Twitter Reactions to Khamenei's Remarks: 'The Dictatorship Before You Was a Misunderstanding'

The presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former president of Iran, at the inauguration ceremony of Hassan Rouhani's presidency, along with the remarks made by the Supreme Leader of Iran regarding 'dictatorship in the previous regime', has sparked widespread reactions among social media users, especially on Twitter. The inauguration ceremony for Rouhani's second term took place on Thursday, August 12, at the 'Imam Khomeini' Hosseiniyeh, where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, not only provided solutions to the twelfth government but also referred to the previous regime as a symbol of dictatorship. He stated: 'Our new generation should not forget, we experienced the pre-revolution period with all our being; we saw dictatorship, the marginalization of the people, and the disregard for the people's role in governance; our youth have not seen this.' The Iranian leader claimed that due to 'the blessings of the Islamic Revolution... people have come from the margins to the center and have become empowered.' This part of Khamenei's speech faced significant backlash, with some users stating that they too have experienced 'dictatorship' after the 1979 revolution. A user named 'Alice' wrote: 'Sir says we felt the era of dictatorship with flesh and bone. Our youth have not seen it. You have power, sir, we have seen things that you have never heard of.' Another user named 'Balakhah' tweeted: 'If you felt the dictatorship before the revolution with all your being, we have felt and tasted the dictatorship after the revolution with every single cell of our bodies.' One follower of this user also wrote: 'At least the dictatorship before the revolution had some social freedoms, which we do not have now.' A user named 'Me, the Toy' reacted: 'We haven't seen dictatorship?? Honestly, the dictators before you were a misunderstanding.' Another user named 'Ali Zadegan' shared this tweet: 'Not only have we not seen dictatorship, but also child labor, kidney sales, prostitution, political prisoners, chain murders, the massacres of 1999 and 2009, and the killing of the Syrian people.' 'Gavroosh', another active Twitter user, reacted to Khamenei's remarks by writing: 'Pahlavi held public trials for those accused of terrorism; these guys kidnap students and then you hear nothing about them for twenty years. Then he says you haven't seen dictatorship.' Ahmadinejad's presence at Rouhani's inauguration has also generated significant reactions. Some users noted that his presence comes at a time when he is facing serious financial allegations and has recently been embroiled in controversies surrounding the arrest of Hamid Baghaei. The prosecutor of the Court of Audit stated in an interview with the August 8 edition of the 'Etemad' newspaper regarding the 'economic corruption' of Ahmadinejad's government that seven sentences have been issued for violations in five oil cases and two non-oil cases that occurred during his presidency. He added: 'The volume of these violations is very high. Ahmadinejad will never acquire as much as seven thousand billion tomans to be confiscated and returned to the treasury. Therefore, it may not be possible to execute the sentence. In any case, some issues have no grounds for execution.' Reyhaneh Tabatabai, a journalist in Tehran, criticized Ahmadinejad's presence at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday, writing: 'Ahmadinejad, with billions in financial violations and his recent antics, is present at the inauguration while the sick prisoners in house arrest and Khatami are banned from appearing.' A user named 'Incompatible Man' addressed this issue and tweeted: 'If you wish for the regime's downfall, you are invited to the #inauguration ceremony, but if you are a herald of unity and national reconciliation and reforms from within the regime, you have no right to attend!...' A user named 'Ishmish' humorously commented on Ahmadinejad's presence, saying: 'Ahmadinejad is like my uncle, always angry but speaks behind everyone's back, he has taken the rights of his siblings, but he comes to every ceremony and just sits in a corner for dinner.' Omid Tavakoli, another Twitter user, wrote: 'Despite the recent controversies, Ahmadinejad's presence at the inauguration was a decorative move to neutralize the theory that previous presidents will be eliminated after their presidency.'