Khomeini’s granddaughter fears arrest
Exhorts Iran’s leaders to practise democracy
Agranddaughter of Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has attacked the current regime’s “deviation” from the goals of his revolution, criticized leaders for failing to allow democracy to flourish, and said she fears arrest and jail.
Naeimeh Eshraghi, a Tehran-based engineer, has told The Telegraph that she wants to see an opening up of Iranian society with people free to express themselves.
She also warned the West that the crippling sanctions being imposed on Iran were having the effect of increasing the suffering of the people while having little impact on the leaders.
Eshraghi is an enthusiastic user of Facebook and has on occasion shared her pro-democracy views and made critical comments about the country’s leadership. She has built up a following of about 5,000 friends on her account, which she can access only by using illegal “filtering busting” technology that circumvents the country’s firewall.
She said she felt it was a duty to resist the increasingly harsh system imposed by Ayatollah Ali Khame- nei, her grandfather’s successor as a Supreme Leader.
“My grandfather’s system of spiritual guidance of the government rested its legitimacy on people’s consent,” she said.
Eshraghi — a qualified petrochemical engineer who last year supported a campaign against laws requiring women to wear hijabs—objects to the government’s efforts to close off Iran’s Internet users from the world.
“It is high time that the governments of Iran resorted to practicing democracy and refrained from confronting individuals and nongovernment groups,” she said.
“It is only when this happens and we have free and widespread communications and the opening up of our borders to the outside world, both geographically and socially, that we can secure the progress and prosperity of Iran.”
Eshraghi said that despite her place in Iran’s most prominent revolutionary family — pictures of her as a girl on her grandfather’s lap form the strapline on her Facebook page — she was vulnerable to a crackdown on free speech on the Internet.
“Not only am I concerned that the security forces may one day knock on my door, but also in fact think that it is quite possible that this may happen and then I would not be different from many other prominent free thinkers of our country who have ended up being in jail,” she said. But she added that the regime would face a backlash within the country’s establishment for such a high-profile arrest.