During an address marking the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, President Hassan Rouhani, in a nod to recent protests that rocked Iran, warned about the dangers of not listening to criticism about the state of the country. “The previous regime, which thought that its rule would be lifelong and its monarchy eternal, lost everything because it did not listen to the voices of criticism, advice, reformers, the clergy, elders and intellectuals,” Rouhani said while visiting the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which overthrew the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Rouhani continued, “The previous regime did not listen to the voice of people’s protests and only listened to one voice, and that was the people’s revolution. For a government that only wants to hear the sound of revolution, it will be too late. A government must listen to the voice of the people’s advice, demands, criticism and protests.”
Some users on Twitter criticized the president as if he was putting the responsibility of listening to the people’s demands on other people and organizations and that his administration was not a part of the government. Of course, this fact is likely not lost on Rouhani either. However, despite Rouhani’s attempts at modest reforms, the final power in Iran is with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the bodies whose heads he appoints, particularly the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). While at times Khamenei has approved structural reforms, he and the bodies under his responsibility have been either opposed to wider social and economic reforms or have often been slow when it comes to them.
Under Iran’s current political climate, the president would not directly address the supreme leader about the dangers of ignoring criticism. However, other individuals, particularly former officials, have no need to show the same level of restraint. Former presidential candidate and parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, who has been under house arrest for six years, recently wrote an open letter to Khamenei criticizing him for a variety of issues in Iran.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
