The Daughters of Mousavi and Rahnavard Deny Reports of Their Mother's House Arrest Being Lifted

Following reports from some political figures in Iran regarding the lifting of house arrest for Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the daughters of Ms. Rahnavard and Mr. Mousavi announced that no order has been issued for lifting their mother's house arrest and that no progress has occurred in this regard. The newspaper Etemad published a brief interview on Sunday, May 5, with Ismail Doosti, a member of the National Trust Party, who stated, 'Ms. Rahnavard's problem has been resolved, and she has come out of house arrest; her movements have become normal, and she can come and go.' In this context, Ghasem Mirzaei Nikoo, a reformist member of parliament and a member of the committee following up on the lifting of house arrest, also stated on Sunday that the lifting of Ms. Rahnavard's house arrest occurred 'two months ago' by order of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. This parliament member added in an interview with ILNA that 'the order to lift Ms. Rahnavard's house arrest was issued by the Supreme National Security Council, and the notification of this order to her is accurate.' He further mentioned to the website Entekhab that 'Ms. Rahnavard has been free for more than two months and could go anywhere, including her daughter's house. However, she was considering Engineer Mousavi and has been by his side. But ultimately, she can go wherever she wants.' However, these reports were met with a response from the daughters of Zahra Rahnavard and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who described such reports as 'fabrication' and stated that just as no order or resolution was issued for the start and continuation of the house arrest, no resolution or order has been given for its end to this moment. The website Khabar Online reminded that previously, in Bahman 96 (February 2018), when Zahra Rahnavard was taken to her mother's house to visit her before her mother's death, rumors of her house arrest being lifted had circulated. Khabar Online noted that at that time, Ms. Rahnavard emphasized that 'she does not know what the purpose of all this rumor-making is, but like the past seven years, she still has no demand other than the freedom of political prisoners, especially the freedom of imprisoned women.' Zahra Rahnavard has been under house arrest since late Bahman 89 (February 2010), along with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and all three leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election have spent the past seven years under very severe restrictions. The lifting of house arrest for these three individuals was one of the main slogans of Hassan Rouhani's campaign in the 2013 elections and was also a primary demand of Mr. Rouhani's supporters during the 2017 election campaign. Mr. Rouhani and his government officials have repeatedly promised explicitly or implicitly to lift the house arrest since 2013, but this demand has practically faced resistance from other parts of the government, including judicial officials. However, since mid-2017, changes have occurred in the conditions of house arrest; some political figures who are friends of Mr. Karroubi have been allowed limited visits with him. One of these figures is Ismail Doosti from the National Trust Party, who has met with Mehdi Karroubi several times since September 2017 and mentioned in his Sunday interview with Etemad that he also had a brief meeting with Mr. Karroubi last Friday, May 4. Mr. Doosti added that regarding Mr. Karroubi's situation, 'a good opening has occurred, and Mr. Karroubi's relatives have been visiting.' He noted that the circle of visitors to Mr. Karroubi has 'opened up' and 'there may be other visits as well.' Mr. Karroubi's family has not yet responded to these statements, although ILNA reported on Saturday, quoting Hossein Karroubi, that 'our visits with our father are continuously ongoing.' Hossein Karroubi added that he has heard that Mr. Mousavi's sisters and brothers have recently been able to visit them, and 'their children can also stay overnight with their parents, which is also true for Mr. Karroubi's children.' In recent months, some members of parliament have expressed hope that the seven-year house arrest of the leaders of the 2009 protests will soon end with promises from security and judicial officials, but after these promises were not fulfilled, Ali Motahari stated that there seems to be a difference of opinion among judicial and security officials regarding this matter. Recently, Mohammad Khatami has also been quoted criticizing the failure to fulfill Hassan Rouhani's promise regarding the lifting of house arrest and has called on Mr. Rouhani to seriously resolve this issue. Mr. Khatami was one of Hassan Rouhani's main supporters in the last two elections, but the restrictions imposed on him since the 2009 protests have intensified since Mr. Rouhani took office. Meanwhile, it has been reported that after the activation of the committee following up on the lifting of house arrest by reformist representatives in the Iranian parliament, the heads of parliament and the judiciary have met with this committee, but Hassan Rouhani has not yet given an appointment to the members of this committee.