
How well do we know small-scale drug dealers? / Simin Rouzgar
The Glasgow school believes that news does not reflect the world, but rather shapes it. This definition means that the way an event is reported is more influenced by the political and social world surrounding it. The findings of research from this school not only question the impartiality of dominant media, but also conclude that these media create a specific image of issues that greatly affects the audience. Let’s apply this definition to the various news reports about drugs in Iran and the harshest solution to combat it, which is execution.
“Execution of armed criminals and drug traffickers in Minab”, “Execution of death profiteers in Qazvin”, “Punishment for glass smugglers”, “Dismantling of heroin smuggling ring”. These are the headlines of several news articles published in state-run news agencies, which daily report similar incidents on radio, television, newspapers, and other state media outlets. Do these headlines reflect the discussed event or shape the perception of the world and the audience’s mentality?
In the news and reports of this field, the main subject is the amount of drugs being transported, stored, or bought and sold, and the gender, age, background, reasons for the individual’s inclination, or even the process of the trial are not of the least importance. Suspects, smugglers, and dangerous criminals are introduced who are the cause of the spread of addiction among different groups, including youth, women, and children, and their “destruction” is obvious. Even if they are to be executed publicly, people are invited to watch. This is why sometimes the opinions of the audience about such executions are shocking and not much different from the intentions of the news reporters. To prove this claim, it is enough to look at the opinions of social media users – not even in government news agencies that publish news in this field on other media and social networks. Of course, not all, but more or less, it can be seen that the audience also sees them as a group
Showing thirst for taking decisive action against crimes related to drugs.
Mahmoud Talebi, the head of the Revolutionary Court of Qom, recently said in an interview with Fars News Agency: “Smugglers should not use Qom’s transportation routes for transit of drugs; Qom province is a route that they can never pass through and the roads of this province are a swamp for drug traffickers.” Judge Heydari, the deputy prosecutor of Mashhad’s public and revolutionary court, also said in an interview with the same news agency: “We have no tolerance for major and even small-scale drug traffickers… Fortunately, firm and uncompromising actions against suspects involved in drug trafficking have prevented smugglers from entering Khorasan Razavi province.”
Two high-ranking judicial authorities in the most religious provinces of the country, in their thirst to demonstrate their determination to fight such crimes, speak of the issue without the slightest mention of the sources of the crime, as if drugs and addiction have no place in these two provinces. Meanwhile, the public relations of the Anti-Drug Headquarters have described the prevalence rate of drug use in some provinces, including these two, as higher than the national average, relative to the population.
Of course, the officials of the judicial system use certain words correctly. Their negative treatment towards street vendors has created a swamp in this area that swallows and eliminates a large number of them from society. But we must ask, what has been the result of this swamp and negative treatment? Does it not even reproduce its own victims?
Ali Movidi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Anti-Drug Headquarters, has recently announced in a press conference that drug use is the fourth leading cause of death in the country after car accidents, heart attacks, and burns; on average, 10 people in Iran die every day due to drug use. The Advisor to the Secretary-General of the Anti-Drug Headquarters has also pointed out that the rate of addiction and women’s tendency towards drugs in the country has doubled.
Statistics, opinions, and statements of powerful individuals are abundant; thousands of pages can be written about them and they can be analyzed and criticized. But what about the other side of the news? When an execution – or in other words, state murder of a human being – reaches such a low point, what is the real goal? What is supposed to be completely erased from our discussion in shaping the world? Who are the drug dealers? How well do we know them? How many times have we judged them?
The child laborer’s hope was shattered by his father’s death sentence.
As mentioned, prisoners of drug-related crimes are not supposed to have a place in the media beyond a few dictated words: “executioner” – “smuggler” – “profiteer”; it is not heartless to say they are considered “excess”. The motivation for writing this report, which was dedicated to the above-mentioned individuals, was completed by expressing the desire of one of them’s child to inform about their own and their father’s situation, even in a small space.
His father is imprisoned in Karaj’s Qazal Hasar prison and is facing the death penalty by the Revolutionary Court on charges related to drugs. He says, “My father is 43 years old and was arrested 2 years ago with 250 grams of crystal meth.”
This sixteen-year-old child, in a brief conversation about his situation, says: “I live with misery and now I am working because my father got stuck in the brick kiln on the Varamin road.”
In response to the question of what your father’s main job was and why he committed this act, he added: “My father was a construction worker who became unemployed due to a back injury. He couldn’t provide for our family and support us financially. My father was a very weak street vendor…”
He who hopes for his father’s sentence to change, continues like this: “There are many families like ours in prisons who have been forced into drug dealing due to consecutive unemployment.”
م
Desire for revenge following the execution of my brother.
A while ago, one of the repetitive headlines was related to “Alireza”; a few hours after his execution, state news agencies published the headline: “Glass smuggler hanged”. But who was Alireza? What were his circumstances and how did he live before being arrested for drug-related crimes? What were his motivations for committing this act? What does his family say after his execution?
In order to reach answers to such questions, the line of peace has had a detailed conversation with one of his brothers.
Please, as the first question, tell us a little about your family.
