receiving the money, but he says as a clergy with the degree of Ijtihad, he was authorized by Khomeini to receive money, and spend it in the ways he deemed correct, such as helping the poor. One group of recipients of such gifts is families of the incarcerated journalists and politicians. The prominent Iranian cleric Mohsen Kadivar supports Karroubis’s claim. He unequivocally confirmed that Karroubi is well known for his charitable works among the Iranian poor, and families of prisoners.

Rumors of the imminent arrest of Karroubi have been around since the inception of the Green Movement. It appears that there is a difference between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders and Khamenei on that matter. The former pushes for Karroubi’s arrest, while the latter refuses to allow it, for obvious reasons. Karroubi used to be one of the most trusted confidants of Khomeini. This makes him somewhat sacrosanct. Moreover, he is now widely popular among the youth, and his arrest may even trigger a larger unrest.

Rasool Nafisi is an academic and Iran expert living in Virginia.