Iranian government and media sources regularly display their concern about the human rights of Iraqi journalists, while they also recurrently talk about the respect for human rights in the US and Western Europe. But interestingly this very same media have nothing to do with human rights violations in China or Russia while also completely ignoring the assaults on the basic rights of the opponents and political critics or even journalists and researchers in Iran.
So we witness a pitiful caricature or sensitivities towards human rights in Iran. To show US President George Bush’s unpopularity and that of his administration’s policies, and to show the spread of the shoe-throwing incident at Bush by an Iraqi journalist, the state-run television network continuously broadcasts some meditative footage. In one scene, a group of American citizens are shown in front of the White House throwing their shoes at an effigy of President Bush. But there is one thing the state-run television has overlooked: The paradoxical effect of these images. Which is that nobody stops or punishes these protestors who freely and securely laugh at and even insult the highest political figures in their own societies.
The official mouthpieces of the Islamic regime present the violations of human rights by Washington, London, Paris, etc with the premise that these issues have already been settled in the Iran where they do not exist. It is of course clear to any fair observer that this is not the state of affairs in Iran.
One can understand the reasons why Jurgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky or Thomas Freedman discuss the Bush administration’s (or the West’s in general) treatment of human rights. But when Ahmadinejad ‘s presidential office issues directives to Iran’s critical media what it should publish as its leading headline, or when it sends sharp responses for them to them, or when it shuts publications before they are even published, while all along the official media talks about human rights violations of Iraqi journalists, then its actions become pitiful caricatures.
One only has to look at the treatment that was given to the three protesting women students from Polytechnic University (who during a speech by President Ahmadinejad in December 2007 were arrested, imprisoned and brutally tortured) to realize the appalling state of human rights in Iran.
Our government today does not tolerate even the most peaceful activities of non-government organization (such as those of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights which was shut just two weeks ago). It is interesting to note that charges that were raised against this center are that it prepared reports and sent them to some foreign and “domestic” groups?! Note the word “domestic”.
According to the constitution of the Islamic republic, associations, syndicates, and societies are free in their activities. But do officials of the state respect this clear and express provision of the supreme law of the land?
Official tribunes in Iran commend the brave work of Iraqi journalists and call on the Iraqi government to respect the rights of its citizens. But they forget that until just a few years ago no Iraqi could even question anything of the dictator that ruled over the country. And as interestingly, the dictator too talked about observing human rights by his regime!
