{"id":583,"date":"2014-06-03T13:42:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T13:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=583"},"modified":"2014-06-03T13:42:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T13:42:57","slug":"state-run-tvs-disinformation-encourages-violence-against-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=583","title":{"rendered":"State-run TV’s Disinformation Encourages Violence Against Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Broadcasts on Hijab Campaign Spread Defamatory Messages and Blatant Falsehoods<\/span>
\nJune 2, 2014\u2014The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran calls on President Rouhani to immediately institute supervision of Iran\u2019s state TV and end the broadcast of programs that falsely defame dissidents and implicitly justify violence against women who do not wear the hijab, the compulsory dress that covers a woman\u2019s head and body.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s state-run broadcast agency, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), broadcast a program on its IRINN news network channel during prime time on May 31, 2014, which lashed out at the exiled female journalist Masih Alinejad who launched the \u201cMy Stealthy Freedom\u201d\u00a0Facebook campaign\u00a0 in early May 2014, encouraging Iranian women to shed the hijab. The campaign has amassed nearly half a million Facebook followers.
\nThe IRIB program stated that Alinejad was \u201ctrying to deceive Iranian girls and women\u201d and falsely claimed that she had been found \u201cnaked under the influence of heavy drugs on a street in London\u201d and was then \u201craped by three men in front of her child,\u201d implicitly drawing a connection between the lack of hijab and sexual assault.
\n\u201cBlatantly encouraging attacks on women, for any reason, is criminal behavior,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director of the Campaign. \u201cThis only confirms the flagrant lawlessness of hardliners who desperately fear any challenge to their repressive grip on society.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is another example of IRIB\u2019s routine practice of using its broadcast monopoly in Iran to defame, discredit, and intimidate critical voices,\u201d continued Ghaemi.
\nHardline websites such as\u00a0Tasnim, which is connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have spouted a barrage of articles claiming that women who do not wear hijab encourage and invite sexual assaults.
\nIRIB\u2019s broadcast of these claims on its prime time program is consistent with its longstanding\u00a0practice\u00a0of acting as an arm of the security and intelligence services to repress and defame dissidents and to broadcast disinformation that impugns the character and reputation of those it perceives as challengers.
\nThe My Stealthy Freedom campaign has clearly touched a raw nerve: its use of social media to express dissent taps into the authorities\u2019 fear of the Internet and its potential for uncensored communication, and its rejection of the required female dress code challenges hardliners\u2019 continued control over the social and cultural environment in Iran.
\nPresident Hassan Rouhani, elected by a large majority last year, has spoken out in favor of the citizenry\u2019s right to the Internet, as well as women\u2019s rights and greater social and cultural freedoms. Yet hardliners still control the Intelligence, security, and Judicial services, as well as IRIB, and have fought back ferociously to retain their power over the domestic environment in Iran. The My Stealthy Freedom campaign is yet another example of the increasingly strident\u00a0culture war\u00a0between moderates and hardliners in Iran.
\nThe Campaign urges the international community to hold IRIB accountable for its continued rights violations, and to forcefully speak out against its routine practice of defamation and the blatant incitement to violence against women implicit in its broadcasts.<\/p>\n

Listen to the Campaign\u2019s Iran Rights Podcast
\nFor the latest human rights developments in Iran visit the Campaign\u2019s website
\nFor interviews, contact Hadi Ghaemi at +1-917-669-5996
\nFollow the\u00a0Campaign on Facebook and Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broadcasts on Hijab Campaign Spread Defamatory Messages and Blatant Falsehoods June 2, 2014\u2014The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran calls on President Rouhani to immediately institute supervision of Iran\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[136,137],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women-kids","tag-hijab-campaign","tag-my-stealthy-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}