IND: An interview with Mohsen Makhmalbaf by his daughter, Hana.  As one of the unofficial spokesman for the Green Movement, Mr. Makhmalbaf may want to shorten his comments, and reduce his 1,2,3, etc. listings so he could be more reader friendly.  Nevertheless, this is a very interesting conversation.

Hana Makhmalbaf  Q: Can the Green Movement achieve victory?

Mohsen Makhmalbaf: Prediction is difficult. But generally there are two prospect about the future of Green Movement, pessimistic prospect & optimistic prospect.

Let’s start from the pessimistic one

Khamenei & IRGC oppress the people and western powers don’t perform anything (regime satisfies the western powers using a few economical contracts, so we have to wait again since June 5 to February 11).

And the optimistic view?
Reasons behind this vision are comprehensive:

- First: in aspects of number of people: 40 million people participated in the election and 3 million demonstrators who filled the streets on June 15. Silence demonstrations in Tehran streets that had millions of participators; Qods Day’s massive demonstration (predicted in order of millions) in spite of murder, prison, torture & rape.

- Second: in aspects of span: I mean both inside & outside of Iran. Even before revolution there were not situations that more than 100 cities had a massive & concurrent protest outside of Iran.

- Three: in aspects of weight: (experts, educated people, students) that was not the case in 1978 revolution.

- Four: in aspects of intensity: The Green movement is like earthquake. Everyday it performs an action. The movement has moved from a fully democratic atmosphere before the election to a radical atmosphere after the election.

- Five: in aspects of depth: The Green movement has penetrated from the surface to internal layers of the society. In comparison to reform movement that belonged to experts, Green movement is well-matched with people dialog. Members of Green movement have selected the violence-free strategy for their combat, and although they don’t know any combat technique but they are harmonizing.

- Six: It is based on several cultures: All cultures are involved in the Green Movement.

- Seven: It covers all parts of the society: previous movements belonged only to clerics, students or women. But the Green Movement consists of all parts of the society. In Qods day 30% of tented women were added to the Greens.

- Eight: It covers all organizations: No one represents the movement. Atom particles gathered and generated the core energy of movement. Green movement is a particle system in micro level but is core-based in macro level. These particles are changed to a social bomb. A non-central movement. Although it has a joint goal but it is against tyrannical system. It is against the supreme leader (Velayat Faqih). It is against Ahmadinejad. It is against the guardian council. But it combats in a versatile, initiative & robust way. It is self-motivated in a non-organizational way.

- Nine: it is moral based: Members regard morality, do not insult, do not perform violently, don’t deceive, and do not disrespect their opposition. So they are rational.

- Ten: it is inside-oriented: The movement looks inside the country, even the foreigners wait for something to happen in streets of Tehran. Gatherings made by Iranians outside the country also try to support their countrymen inside Iran.

- Eleven: it is secular: It doesn’t demand political Islam, it is not anti-religion rather it is against political power of Mullahs.

- Twelve: It is symbolic: from Green color to displaying two fingers (as Victory sign) are symbols of the movement.

- Thirteen: it looks for prestige: The movement has not still chanted in demand of economic & welfare aspects. People believe: “Ahmadinajed has humiliated us”. We are looking for the respect that matches each human.