Greeny News

Exclusive: Zahra Rahnavard, wife of defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, says opposition remains strong despite repression and violence under Ahmadinejad regime since disputed election a year ago

Iran's opposition Green movement, fighting for democracy since the disputed election a year ago, has not been crushed despite having to call off protests in the face of government repression, says a defiant Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of the defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Rahnavard, a high-profile academic, sculptor and campaigner for women's rights, says she is prepared to "face the gallows" in the struggle for freedom â€" but insists the movement her husband leads is reformist, not revolutionary, and wants to see respect for the Iranian constitution.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, her first for a British newspaper since mass unrest erupted last June, Rahnavard lambasts the Islamic regime for its "Tiananmen-style" attack on demonstrators protesting that their votes had been stolen by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"This movement started with the simple question: 'Where is my vote?'" she said. "But because the response was violence and bullets and repression from the ruling regime, the situation entered another phase which was completely unpredictable. People's demands have changed so now there are more fundamental questions and more intensive criticism of the regime. The Islamic republic has deviated from its path and goals.

"We are still pursuing our ideals of 30 years ago [the Islamic revolution of 1979]. But the current government is the result of an electoral coup d'etat. The Green movement has not been defeated at all. It is going forward."

Rahnavard, 64, said she opposed the sanctions passed this week by the UN security council against Iran enriching uranium that the west fears will be used to build nuclear weapons. "Sanctions are only harmful for the people of Iran," she warned. "The Iranian government is rich with oil money and the money is at its disposal. Sanctions would not affect such a government."

The Greens appreciated the international sympathy they had attracted, she said, but the "movement is not looking for the support of foreign governments at all and wants to stands on its own".

Rahnavard, a grandmother who wears colourful headscarves over her black chador, broke with tradition by campaigning with her husband â€" even holding hands with him in public â€" and quipped that Michelle Obama was "America's answer" to her. She poured scorn on Ahmadinejad after he attacked her in a TV debate by suggesting her academic qualifications were earned not on merit but through patronage and corruption.

Life under pressure from the regime and its supporters was not easy, Rahnavard said. She had been beaten and sprayed with pepper gas, she said. Mousavi's bodyguard was arrested recently. Harrassment, abuse and danger were constant. Protests planned for tomorrow to mark the anniversary of the election have been called off because of fears of more violence by the security forces.

"Each of us is able to function as a secretary, bodyguard, typist and adviser," she said. "We've learned how to work in the time of dictatorship and repression and how to struggle for our goals. Although we are not as free as before we still have our circle of friends who we meet often. We write our own statements, type them ourselves and send them to people all over the world and we try hard to keep our dialogue with our own people alive."

Rahnavard said the Green movement was composed of many groups â€" women, teachers, workers and students. "They are all working with each other like the fingers of one hand. The regime has not yet understood how well organised it is."

Rallies in solidarity with the Iranian people are planned in 83 cities across the world this weekend. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both documented extensive repression, violence and abuses by the regime.

Britain and the US are expected to issue statements to mark the election's anniversary, seeking to balance support for democracy with the need to avoid charges they want to undermine the regime.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, called it "regrettable" that protests in Iran had to be cancelled. "It demonstrates very clearly why the Iranian regime has caused so much concern throughout the world," she said. "We hope there will be a response from the Iranian government to their own people's aspirations."

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, warned that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within one to three years but there was still time for the world to pressure Tehran.

"I think that everybody agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis, and we will just continue to work it," Gates said in Brussels.

Iran's ambassador to the UN's nuclear watchdog insisted it would not stop enriching uranium because of the sanctions. "We will not, even for a second, suspend our nuclear enrichment activities," Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters.

On another front, a senior MP in Tehran has warned Iran will start inspecting foreign vessels in the Gulf if Iranian ships receive such treatment under the new UN sanctions.

"The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf will be our field of manoeuvre in this regard and whoever harbours the intention of hurting or damaging us will be damaged severely in return," said Hossein Ibrahimi, deputy head of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission.

Greeny NEWS