With Overthrowing Iran On The Agenda, Western Media Ignore Facts To Spread Propaganda
Written by Robert Inlakesh
While a potential war between Iran and Israel threatens to drag in the United States, in addition to its NATO allies, the Western corporate media is attempting to whip up a storm of anti-Iran stories to demonize the country's government.
In the latest saga of media coverage that intends to paint the Iranian government as uniquely violent and oppressive, the corporate media is failing to do its job of looking at even the most basic of facts surrounding the cases they use to demonize Tehran. Although there are certainly issues inside Iran, socially and otherwise, these reports leave out key information and seek only to serve the interests of state-propaganda.
In late October the German government decided to shut down all of its Iranian consulates, located in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. Berlin's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock also announced that she would seek EU-wide sanctions against Tehran, specifically targeting to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This came in reaction to Iran's execution of a prisoner named Jamshid Sharmahd, who they accused of leading a terrorist group and of ordering the 2008 bombing of a Mosque that killed 14 innocent people and injured 200 others.
The Islamic Republic of Iran officially put out a red notice for Sharmahd and demanded he be extradited for helping to orchestrate terrorist attacks inside Iranian territory, which was ignored. In 2020, Sharmahd -- who was living in California at the time -- was traveling for around 3 months and went missing while stopping in Dubai, from which it is alleged he was taken captive by the Iranian security services. Iran later announced that he had been arrested inside Iran in a complex operation, while his phone was tracked to Oman days after his disappearance. It is still unclear whether he had covertly traveled to Iran or was taken captive in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as is being widely reported.
If you look at the reporting on this issue, Sharmahd is portrayed both by his family members and the corporate media as an independent journalist, while the claim of his innocence is also professed. However, there are interviews with Sharmahd on Persian media platforms where he admits to not only being part of a terrorist group, but also appears to brag about his groups involvement in terrorist attacks against civilians.
Iran's foreign ministry put together a video compilation in which the man is speaking about the 2008 attack, featuring Sharmahd's admissions to terrorist activity and footage from the mosque explosion. While this is clearly from a biased source and should not be simply taken as evidence at face value, other Farsi speakers have pointed out that other such admissions were captured on video. For instance, an interview conducted on an anti-Iranian government media outlet, featured similar admissions where Sharmahd even advocated a declaration of war on the IRGC, while the presenter appeared boastful about his involvement in the 2008 mosque attack.
Iran's FM @Araghchi: "A German passport does not provide impunity to anyone, let alone a terrorist criminal.."#JamshidSharmahd #Germany #Terrorism @ABaerbock@JosepBorrellF https://t.co/d0T3jFaCwE pic.twitter.com/TelnLLkhvQ
— Foreign Ministry, Islamic Republic of Iran 🇮🇷 (@IRIMFA_EN) October 29, 2024
This information, which contradicts the narrative of Iran randomly kidnapping an innocent journalists and sentencing him to death for no reason, appears nowhere in the articles and broadcast media coverage of events in Western media.
In reaction to Germany's decisions, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the German charge d’affaires in Tehran and called their decision to close the missions of the Islamic Republic "irrational", as this deprives Iranians of consular services. Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, commented on X [Formerly Twitter] that “in support of a terrorist who took 14 innocent lives and injured more than 200 others, the German government is sanctioning tens of thousands of other Iranians holding German passport. Anyone can see the wisdom in this decision”.
Putting aside the morality of the death penalty, which is also present in 27 American States, the refusal to acknowledge the publicly available information implicating Jamshid Sharmahd in the terrorist activities for which he was sentenced demonstrates that this story is being weaponized as anti-Iran propaganda. As for Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's sense of morality, she recently defended Israel's mass murder of Palestinian civilians by stating that "I made it clear at the United Nations that civilian sites could lose their protected status if terrorists abuse this status", which triggered a protest letter signed by over 300 academics that called on her to retract her statement.
Rendering a judgement in this case, about whether Sharmahd was guilty or innocent, is not possible without access to further information, due to a lack of access to evidence, which is exactly what Western media has done. The automatic assumption is that this individual had no involvement in terrorist activities whatsoever, a narrative which is contradicted by the publicly available information at hand.
Then we have the more recent case of an Iranian female student who was praised across social media by Iranian opposition figures for "defying a regime that constantly controls women’s bodies". The video of the young woman pacing back and forth in her underwear went viral on social media, while corporate media outlets jumped to say her actions were a protest. Amnesty International also made this claim, without stating the woman's name, or having access to further details, calling for an independent investigation into the issue.