We were a family of ten; seven brothers and one sister. Our father’s house is in Mehrshahr, Karaj. Our father was a desert driver and passed away in 90. Our mother acted as both a father and a mother to us. Alireza was the youngest child of the family. When our mother breastfed him, he became my child; everyone was his, and I was his, and he was mine. Until we grew up and I got married, and he was slowly starting to stand on his own feet.
What was Alireza’s personality like?
Alireza was a rebellious child, but he was not a troublemaker and had no criminal record. Everyone in the neighborhood would swear by his head and say that Ali was not capable of such actions. He was healthy and an athlete; he practiced judo and weightlifting.
Before this happened, we thought that those who are involved in these things have a family of thieves and robbers and are considered to be sinners! But after our own brother was caught for the same crime, our opinion changed. I don’t mean that only our brother was caught; when we visited, we saw young people in prison who were better and more virtuous than one another. That was when we realized who fell into this trap because of mismanagement, poverty, and lack of money.
Does this mean that before this incident happened in your family, you were in favor of execution?
I have never been a supporter of execution; however, I was not actively pursuing this issue either. Well, when the topic of drugs came up, my understanding was that these individuals were causing young people to become addicted and I thought this type of punishment might be beneficial. I didn’t think about the circumstances that lead a person to do such a thing.
What was your brother’s level of education and occupation?
He had not finished high school and was under diploma; I said he was a rebellious child! In terms of his job, for four or five years, he worked in a mantu factory with my other brothers. But with the economic situation that emerged during Ahmadinejad’s era, my brothers were forced to close the factory and each person had to take their share. Alireza then became partners with his friends and opened a coffee shop. My brother was engaged and wanted to bring his wife, but because he didn’t have much money, he was forced to close the coffee shop. Anyway, the cost of a wedding is high and his fiancée said she didn’t want to live in that neighborhood of Mehrshahr. My brother had neither a job nor money, nor anyone to help him… But this child was so honorable that when he had the coffee shop, he would put some money above my mother and sister’s head at night so that when they woke up in the
What was your brother’s crime and do you know since when he had been involved in this activity?
They said they took 410 grams of glass from him. I didn’t see anything and I don’t know if it was for himself or his friends; Alireza was very sociable and enjoyed the company of his friends. He was 26 years old when they arrested him and he spent three years in prison; he wasn’t even 30 when he was executed.
See, after the coffee shop closed, he got angry and lived at my house for a while. But he would say that he was embarrassed of your wife and that’s why he eventually left and got a bachelor pad with his friends. During the time he was with me, even when he went out, he would take money for his car rental from me. Think about it, you, who takes money for his car rental from his brother, it’s obvious that you weren’t involved in this. Whatever happened, it was related to those last two or three weeks when he had left our house and then they arrested him… That’s when people make billions of dollars through this way. Thank God he didn’t get caught up in that and left this world…!
What was your and your family’s reaction to his arrest?
When Alireza was arrested, everyone was shocked. It was as if we were all struck by lightning! No one could have imagined such a thing happening in our family. Due to the strong emotional bond between us brothers, they hadn’t even told me for a long time that he had been sentenced to death, and they would say he was gone forever. In these three and a half years, we were all upset, but we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t even hire a lawyer for him. They said lawyers take billions of dollars and Alireza himself would say whether they were there or not, it wouldn’t make a difference to the outcome of these cases; it’s out of their hands.
What do you know is the most important impact of this event?
The most important impact is the absence of Alireza; that I have to face the world without Ali from now on, and this is impossible for me… she cries. On the other hand, this government has made all of us more determined. My brothers and I are looking for an opportunity to take revenge! In fact, with their actions, they have instilled a sense of revenge in us. The whole family and their friends have become determined…
It seems that you did not agree with your brother’s actions. However, what punishment do you think should have been considered for him?
Of course, I did not agree. If I had known, I would have been willing to cut off both of my feet to prevent him from going into this matter, but he went and brought shame upon us!
See, I’m saying this is not the way; just as they themselves admitted, with execution, drug crimes have not decreased. They should be warned and given another chance to return to society, make amends, and continue their lives. These individuals were not born criminals; they were like you and me and our families. They were healthy people living in society, but because of one mistake, they became like this; a mistake that did not lead to murder and they have no private complainant. With one mistake, one should not take someone’s life.
“I am well aware that I am the main cause of the youth being drawn towards this direction. A system that has ruined the economy with its thefts, increased unemployment rates, and caused poverty to cast its shadow everywhere. Not everyone is a prophet. In these dire economic conditions, everyone is forced to choose a path for their livelihood, even if it is not their true desire. If our country’s economic situation was not like this, people like Ali would have had a decent income and could have lived a normal life. They would definitely not choose this path; I am sure of this, especially when it comes to my own brother. He had no job or income and had a thousand wishes for himself.”
Would you like to say something else at the end?
In my opinion, they have closed the paths and left the aimless ones open. In such circumstances, many are inevitably drawn towards these aimless paths where in the end, a tyrant awaits them and claims to have the intention of reforming them. These actions are not for the purpose of reform and eradicating addiction, but rather to intimidate people. If someone behaves contrary to our desires, we kill them and are not afraid of anyone.

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