Why do atrocities in Iran seem to receive so little attention?

[MyCoralDreamer]

I was listening to Ian Dale LBC yesterday on the way back from a work meeting and this was one of the topics that was covered. I think he and various people who phoned in, raised some really interesting points.

Did anyone else listen to it? For example there was a public execution 2 days ago where 3 young men were to be hanged. One of them, only 18 years old, is reported to have died of a heart attack just before his execution was carried out. The regime were expecting cheers from the crowd. But instead, the crowd protested in disgust and the regime then chased and shot around 200 of the protesters.

Had I not listened to the this, I would have had no idea that this had happened. I think it’s important that these events are given more media coverage. We hear plenty about other events going on around the world and about Trumps latest peace deal with Iran (that never seems to materialise). But the media doesn’t seem interested in what the regime is inflicting on its civilians.

Dale also questioned why there’s no Free Iran Protests, when there’s plenty of Free Palestine Protests. Theres ONE that happens outside the Iranian embassy, but that’s it. Why aren’t more people bothered about atrocities in Iran?

During 8-9 of January this year, the regime killed an estimated 50,000 of its civilians. Again, had I not listened to LBC last night then I wouldn’t have know about this.

Its still available to listen back to if anyone’s interested. The podcast heading relates to reforms on social care but this topic came up in the last 3rd of the show.

Those goalposts must be really heavy to move, and all while spending so much time willfully misunderstanding me. Sit down and rest.

Bombs can't choose between the child, the persecuted woman/man and the evil army guy. They might even in some cases live in the same house. Iran is a heavily militarised dictatorship who are paranoid about attack from the West and have been preparing for attack for a long time. The military leaders have bunkers and a command structure designed so that if the leader/top level is taken out they are replaced immediately. It's not the case that "bombing the military" will remove the problem or create enough chaos that ordinary Iranians can overthrow them. America tried that, and all it has done is strengthened the regime as far as I can see. They were facing a huge public backlash and unrest, now everyone is being bombed by a common external enemy (I mean enemy in the sense of whoever is bombing you). For years the Iranian regime has been painting dissidents/civil society aspuppets of the evil West. Now America is using the existence of the dissidents as a reason to bomb Iran and has killed children. That's a huge propaganda boon for the regime because it confirms everything they have said

Besides which, America is the most powerful country in the world and they have been throwing everything at regime change in Iran. The regime is still in place and a lot of innocents, including children are dead. How would Britain getting involved change that?

Good luck with that. Have you not noticed the UK is growing more hostile to immigrants and asylum seekers by the day.

What has asylum seekers in the uk got to do with this?

'Rescue' them by sending arms that could end up with heaven knows who and bombing them as per your previous post? What happens once the UK drops these bombs on Iran, what if Iran retaliate by setting off bombs in the UK, are you willing to risk your children's safety?

I think if an organisation forcibly takes a country hostage and subjects innocent civilians to a life of hell for the best part of 5 decades, murdering them and stringing them up on cranes, then the whole world needs to wake up and do something about it 🤷‍♀️

To be honest, it is starting to feel like certain posters on this thread would only be outraged if Israel were the perps. Wonder why? 🤔

They are doing something. In the UK for instance there are already a string of sanctions on Iran. They created a new legal framework targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards. They have an arms embargo.

Once they are rescued, where do you propose they go?

Rebuild their own country into a free and democratic country like our own?

You dont know much about Iran or international laws and diplomacy do you?🤦‍♀️

Why do you say that?

Edited to say I think your username is very apt!

You don't usually solve a hostage crisis with bombs though. Which aside from things like sanctions (which are already in place) or proscribing the individuals and organisations responsible (which has already happened) is the only option. During the actual Iran hostage situation in London years back the government didn't ask the RAF to drop a bomb on the building. Because that would have killed the bad guys, the hostages and destroyed a big chunk of London. Instead they sent in the SAS which is a reasonable proposition in an embassy, less so in a gigantic mountainous country.

