Global Reflection on the Death of Mahsa Amini
The death of Mahsa Amini had global news coverage. Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl from Saqqez, was severely injured by the morality police and was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Images of her in the ICU, surviving only with the help of machines, shook many in Iran. In a world filled with various news, alongside the noise of the U.S. elections and the passing of the British Queen, attention turned to Ukraine and the crimes of the Russians, with the discovery of mass graves of Ukrainians, where hundreds of innocents were tortured and buried, causing a stir.
This world, filled with news of bitterness and mourning, did not remain indifferent to the news of Mahsa Amini’s death. The widespread coverage of this young girl’s tragic death was unexpected even for many Iranian journalists and political activists.
Numerous politicians reacted to Mahsa Amini’s death on social media. Robert Malley, with his statement and tweet, declared this event as appalling and expressed sympathy with her family, urging Iran to end violence against women.
Jake Sullivan, the U.S. President’s National Security Advisor, also considered this event unforgivable and announced that the U.S. government is determined to continue pressuring the Iranian regime to take responsibility for human rights violations. We should expect continued reactions from European and American politicians in the coming days, especially as the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Council is underway, with one of this year’s special sessions dedicated to women’s issues.
In terms of media coverage, it should be noted that, as expected, Kurdish media have reacted seriously to this issue, and the emotions of the people of Kurdistan have been intensely stirred by the death of a girl from Saqqez. This is one of the serious damages inflicted on the country’s political structure by the irresponsible and foolish behavior of unaccountable officials.
In Britain, while the news of the discovery of mass graves in Ukraine interrupted the various memorial ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth for a few minutes, it was astonishing that the BBC, Sky News, and other British visual media broadcast the news of Mahsa Amini’s death among their top stories with full images and descriptions, highlighting the Iranian morality police.
European media in various countries have reported and covered this news. Major media outlets in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany have addressed this issue. In all these instances, the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the topic and a structure like the morality police are rarely seen, and it should be noted that the media activities of journalists and media experts over the years have helped them understand the various dimensions of politics and society in other countries.
Thus, unaccountable officials can no longer claim that Western journalists, researchers, and politicians do not understand Iranian culture and society. The special and tangible reflection of the news of Mahsa Amini’s tragic death shows that the various cultural and political dimensions of a society like Iran are not so foreign and unknown to the people of other countries in this age of globalization and cultural and political interconnection. The anger and regret reflected in the media coverage of this news are, in fact, a reflection of the anger and regret of Iranians and are in line with sympathizing with us.
What needs to be seriously addressed is the distressing reflection of Mahsa Amini’s death in Arab and Israeli media. Al Arabiya has highlighted this news for hours, and Saudi media have covered it in detail. It is humiliating for us Iranians that the media of a country that had a special police for religious observance, and whose crown prince’s great achievement was the partial shutdown of the religious police, and which has been and still is the scene of strange and countless executions of religious rulings annually, target our morality police with their criticisms.
What needs to be seriously addressed is the distressing reflection of Mahsa Amini’s death in Arab and Israeli media. Al Arabiya has highlighted this news for hours, and Saudi media have covered it in detail. It is humiliating for us Iranians that the media of a country that had a special police for religious observance, and whose crown prince’s great achievement was the partial shutdown of the religious police, and which has been and still is the scene of strange and countless executions of religious rulings annually, target our morality police with their criticisms.
Israeli media have allocated serious time to reflect on the news of Mahsa Amini’s death and public anger. The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post have published special reports that should awaken the conscience of the Islamic Republic’s system’s sympathizers to not remain silent in the face of Iranian joy at the enemy’s delight. Israeli news about the morality police has cast a very dark image of Iran in the realm of state media, which still has not answered for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist.
What has occurred in the media arena in recent hours is a warning for all of us Iranians, and of course, there is hope that someone somewhere can awaken the irresponsible officials.
