Against Soleimani’s Daughter
Mehdi Chamran, the head of Tehran City Council, announced on Sunday that the municipality’s security requested that the city council’s security be placed under its supervision, but we refused, and they have cut off our access.
At the beginning of yesterday’s Tehran City Council session, he said that months of phone calls and numerous meetings were held, unfortunately, they did not solve the issues and even created problems, and they did not respond to our two letters, but the talk I had here could not be tolerated for 24 hours.
Immediately, they got a writer to write an article that was beautifully written but had no content. The main criticism they had was that I am old. No one said we are young; being old is not a flaw.
If it is a flaw, then you should criticize Prophet Noah, who was 900 years old. Being old is not a flaw; thinking old is a flaw. However, some members of the Tehran City Council believed that money was paid to write this article.
The Budget Commission should withdraw.
The first warning before the agenda was from Narges Soleimani, the head of the Supervision and Legal Commission of the Tehran City Council, who reported on the obstruction by the council’s Program and Budget Commission in investigating the municipality. She once again used the satirical poems of Persian literature, this time from Parvin E’tesami, to start her warning, which again led to tension.
She said, ‘Send the response to the letter of the oppressed yourself; it is possible that your secretaries might make mistakes. When the heavens have entrusted the reins of affairs to you, why should others look into the affairs of the people? If you do not look at the governors’ office for a day, they will blacken a thousand offices of justice.’ This is a very beautiful poem about a letter to Nushirvan, which I recommend to be read.
She emphasized that, surprisingly, instead of corresponding with the municipality according to the law, the Program and Budget Commission, by contacting the relevant officials and obtaining documents to present to the applicants for investigation, in an unusual move, rejected four clauses of the investigation from the Property Organization.
Of course, an appropriate response was prepared and sent to reject this letter. Considering the refusal of the Budget Commission to start correspondence and the follow-ups that, according to my negotiations on Sunday with Mr. Akhundi, the head of the commission, it was decided that the letter should be sent by Sunday and at the latest by the beginning of Monday, due to the limited legal time. However, the letter ended up in the council instead of the municipality and reached the applicants.
She added that the Supervision and Legal Commission, as one of the commissions responsible for the investigation correspondence, had to prepare a letter with two signatures and send it for the signature of the Program and Budget Commission.
Therefore, it is necessary, with the reasons I have mentioned, for the Program and Budget Commission to withdraw from the investigation so that the correspondence process can start with the letter from the Supervision and Legal Commission or, due to the lack of time wastage, be the second signature so that the correspondence officially begins.
We expected support from our friends; hopefully, what we thought was not wrong.
You spent your entire life doing political work.
Habib Kashani, a member of the Tehran City Council, referring to the response of the Program and Budget Commission regarding the investigation, said that this letter was prepared in 5 pages. Mohammad Akhundi, the head of the Program and Budget Commission, declared that we did not respond; it was a letter to Mr. Chamran.
Kashani replied that this is a letter that has been sent to all the applicants for investigation. Akhundi said, ‘I responded, don’t make political statements.’ Kashani replied, ‘What should we not say? You did political work all your life, kid; your past shows where you worked. Stop talking like this.’ Chamran, trying to mediate, said, ‘The letter was addressed to me.’
Kashani replied, ‘He had no right to send a copy to me. You asked him; he should have sent the letter to you. They sent it to all the applicants for investigation. He has no right to interrupt me. I asked for an investigation to be conducted, but we are standing against each other. This is not a good atmosphere. I think friends could have held a meeting that would not end in correspondence. These ping-pong correspondences harm the council. If we are going to correspond from this room to that room, thank God everyone is humble. Please go to each other’s rooms and talk. Continuing these correspondences is not good.’
I won’t back down with threats and poetry reading.
Mohammad Akhundi, the head of the Program and Budget Commission of the Tehran City Council, who was absent during Narges Soleimani’s warning, arrived at the scene and, in response to this criticism, called Narges Soleimani a dictator and said, ‘We are facing a dictatorship that for 3 years has been saying whatever she wants and doing whatever she wants, but if someone does something legal, they get attacked. There is no worry.’
