Iranian Reformist Professor Sadegh Zibakalam: The Original Human Rights Goals of the Islamic Revolution Have Been Distorted by the Iranian Regime

Speaking before a student gathering at an Iranian university, reformist Professor Sadegh Zibakalam stressed that the original goals of the Islamic Revolution were to guarantee freedom of speech and free elections, and to ensure that human rights would not be violated. He elaborated that according to these goals, "the state must not have any political prisoners." Professor Zibakalam warned the students that the regime was trying "to push the original goals of the revolution to the sidelines" so that they would think that hostility toward the West and the demand for the destruction of Israel and America were revolution's original goals. The video was posted on the Iranian Culture Ministry's YouTube channel on November 19, 2016.

Sadegh Zibakalam: In a document, kept in the archives of the central library of Razi University, [it is said] that at the end of an [Ashura] procession [prior to the revolution], the [regime officials] got on a minibus, and recited the historical covenant of the Ashura, saying that they were making certain demands. This document is among the documents of the revolution. Do you know what this covenant says? It says that the state must not have any political prisoners, that we should have freedom of speech...

Applause

It says that there should be no torture, that elections should be free, and that we should have law and order. These were the demands of the Islamic revolution.

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The main reason for the [regime's] emphasis of its hostility toward the US is to push the original goals of the revolution to the sidelines, so that you, the young generation, will not be aware of these original goals, but will think that the reasons we conducted the revolution were to destroy Israel, America, and the West, and to arrest people and attack others. Those who are constantly calling for hostility toward the US - you never hear them talking about freedom of the press. You never hear them talking about the release of the political prisoners. You never hear them talking about free elections. You never hear them talking about law and order. They never talk about such things.

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