If it helps, I do think there are cases where military intervention works. The UK army's intervention in Sierra Leone in the 90s for example saved a lot of lives. The Falklands was justified and able to be won with minimal (but not 0) civilian casualties. But Iran doesn't fit that profile. The only way military intervention could work would be a full scale war including a boots on the ground invasion that would inevitably lead to huge civilian and UK military casualties. Many of the soldiers in the UK military are also young men, just like the Iranians tragically executed. And it would destabilise the region for decades to come.

Because it's clear. Firstly, not everyone Iran is anti the regime. Secondly, you don't seem to have any awareness of past conflicts with Iran or the current conflict in Iran where DJ Trump repeatedly claims to have destroyed Iran's military capabilities.

Thank you, it is a good name.☺️

And then everybody held hands and sang kumbaya, the end.

Most of the Iranians I’ve heard, have been anti the regime. And how many people in a country would seriously approve of a regime that routinely publicly executes innocent civilians? Really?

Amd secondly, the Trump intervention is extremely recent in the scheme of events. But I guess, because it’s Trump and Israel that are getting involved, then that means you’re automatically dead against it? Which perfectly demonstrates the point that Ian Dale was making on his show last night ☺️

Yes, "most of the Iranians you've heard". You're not going to hear many pro-Iran voices on LBC.

You guess wrong. I wouldn't care if it was Obama or Biden or anyone else, it's a global disaster, so my views would be the same. Do you think this conflict is going well?

Quote " To be honest, it is starting to feel like certain posters on this thread would only be outraged if Israel were the perps. Wonder why? "

I have seen it explained multiple times on this thread why there is a difference. Have you not read what people have been posting on your own thread?

If the UK was supplying arms to the Iranian government, I suspect you would see protests. That has been said many times here.

Quote "I think if an organisation forcibly takes a country hostage and subjects innocent civilians to a life of hell for the best part of 5 decades, murdering them and stringing them up on cranes, then the whole world needs to wake up and do something about it"

What organisation forcibly took Iran ? There was a revolution in Iran. As in the people rose up and took over their own country and formed their own Government. They formed the government, a theocracy, that they, the people, wanted. It was not some group that came along and said " we will take that".

You mention Iran executing a minor for protesting. And yes, that is awful. But then you trip up a bit, because you say he was innocent. But obviously that is not the case because he was executed under Iranian law, so they considered him guilty of something, under their law.

And that leads onto what you might say is a whataboutism, but in this case it is not really because I am adding it for context.

Saudi regime executes another child offender for attending protests (northeastbylines.co.uk)

Saudi Arabia do the same, because they have laws very similar to Iran. They are also an authoritarian theocratic state. All the Gulf countries are, with varying levels of theocracy.

So while you say you had not heard of what has been happening in Iran, there are loads of us that do follow world news and are aware of much of what goes on. But as posters have told you, Iran is difficult to know about because it is a closed country.

But you appear to not want to understand what posters are saying, and instead are saying "something needs to be done"

For example. You said this just above to poster @TooBigForMyBoots . quote

"Why do you say that?
Edited to say I think your username is very apt!"

TooBigForMyBoots is a regular poster on the "conflict in the middle east" board on MN. And they know a hell of a lot about the issues. And I see other user names here who post on that board and those threads. @Persephonia1966 , is another very knowledgeable and regular poster there.

But you appear to be handwaving away what people are saying to you, to answer the question that YOU asked.

You instead are saying this, quote :"" To be honest, it is starting to feel like certain posters on this thread would only be outraged if Israel were the perps. Wonder why? "

Why ask a question if you have already made your mind up about what you WRONGLY think is a motive for people replying.

Well, in the words of an actual Iranian on Ian Dales radio show it was an insurrection. It might have started as a revolution, but they were duped. Do you really think they would have chosen for life to end up as it did? Really? Have you seen photos of Iran pre 1978?

