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The Fake News Campaign to Undermine a Champion of Women's Rights

September 24, 2019
Hessam Ghanatir
6 min read
MP Parvaneh Salahshouri has roused the wrath of hardliners because of her support for women’s rights. Most recently, she angered politicians for supporting the “Blue Girl"
MP Parvaneh Salahshouri has roused the wrath of hardliners because of her support for women’s rights. Most recently, she angered politicians for supporting the “Blue Girl"

Over the last several days, the hashtag “Aghazadeh_Masseur”(آقازاده_ماساژور) has been trending on Persian social media. The hashtag, which is linked to a campaign against outspoken member of parliament Parvaneh Salahshouri, is a clear reminder that groups linked to Iran's most conservative factions disseminate fake news to harm their opponents. Salahshouri, a reformist female member of the parliament, has been more outspoken than most in her support for women’s rights.

The people who launched the hashtag claimed that Salahshouri’s nephew was arrested because he had been running a message parlor providing “sexual services” to his clients. Salahshouri and her brother, the father of the man in question, have both denied the report and accused people using the hashtag of attacking Salahshouri because of her politics.

There are 17 female MPs in the 10th (current) parliament of the Islamic Republic, which ends next year. This is the highest number of female members in the parliament since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, only a few of them advocate for women’s rights. One of them is Parvaneh Salahshouri, who has been on the frontline of the fight, even more so than Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs. In a country where championing women’s rights is a political red line, it is only natural that Salahshouri has become a prime target for attacks from hardliners.

Parvaneh Salahshouri is 55, holds a PhD in sociology, teaches at Azad University and is more active on social media than most other politicians. She regularly tweets and posts on Instagram. She also uses her Telegram channel to publish her speeches and to set out her political positions.

 

The Birth of a Hashtag

The “Aghazadeh_Masseur” hashtag was first used on a number of Instagram and Twitter accounts of the Student Basij, one of the vigilante Basij forces affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards. “Aghazadeh” is a colloquial word that refers to children of Iran’s elite and high officials who acquire power and wealth through nepotism and corruption.

The people who launched the hashtag claimed that “a big gang” of people engaged in “mixed-sex massage in Tehran” had been arrested. This claim gained momentum when the Young Journalists Club (YJC) news agency, an affiliate of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) also published the story, quoting the people who had originally reported it on social media [Persian link]. YJC wrote that the arrested people were “a dirty gang that, besides massage, also provided its clients with sexual services.” The agency’s report also reprinted tweets from political opponents of Salahshouri and principlist conservative members of the parliament Mehdi Zahedi and Naser Mousavi Largani.

The fact that this unsubstantiated and unsupported report was picked up by a state-owned news agency led to a wave of criticism from reformist political activists. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar and reformist activist Javad Emam tweeted that the “Aghazadeh_Masseur” hashtag was an act of political revenge against Salahshouri. “I have two nephews, aged four and 20, who are now next to their family in Ahvaz,” tweeted Salahshouri herself [Persian link]. “My brother...went to the front when he was a teenager. Fear God and do not sacrifice your afterlife to others.”

On September 13, her brother, Touraj Salahshouri, issued a statement denying that his son had been arrested and adding that the son, a third-year student of German language and literature at the University of Tehran, was spending his summer vacation with his family in Ahvaz. “If my sister expresses criticisms at the parliament, she must not be silenced by slander and libel,” he wrote.

 

The Hashtag and the “Blue Girl”

Parvaneh Salahshouri had most recently infuriated her political opponents by supporting Sahar Khodayari, also known as the “Blue Girl,” a football fan who was arrested when she tried to enter a stadium to watch a match and died after she set herself on fire in front of a courthouse in Tehran in protest. “She was not only the ‘Blue Girl’ but also ‘Iran’s Girl,’” wrote Salahshouri. “We are all responsible for the arrest and the burning of this land’s Sahars.”

In a news broadcast, Iranian state TV also targeted Salahshouri, harshly criticising her. In response, on September 13, Salahshouri wrote a letter to Ali Asgari, head of the IRIB, demanding that his organization be “impartial” and put an end to the “dissemination of lies.”

Salahshouri is one the few members of the parliament who has publicly opposed Iran’s law on mandatory hijab. Earlier this year, at an event called “Iranian Women’s Clothing after the Revolution,” she described dress codes as being “injurious” to women. “Because of wearing chador for years I had to have surgery and my hand has been in pain for years.”

Unsurprisingly, Salahshouri came under harsh criticism for such statements. She was even accused of opposing the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who had dismissed her comments by saying, “what gets me is when some of the elite bring up the question of mandatory hijab.” And the campaigners of the “Aghazadeh_Masseur” hashtag ridiculed Salahshouri, asking her: “Why didn’t you ask your nephew for a massage when your neck was in pain?”

Salahshouri has championed other controversial or sensitive issues in parliament, including increasing the age of marriage for girls from 13 to 18, supporting a bill to prohibit violence against women, and calling for the law that requires women to have their husband’s or their male guardian’s permission before they can travel abroad to be vacated. 

In recent months, with numerous reports of the Iranian judiciary’s harsh treatment of labor activists, women, journalists, environmental activists and teachers, including heavy prison sentences against them, Salahshouri has repeatedly criticized Chief Justice Ebrahim Raeesi’s “violent approach.”

The proliferation of the“Aghazadeh_Masseur” hashtag has been a clear reminder that Iran’s cyber army, an affiliate of the Revolutionary Guards, is a leading disseminator of fake news, and is extremely active. Most of the people responsible for the hashtag trending kept their identities hidden, using fake names when posting on social media. There have also been claims that  cyber army “soldiers” have been paid for spreading fake news, and that people have been paid “piecemeal” for every 1,000 tweets they publish — ensuring that they have an incentive to diligently support the goals of Iran’s hardliners.

 

Related Coverage:

Woman Who Set Herself on Fire Dies, September 9, 2019

Civil Activist, 21, Sentenced to 24 Years in Prison, August 28, 2019

“I Got Arrested Because I Wasn’t Wearing a Bra”, August 6, 2019

Women’s Rights and Religious Freedom: A Contradiction in Terms?, July 23, 2019

Internet to Blame for “Bad Hijab”, 30 October 2018

Women’s Rights Activists behind Bars, October 1, 2018

Official Report: Support for Compulsory Hijab Plummets, 30 July 2018

Guards Arrest “Revolution Woman” Maryam Shariatmadari, April 27, 2018

Exclusive: Interview with Revolution Woman Narges Hosseini, March 2018

Khamenei Dismisses Hijab Protesters as “Insignificant and Small", March 2018

People Want the Choice on Hijab — But the Regime Won't Listen, February 6, 2018

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