The Issues of Executions and Gender Segregation in Election Campaigns

Hassan Rouhani, for the first time in the history of the presidential election campaign, raised the issue of political executions in the Islamic Republic and, for the third time, brought up the controversial historical topic of 'gender segregation' in the streets by some of his electoral rivals should they win. This candidate for the twelfth presidential election stated on Tuesday (May 7, 2023) in a gathering of his supporters in Hamadan that the people of Iran 'do not accept those who have only known executions and prisons for 38 years.' In his speech, Rouhani referred to the danger posed by individuals, whom he did not name, who, according to him, 'decided one day in a meeting to build walls in Tehran and on the sidewalks, just as they issued a directive for gender segregation in their workplace.' In fact, in this speech, by raising the issue of executions in the Islamic Republic, he initially targeted Ebrahim Raisi and criticized Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf by bringing up the issue of 'gender segregation.' Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, two conservative rivals in this election, have long launched fierce attacks against Rouhani and the performance of the eleventh government. In response to their increasing attacks and criticisms, Rouhani has addressed overarching issues rooted in the history of the Islamic Republic, in which each of these two candidates has played a significant role. On Wednesday (May 8), he also told his supporters at the Shiroodi Stadium in Tehran: 'Please openly say the same things you said in private meetings to the people. Did you not pressure every day to stop women's employment? Look back at your gender-segregation directives, look again at the rulings you issued.' Raisi's and Rouhani's past regarding executions: Ebrahim Raisi, who has over 30 years of judicial experience, is mentioned as one of the perpetrators of the largest massacre of opponents of the Islamic Republic in the summer of 1988. He was the deputy prosecutor at the time of these executions and, alongside the three-member panel of Hossein Ali Niri, Morteza Eshraqi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, appointed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, played a role in these executions. After the executions of 1988, Raisi and Pourmohammadi gradually received promotions and attained high judicial positions. Currently, one of them has become Rouhani's rival, and the other has become a member of his cabinet. Mostafa Pourmohammadi, after Rouhani's victory in the 2013 presidential election, managed to obtain the position of Minister of Justice in the eleventh government despite some protests and opposition. At that time, it was suggested that Rouhani aimed to leverage Pourmohammadi's experience and influence in the judiciary to free some political prisoners and possibly lift the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. However, Pourmohammadi's membership in Rouhani's cabinet, approved by the parliament in August 2013, not only did not lead to lifting the house arrest but also, after years of silence, he stated regarding the release of an audio file of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri criticizing the 1988 executions that he takes pride in executing the 'divine decree.' Pourmohammadi also stated last summer that since the time of those executions until now, 'I have been very calm and have not lost a single night of sleep because I have tried to act according to the law and Sharia.' The topic of the 1988 executions, which became a hot topic in Iran last summer with the release of an audio file of the officials involved in these executions with Mr. Montazeri, has recently turned into a serious discussion following Ebrahim Raisi's candidacy in the twelfth presidential election. Supporters and members of Raisi's campaign, aware of the questions surrounding Raisi's role in the 1988 executions, have launched two Telegram channels titled 'Anti-Destruction' and 'Like Beheshti.' Although Raisi's official website states that he 'never held the position of a ruling cleric during his entire time in the judiciary; he has never issued any judicial rulings and has only accepted executive and prosecutorial positions,' in his supporters' Telegram channels, not only is his role in these executions not denied, but it is also referred to as one of the honors of this presidential candidate. Raisi's campaign and his supporting media had only defended Raisi's performance in this case until Rouhani raised the issue of executions in his campaign speeches. However, from May 7 onward, in response to Rouhani's remarks, they began to publish a document from the current Iranian president, which indicated that at the beginning of the revolution, he called for the 'public execution' of some opponents and 'plotters.' This document pertains to the July 13, 1980 issue of the Information newspaper, which published part of Hassan Rouhani's statements in the open session of parliament regarding the necessity of dealing with opponents and 'plotters.' In this speech, Rouhani called for the public execution of a group of these 'plotters' during Friday prayers, stating that this action would serve as a 'lesson' for others. Conservative opponents of Hassan Rouhani have also attempted to demonstrate through social media that Rouhani not only supported the public execution of opponents in the past but also played a role in the prohibition of satellite usage in Iran. They published a poster titled 'Key-holder,' placing an image of Rouhani today under the word 'Key' with his statements from May 7, 2023, and under the word 'Holder,' an image of Rouhani from the past with his statements about the public execution of plotters. The slogan of this image is: 'I vote for someone who does not hang the key.' The volume and intensity of attacks by Qalibaf's supporters in virtual channels and social media against Hassan Rouhani and the eleventh government are significantly greater than the criticisms and attacks from Raisi's supporters against the current president of Iran. The scope of these attacks has widened since May 7, after Hassan Rouhani indirectly criticized Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf for implementing the gender segregation plan in Tehran's municipality in Hamadan. Rouhani's warning about the implementation of the 'wall-building' plan in the streets and the gender segregation of public pathways in the event of Qalibaf or Raisi's victory in this election has also increased the volume of these attacks. The history of 'wall-building' in the Islamic Republic: Hassan Rouhani can be considered the third presidential candidate in the history of the Islamic Republic to raise the issue of 'wall-building' by his rivals in the event of winning the election during his campaign. The history of 'wall-building' or 'gender segregation' in Iran dates back to the years 1984 to 1985, which was supposed to be implemented in Iranian universities based on two speeches by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Conservative Telegram networks and Raisi and Qalibaf's campaign teams have published two statements from Ali Khamenei following Rouhani's speech in Hamadan, one of which pertains to a Friday prayer in 1985, and the other relates to a meeting in 2002 between the Supreme Leader and Mohammad Khatami's government. In the first statement, which is said to be from 1985, Ali Khamenei, as the then-president, announced the halt of the 'wall-building' plan in universities and opposed it. Between 1984 and 1985, Mohammad Ali Najafi (1980-1983) and Iraj Fazel (1983-1984) were the ministers of science, and Mohammad Farhadi held this position from 1985 to 1989. A group of conservatives in recent days has named Mohammad Ali Najafi and Mohammad Farhadi as the executors of the 'wall-building' plan in universities, but no credible and independent source has confirmed these reports. In the second statement, which pertains to a meeting of Khamenei with members of Mohammad Khatami's government in 2002, the Supreme Leader criticized the change in approach and method of this plan without naming its executor. In this statement, Khamenei said that the organizers of mixed student camps {the officials of the Ministry of Science in Khatami's government} are the same people who intended to build walls in universities in the years 1984 and 1985, but now they have changed 180 percent. Conservatives, by publishing these two statements, attempted to show that the initiators and executors of the 'wall-building' plan in universities and 'gender segregation' in Iran are leftist forces currently operating under the reformist movement. The entry of the 'wall-building' issue into election campaigns also dates back to the 1997 presidential election when leftist forces warned that if Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri could defeat Mohammad Khatami in this election, he would implement this plan. In 2005, this issue was repeated against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but it did not have much effect, and Ahmadinejad managed to take over the executive branch by defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. After about 12 years since the last time such a warning was raised by reformists against Ahmadinejad, Rouhani has once again expressed this warning in Hamadan and expressed concern about the implementation of this plan. In his remarks, Rouhani did not name any individual or organization but implicitly referred to Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's gender segregation plan in Tehran's municipality. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, on July 18, 2013, defended gender segregation in his management, stating that we have 'religious zeal' and should not allow women to interact and contact 'non-mahrams' more than their husbands in offices. Qalibaf made these remarks following increased protests against a directive from the Tehran municipality's deputy council prohibiting the employment of women in positions such as office managers, secretaries, and typists. At that time, the separation of rooms for women and men in municipal offices was also among the plans announced for implementation by the Tehran municipality. Qalibaf, defending this action, stated that the increased interaction of women with non-mahrams compared to their husbands and children 'negatively affects the family unit.' However, Qalibaf reacted to Rouhani's remarks and told his supporters, 'Is the sidewalk a women's and men's bathroom that we should build walls in? ... Speak in ways that you do not laugh at yourselves in private and do not insult the understanding and intelligence of this nation.' During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, the implementation of the gender segregation plan in some universities, especially Allameh Tabatabai University, made headlines, but officials in the Ministry of Science stated that the president of the ninth and tenth governments was 'against' implementing this plan. Supporters of Hassan Rouhani have also recently published images on social media and Telegram channels showing gatherings of Ebrahim Raisi's supporters in various cities of Iran, indicating that the areas where women and men were present at his speeches were separated by thick fabrics. Raisi, in one of these gatherings held on May 9 in Kerman, responded to Hassan Rouhani's remarks, stating that if he wins the election, he will build a 'high wall' between 'plunderers' and 'the rights of the people.' He also told his supporters in Ahvaz that '{government officials} have no record; they scare the people, saying they want to build walls. Why do you underestimate the intelligence of the people?' Saeed Jalili also, on May 9, in a speech attacking Hassan Rouhani, told him, 'The nation is shouting today that unemployment is my problem, and you say they want to build walls somewhere? Isn't this shameful? Is this your four-year record?' Although Rouhani's rivals have not refrained from responding to his criticisms, he has so far shown that he insists on raising these two criticisms. This is the first time that one of the election candidates has made the two issues of opposing the issuance of death sentences for some political activists and gender segregation, which have previously been more commonly raised by opponents of the Islamic Republic, the centerpiece of his election campaign. It seems that Rouhani has turned to using the discourse of opponents and critics of the Islamic Republic to eliminate his rivals; a trend that also indicates the influence of the opposition discourse on the political atmosphere within Iran. Ahmad Tavakoli, a former parliament member, has also criticized Rouhani in a letter to the people of Iran, stating that he sees Rouhani 'drawing a sword against the Islamic Republic in the guise of an opposition figure' and added, 'If Imam were here or if there were no tolerance and patience from the leadership, would you have dared to draw a sword against the system?' He referred to Rouhani's mention of the two issues of gender segregation and executions in his election speeches as 'transformation' and addressed the Iranian president, saying: 'If you speak the truth, with that high level of security background, you are complicit in the good and evil of the system's performance at the highest level and cannot claim to be someone else. And if these words are nothing more than slander and insult—which they are—to attract the votes of the system's opponents, woe to you.'