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Ali Khamenei in front of supporters
Photo: HO/ AFP
The mullahs' regime in Iran continues to crack down on protesters.
Amnesty International recently reported six people who have received the death penalty.
The reason: Your participation in the protests against the theocracy.
More than a dozen men and women are currently fearing that they will soon be sentenced to execution - including three minors: Amin Mohammad Shokrollahi, Amir Mohammad Jafari and Arian Farzamnia.
They are all accused of "war against God".
The well-known rapper Toomaj Salehi is also among the accused.
Just a few days before his arrest, he had produced music videos with lyrics critical of the regime.
A person close to the rapper knows from conversations with Salehi's friends that he is still resisting in prison.
"He refuses to make a forced confession," says the person who wants to remain anonymous.
A report by Canadian news channel CBC on December 3, Salehi's birthday, confirms this: Salehi is said to have shouted anti-regime slogans from his cell;
he was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement after other prisoners joined him.
Compulsory confessions are central to the Iranian regime, because the death sentences of the notorious revolutionary courts are based solely on them.
Ongoing repression against climber Rekabi and her family
Salehi's fate is just one of many.
The case of Elnaz Rekabi is better known in the West.
She made headlines in October.
The reason: the climber took part in a competition in Seoul, South Korea, without a headscarf.
The pictures of her climbing the climbing wall with a swinging ponytail went around the world - a great disgrace for the Iranian regime.
She was quickly flown back to Tehran, where crowds of fans were waiting for her at the airport, cheering her for her bravery.
Rekabi published an Instagram post apologizing for taking off her headscarf;
it was an accident.
Such apologies, most likely coerced, are a well-known propaganda tool of the regime.
Elnaz Rekabi is said to have been under house arrest since then.
A video has now been published on social media showing a destroyed house: debris, destroyed furniture in the open air.
It is, or was, the house of Davoud Rekabi, Elnaz Rekabi's brother.
It is not clear who took the picture.
The voice, possibly a friend of Rekabi's, says, 'That's what it's like to live in this country.
A champion of the country, with medals by the kilo for this country.
He worked hard to make the country proud.
They sprayed him with pepper spray and destroyed his […] house.
What else can I say?' Davoud Rekabi can be seen briefly in the picture, he seems to be crying.
The destruction of the house has since been confirmed by the state news agency Tasnim.
The house was destroyed because it was "illegally" built.
The authorities had previously warned the family.
However, it's hard to imagine that Davoud Rekabi, who is also a professional climber, would have lost his home without his sister's civil disobedience.
Binding is also a tried-and-tested method used by the regime to put opposition members under pressure.
As the tapes leaked by the state-controlled medium Fars News confirm, the Iranian leadership is particularly concerned about prominent members of the opposition like Elnaz Rekabi.
Because they have many supporters, they are seen as important figures in the protest movement.
It is precisely for this reason that the regime is reluctant to "simply" kill these celebrities;
it might incite too much anger.
So, as in the case of the climber, they use other means to silence her.
Abolition of morality police: "Another evil trick of the mullahs"
One has to look at these two cases to understand that the report that the Iranian regime intends to abolish the vice squad is more or less irrelevant.
For many people in Iran, the question of whether or not the moral police should be abolished is irrelevant.
An opposition activist from Tehran wrote in a chat message on Sunday: “Another nasty trick by the mullahs.
They have already destroyed Iran.
It's just one big lie.
Every single one of them is the Vice Police.”
In fact, the so-called moral police is just one of many instruments used to systematically oppress women in Iran.
It was set up by the regime in 2005;
their job is to drive up and down the country arresting or "transforming" women if they do not dress or behave appropriately according to the supposed customs of the country.
Mahsa Jina Amini was arrested by the same police on 13 September.
It was her violent death that marked the beginning of the protest movement.
So it seems to be less a "reform" or even a fact than a diversionary maneuver in the "media war".
The Fars News leaks also revealed that this was "completely lost," according to the assessment of high-ranking representatives of the regime.
Atena Daemi, a well-known human rights activist in Iran, commented on the moral guardian declaration on Twitter as follows: »The headline »moral police abolished« is only intended to dupe the revolutionaries (meaning the protesters, editor's note).
Montazeri has already announced that the controls should continue.«
One thing is clear: the moral police are not needed to enforce the systematic oppression of women anchored in the structure of the Islamic Republic.
Since 1979, the Revolutionary Guards, police and Basij militias have been primarily responsible for the abuse of women and the implementation of anti-women rules.
Regime propaganda games
"The moral police will not be abolished, because the dress code is an essential pillar of the Islamic Republic and is inextricably linked to its identity," said Iran expert Ali Fatollah-Nejad, commenting on the news from Iran.
"Thus, the signals from Tehran should not be understood as the abolition of the moral police, but are part of an appeasement and diversionary maneuver."
The report "moral police abolished" could also be seen as a test balloon by the regime to see to what extent the media and governments in the West are still demonstrating the Iranian leadership's ability to reform.
Because this has always been part of the Iranian leadership's propaganda: We are not a brutal dictatorship, but a rational actor who can develop further.
This has always distracted attention from the numerous violations of human rights.
Only since the beginning of the protests have these crimes been taking place under the eyes of the world public.
So while the possible abolition of the moral police is being discussed in this country, human rights violations continue in Iran;
Toomaj Salehi, Davoud Rekabi, those sentenced to death, those imprisoned by the thousands – you should look at them.
Not on propaganda games by the Iranian regime.