Faezeh Hashemi's letter from Evin prison to Ayatollah Khamenei

Hello, I am Faizeh Hashemi from the women's ward of Evin prison. Your Excellency's statements with a group of students on April 18, 2023 about the referendum blew my mind. The negation of a democratic principle of the constitution was a cause for concern on your part. For years, we have witnessed the widespread and systematic violation of Iranian citizens' rights by the government, contrary to what is said in the word, but this time with a strange heresy and without maintaining appearance, as if what you had in your heart for a long time was spoken without will. In order to show the depth of the disaster and based on the last sentence of Article 107 of the Constitution, I would like to present these words sentence by sentence, justifying the answer to each one and citing historical evidence:

1- Are various issues of the country subject to referendum?

Answer - Article 59 of the Constitution refers to public votes and predicts important issues, as well as issuing a referendum decree is one of the duties of Your Excellency in the third paragraph of Article 110.

2- Where in the world do they do this?

Answer - A few recent cases of holding referendums in democratic countries are mentioned just for example: England 2014 and 2016 / Switzerland four times a year on average / Australia 1999 / Italy 2016 / Denmark 2015 / Canada 1995 / Spain 2017 / Sweden 2013 / Gosti Small on the Internet provides you with complete information about all the referendums held in the world.

3- Do all the people who participate in the referendum have the possibility to analyze that issue?

Answer - A - How is it that the Palestinians have the power and the possibility of analysis to choose their type of government based on your proposal, but the people of Iran do not? B- Is this sentence an insult to the people who participated in the revolution, the referendum for the election of the "Islamic Republic", 22 Bahman, elections, Quds days, funerals, Friday prayers, the 9th of Diy and other governmental gatherings, and also to the whole Isn't it the people of Iran? The presence that you have always boasted as the people's foundation of the government. It seems that the people who are with you have the possibility of analysis, and otherwise, they are unanalyzed and sometimes traitors and foreign mercenaries. The policy of one roof and many airs?

4- The words of the people are what exists now, that is, the election of the president and members of parliament.

Answer - Has the absolute power and extra-legal discretionary control actually allowed the freedom to vote (free choice) and become a candidate? Is the participation of 35% (with optimism) in the last presidential election the words of all people? If you believe in the people's choice, then why has almost no president been able to fulfill the minimum demands of the voters in the shadow of opinions and appointments and the creation of parallel institutions and sometimes the assignment of tasks by your Excellency and peers? People say one thing and you say another. If this is what the people say, then why are you worried about holding a referendum, your words will be confirmed and Russia will be left in the coals.

5- One of the evils is haste, it should not be done.

Answer - Is the passage of 44 years and the existence of several generations after the revolution with different opinions and interests a rush??!!! Isn't the evil worse than haste (in the words of your Excellency), retrogression and suppression of public demands and not being in tune with the times? Isn't the referendum objectifying Mr. Khomeini's statement, "What right did our fathers have to decide for us?"

6- Emigration and flight of elites and flight of capital and despair, expulsions and exclusions and convictions and prisons and prosecutions and repressions and executions, poverty and unemployment, corruption and addiction and prostitution, destruction of material assets and spiritual and social and managerial crises and bipolarities, neglecting the national interests and people's rights, to what extent should the referendum on important and fundamental issues and determining the fate of the country and the people become a priority and more than that for survival Shouldn't an inefficient and incompetent government step on human and legal principles?

7- In the end, I would like to borrow from your own literature to raise this question: Is a policy that violates and insults people's indisputable legal principles and basic and self-evident rights not accompanied by ignorance, betrayal and enmity?

2023 May 13 Faizeh Hashemi