Major news outlets like CNN, BBC, and Fox News act like real-life James Bond villains – when there isn’t enough actual news to report they try to throw a random person under the bus so they can report someone was thrown under a bus. Their latest attempted victim is Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi.
During a competition in occupied South Korea, Elnaz Rekabi was filmed climbing while not wearing a hijab. Apparently, even while abroad, Iranian women must still adhere to the state’s religious dress code while representing the state officially, and Rekabi has worn the hijab in previous competitions. In an Instagram post, Rekabi explained that this was an unintentional slipup, her turn to climb caught her by surprise and she didn’t have time to put on the hijab.
Nevertheless, just about every large news outlet in the collective West leaped on this non-story with varying degrees of hysteria. NBC declared, breathlessly, Fears grow for Iranian climber as she returns home after competing without a hijab. That’s actually one of the least hysterical accounts. BBC Persian started a rumor that was then repeated by other outlets including Fox News that she had actually gone missing, and their entire basis for this was claims from an “informed source.” This “source” also claimed that the missing hijab wasn’t an accident and she planned this as a deliberate act of defiance in solidarity with anti-government protesters. Got to love those anonymous “sources” that say whatever you want, while also not directly implicating you if/when they’re proven to be completely false. And apparently, it was all false this time too. She has returned to Iran, and no news (yet) of her being arrested or facing other repercussions for the hijab incident.
Now, imagine a woman (not a famous celebrity, just an ordinary citizen) goes out partying in a dress that’s a little too revealing. She’ll get attention from people around her, certainly. Maybe a few looks of disapproval. Is that a story worth reporting? Of course not. But what if all of the national news outlets publish pictures and video of that woman in her dress, and loudly speculate if her husband will beat her when she returns home. A few journalists go further than that, heavily implying the husband should beat her or everyone will think he’s less of a man for letting his wife go out like that. No one directly says it, they just imply it with fake concern “oh no, I hope he isn’t angry about her completely humiliating him like that!”
That’s essentially what western news outlets did to Rekabi. They took an absolute non-story and deliberately blew it out of proportion, all in a calculated attempt to embarrass and provoke the Iranian government as much possible, hoping that someone would in fact be angry about it and arrest her or worse.
In the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, an evil media baron stages a false flag attack on a British warship and shoots down a nearby Chinese fighter. He hopes this angers both sides enough to start a nuclear war that decapitates the Chinese government, who would then be replaced by his friends who promised him distribution rights in China in exchange for his help. The idea that a media outlet would deliberately kill a bunch of people so they can get more clicks on their videos sounds totally insane, but isn’t conceptually any worse than what real newscasters actually do, like what they did to Rekabi, or the ridiculous atrocity porn they’ve been manufacturing in Ukraine for the past 8 months.
Ian Kummer
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The meanest thing is how they hinted that she was supporting those silly protests. It could really lead her into a trouble.
Speaking of those protests, I said many times it’s weaponized feminism which was a good thing 100 years ago, but not now. Moreover, whatever might happen to an individual in a country is not yet a reason for a regime change. And what they want is a regime change in Iran (and, eventually, in Russia).
I also said many times that those ultra-conservative customs in the Global South are only a respons (3rd law of Newton, if you will) to the pressure applied by the West and to unbridled reign of things that cannot be mainstream, to say the least.
I will elaborate on this more. E.g. decriminalizing same sex relationships is right, making it mainstream or celebrating it is not. Being childfree is ok, promoting it is not. The reason for it is as simple as survival of humans as a species. All people are different (diversities), almost everyone is not mainstream in something, but mainstream in the rest of personality traits. So, overall the society remains solid, normal, healthy, able of self-reproduction. Traditional values need support, deviations don’t. It’s suicidal. Being gay, childfree, vegan or fat doesn’t make anyone a bad person or a person who cannot be loved and respected. Choice should be respected (i have the same view on abortions: available, not promoted). Yet, it’s not something that has to be promoted as a new normal for the society in general. Moreover, it should not be weaponized in home policy or used to radicalize conservative communities.
not even hinted. just outright said it
I’ve been to Iran and I’ve been to Pakistan. From the way they presented themselves in public, it’s clear women had more cultural freedom to dress how they liked in the Islamic theocracy, than in Western ally Pakistan where, at least when I was there, most women were going around in fully body coverings with a tiny grille to peer through in front of their eyes.
Men in Iran had to cover up to a certain extent as well. Rolling shirt sleeves up to the elbow was considered indecent exposure back in the mid-nineties. Iran’s a nice place, I’d like to go back some day.
I have never been to Iran, but I have seen a couple of their movies, and they really make me wonder if our perception of the country is highly exaggerated.
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