“Of course, everyone knows that I’m also opposed to the Iranian regime and I have said that we must change the regime. But it is us, the Iranians, that must change the regime.”

All manners of freedom, including freedom of expression, freedom of conscious, freedom of thought…it accepts tolerance. But it is not an atheist society.

The solutions to the problems of the distraught lower strata of society are problems that can only be solved in the context of an overall political, cultural, economic development.

If you look at the discourse before the revolution, whether it is the left communist, whether it is the right secularist.

There is no possibility of a public demonstration [in Iran] of such defiance, but these defiant acts are certainly going on.

The ecological movement is concerned about this, and this is in here, where everything is public.

I have spent six years in prison, the last six years. Even if I was outside the prison, how much actual space was there for an investigative journalist to do his work in Iran?

We can certainly be on the same side and the same front with the workers and with the oppressed people of Iran. We can certainly be on the same front with them.

Iran is going to get between $50 to $55 billion in oil revenue, which is unheard of in the history of the revolution.

It is not clear what they have bought, how many secondhand materials they have bought. I am very worried that something like Chernobyl will happen to Iran.

The regime kept saying that all of my opponents are lackeys of the United States.

The number of the opposition has certainly increased [in Iran].

We should put away the militaristic outlook.

We have two kinds of oppression. Oppression that is universal – everyone in Iran is subject to it. But everyone has also their own, unique way of experiencing this oppression.

They are the kind of dishonest and populist slogans that we are not willing to use.

I did join the Revolutionary Guard, but I was simply a simple Revolutionary Guard, never a commander.

The situation began to change, revolutionary conditions was created…we simply wanted to change the regime.