Iran slams West’s ‘opportunism’, accuses US & EU of using unrest to weaken nation
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani accused the West of “opportunism” and slammed the US for trying to weaken the Iranian regime.
Iran on Tuesday said that the US and the European Union have been aiding and fuelling the nationwide protests against the draconian law around the mandatory women’s headscarf ‘hijab’. As the Islamic Republic snapped the internet to crack down on the anti-hijab protesters, mostly females, the White House and the EU stated that they are doing what they can to help protestors by a means of restoration of the internet to bring the stories of women’s oppression and human rights violation to the world’s attention.
Emblematic of double standards’
The powerful anti-hijab movement was ignited after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who passed away in police custody earlier this month due to alleged torture. Angry Iranians have taken to the streets in more than 150 cities for 11 days in a row in a defiant posture against the country’s stringent Islamic laws that have curtailed the fundamental human rights of women. Demonstrators flooded the Keshavarz Boulevard, a central thoroughfare, with women chopping their hair in solidarity with the deceased young woman Amini, and chanting “Death to the dictator”.
Dissenting women are often forcibly jailed, abused, tortured in captivity and face a violent crackdown by the hardline cleric Iranian regime for disobeying the controversial hijab rule, which is mandatory to wear in public for all women regardless of their religion or nationality. The morality police that intercepted Amini, a resident of a Kurdistan province, had objected to her trousers that they deemed “too tight” and that she did not have her hijab or headscarf, properly worn as her hair were visible.
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Slamming the US and the EU, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani stated that the Western nations’ push to circumvent internet blackouts in Iran is objectionable. His remark came after the EU maintained that it will consider all “options at its disposal” to hold the Iranian regime accountable for human rights violations.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani accused the West of “opportunism” and slammed the US for trying to weaken the Iranian regime. “By continuing the failed policy of maximum pressure and economic terrorism, the U.S. Administration is the biggest violator of the Iranian nation’s rights, and it pretends to be a supporter of the Iranian people by making unproven claims and adopting deceptive positions,” he said.
The EU’s deafening silence and over-compliance with the US unlawful unilateral sanctions as well as widespread and systematic violations of the human rights of innocent Iranian people…is emblematic of its double standards vis-à-vis human rights,” Iran’s Kani claimed on Instagram.
President-elect of Iran’s opposition group, Maryam Rajavi stated that thus far, an estimated 200 people have been killed, and scores have been arbitrarily detained for protesting. Iranian civil rights activist Hossein Ronaghi was also arrested on September 22. Hours later, Ronaghi in a video message announced that he had managed to escape from the security personnel. Hossein Ronaghi was beaten by guards in Evin prison in Tehran, RFE/RL reported. The arrests of journalists come amid restrictions on internet access in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan. The extent of the crackdown and its impact has not been clearly identified due to the internet blackout. In a retaliatory move and to exert pressure on the regime, Washington, last week, announced a new round of sanctions on Tehran’s morality police.
