I call you father...

Initially, the news that his old rival had died must have brought a smile to Ali Khamenei’s dour face…After all, the Grand Ayatollah who had been designated to replace the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, as Supreme Leader, but then had clashed with him, his implacable foe who was the Green Movement’s most formidable and influential supporter, was finally out of the way…
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri died early Sunday morning in his sleep, at his home in the holy city of Qom, at the age of 87... He had been suffering from diabetes and asthma.
As soon as the passing away of the venerable ayatollah was made public, thousands began to converge on Qom, about 150 kilometers south of Tehran, where the funeral was scheduled to take place the following day.
Anticipating that the funeral could degenerate into a huge anti-government demonstration, the authorities dispatched thousands of security forces to the city.
Once again, internet connections were interrupted and mobile phone services disrupted. Foreign media was also prevented from covering the event.
In addition, Iranian intelligence agencies warned many activists not to attend the funeral or risk arrest. Ahmad Ghabel, one of Montazeri’s students was arrested on his way to Qom, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Both former presidential candidates, Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi participated anyway.
We started out from Tehran for Qom at 2:00 am, one participant told tehran bureau.
We arrived in the early dawn hours at Ayatollah Montazeri's house, which was open to the public, to pay our respects. His home was open to the public. Mourners waited in line to see his body, which was laid in a glass coffin. By 7 am, the entire street outside his house was packed. Many people had driven to Qom the night before out of fear of traffic on the Tehran-Qom highway and slept in their cars to be able to attend the funeral in the morning.
At 9:30, the hearse left Montazeri’s house and headed for the Shrine of Fatemeh Masoumeh (Fatemeh the Infallible), a Shiite saint, where he was to be buried next to his son.
The funeral began at 10:00, attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners who thronged the streets leading from the house to the shrine.
The mourners, as is now customary in such gatherings, began chanting anti-government slogans. The important thing was that the radical slogans were cried by the sea of 'greens' among the townspeople of Qom. Word has it that Qom was stirred by this funeral; the people and merchants stared in wonder at the massive green crowd and the slogans. Montazeri's funeral was beautifully done. Everyone was there: from theologians to intellectuals to political figures, one witness told tehran bureau.
Many slogans were heard throughout, such as Death to the Oppressor, whether Shah or the Supreme Leader, Montazeri’s dying wish, the death of dictatorship, as well as the green nation of Iran is in mourning…
Those government supporters present retorted with Hypocrites leave Qom.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei paid his condolences to the Montazeri family, and a message was read during the ceremony. For a long period of his life, he had been at the service of the [Khomeini] movement. In the later part of his life, there was an ordeal that I wish almighty God will forgive and conceal, and that his worldly suffering will be atonement for that, Khamenei declared, referring to Montazeri’s clash with Khomeini, and which led to his political downfall.
The crowd hissed at this allusion, and responded with shouts of Death to the Dictator.
President Ahmadinejad, who won last June’s fraudulent presidential election, has so far remained silent and made no comment following the Grand Ayatollah’s death.
At the end of the ceremony, Basijis attacked Montazeri’s house and tore down a large portrait of the Ayatollah adorning the facade. They attacked -- they lost all control, his son told the WP. They started to throw stones at people and tore down the mourning banner of my father.
Fortunately, there was little violence during the day’s proceedings. That evening, however, a private ceremony organized by the family and that was to take place at the A’zam Mosque had to be cancelled. The Basijis occupied the mosque and prevented access to the building.
Furthermore, a group of Basijis on motorcycles attacked Mousavi’s car as he was returning to Tehran, breaking one of its windows. The opposition leader was not injured during the incident… It seems that the Basijis have failed to heed the warning Montazeri had issued a few weeks ago, it would be a misfortune to go to hell for the sake of the worldly desires of others, he said.
Demonstrations had erupted as early as Sunday in Montazeri’s hometown of Najafabad. Crowds of protesters had filled the streets holding green banners and chanting Oh, Montazeri, your path will be followed even if the dictator shoots us all! Official media coverage of Montazeri’s death considered disrespectful had outraged his supporters, for official reports repeatedly failed to refer to him as Ayatollah.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was born in Najafabad, in the central province of Isfahan, in 1922. His father Ali was a farmer. He attended the Isfahan seminary when he reached the age of 12, then went to Qom to further his theological studies.
