No forgiveness, no future

Mostafa Mehrāyin, Professor of Sociology, has written a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, entitled ‘Without forgiveness, there will be no future’.  

The letter accurately describes the situation of overthrow in which the Iranian regime currently finds itself. It was published on 31 March 2025 on the Telegram channel Tafakor-e Pouya (Dynamic Thought). Here are some excerpts from the letter: 

Mr Khamenei, 

Remember this beautiful quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who, together with Nelson Mandela, transformed apartheid-ravaged South Africa into a living symbol of God's presence on earth. In his description of religious and political life, he writes:

‘God is a movement towards balance, goodness, peace and justice.... Christ says: when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.... No one is an outsider. They are all part of the same circle, the same family: the family of God, the human family.... No one was more desperate than us. God wants others to look at us and find value in us. God wants us to be the light of hope, a possible model. Look at South Africa... no one believes that a problem is unsolvable anymore, anywhere in the world. There is hope for all. 

In my previous letter, I wrote to you that, although your government's record is very weak, the mere title of your last chapter - ‘Iran's scorched earth’ - is enough to disqualify you in the eyes of the people. This disqualification is partly related to our current situation: widespread crisis, deep decadence, collapse of the social order. This situation is the direct result of the political rationality of the Islamic Republic and its two main leaders: Ayatollah Khomeini and yourself.

All you have to do is to distance yourself a little from what you have become, return to the zero point of life and be reborn as a transformed human being. Become a model of forgiveness. Start by forgiving yourself and your past. Then ask people for forgiveness, ask them to give you a second chance: to put everything in its place, to leave power alone and to prepare to meet God. 

Now I ask you this question: how did you become an ‘unacceptable leader’ in the eyes of the people? Have you ever wondered how I became the object of hatred and resentment of an entire society? 

Mr. Khamenei, you have sons and daughters, how can you order the shooting and killing of the children of that same society?