In an interview with Le Monde newspaper Zahra Rahnavard, wife of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, has spoken of new demonstrations in the wake of the first year anniversary of the rigged presidential election of June 12, 2009.
Ms Rahnavard said that the reason that authorities had not yet arrested her or her husband was that they “do not intend to further provoke the people.” “The regime uses other means of exerting pressure,” she said. “And so they have arrested my brother, an apolitical engineer in electronics who spent six months in solitary confinement and under physical and psychological pressures. Even his son was arrested for a month. Later my husband’s nephew was killed during the demonstrations of the Ashura ceremony.”
The interview with the French newspaper comes just weeks before the anniversary of last June’s fraudulent presidential election. Mousavi and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi have both called for demonstrations to mark the first anniversary on 12 June.
Rahnavard added that the government’s media had launched a campaign of “character assassination” against the leaders of the Green Movement and herself. “But my husband, as well as Mr Karroubi and Mr Khatami are resisting against everything so that the demands of the Iranian people are met.” She also pointed out the attacks against her with tear gas in Tehran University and with electric batons during the 11 February protests. “Since then I’ve had headaches and lung problems. But I am ready to die if it can save those who fight for freedom. I am ready to sacrifice, for prison, for torture, in the name of liberty. I am not afraid. I am a believer and I feel protected by God. But if my family becomes the victim of a serious problem or a plot, I declare right now that the regime will be held responsible.”
Rahnavard, university professor and former president of Al-Zahra University in Tehran, stated that the Green Movement was a movement for the realisation of the demands of the people and a continuation of the constitutional revolution of 1906. “And the presidential election was an opportunity for voicing these demands: freedom, rule of law, democracy. What it wants is reforms. It wants a civil society. It is peaceful. I stress that it is peaceful, even if the other side resorts to arms and uses violence. The final victory will one day come to the people.”

source: The Green Voice of Freedom