The family resemblance is not immediate. With his slight Ch’ti accent, blue tie, clean-shaven face and good nature, Mahmoud Moradkhani shares few similarities with his uncle, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The nephew of the Iranian head of state does not hold back his blows against the Tehran regime, he who has lived in France for more than thirty years. “Our family is a bit special, the regime grants us a little immunity, so I take advantage of it, jokes this fifty-year-old, ENT doctor near Lille. Many Iranians wonder why I haven’t been killed yet, but it’s not It doesn’t matter: as long as I’m not dead, I live and I protest.”
His family, who remained in Iran, enjoys this freedom more with difficulty. His sister, in particular, was imprisoned for several years after criticizing her uncle’s dictatorship. According to Mahmoud Moradkhani, however, she would be well treated behind bars, the privilege of the niece of the Supreme Guide… Same thing for their mother, who did not hesitate, last December, to support the demonstrators opposed to the “despotic caliphate”. of his own brother, Ali Khamenei. At over 80, she has not suffered any reprisals.
His uncle, a dictator like Hitler or Ceausescu
Since September and the start of the Iranian people’s uprising, the northern doctor has been following the situation there on a daily basis. He dialogues with members of the opposition in exile, tries to find common ground and mobilize the international community. Cautious, he refuses to make any predictions for the future of his native country, but wants to be optimistic despite the repression and demonstrations that are less and less visible. “Fear has fallen, there is no longer this respect for the mullahs which, unfortunately, has existed for too long in Iran, judge Mahmoud Moradkhani. Ali Khamenei cannot take a step back, otherwise all his power collapses This terrible repression can interrupt the demonstrations, but only momentarily: the Iranian people are not going to stop there and this regime must disappear.” More than 480 people have been killed by security forces since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16.
Today, the nephew does not have enough harsh words against Ayatollah Khamenei, in power since 1989, whom he compares to the worst dictators in history. “By dint of lies, the liar locks himself in his own story, blows the doctor. Adolf Hitler followed the same path. Nicolae Ceausescu was convinced, until the last minute, of being the father of the people…” But Mahmoud Moradkhani also recounts another Ali Khamenei, the one before the Islamic Revolution, very different from the current cold monster.
Mahmoud Moradkhani, doctor in France and nephew of the Iranian Supreme Guide, in Paris on January 25, 2023.
© / The Express
“He was my favorite uncle…”
In his childhood, he regularly visited his uncle, who lived for a time in his parents’ house. Mahmoud Moradkhani paints the portrait of a warm and cultured man, interested in the world around him, a thousand leagues from the obscurantist who has reigned over Iran for 33 years. “He was our tenant for two years, just after his marriage, when he still had little money, says Mahmoud Moradkhani. He was nice, very sociable, was interested in poetry and music. I remember that I was lighting his pipe. He was my favorite uncle… It always gets me in trouble when I say that, but it’s not political: before the revolution, he was someone like everyone else!”
The family break dates back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Mahmoud Moradkhani’s father was then a Shiite religious leader, professor of theology, but opposed to the formation of a mullahs’ regime. “My father was a member of the Assembly of Elders to establish the Constitution, he refused to sign it and to entrust political power to the religious, recalls Mahmoud Moradkhani. He was a pupil of Khomeini [le premier Guide de la Révolution]who loved him dearly, which allowed him to be spared when he was one of the first to oppose him.”
His father quickly left Iran for Iraq, then it was Mahmoud Moradkhani’s turn to leave in 1985, after a last unsuccessful meeting with his uncle, who had become President of the Islamic Republic. He crosses the border with Pakistan, before joining France. No return possible. “Do you want me dead?” He pretends to be indignant when asked if he has ever set foot in his native country. “To pass the competitions, you had to swear allegiance to the regime, says the doctor, trained at the Cochin hospital in Paris. I didn’t want to lie, so you had to leave.”
Mahmoud Moradkhani is aware that his role, as “nephew of…”, is above all symbolic. He nevertheless tries to bring together the various oppositions to the Iranian regime in Europe. “The most important question we ask ourselves in Iran is to know what will come next, believes the doctor. This is the reason why the majority remains silent: the opposition has not yet succeeded in to answer this question, to formulate a clear program and to erase the fear of the people for the future.” According to him, many mullahs are now opposed to the regime but will not rise up, for fear of being condemned despite everything in the event of the regime’s fall.
From his stronghold of Croix, near Lille, Mahmoud Moradkhani considers himself safe from the Islamic Republic, despite his criticisms of the regime. “I have at least 30 or 40 people who come to see me every day at the ENT office, he smiles, raising his hands to the sky. I have no protection and I don’t need it.” Yet another difference with his uncle.