Ahmadinejad Rival Calls For Increased Freedoms

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 7, 2009; Page A14

 

TEHRAN, April 6 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's main opponent in the upcoming presidential election said Monday that he wanted to increase freedoms for Iranians, in part by curbing the so-called morality police who enforce strict interpretations of Islamic laws, such as those requiring women to cover their hair in public.

Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, speaking at his first news conference since announcing his candidacy for president in the June election, attacked Ahmadinejad's government over its handling of the economy, the "extremism" of the president's rhetoric and the strictures that have been imposed on daily life and public discourse.

Mousavi gave no indication that he would seek to change Iran's foreign or nuclear policies, matters largely controlled by the country's unelected supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a National Security Council that includes dozens of political leaders.

Mousavi said the current government had caused harm to Iran's international position. "Extremism has damaged us greatly. We have to actively work to earn trust at the international level," he told reporters. Mousavi was referring to tensions that have arisen with Western countries over Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust as well as his anti-Israeli and anti-Western rhetoric. Mousavi did not say what he would do differently.

The candidate accused the government of sometimes acting in an extreme way and then backpedaling. "Extremism has reached such levels that in order to even it out, they have to write useless letters which get no results and only waste our national standing," he said. Ahmadinejad often denounces U.S. policies, but in November he wrote a letter of congratulations to Barack Obama, then president-elect.

Asked if he was ready to negotiate with President Obama, Mousavi said he was hearing a different tone from the United States. "We would benefit from having peaceful and cooperative relations with any country, and the more powerful and the bigger that country, the more we would benefit. But this cannot be at the price of our values and principles. We cannot pay unbearable costs for such relations," he said.

Mousavi was prime minister from 1981 to 1989, serving under then-President Khamenei. Mousavi is admired for the way he managed the country during the Iran-Iraq war, which crippled the Iranian economy. The post of prime minister was abolished after his term.

He is considered a problem-solver and is a strong backer of Iran's system of government, in which Shiite Muslim clerics oversee the policies of elected officials. But Mousavi represents a current in the Iranian leadership that thinks the government's influence on personal matters can go too far.

Mousavi vowed that he would stop controversial morality police restrictions on clothing deemed un-Islamic and allow greater freedom of speech. Social controls are the domain of people, not the government, he said.

"Can a security patrol save our youths?" Mousavi said of sharply increased police operations meant to prevent women from allowing their hair to show in public. "Or can they be saved by the words of a grandfather who talks to his granddaughter?" he asked rhetorically. "I believe in the latter."

The patrols, part of what is known here as the "social security plan," began after Ahmadinejad became president, although his government denies responsibility.

Mousavi also vowed to implement Iran's constitution, which he said was now being "violated and undermined."

"We must create the constitutionally mentioned freedoms -- freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of print, freedom of media and press -- all of course within the framework of our laws."

 

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