He eventually became a reputed Islamic scholar and, as a result, a member of Ayatollah Khomeini’s inner circle, who was one of his teachers. The latter highly appreciated the young Montazeri, later referring to him as the fruit of my life.
He, in turn, became a fervent supporter of the Ayatollah, and, consequently, spent many years in the Shah’s jails, where he was tortured.
During his stay in the notorious Evin prison of Tehran in the 1970s, Montazeri led the Friday prayers, acquiring a significant following, much to the chagrin of the SAVAK, the Shah’s political police, which eventually banned the practice.
He was released in 1978 after four years in prison.
Soon after he had regained his freedom, Ayatollah Khomeini told him, it is not surprising that the criminal [political] establishment subjects you to medieval torture. Those who commit treason against the country and the people are afraid even of your shadow.
As Muhammad Sahimi makes clear in tehran bureau, those very words could also be applied to the current regime, and its treatment of political prisoners.
Two basic themes dominated his political thinking, according to Baqer Moin, of the Guardian. The first was his anti-imperialist convictions. He was a strong supporter of liberation movements, and believed that it was Islam’s duty to defend the oppressed.
This motivated his initial opposition to the US, such that, when a rapprochement was in the offing in 1987, initiated by the Reagan administration, he publicly revealed the initiative, infuriating Khomeini. As a result, one of his relatives, Mehdi Hashemi was executed. The contacts eventually led to the Iran-Contra scandal…
Secondly, he was also a staunch promoter of justice and human rights. Needless to say, few in the clerical establishment shared this preoccupation.
His years in prison had taught him all there was to know about tyranny and abuses of power. It also exposed him to other ideas and philosophies, as his prison mates were not only clerics, but also leftwing militants and nationalists of all kinds.
This may account for the fact Montazeri was sufficiently tolerant to respect other points of view.
After the Revolution, he became the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts of the Constitution… The principle of Velayat-e Faqih, or rule of the Supreme Leader was soon established.
Moreover, for Montazeri, the Supreme Leader was to act as an adviser to the country’s rulers, and not exercise any executive powers of his own.
Other prominent clerics, however, and Khomeini himself, did not share this view.
Yet, in 1985, the Assembly of Experts (which selects the Supreme Leader and then monitors his performance) chose Montazeri to succeed Khomeini upon his death.
Nevertheless, Montazeri could not condone the human rights abuses committed by the Islamic Republic throughout the 80s. He wrote to Khomeini to voice his concerns, do you know that, the crimes that are taking place in the jails of the Islamic Republic did not even take place in the Shah's regime?
Many people have died due to torture?
In Shiraz's jail [in southern Iran] a young woman who was fasting [during the month of Ramadan] was executed for a very minor offense right after she broke her fast [in the evening]?
Some young girls have been forcefully possessed [raped]?
During the interrogation of young women very nasty profanities are used?
Many prisoners have become blind or deaf, due to torture, and nobody has helped [to treat them]?
In many jails they even prevent the prisoners from saying their prayers?
In some jails the prisoners do not see the light of the day for months?
Even after a prisoner is given a jail sentence, he/she is still beaten regularly?
I am sure that [if you talk to others about this letter] they will tell you that these are lies and he [Grand Ayatollah Montazeri] is naïve.
Thousands of political prisoners were executed, and Montazeri publicly condemned these crimes.
I could not sleep at nights, knowing that innocent people were being killed, he later said. Instead of simply waiting to become Supreme Leader to put a stop to such vile policies, he had to speak out and denounce them. The confrontation with the establishment was inevitable, and he was stripped of his official status of Supreme Leader in waiting.
He remained in the opposition until his death.
When Ali Khamenei was selected to succeed Khomeini as Supreme Leader, Montazeri declared that he was not qualified to do so.
During the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, he repeatedly sided with the President against the conservative establishment, considering that Khamenei’s credentials to rule the country were bogus.
As a result, he was placed under house arrest; his religious school was closed, and his office in Qom ransacked.