Interesting timing here considering the current chorus of calls for regime change and war with Iran... 🧐
The video with the highest views apparently is coming from the president of the "World Liberty Congress", an organization financed by and partnered with the West's color… https://t.co/zrZlvzrbPA pic.twitter.com/rYOpefbBvB— Geopolitics & Empire (@Geopolitics_Emp) November 5, 2024
There was also the allegation of sexual assault and harassment by the newsletter Amir Kabir, which appears to be based upon an anonymous source claiming that the female student was harassed by members of Iran's volunteer paramilitary force called the Basij.
The Islamic Azad University, where the woman is said to be a student, later released a statement in which they said their student had suffered from mental illness and had previously sought help for it. Iranian media then produced the claim that the young woman had in fact had a mental breakdown.
What has happened here is again a reflection of how anti-Iranian propagandists weaponize any incident they can, without any regard for what may have truly occurred. According to the anonymous bystander, who is cited as the one behind the claim that this was an act of protest, gave a statement in which the incident does not fit into the framing of a protest, but rather an act of defiance after suffering harassment. If true, and the student was actually harassed and had her hijab torn during a confrontation with volunteer paramilitary members, this would be an example of a serious act of assault resulting in the woman having her jumper torn off and acting against the men in defiance.
However, if she was indeed suffering a mental breakdown, making her a viral example of defiance against her government may severely impact her personal life and cause even greater mental health issues.
CNN admitted in its broadcast report that it could not independently verify the circumstance behind the incident, while continuing to paint the incident in the context of historic abuses against women for violating Iran's headscarf policy.
So far, the solid facts come in the form of two videos: one which shows the woman walking around in her underwear as fellow students seem to be ignoring her, the second that shows the woman being put into a civilian vehicle by a group of men. Then we have the University's statement and the reports that the woman had been hospitalized, with no reports that she is being charged with an offense or is imprisoned.
At this point, there is no evidence of abuse from the State, although there are serious allegations against members of Iran's volunteer force known as the Basij. We don't know the woman's name, we have no details other than what has been mentioned here, and this whole incident requires further investigation in order to get to the bottom of it.
There can be no doubt that in Iran there are domestic issues, yet the way these kinds of stories are presented in Western corporate media makes the agenda clear. The US government has imposed, through legislation, many repressive measures against the fundamental freedoms of their citizenry. In addition to this, American police officers carry out rights abuses on a daily basis and there are countless people who have been unjustly executed in several States.
Despite this, the US is not presented as illegitimate, primitive, and uncivilized. So why then are even unverified cases of State abuse highlighted in Iran, used regardless to paint the country in such an incredibly poor light? The answer is that Washington seeks to overthrow the government of Iran and the first step towards doing this is delegitimizing its existence. The US does not care about Iranian women or political dissidents, they seek only to use these causes to achieve their own aims. At the end of the day, if the bombs are dropping on Tehran, they won't discriminate between man and woman, a monarchist, socialist or Islamist.
In the escalating regional conflict, it appears that Israel and Iran could soon be at war, which may drag the United States into an un-winnable catastrophic conflict. Reports about the "Iranian regime" and its alleged abuses, used only to justify acts of aggression against the nation, are continuous and very often baseless.
