Omid Habibinia

In recent weeks, a portion of Javad Zarif’s response, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, to Charlie Rose, an American journalist, has been widely discussed. But the reality is that this is not surprising, as Javad Zarif is one of the officials of the Islamic Republic who, like most senior managers of this government, have justified behaviors that have been carried out on a daily and systematic basis by the Iranian government for nearly four decades; last year, Hassan Rouhani, the President of the Islamic Republic, also made similar remarks in response to Christiane Amanpour and said that no one in Iran is imprisoned for being a journalist.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also in the past years in New York or in interviews with foreign reporters, expressed similar statements; Mohammad Khatami, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Khamenei and Mir Hossein Mousavi have also, as president or prime minister, expressed similar statements in dealing with foreign reporters.

With the reminder that Parviz Sabati, the security deputy of Savak, the statesmen of the previous government, and some members of the Pahlavi family are essentially deniers of political suppression, oppression, and torture and assassination of government opponents, it is expected that current or former statesmen, whether they are in power or have been marginalized, to speak about the nature of the regime’s suppression during their time in power or even confess to their role in it. However, it is futile to expect this, as it is not in line with the political sociology of a totalitarian government and its personal cult, nor is it compatible with the internal hypocrisy of the current Iranian society, which showcases dual values and norms.

Societal duality, especially in the urban middle class, is such that on one hand, it appears to accept the dominance of power and conforms to its structure for the sake of adaptation, and on the other hand, it secretly opposes it with anarchy.

Dual life, dual face, inside and outside, appearance and essence, and conflicting roles that the urban middle class finds in their daily lives have turned this duality into a part of their current lifestyle; hence, lying, deceit, and turning a blind eye to certain undeniable realities that do not align with their immediate and selfish interests and their path of compromise have become the behavioral characteristics of this class and the younger generation that has grown up in recent decades.

From this village, he can even justify a clever lie because he is currently in need of reconciliation with power and on social networks, he follows the line of a part of the system that calls him to constant play and entertainment. In the midst of this, reformist journalists, defenders of one faction of power and in fact the main media stream that is in their hands, also add to this wave of reconciliation and duplicity.

In my opinion, until the middle class of the city, which is the main part of social media users and active Persian-speaking media audiences, does not reach self-awareness, this duality drags him into passivity and weakens his social power, and every day he finds a new entertainment in the virtual world instead of social action and dynamism.