Three Days of Strikes In Iran
Evenin’ Meteor readers, Today we’re anxiously awaiting the results of the Georgia Senate run-off election which will decide if Herschel “what even is a pronoun” Walker or incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock will win the seat. We have reason to be optimistic—but there have already been documented instances of voter suppression and people struggling to get their absentee ballots, changing deadlines and more. In today’s newsletter, we are sifting through the confusion of the recent headlines about the morality police in Iran, applauding some brave Swifties, and checking in on what else is going on in our world. Watching the results come in, Shannon Melero & Samhita Mukhopadhyay WHAT’S GOING ONSeriously, what is going on in Iran: Over the weekend, The New York Times sent out a breaking news alert announcing that Iran’s “Gasht-e Irshad,” commonly referred to as the “morality police,” had been abolished. The Wall Street Journal and CBS News repeated the headline as well. But that’s not exactly what happened. It didn’t take long for Iranian journalists and those familiar with the situation to chime in with much-needed clarifications. “This is at best a very unclear and inconclusive remark uttered in the middle of a presser,” wrote Arash Aziz on Twitter. Aziz, an author and NYU PhD candidate, explains what he saw in the press conference: Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri made an off-hand comment that was widely reported as fact. As it turns out, Montazeri has no authority to make such a sweeping declaration. Iranian state media eventually confirmed that Gasht-e Irshad has not been abolished, although citizens have reported a diminished presence of the force on the streets. It’s not about a single misleading headline. The reality is that oppressive governments thrive on sowing seeds of confusion—and they have a strong incentive to do so, since their efforts to quiet the protests have failed. And given how fast stories spread on social media (and how much we desire good news), a misinterpreted quote or slightly inaccurate headline can quickly spiral into viral misinformation for Iranian officials to use to obscure what is happening in Iran. In this particular case, Iran’s state media can easily point to an error made by Western media and spin it into a narrative that outsiders are the ones really stoking the fires of revolution and pretend everything in Tehran is peachy. In discussing the response to the Times article, Gissou Nia, an Iranian-American human rights lawyer, told CBC News, “I think it simply underscores that the global community wants a neat resolution to this story and is not realizing that the Iranian people want a full overhaul of the system—not just the morality police.” But here’s what we know to be true: All of this is distracting from the bigger story. The sweeping movement in Iran continues against great odds with strikes, protests, and rallies planned for the majority of this week. The Iranian government is doing its utmost to brutally suppress these actions as well as any reporting on them. And while there may not be a ton of ways to help the women in Iran directly, we can continue to amplify the voices of the activists, agitators, and people on the ground risking their lives to fight theocratic rule and demand equal rights for all citizens. AND:
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