Criminy. I grew up in Iran. A "radical feminist" since the age of 3, as an adolescent my tolerance of being touched by men in the streets of Tehran was zero. I will say that I thought they were molesting women, especially Western or Westernized Iranian women, because of the economic politics of the CIA and US government. Western countries contracted for the entirety of specific mono-crops from the Shah causing untold misery to a huge number of people. For one thing, we regularly had specific food shortages because the Shah would have monocrops raised, all or most of it sold outside the country, so that for a time you couldn't find onions or meat or rice or whatever it is they were selling to Western markets. The other issue was that farms had been part of a landlord system where villages attached to the farm had a symbiotic relationship with the landowning family they worked for. This disappeared when the Shah (and his father) took over these farms by force/intimidation. The government did not take care of the villages the way the landowning families had, and the men in these villages were unemployed and drifted to the cities where they were also unemployed, standing hopelessly on the streets watching middle-and upper-class women sashaying by in what culturally was a state of undress. I still dislike seeing women in the West advertising their wares (and they dress their infant daughters in the same manner) as well as men who are shirtless or running around in shorts. It's a cultural thing. It's not Westerners' place to judge whose culture is superior. I never worried about being raped in my own bed in my own home until I came to the West. I keep several large dogs because of this. The other things Westerners do not know about (and likely the younger generations of Iranians either) is that one of the worst things caused by the American colonialization of Iran in the 60's and 70's especially was this attitude of cultural superiority which you can still see in most Western journalism today. Iranians developed what I would call "internalized racism" and many Iranians would tell me they felt their culture was inferior to the West. This is a tragic thing to witness, knowing the remarkable history of Iran and how much the West owes the East in general and Iran in particular. Israel's destruction of evidence of the Islamic Empire is another expression of this ethnosupremacy. This is why they are bombing the many archeological sites throughout the Middle East--currently they are trying to destroy as much of Baalbek as they can. The Israelis have said as much; that they want to destroy all evidence of the Islamic Empire so Muslims will have no reason to feel pride in who they are. So unless a journalist or diplomat bothers to learn something about the culture and the history, I would say just friggin can it. You're just advertising your ignorance. I am not Iranian, nor Muslim. But I do understand how abrasive Western values in social presentation, especially of women, is to the Iranian eye. Western women would be a lot happier with themselves if they understood the meaning of the word "modesty". And men as well. I know that sounds reactionary but it's true. The sexual objectification of women is offensive, no matter what culture you live in. And it's extreme in the West. Sadly, most Western women actually take it upon themselves to do it to themselves and each other. When i was a teen I did not wear a chador (though it would have been more comfortable--you could wear anything under one and they are lightweight which is nice in the desert sun), but I did sew a floor-length wool cape with a monk's cowl and carry an old man's walking stick with which to hit men with wandering fingers. I think the (new to me) norm of headscarves and hijab is pretty wonderful. And men who misbehave (I have been told) are punished. Would that have been the case when I was a girl. I was felt up or molested three times every block I walked. And I didn't blame the men as much as I did the rape of Iran by my own country. That is what caused it. And you can see in young women's desire to throw off those headscarves some of that psychological rape today. FYI, back in the 1920's, the Shah's father passed a law that women were not allowed to wear chadors. Most women refused to obey that law. That's something like requiring all Western women to wear bikinis or run around in their undies every time they go out. How many Western women would obey that law?
Beyond that, the US has a very big propaganda campaign in the West trying to get Iranian-Americans to take up the mantle of regime change. They have a lot of farsi-language media in Iran, too, trying to foment rebellion. Any story you hear about dissatisfaction with their government coming from a Western source is truly suspicious. Don't be so politically naive. Whatever dissatisfactions Iranians have with their government today, I'm sure they are extremely proud of their government. They are standing up to not only Israel, which used to be far more powerful and which has engaged in more conspiracies with the US to destroy Iran than I care to expose in this post, but they are also standing up to the US government and military. Amazing to me. Absolutely amazing. And the really astounding thing is that they are now more powerful militarily than the US because they do not focus on firepower; they focus on strategy. I'm not Iranian but I couldn't be prouder of what they have accomplished if I were.
As for Israel's wet dreams, we're not getting the truth about what's going on in Israel. It's a failed state and it won't be around for long. The more weapons and money we give them, the quicker they will fall. And they will take us with them. This is the real lesson to take from Trump's winning the election. The more unbridled his behavior is, the more freedom he gives the Far Right and Christian Zionists, the quicker he will take down the US economy. Not only will we be unable to finance the failing state of Israel, but our own economy will collapse. So watch the way Israel has enabled it's Far Right (both politically and religiously) and take heed. The US could fail in much the same way that Israel is. I'm not sure preventing this collapse is even possible at this point.
In any city in the U.S. if you take off your clothing and run around in your underwear or naked you will be detained and the police will run a 5150 on you to make sure you are not a danger to yourself or others. And you will probably be required to spend 72 hours in a Psych Ward. For a woman to do that in the U.S. is nuts--even when clothed we're in danger. I doubt very much that was a "protest". Stop spraying your so-called culture on other people. If you want to get an SSDI classification, this is what you do. Take off your clothes and run around naked and you will get an SSDI classification, complete with living allowance and paid medical care. Of course, you'll have to "prove" your crazy periodically which is really crazy-making.
The truth is the U.S. wants Iran's oil fields just as it wanted Iraq's, Syria's, Kuwait's, Palestine's, Lebanon's. Libya's, et al. It has nothing to do with concern for women's rights. If that were the case, why are American women under attack as I write this? What do you think outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, is? What a bunch of hooey. The US does not care about women's rights at all. If it did, Congress would have passed the Equal Rights Amendment DECADES ago.