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Al-Monitor – A young Iranian cleric lit social media on fire with claims that a censorship committee blocked his speech to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a recent visit with clerics.
Hojat al-Islam Heydar Abbasi, a former student official with Basij Organization, took to his Telegram account to publish the text of his speech that he says caused him to be eliminated as one of those who was to deliver a speech to Khamenei. Abbasi’s speech, which was never delivered, first begins with some of the positive outcomes of the Iranian revolution. However, it quickly dives into his many criticisms.
Abbasi complained of the “governmentalized” nature of student groups that he says have a “top-down aspect,” whereas the revolution had always aspired to have the people’s participation. He wrote that this tiered system has made the people secondary to the state and government.
Abbasi also wrote that there is a new trend in interpreting the role of the supreme leader, which he framed as wanting to “please” the leader. He wrote that this frame of thinking automatically ostracizes anyone who wants to criticize the leader. He asked rhetorically, “In the seminaries and universities, shouldn’t the environment be free in order to think about the issues of the revolution? Are all the intellectual activities correct only when they are limited to the statements of Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] and yourself?”
He discussed the issue of corruption and elitism in both elected and appointed positions in the government, and he asked Khamenei what his views on them were.
After the text of the speech went viral, Abbasi added information about the censorship process while following up on Telegram. He said there was a committee specifically designed to review the text of those who were to deliver a speech to Khamenei, adding that the committee was opposed to “any type of critical or questioning” text in the speech.
Abbasi wrote that this committee made both general and specific editorial requests of the text and did not present clear criteria of what was acceptable and what was not. He wrote that the only general criteria explained to him by some of the committee members was to speak in a way that “Agha [Khamenei] would like.”
In response to Abbasi’s claim of censorship, many people on Twitter shared clips of an older Khamenei speech in which he discussed criticisms addressed to him. “Do not think that I become upset when I hear such things [criticisms],” Khamenei said. “For if these things were not said, I’d become upset.” He continued, “I welcome criticism. And many do. There is a great deal of criticism.”
Some Iranian Twitter users brought up Khamenei’s recent meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and his new administration. In the meeting, Khamenei urged Rouhani to “listen to the voices of criticism.” Iranian Twitter accounts used the hashtag “Agha would like it” to share various criticisms of the censorship process and other social and political issues in Iran.
