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Jamshid Chalangi:
In tonight’s edition of Behind the Headlines:
* Mohammad Javad Zarif’s speech in New York and his sheer lies about the position of the mandatory hijab in the Iranian culture, when he claims that the Iranian people accept it as a “norm”;
* The future of the religious regime in Iran and the program of opposition groups to replace it;
*And, the repercussions of finding of Reza Shah’s mummified body for Iran and the Iranians at this critical time in their history;
Our guests to discuss these topics tonight are: a member of Secular Democratic Party of Iranians, Hassan Etemadi – a member of Workers Communist Party of Iran, Babak Yazdi – and a member of Constitutional Party of Iran, Foad Pashaie.
Babak Yazdi:
I think Zarif’s comments about the laws on hijab in Iran and women’s nudity in Canada are both misleading and sheer lies.
In Canada there is a law that says men and women are free to appear in public without tops during very hot summers, whereas in Iran women are removing their hijab to challenge the degradation that the regime has imposed on them.
Zarif claims that hijab is part of the Iranian culture, which is simply a lie. The regime that he represents has been trying with force to make the wearing of hijab as a “culture” for our women, but has failed. The brave Iranian women who remove their hijab on the streets are demonstrating the rejection of this “culture”.
Foad Pashaie;
We also had heard similar lies during the Ahmadinejad time when he publicly said that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
Zarif talks about the hijab as if it is part of the Iranian culture. But cultural values are freely accepted by the citizen of any country, not by force and facing prison if you reject them.
Deception and twisting the truth are part of the characters of the Iranian leaders and Mr Zarif is not an exception.
Hassan Etemadi:
Cultural values are the foundations of the law and order in any human society. As such, responsible governments educate their citizens from an early age to respect each other’s opinions, freedoms and privacy and work together for the good of their communities.
Under the current regime in Iran this process is in reverse. They first separate girls from boys at schools and divide the communities on the basis of gender. This is a reactionary and ideologically corrupt regime that has nothing to do with modernity and respect for equalities. And it does not matter if it is headed by Ahmadinejad or Zarif, because they are both the same when it comes to the issues like hijab or women’s rights.
Jamshid Chalangi:
Zarif’s other comments in this meeting in New York have been about the future of the nuclear deal and he seems to have taken a hard line towards the US by threatening that Iran will leave the deal if Trump pulls US out of it.
Babak Yazdi:
From the day one this regime and its leaders have been saying that the US cannot do a damn thing but they know it very well that this is just a hallow slogan. All of the sudden the regime’s leadership has realized that Trump means business with them.
The regime is already in deep crisis and if the US brings back the nuclear related sanctions their position would be severely undermined as the current economic crisis in Iran indicates.
This regime lives in the medieval times but the Iranian people want to join the twenty first century and live a decent and free life without the every day economic, political and cultural suppressions that the regime puts on them.
North Korean leadership has accepted that they cannot continue with building bombs instead of providing for their people. But the Iranian regime is far behind and refuses to accept this reality.
Foad Pashaie:
We have always said that a country that suffers from water shortage, its factories are closing down and workers have not been paid their wages and has many other social and economic problem does not need nuclear power at these gigantic costs.
However, the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard have financially benefitted by getting involved in the purchase and installations and development of this unwanted technology which has brought nothing but poverty at home and confrontation with the international community.
Jamshid Chalangi:
Stay with us for this edition of Behind the Headlines and share it with your family and friends.