Official media were instructed never to refer to him as Ayatollah, even though he was the second most senior cleric in Shia Islam’s clerical hierarchy, behind Ayatollah Sistani, the Iranian-born cleric who lives in Najaf, Iraq.
They branded him the simple-minded cleric instead. Yet, he never relented. The regime eventually backed down, lifting his house arrest in 2002.
After the June 2009 Presidential election, Montazeri immediately defended the people against the regime. He considered this his religious duty, and that of every citizen, as I said, those who have lost, religiously and reasonably, the credibility for serving the public, are automatically dismissed, and the continuation of their work has no legitimacy. If they want to use force, or fool or cheat people in order to keep their power, people must express their opinion about the illegitimacy and lack of their approval of their performance, and seek their dismissal through the best and least harmful way. It is clear that this [dismissal of the officials] is a societal duty of everyone, and all the people, regardless of their social positions and according to their knowledge and capability, must participate in this endeavor, and cannot shirk their responsibility, he declared.
As far as he was concerned, victory was inevitable, the victory of the [democratic] movement is certain. Therefore, there is no need for chanting radical slogans [that provoke violence], he added.
The regime, by its actions, reliance on violence and betrayal of Islamic principles had lost all legitimacy, and was no longer fit to rule the nation. A political system based on force, oppression, changing people’s votes, killing, closure, arresting and using Stalinist and medieval torture, creating repression, censorship of newspapers, interruption of the means of mass communications, jailing the enlightened and the elite of society for false reasons, and forcing them to make false confessions in jail, is condemned and illegitimate, he wrote.
For Montazeri, the Islamic Republic was neither Islamic nor Republic, and thus had to be abolished…
In fact, Montazeri now considered that the Islamic Republic should never have been erected in the first place.
Several years ago, wrote Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim in the LAT, a reporter asked Montazeri whether he would support the Islamic Revolution again if he could turn back the clock. He went silent for a few moments as he considered his response.No, he finally replied.
Last November, he even apologized for supporting the US embassy takeover in 1979...
With Montazeri now gone, the Green Movement has lost its spiritual guide.
Yet, the wily Ayatollah may still prove to be useful in the weeks ahead.
The emotional and political impact of Ayatollah Montazeri's death could morph into a widespread flame that the government cannot contain, suggested Mohamad Javad Akbarein, a former student of Montazeri.
An aide of Mehdi Karroubi concurred, it was a very timely demise. The grand ayatollah passed away at the zenith of his reputation among middle class and educated people of Iran, he said.
In fact, according to Shia tradition, the dead are mourned seven days after their demise. By an uncanny coincidence, next Sunday, the seventh day after Montazeri’s death is also Ashura, the end of the Muharram holiday, one of the most important commemorations in the Shia calendar. On that day, Shiites mourn the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, killed and beheaded in the battle of Karbala by the evil tyrant Yazid, in 680.
Hence, both events will be commemorated on the same day, and are thus likely to draw huge crowds to honor two martyrs who fought against tyrannical rule.
He died at exactly the right time. He will be revered for his courage, and his example is likely to restore some of the clergy’s prestige, said Rasool Nafisi, an authority on Iran.
His death has become a pretext for the movement to expand. He was the only cleric who gave up power and supported human rights, the characteristic that earned him respect from various political factions, Fatimeh Haghighhatjoo, a former Iranian parliamentarian, and now at Boston University, told the NYT.
The old Grand Ayatollah thus, is not through serving his people.
His very name and dedication to the cause of justice and human rights are likely to inspire his compatriots for years to come.
I call you father because I learned from you how to defend the oppressed without using violence against the oppressor. I learned from you that being silent is helping the oppressor. Father, I learned much from you, although I never [got the chance to] show my appreciation for being your child and student. Father, forgive us, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi declared in a statement, following his death.
Montazeri showed the way…
By never reneging on his principles, by choosing justice instead of political expediency, by the sheer exemplary value of his conduct, he can still guide the Iranian nation towards democracy, even though he is no longer with us.
Next Sunday should be a major test for all Iranians.
May those who share Montazeri’s credo prevail.
We shall be rooting for them from afar…
(the photograph above can be found here)