Iran: Commemoration Service For MirEsmail Mousavi Cancelled
The family of Iranian opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi has announced that the service planned to commemorate MirEsmail Mousavi this Sunday has been cancelled.
In a statement published on Kaleme website, the family indicates that a service planned at Noor Mosque has been cancelled. The daughters of MirHosein Mousavi had announced earlier that the service was planned for Sunday night and the public would be informed about the details.
MirEsmail Mousavi was the father of MirHosein Mousavi, former Iranian prime minister and leader of the Green Movement of protest against the current government. The senior Mousavi passed away last Wednesday at the age of 103, while his son was under house arrest.
On Thursday,MirEsmail Mousavi’s burial was interrupted by security forces who grabbed the body from the mourners as it was being carried to the cemetery. Iranian security forces also prevented people from gathering at the grave.
Mousavi’s daughters told Kaleme that security forces had told them to keep the burial and funeral of their grandfather as low-key as possible, a clear attempt to avoid any large gathering of protesters.
Mousavi’s daughter also indicated that their mother and father, MirHosein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, were given half an hour on Wednesday night for a visitation with the deceased but were not allowed to attend the funeral.
Several opposition figures and dissident clergy members have issued messages of condolence to the Mousavi family: the family of Ayatollah Montazeri, Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, Ayatollah Dastgheib, the Karroubi and Beheshti families, former president, Mohammad Khatami, as well as the chairman of the Expediency Council, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Conspicuously silent on the matter is the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is closely related to the Mousavi family. According to Rahesabz website, he once took shelter in the same house where MirEsmail Mousavi passed away, during an extended period prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution.
MirHosein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have been under strict house arrest since opposition leaders called for people to march on February 14 in support of the recent Arab uprisings.
