Mr. Ahmadinejad, it’s enough. Shame on you! Open your eyes!

In the past three months, millions of the Iranians declared that they don’t want you; in different tones, in the campaigns before the elections, on the day of the election and during the protests after the election; despite and your ruthless and cruel oppression. Have you asked yourself even once that why these people don’t like you and why they show you their dislike, even for the price of their securities and lives?

In between the justifications that even you don’t believe in them, in between your meetings with your companions when you blame everybody, from the east to the western ends of the world, for inciting the Iranian people to uprising in objection to your policies, have you ever asked yourself why these people do not give up?

Mr. Ahmadinejad,

How many times have you claimed the death of Neda is ‘suspicious’? Have you ever asked yourself what had she done to deserve such a fate? Despite all the undeniable evidences and proofs published about Neda’s death, what evidence have you published to show that you are telling the truth? In the election debates you said that liars are cowards. But you lied even then. Liars are shameless, they don’t have a conscience. The liars shoot a young and innocent girl in the chest in the broad daylight and then blame fantastic conditions for her death.

Mr. Ahmadinejad,

Since you have become the president, we have rarely heard a truth coming out of your mouth. The lust for power has burned your soul and conscience. Superstitions and populism have corrupted your ability to distinguish good from evil and its outcome for our people has been nothing but decay, destruction of the industries, ruining of our agriculture, demolition of our culture, devastation of our press and publishing industry, obliteration of sports, thousands of people becoming refugees, obliteration of the hopes of a three thousand years old nation and leaving a graveyard full of the graves our of innocent youth behind.

Have you asked yourself what do these people want?

Have you considered giving them what they want?

I will tell you what they want. Although I know you already know, and I know that you cannot grant their wishes, because if you put aside the mask of the tyrant you have chosen, there will be nothing left of you but a helpless man, even though being helpless is much better than being a tyrant.

1. People want to be free to choose their leaders. They want to choose anyone they want, regardless of gender, religion or race. Do people have this right in Iran?
2. People want the rule of the majority while respecting the rights of the minority. Have these rights been respected? Haven’t you levelled the gathering hall of the Dervishes who were even Shiite Muslims? Do the different ethnic groups with different religions, the Zorastrians, Christians, Jewes, Kurds, Lors, Turks, Beluchs, have the same rights as the rest of the people?
3. People want their individual rights to be respected. They don’t want a law that gives the rulers the power to command people what to wear and what to not, what to eat and drink and what to not, and what to say and what to not. Are these individual rights being respected in Iran?
4. People want justice. They want to be treated as equals before the law. Do you really believe that people are equal before the law? Have you treated the people arrested in the streets the same way that you treated the armed shooter of Saiid Hajjarian?
5. People want responsibility. They want to know how their national assets are being spent. They want to know why billions of dollars of their national capital is transferred to other countries.
6. People want leaders who would answer to them; not a President who would reply to a reporter asking whether you have stolen the elections: ‘I don’t understand you.’
7. People want freedom of expression. You have claimed several times that there is an absolute freedom of speech in Iran which means that you don’t know the meaning of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression means not to break the pens and necks of anyone who dares say something against your will; not to kill those who shout that they don’t want you. It means that the press shouldn’t be terrified to say something that would end in their shut-down and the unemployment of hundreds of people. It means that there should be no book censorship; people should be free to choose their vocations. It means that there is no one who is not authorised to be published or broadcasted. It means that besides succumbing to your will, imprisonments or exile, there should be another option available to the journalists. There should be no books banned. There should be freedom of information exchange and no internet filtering. Someone who doesn’t want you should be as secure as someone who wants you. Do you still claim that there is freedom of speech in Iran?
8. People want freedom of joy. Have you ever been joyful in your life? I can’t believe that you might know the meaning of joy, as I have already seen you joyful expressions: In your feasts, you have called the Iranian experts ‘goats’ and your people ‘dust’; you have shouted cries of joys over the collective graves of those opposing you peacefully. People want joy, and joy does not follow any rules, there is no law for how to be joyful. There number of the ways that people find joy equals the number of people. Some find joy in dancing; the others might find it in their religious ceremonies.
9. People want freedom to choose. Do you know what it means? It means to accept that there isn’t a unique way towards happiness and redemption. It means to accept that the number of paths towards redemption equals the number of people seeking happiness.
10. People want freedom of identity. Do you know the meaning of it? It means to accept that not everyone has to behave according to the standards defined by you.
11. People want the right to assembly. These assemblies are not necessarily in harmony with your interests. But you cannot prevent the assembly, no matter how small, of a group of people.
12. People don’t want to be hated by other countries; they want to help in bringing prosperity and happiness to this small planet, shoulder to shoulder with all the people in the world.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, I’m afraid that because of ignoring the requests of your people, you have turned into one of the most hated figures in the history, among your own people. Even Hitler and Mussolini and Genghiz Khan were not hated as much among their own people. But it is not too late. You can always redeem yourself from being embarrassed in the court of History.

I ask you, as a writer and as an intellectual, to read this letter once more in your solitude and then decide where in History you want to stand, beside your people or against them. When you make your decision, do not forget that the rulers will always pass and there will be nothing left of them but a good or bad name. But the people are eternal and these people will get these twelve requests, with or without you.

Don’t let your destiny be like the Iranian prince, Esfandiar, who was invincible and his only weak point was his eyes, and because of ignoring the reality with those eyes, he was slain.

Arash Hejazi