A Simple Incident: Conservatives’ Narrative on Mahsa Amini’s Death
A Simple Incident: Conservatives’ Narrative on Mahsa Amini’s Death While the headlines and main photos of almost all reformist media were dedicated to the story of Mahsa Amini’s death, the conservative media stream was more interested in writing about the sidelines of this event than the event itself, because they considered what happened to be merely an incident.
Neither this tragic death, nor the reasons and manner of its occurrence, nor the practice of the morality police, which has been protested for years, nor anything else has been important to the conservatives.
From their perspective, what happened was simply an incident that others have surfed on or, in their own words, engaged in political scavenging. Therefore, most of the content written about Mahsa Amini is not about Mahsa herself but about the reactions to her death. In their media, they have fully and generally defended the actions of the police and the morality police, considering such incidents rare and minor.
They unanimously accept the claim of a previous heart attack and the presence of underlying illness in Mahsa, citing CCTV footage, and consider the protest attacks on the morality police and the police as stemming from political grudges and the unregulated nature of social media.
Mehdi Jamshidi, a member of the academic staff at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, wrote in the government newspaper Iran that what happened was just an incident, unprecedented in the vast record of the moral security police. Therefore, no structural conclusions should be drawn from an unintentional and involuntary incident, nor should trends be introduced as incorrect in an excited and unjustified manner.
According to this writer, the evolution and transformation of the police’s performance regarding hijab and chastity indicate its gradual progress, and the fact that the police have not handed over this part of the social reform process to other institutions and have expanded their scope of functions is seen as benevolent and caring.
If Khatami’s actions were rebellious, why do you continue them?
The same newspaper in a report called Mahsa’s death a pretext for attacking the government and wrote that this incident led opponents of the government to take action and in a strange analysis, attribute it to the performance of the thirteenth government. Chastity and hijab have always been issues in the country, and the police officials have pursued them due to their support for the law and also the headquarters for enjoining good and forbidding wrong as one of their inherent duties. Reformist media are misleading people and accusing the government and the president.
The newspaper continued by stating that initiatives like combating immorality and improper hijab were on the agenda during the Reconstruction Government and by the then Ministry of Interior, and took on another color at the end of the Reform Government. It seems that what has been happening in the country’s media space in recent days is a rampant mischief and immorality aimed at discouraging people from the thirteenth government.
Some reformists have reacted to this media wave that aims to blame past governments. A reformist activist wrote: Isn’t it true that Mohammad Khatami is considered rebellious from your perspective? What is this contradiction that you insist on continuing the policy of a rebellious individual? If you are truthful, abandon it.
The Islamic Republic and the Police are Oppressed
Fars News Agency also wrote in a note by Komeil Khoshcheh that the Islamic Republic is oppressed. For instance, before the Islamic Republic can investigate a matter like the death of Ms. Mahsa Amini, it has to hand the case over to the forensic doctor, check the cameras, inquire around the case to uncover the truth, and then take action. However, in the meantime, thousands of tweets and analyses without evidence or witness are published about this case, with the simplest being an attack on the Islamic Republic.
Alireza Abbasi, a member of parliament, also wrote that while the police are attacked unjustly and deliberately by the enemy for performing their duty or in rare cases of performance mistakes, and by some friends out of ignorance, questions arise as to whether political, cultural, social, and media activists have criticized and demanded accountability from related institutions for their failure to perform their duties and the omissions that have occurred.
The Morality Police Should Continue Its Work Strongly
This news agency also quoted a media expert saying that in all other small and large violations, an individual with a history of underlying illness or even without it might experience similar cases. If the police were to refrain from action merely because individuals might encounter such incidents, and use this as an excuse not to perform their duties, the fight against lawbreaking would be closed, and the very existence of the police and law enforcement would become meaningless.
Some are trying to exploit this tragic incident to unjustly portray any confrontation with improper dressing. The motivation of these individuals should be understood and introduced to the people. The Kayhan newspaper also wrote in a similar analysis that some are trying to exploit the tragic and unfortunate death of Mahsa Amini to unjustly portray confronting improper dressing and the police performing their legal duties in dealing with norm-breaking and law violation.
These analyses can be the beginning of lawlessness and chaos in society, as in all other small and large violations, an individual with a history of underlying illness or even without it might experience similar cases. As a friend said, if, for example, an individual is summoned to the tax office to explain tax evasion and suffers a heart attack upon arrival, should the tax law be abolished?
Reminder of the Protection Plan
The story of Mahsa Amini’s death and the widespread reactions to it on social media have become a pretext for staunch supporters of the Protection Plan to remind it once again. Kayhan continued its report by stating that the scandal and falsehoods of storytellers once again raise the important question of whether the judiciary intends to deal with those who, without evidence and with malicious or showy intentions, target the psychological peace of society and falsely accuse the system of torturing a young girl. A large part of this rampant falsehood-spreading and rumor-mongering occurs in the unregulated and uncontrolled virtual space of the country, which is unprecedented anywhere else in the world. Shouldn’t a solution be found for these conditions?