Ahmad Khatami: We haven’t had days as difficult as these in the past 44 years
Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts’ presidium, acknowledged that the Islamic Republic’s governance hasn’t faced days as challenging as the months of protests in the past 44 years.
The interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran, speaking at the assembly of scholars and clerics in Semnan about the nationwide protests, said that there was a lot of mischief; they bypassed factions and parties, and reformists and conservatives made no difference to them. Their issue was bypassing the system.
The member of the Guardian Council’s jurists also dismissed the change of the system and claimed that the change in governance, which is being heavily promoted these days, is meaningless. In the constitution, four principles are unchangeable: the Islamic nature of the system, the republican nature of the system, the guardianship of the jurist, and the official religion of the country.
He described the slogan ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ as promoting nudity.
The interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran has had many controversial stances on hijab, including saying in the summer of 2022 that many unveiled women are the wives and children of thieves and embezzlers.
Ahmad Khatami has been on the European Union’s sanctions list since December of this year due to gross human rights violations and participation in crackdowns.