I talked about monitoring the behavior of representatives, and several Telegram channels, which are known to belong to whom, are destroying me. I will also present evaluation indicators. We do not know how to play the victim, but for 3 years, there have been individuals in the city council who are destroyed by groups.
I’m sorry if there is a point; I am not dead, I am alive. Pick up the phone and say this letter of yours is wrong. Is the council’s microphone the place for these talks? Am I someone’s employee? I am a council member, not the municipality, for you to read poetry and threaten me. I am a representative of the people, and no one has the right to threaten me. Resign or withdraw. The head of the council can review the commission’s performance. We do not allow a plan or proposal to remain on the ground, and we hold meetings every Sunday and Tuesday. Check if we have had more oversight in these 3 years or the Supervision and Legal Commission.
Chamran said, ‘Do not refer to the Supervision and Legal Commission.’ Akhundi replied, ‘They threatened and dictated terms.’
Allow me to speak. As the head of the council, you sent us a letter regarding the investigation, and I, along with the experts, reviewed it in the commission and announced that these points exist.
We also suggested holding a meeting with the applicants for investigation. They laugh at us when we write something wrong. We said these matters are not related to the Property Organization. In the previous case, Ms. Soleimani said, ‘Why didn’t you give us a copy?’ We said, ‘Send a copy to the applicants for investigation so they don’t say why you stopped.’ I copied in the council system. Are city council members strangers? Did we insult anyone? Where did I defend the municipality? Where did I respond to the investigation? Every word here has legal weight. You, who are the head of the Legal Commission, I wrote that these are the errors in this text. You, as the head of the council, give your opinion.
Did I say something bad? Did we curse anyone? Did we disrespect anyone? Did we defend anyone? If it’s about oversight, I have done more oversight than all of you in these three years. So I ask you to definitely apologize to the Budget Commission, not to me personally. Please do not threaten. I am not the municipality to back down with these threats. I am performing my legal duty. We will definitely hold a meeting at the earliest opportunity and conduct the investigation. No one should be afraid. The mayor of Tehran has said to start the investigation.
After these discussions, eventually, with the mediation of other members of the Tehran City Council, a joint meeting of these two commissions was held yesterday afternoon.
We will stay until the end, and you will not.
Mehdi Eghrarian, a member of the Tehran City Council, however, referred to the sorrowful story of the critics of Tehran’s mayor and emphasized that this issue is not related to the presidential election, although Mr. Zakani’s wrong actions in the election have harmed the sixth council, but more than two and a half years and six months after his appointment, due to his behavior, a group of members have concluded that the mayor does not have the necessary efficiency to manage the city.
Perhaps this council has had the most cooperation in reforming the municipality’s process. Unfortunately, we see that the line of confrontation with critics becomes more prominent and widespread every day. The virtual space indicates an organized effort against Zakani’s critics.
He added, ‘We told Mr. Zakani to explain about the housing deposit and the mayor should not allow people close to him to intervene in municipal matters. We do not know what our crime is that we have to be under pressure every day.’
Mr. Sharbiyani had a speech in the council on May 8 and was put under pressure after that. We are not interested in saying what tools friends use to pressure members.
Eighteen members of the council voted for Mr. Zakani, but today, almost half of the members have serious criticism of his performance. They think that pressure on critics will cause the critics to retreat. No, they will use legal methods. There was no cooperation in the investigation, and we are investigating housing to have the Urban Planning Commission examine the issue. It is not good that the municipality is obstructing.
If the process that the municipality is pursuing in Rey County is not corrected, we will be forced to talk to the people about actions in line with pressure on critics. Know that the council members will stay until the end, but your political experience has shown that you usually do not stay until the end.
Of course, Naser Amani also warned about the pressure on critics, especially Jafar Sharbiyani, a member of the Tehran City Council’s presidium, to the Tehran municipality. These warnings are because the municipality intends for the second time to close Sharbiyani’s office in Shahr-e Rey.