The civil unrest inside Iran, which began in September, has brought with it a sea of unsubstantiated claims, many of which have been outright lies. Although demonstrations, riots, and terrorist attacks which have punctuated months of instability have began to decline, this has not stopped the endless flood of disinformation.
In early December reports emerged in the western media that Iran’s chief public prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, had said that “the Guidance Patrol [morality police] has nothing to do with the judiciary; it was suspended by the same institution that formed it in the past.” This led to headlines that claimed the Islamic Republic had abolished the morality police, made infamous for their role in the arrest of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody in September and has been the martyr of the current anti-Iranian government movement.
This claim is, however, being re-evaluated in light of vague messaging from the Iranian Government. The issue is a complex one and has resulted in an internal debate within Iran. On December 1st it was made public that the Iranian Parliament were openly reviewing the legal requirement for women to wear hijab — whether this has involved dialogue on the disbandment of the morality police as a whole is, however, another issue altogether.
According to a source who spoke with The Last American Vagabond (TLAV), who chose to remain anonymous, the portrayal of Iran’s morality police being ever present has been blown out of proportion. The morality police unit responsible for enforcing the ‘indecent exposure’ laws was small in the city of Tehran; for a population of over 10 million, the unit only had 5 vehicles, 2 of which have been rendered useless. Regardless, the story is yet another example of just how quickly unconfirmed information spreads in the western media, when it conforms to certain foreign policy needs of the western governments.
When asked about the abolishment of the morality police, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian stated last Sunday, “in Iran, everything is moving forward well in the framework of democracy and freedom”. This issue now remains sensitive for Iran due to the political undertones. Even if it becomes consensus amongst Iranian officials and members of parliament that the morality police be abolished, there could be pushback from conservative Iranian citizens who may see the move as bowing to anti-Islamic regime-change rioters. A concession to the regime changers, who Iran has accused of working with foreign powers to spark a Syria-style civil-war, could be the cause of disappointment for supporters of the Iranian Government.
It is unlikely that Tehran will abolish all of its ‘indecent exposure’ laws, but it is a possibility that the morality police themselves may not be responsible for the enforcement of the laws anymore. This is yet to be confirmed, however, and is a sensitive issue, one that the western media, by painting it as a concession, is attempting to weaponize against Iran and could hence cause the government to pass less reforms than may have originally been intended. Thus, in the name of fighting for the Iranian people, the pro-regime change advocates may be preventing some reforms.
The reporting of disinformation is also continuing with even more outlandish claims, such as the assertion that Iranian women will face the freezing of their private bank accounts in the event that they do not abide by the law. This claim was so unsubstantiated that not even tabloid news-sites in the United Kingdom picked up the story, as they have done with previous outlandish assertions of this nature. Despite this, such claims have been widely spread on social media and have misled tens of thousands who see anti-Iran campaigners sharing the stories as if they are true. The idea that the Iranian Government would have the resources to track women who aren’t wearing the hijab properly, send them an SMS warning, then follow up and freeze their bank accounts if they didn’t comply, is outlandish and would be a huge issue inside Iran that would surely cause a massive surge in anti-government activity.
Another claim has emerged recently, from The Lancet, which asserts that school-age children that were arrested during the recent civil unrest, have been sent to psychiatric correctional and rehabilitation facilities. This certainly would be damning if true and has been published as an established fact, despite The Lancet having provided no evidence. In response to this, Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor at Tehran University, wrote the following:
“Even western medical journals are participating in anti-Iran propaganda. The Lancet must publicly provide the names of these students as well as the centres that they’ve allegedly been sent to. When this outrageous claim is proven to be false the editorial board must apologise.”
Although for claims like the one above, it is not possible to tell where this report gathered information to support its claim. With such assertions being spread on a near daily basis, it seems extremely unprofessional to publish such a piece without providing any evidence.
Outlandish reports, some of which are provably false, are being published at a rate that is hard to keep up with. For a previous piece that I published with TLAV, I examined CNN’s incredulous report that cited an unnamed security source, and I broke down how the CNN article was not even serious enough for outlets like the New York Times to report on.
There is also the outlandish report that was spread throughout western media, which even duped the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who published a tweet that he later deleted, which claimed that 15,000 Iranian prisoners had been given the death sentence. This was perhaps the worst piece of disinformation of the lot, and for the elitists who claim to care about “fake news” and disinformation so much, it was telling to see corporate media and western politicians uncritically promote the story.
The reason that this blatantly false claim is the most stunning example to date of anti-Iran regime change non-sense, is that even the Prime Minister of Canada believed a story that promoted the idea that the Iranian Parliament had voted to execute protesters. This just ignores the fact that the judiciary of Iran exists, making it seem as if the country functions backwards, and the corporate media actually took it seriously, even without a shred of evidence. Again, if this happened, there would at least be some evidence and talk of this inside Iran, but they didn’t care about that, the story was just too juicy for them and served their malign agenda.
This story also reflects the larger problem suffered in the West, of the way in which the western mind is conditioned to think about the so-called “Orient”, ideologically. The view that has developed in the West, about Iran, falls into a larger trend of hateful content that is designed to demonize Iranian culture, as well as societies influenced by Islam. In order for western governments to continue their brutal sanctions, maybe even kill Iranians, they must first dehumanize them. When the so-called educated “elites” cannot even distinguish between propagandistic depictions of Iran and the reality any longer, it is clear that the agenda has proven successful. You cannot justify subjugating and killing another people unless they no-longer remain equal to you — this is the new Orientalism in action.
In terms of the Iranian people’s appearance, western supremacists will not argue for their murder but, due to their ideology not being congruent with western perspectives, they can be butchered without remorse. One thing that must be understood is that racism is not simply isolated to one’s appearance, the most pernicious forms of it are attached to ideology. In the case of Russians we now see this in action. Many Russians have white skin and the argument against them has nothing to do with how they look, but rather how they think. This issue is something that has to become part of a wider discussion. One that must be brought to the forefront and called out for what is truly is.
