Mehdi Sarvar
As per Ralph Walton Emerson, People only see what they are prepared to see. The unfortunate tragic death of Masha Amini, a 22 year old Kurd Sunni woman in Tehran, under the custody of guidance patrol reportedly arrested for defying Islamic Dress code and wearing an inappropriate attire has been making headlines for quite some time in leading news channels and finding mention in forums across the world though such incidents take place in every nook and corner of world.
The question is; what makes it special? The Iranian authorities have attributed her death to underlying disease denied by some quarters, which condemned it by terming it a murder.
In the wake of condemnations and sympathies, Iran’s supreme leader terming it unfortunate and bitter incident saying “Our hearts are broken for the young girl,” assumes huge significance.
The supreme leader breaking his silence on the unrest has accused the United States and Israel of planning the protests.
The question here arises where from US and its followers, whose track record on human rights is not satisfactory, derive authority to denounce this incident and support violent protesters leading to their further amplification.
Going by track record their interference in the affairs of other sovereign nations based on their vested interests has only resulted in violation and infringement of human rights and creation of human disasters from dropping atom bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to proxy war game being played in Ukraine.
In the name of liberation and empowerment they are targeting Iran through the medium of these protests by playing card of women empowerment.
US has a long history of racial discrimination which till date is going on as is evident from the protests that have been taking place for last three years there. One can ask as to why these protests didn’t catch world attention even though participation of millions of people was observed.
The answer lies in the simple and straight fact that these protests were mostly peaceful because of their spontaneous nature unlike Iranian ones which were stimulated and biased attitude in terms of publicity.
The result of a recent investigation of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice associated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was that “The US, which is a leading State in formulating international human rights standards, is allowing its women to lag behind”.
They declared that “the US is one of only seven countries which have not ratified the treaty, widely known as CEDAW. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly which is described as an international bill of rights for women.
Now coming to dress code on the pretext of which US has been demanding regime change by undermining its socio cultural, historical, psychological, socio sexual, ethico-social and other dimensions besides neglecting its prevalence in almost all religions in one form or the other.
Our distancing from this dress code has been instrumental in raising crime against women in the form of rape. Going by statistics it is obvious that US and European countries advocating for rights of these women are at forefront in this regard.
The tragically ironical part of this story is that most of these cases go unreported there owing to poor outcome of results in favour of victims.
If we go by the logic of these so called civilised people regarding dress code as a constraint and impediment in the way of liberty, mental satisfaction of women and their empowerment, illegal drugs should also be favoured in agreement with this principle, again unfortunate part of this story is that developed countries led by US is promoting them through the medium of dark net with the help of crypto currency for their vested interests.
The way damage is done to the society by usage of these drugs is no more different to the scenario of dress code violation which in actual terms can be regarded as rust that is eating the basic fabric of humanity which is morality and paving the way for ethical vacuum. The fact of the matter is that avoidance of dress code and the perusal of the drugs are the two faces of same coin and are lethal for us as society. Psychologically these youth who are actually affected, fail to look at things from various perspectives because they have not yet had enough experience in life.
In most situations, their innocent, unsophisticated minds, simply cannot understand the difference between wrong and right until they develop into more sophisticated beings.
Another issue of grave concern that must find its place here is the unethical human experimentation in US which affect disadvantaged and marginalised groups and are performed in violation of UN and even US rules and regulations and human ethics.
Any way it is internal matter of Iranian nation and it’s subjects after all tragic nature of death can’t justify the intensity and nature of these protests. The efforts of playing victim card and fuelling the fire just to destabilise the nation in question has again gone vain though they have been successful in widening the net of sanctions on the pretext of trivial and propagandistic issues. The killing of Iran General Qassim Sluimani three years back is shrouded with mystery.
When UN, US Congress and other concerned organisations and personalities have held it illegal and illegitimate and not supported by even the laws of US itself then what was the need to eliminate him in a provocative way with the reason that he was plotting to make attacks on US military establishment in middle east with no solid proof ever made on record.
The reality was that with Iraq as mediator, negotiations had been going on between Saudi Arabia and Iran and it is believed that he had been attending meeting with the purpose of passing an important and crucial message on behalf of Iran to Saudi Arabia that could have ensured betterment in their relations thus paving the way for stabilised middle east. Another issue is of obtaining nuclear weapons.
In the disguise of obtaining these weapons by Iran, US with the oblique purpose of restricting it’s growth and development and trying to curb it’s sphere of influence in world particularly in middle east, has been making efforts to fool other nations but Iran has always prevailed due to its sincerity.
The height of the hypocrisy can be gauged from the fact of its withdrawal from nuclear pact signed and still blaming Iran for not cooperating. US actually knows the fact about non perusal of a nuclear bomb by the country but is still hell bent on creating obstacles, troubles, confusions and interfering in the internal matters of a sovereign country.
In this regard a fatwa has been issued according to which the production, development, stockpiling and using any form of weapons of mass destruction is forbidden in Islam.
This fatwa has been announced publicly in October 2003, stated in August 2005 in IAEA and also stands mentioned on the official website of Syed Ali Khamnei. Still US and West is trying to question its integrity, authenticity, credibility and conformity.
According to Gareth Porter writing for foreign policy Iranian aversion to nuclear and chemical weapons is sincere because of the historical episode during its 8 year war with Iraq and Iran never sought revenge for chemical attacks against Iraq which killed 20000 Iranians and severely injured 100000 more. According to spiritual leader, “our people are our atom bomb” and it is in this context that US has realised it and is targeting them by way of policies based on concocted and clandestine means and ways.
In this transitional phase of evolving world order marked by emerging trends from unipolar and dipolar to multipolar world order at this juncture that has already made the world affairs complex and creating chaos, instead of seeking his valuable inputs and expertise in this regard unfortunately cartoons have appeared.
Having said that there is also an urgent need for addressing loopholes that have surfaced while handling such unrest and shouldering responsibilities as far as administration is concerned because after all killing of large number of children can’t be justified.
Moreover the use of capital punishment as a short term tool to address protests should be removed and replaced with a more convenient and universally acceptable alternative.
It will definitely prove helpful to minimise trust deficit between local dissidents and the regime and their hearts won besides taking care of the international voices which are trying to exploit this issue.
At the same time the ruling hardliners should also try to engage reformists besides minority Sunni leader Molvi Abdol Hamid who blamed the leader and held him responsible for recent killings in Zahedaan and who as per a short note on Sepah news has been accused by revolutionary guards of encouraging and agitating youth against the sacred Islamic Republic, to explore possibilities to solve all the issues under the ambit of country’s constitution.
Anyway the oblique purpose lying behind this whole episode is to destabilise this country and bring regime change that will suit the interests of US and its followers. With the current spiritual leader growing old there has been lot of speculations going on with regard to his successor.
In this regard a number of names have come for discussion and reportedly formation of an informal committee has also taken place that has been entrusted with the task to zero on the most suitable person for the succession.
In this connection the two persons that are supposed to be the main contenders are the current president Ebrahim Raisi a hardliner and spiritual leader’s own son Mujtaba Khamnei who is known to have close proximity to Revolutionary Guards. But according to the sources close to current spiritual leader Raisi has more chances due to the leader’s tilt towards him and that he doesn’t want to make it an issue of hierarchy. Raisi’s election as president is being seen as an incremental step towards it.
These protests can be taken as a final endeavour from both external and internal entities who feel their interests are associated with the country and obsessed by this conservative ruling establishment to put an end to it by demanding regime change that is going to make sure the exit of present president Ibrahim Raisi from the race of succession to spiritual leader.
