Faezeh Hashemi, political activist and the daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former second most powerful man in Iran pointed out the “widespread intervention of security forces in many fields including the economy, election, and courts,” and said: Before the revolution, the slogan was “one car for every Iranian,” but now the macro-policy of the Islamic Republic is to control the Iranian people and “one judicial case for each Iranian.”

In an interview on Tuesday, Hashemi talked about the current distance between the Iranian people and the Islamic Republic and said: “This distance was created much earlier and the gap has widened and deepened over the years.”

“Straying further from the people’s demands in regime’s foreign and domestic policies and the increasing use of force to implement these policies has caused this gap,” she added.

With the parliamentary elections in just a few days, Hashemi, a former member of parliament, said: “In our country, we have several elections (parliament, Assembly of Experts, President, city council). Elections are held but in reality, it is the will of the minority that is implemented.”

She also blamed the reformists for the gap between the people and the regime and said: “A majority of the reformists in power have forgotten the indicators of reformism; the most important of which are meritocracy, change of the elite in power, fighting corruption, no monopolies, and… which didn’t happen.”

Hashemi also criticized the regime for not accepting the FATF rules in order to start using the INSTEX financial channel.

While pointing out Iran’s regional policies, Hashemi said: “We can’t do whatever we want and expect the world to stand with us.”

She questioned the supreme leader Khamenei’s “Resistance” slogan and asked: Resistance against whom and for what? ... What are we trying to gain by resisting? … We are going backward.”