But you do hear pro-Iranian regime voices on BBC, ITV and Channel 4. They covered the ‘Supreme Leaders’ days long funeral, every day of it, and repeatedly showed pro-Regime approved propaganda of mourners uncritically. They have interviewed mothers of children sadly killed in error by the US, numerous times, with long emotive interviews, but haven’t given any airtime to relatives (living outside of Iran) of the 10s of 1000s of young people murdered by the Iranian regime. There are many anti-regime Iranians living here they could interview, but they don’t.

You have to wonder at times, whose side most of our media is on. They seem to despise Trump and Netanyahu (or just Israel?) so much that they choose to overlook the Iranian regime’s atrocities.

Quote “TooBigForMyBoots is a regular poster on the "conflict in the middle east" board on MN. And they know a hell of a lot about the issues. And I see other user names here who post on that board and those threads. , is another very knowledgeable and regular poster there”.

Knowledgeable why? Because they post views that align with your own and post them regularly on a Mumsnet chat board?

The notion that the regime is what they wanted because “there was a revolution” is utterly absurd. The reality is there was a revolution started by a group of students, leftists and other factions, which was then violently hijacked, and a lot of those who started the revolution were then executed.

@RedTagAlan you are hiding behind legal definitions, forum hierarchy, and geopolitical technicalities (like arms sales and Saudi comparisons) to evade my main point: An oppressive regime is murdering its own young people for wanting basic freedom, and the world's indifference is appalling.

And also, to claim someone who is executed for protesting isn't "innocent" simply because an authoritarian dictatorship deemed them guilty under their own oppressive laws is extraordinary.

You clearly don’t want to engage in what I’m saying, which is why you’ve resorted to nitpicking semantics.

I genuinely recommend listening to the radio podcast. It gives a voice to the people who are actually enduring this right now.

Sadly atrocities are carried out daily in multiple countries and receive barely any news coverage. The west has a vested historical interest in Israel/Gaza. It's not difficult to comprehend.

The fact that horrors happen elsewhere doesn't mean we should just shrug and look away when tens of thousands of young people are slaughtered for wanting basic freedom. Caring about human life shouldn't be limited by what's trending on the news 🙄

It's awful what is happening to the citizens of Iran.
We have a rally up here in Newcastle city centre every weekend that demonstrates the brutality of that regime and the people who have died.
As a previous poster has mentioned; there has been intervention in Iran but very little success.
It is upsetting to know that there are people who are suffering in such a way and there is nothing you can do.

Who was duped ?

So asked "Why do atrocities in Iran seem to receive so little attention?", you seem to be ignoring what people say, and now you say the Iranian revolution started as a revolution but a radio presenter said it was an insurrection and that the people were duped ?

Duped by who ?

Yes I have seen photos.

Do I think people would have chosen Iran to be as it is ? Who knows? There are 90 million or so people in Iran, the majority of who have never known anything else. And it is an authoritarian theocracy with restricted internet and state controlled media. Although the media itself claims to be semi state controlled media.

And this is a problem with authoritarian states. It is near impossible to gauge public opinion. There is one poll kicking around from inside IRAN but that was done via a distributed VPN and it was mostly done by highly educated urban folk. So it is next to useless. And this is why nobody can say for sure what public opinion is.

And it is not reliable to try to gauge public opinion from individual Iranians on UK radio. As to why that is, try a thought experiment. Imagine Iranian TV ( or Chinese or Russian) were to go onto UK streets to gauge public opinion. It would vary widely according to who they talked to. And if the TV station compiled a report based only on what Reform/Restore voters said, the report would likely say the UK is on the verge of a civil war, that the labour Party in power are authoritarian, and please send guns for the "silent majority" to take over.

It is not black and white.

In fact, go back to the Iranian protests of Jan. They started out as protests by merchants over inflation, then spread. But think back to what Trump said since then. He has boasted about sending arms to the Kurds to give to the protestors, and he has boasted of CIA operatives in Iran doing disinformation campaigns. And while he did not specifically claim that to be about the original protests, ( it was after the US pilot rescues) what his boast does do is put a cloud over whether the protests that were so brutally put down formed organically from the populace of Iran, or were they "encouraged".

As many posters have said above, the constant meddling by foreign powers in Iran is more likely than not making things worse for the people.