A new attempt to whitewash the Iranian dictatorship, now from the right-wing

@ElentirENG ES 6·11·2023 · 19:56 0

The degree of mental confusion that a part of the Spanish right wing in international politics is reaching is beginning to be horrifying.

Scandal at the UN: Iran is elected for a vice-presidency of its General Assembly
The 7 communist and 36 Islamic regimes that most persecute Christians in 2023

A trip in which a defender of Iran participated

Today the young journalist from the newspaper Periodista Digital (a right-wing outlet) Josué Cárdenas has published a thread on Twitter in which he recounted a trip he made to Iran along with other Spanish journalists. Another of the participants on that trip was Carlos Paz, also a contributor to the aforementioned newspaper and other right-wing media.

To put ourselves in the situation, a few days ago Carlos Paz stated: "It is incoherent to say that one is against the 2030 agenda, against globalism and not to oppose Israel, the European Union, imperialism, progressivism, consumerism, liberalism or NATO." In recent months, Carlos Paz has written things like this (April 29): "The media avalanche of garbage on Iran is a classic because they want to impose distorted narratives, an absolute negativity in the minds of information consumers." And like this (May 3): "The distorted, nonsensical accounts of there is no end to Iran it seems. Anything goes when it comes to demonizing this country."

The situation of journalists in Iran

In his aforementioned thread today, Josué Cárdenas states that he will not "no kind of judgement, I only tell you data from what I have seen and experienced." He begins by stating the following: " I have had the freedom to ask, talk and share any topic." Reading this gives the impression that this is a country that respects the freedom of journalists to do their job. However, Iranian journalists such as Niloufar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Sajjad Shahrabi has been arrested precisely for publishing things that the Iranian dictatorship did not like. Iranian journalists have prohibited expressions such as "popular movement", "women's rights", "protest movement" and "people's protests". Did those Spanish journalists ask about this?

The police state and the repression of women in that Islamic dictatorship

Josué Cárdenas also affirms: "It is not a police state. There are police, but just enough". A little further down, he adds this about women: "The hijab is mandatory but it is a garment that women assume as a sacred element of Islam." Let's remember that in Iran there is a "Patrol of Guidance", also known as the Moral Police (there are confusing announcements about its possible dissolution) which is dedicated to watching that women wear the Islamic veil correctly.

An Iranian teacher, Misagh Parsa, explains in "Democracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How It Might Succeed" (Harvard University Press, 2016): "For three months in the spring of 2014, 200,000 women were taken to police stations to sign statements pledging to observe proper veiling, 18,785 women received notices about head coverings (or lack thereof), and 8,629 women were detained, according to the interior minister". The same author points out that for eight months in 2015, "the Tehran traffic police stopped 40,000 female drivers they lacked proper coverage and seized the vehicles of many of them." If this isn't a "police state," what do we call it?

The use of the death penalty by the Iranian regime

Regarding the executions, the only thing that José Cárdenas affirms is the following: "It's been 30 years since an adulteress was stoned to death". Let us remember that this journalist said that he was going to tell "data from what I have seen and experienced", but this data is a statistic that they have provided him. Who? It does not say so. Recall that a few days ago, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) denounced the murder of more than 500 protesters in that country, including 71 children, at the hands of of the security forces of the Iranian dictatorship, as well as the arrest of 22,000 people, denouncing that among those detained and at the hands of the police there have been cases of torture and rape, including against children. Unfortunately, Josué Cárdenas does not say anything about it.

Iran, one of the ten countries that persecute Christians the most

One of the most amazing things that Cárdenas says is the following: "The situation of Christians is good". And he adds: "There is complete freedom. Both for Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox". However, last January the Christian NGO Open Doors pointed to Iran as one of the countries where Christians suffer extreme persecution. Of the 50 countries that persecute Christians the most, Iran ranks number 8, above other Islamic dictatorships such as Sudan (10) and Saudi Arabia (13), and above communist dictatorships such as China (16), Vietnam (25) and Cuba (27).

En su página dedicada a Irán, Open Doors señala: "Converts from Islam to Christianity are most at risk of persecution, especially by the government and to a lesser extent by society and their own families. The government sees the growth of the church in Iran as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran. House groups made up of converts from Muslim backgrounds are often raided, and both their leaders and members have been arrested, prosecuted and given long prison sentences for "crimes against national security." The historical communities of Armenian and Assyrian Christians are recognized and protected by the state, but they are treated as second-class citizens and are not allowed contact with Christians from Muslim backgrounds."

In October of last year, the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need pointed out: "The two great enemies for the government of Iran: women and Christians". The information pointed out that "converts who come from Islam live their faith in a hidden way. They face years in prison or even death, from their relatives, radical groups and the judicial system based on Islamic law, which condemns to death any Muslim who changes his religion". Is this what Cárdenas calls "complete freedom"?

A fading devotion to Islam

Cárdenas too adds: "Iran is a convinced country religiously. Very devoted to Islam". However, the aforementioned report by Aid to the Church in Need states the following: "What is happening is that the mosques are empty and there are a lot of conversions from Islam to Christianity. And above all there are conversions of women. This is the great threat to the Iranian theocratic system."

Anyway, I can't get over my astonishment at what is happening between a certain right. First there was Russian propaganda and now comes Iranian propaganda. Soon someone will come pointing to Cuba and Venezuela as examples of the fight against world-wide globalism. A certain right is falling into the same ideological surrealism as the far-left.

---

Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl.