Some Conservatives In Iran Call For Change, Reforms In The System

When he scored a goal in the final of the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup at Cottage Beach in the United Arab Emirates November 6, instead of the usual display of his joy Iranian player Saeed Piramoun made a gesture of cutting his hair, a symbolic act in solidarity with women protesting forced hijab in Iran. With his goal Iran won the match against Brazil 2-1 and the championship of the competitions.

The “hair-cutting” gesture has become an international symbol of solidarity with Iranian women and the protest movement with many international athletes and celebrities posting images of themselves re-enacting the move.

Authorities have made serious threats against athletes and other celebrities to stop them from public displays of solidarity with protesters but to no avail.

Many Iranians have hailed Piramoun, an ethnic Baluch from the southeastern port city of Chabahar.

“These symbolic gestures attract global attention to the protests and hit [the regime] domestically,” a tweet after the match said.

Another Twitterati opined that similar actions by sports teams and athletes may force the Islamic Republic to forsake the Qatar World Cup to avoid international disgrace. Iran will be playing its first match against England on November 21.

Without naming Piramoun in its statement Monday, Iran’s Football Federation vowed to discipline those who display their political stances in sports arenas. “Those who have not abided by professional and athletic ethics,” the statement said, would be punished according to regulations.

The federation’s exhortation against involvement in politics is in stark contradiction with its own pressure on athletes to avoid competing with Israelis in international sports competitions, even at the cost of being eliminated from the games or losing titles.

Less than a month ago Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Iranian athletes who refuse to play against Israelis, and said not competing with Israeli athletes is “a victory” in itself.

Piramoun was not alone in his protest action. His teammates had unanimously refused to sing along when the Islamic Republic’s anthem was played before the semi-finals and at the awards ceremony. They stood with their arms crossed without showing any signs of celebrating their win. The state television (IRIB) hastily cut its live reporting short to prevent people from receiving the team’s message of solidarity with protests.

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Authorities have tried to distort the meaning of such gestures in other instances when individual athletes and sports teams displayed less obvious gestures of solidarity with protesters than Piramoun’s, such as refusing to show any signs of celebration for scoring goals or winning games.

The state TV anchor last week claimed Esteghlal FC players’ refusal to cheer when they won this year’s Super Cup was a sign of respect for those killed in a shooting attack in Shahcheragh Shrine in Shiraz for which ISIS apparently took responsibility.

Many Iranians suspect the government of complicity with ISIS in the attack, in the least, to create its own narrative and martyrs. The Shahcheragh incident, they claim, was meant to distract attention from the opposition’s protests and those killed in them or justify harsher suppression of the protesters who, the government claims, have caused insecurity in the country.

In a meeting with female students from Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Molavi Abdolhamid said “Without women, we cannot build the country and society.”

Referring to the popular uprising in the last 50 days, he said this movement was staged by “women” and is the result of their dissatisfaction with “discrimination and inequality and the harsh behavior of the government.”

“If women were not frustrated, hungry, and humiliated, and their freedom and rights were respected, there would be no need for compulsory hijab and morality police,” added the Sunni cleric.

On Friday, Molavi Abdolhamid called for an internationally monitored referendum, saying by killing and suppressing citizens the government cannot push back a nation.

He also confirmed the “martyrdom of at least 16 people” last week in a Sunni-majority town and dozens of more injuries while teenagers and young people were chanting slogans and throwing stones at governor’s office in the city of Khash, but they were “directly targeted by live rounds.”

The Islamic Republic has upped the ante against the Sunni religious leader of Zahedan for his harsh criticism of the brutal and non-democratic approach of the government to protests.

Tasnim News Agency, affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), called Molavi Abdolhamid the source of insecurity in Sistan and Baluchestan, telling him to ask his “dictator Saudi friends to hold a referendum.”

On the same day when 227 members of Iran’s parliament (Majles) called for death sentence for those arrested during recent protests, Iran's Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, Ezzatollah Zarghami, advocated dialogue between the government and the protesters, highlighting some chaos and indecision in the ruling circles.

Speaking in a meeting with Sharif University students Sunday, Zarghami, a former Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officer who was once Iran's culture minister and the head of the country's state television, admitted that "Some of the approaches of Iranian officials are wrong but they fear the regime will face a serious danger if they put a step back from their position.”

Referring to the news of young Iranian knocking Shiite clerics' turbans off their heads, Zarghami said these are low-income clerics who are paying for the luxurious lifestyle of rich mullahs.

He insisted that Iran needs reforms and many members of the elite have warned the government about this. "Many others warned about the morality police and said what they were doing was wrong," he said.

Public statements by many officials, such as Zarghami, show they are still stuck in the perception that if hijab enforcement is relaxed, protests will end, but what protesters say in the streets is that they have passed that stage and want the regime to fall.

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Zarghami who has been active on social media for years, acknowledged that Iranians no longer trust the official media, and journalist do not write some of what is going on in the society, fearing government reprisal. He admitted that "You cannot say anything [in Iran] if there is no social media."

He criticized officials, without naming anyone, for failing to understand the people and their anger, and said he himself was frustrated because of the way his candidacy in the 2021 presidential election was handled.

In one of the most controversial comments he made in the presence of the students, he said: "When you look at some financial corruption cases, you will see that individuals from all parts of the establishment are involved in it."

But why Zarghami can say these things and get away while other officials do not? Perhaps one of the reasons is that others have no ambition for the future and simply wish to protect what they have. But Zarghami, more likely, still wants to be Iran's next president and having smelled the need for change, he probably thinks the regime will have no choice other than surrendering to some of the protesters' demands. By trying to talk to Sharif University Students who have been in the forefront of the protests, he is touting himself as the man who can make peace with Iran's angry young men and women. But the question is to what extent hardliners in the core of the regime, and students in the forefront of protests, would listen to him.

Reformist cultural activist Hadi Khaniki has likened the need to hold dialogue with the youth to chemotherapy to cure a cancer patient. "It is painful and hard, but it might have some good effect," Khaniki told Etemad Online website. A cancer patient himself, Khaniki said: "The country has a cancer which has its roots among top-level officials and if no one pays any attention to that, the cancer will spread to the other parts of the system.

In another development, Hassan Khomeini, the ambitious grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khmomeini, the fundamentalist founder of the Islamic Republic suggested in an interview Etemad Online that "The government had better begin to listen to the people." He said if the situation develops into a deadlock, our only way out would be to seek democratic solutions. He ignored the fact that he has got his position of wealth and power through non-democratic ways, in a hereditary system.

In a short article published Monday by Iran Daily, the official mouthpiece of the government, the Islamic Republic threatened the UAE of consequences over its lack of action to stop spectators who chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic after a match between the Iranian and Emirati national teams in Dubai on Saturday.

Criticizing the UAE police for a lack of confrontation with the people, the paper said that the UAE government’s attitude is “not compatible with good neighborliness.”

It added that “if the country does not react appropriately [against spectators], it must accept the consequences of this anti-Iranian action,” threatening that UAE will soon see “the consequences of this hostile action.”

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The Iranian beach football federation also issued a statement to downplay the protest by Iranian spectators, describing them as “unwise and opportunistic.”

The federation also threatened the players of the national squad for their acts of solidarity with the current wave of antigovernment protests, ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the hands of the hijab – or ‘morality’ -- police. 

The national team players did not cheer or celebrate after winning the cup following their final victory against Brazil and also refused to sing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic at the beginning of their semifinal match against the UAE. 

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During the final, Iranian striker Saeed Piramoun expressed his solidarity with Iranian protesters by miming the hair cutting gesture after scoring a goal, a move that has drawn enormous appreciation by Iranian social media users and renowned footballers alike. His move has also inspired several graffiti and digital art pieces. 

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While the national anthem was being played before the match started, Iranian players seemed to have been forced to sing along this time, but the Iranians present at the stadium kept booing until it ended. 

Vowing to punish the players, the Islamic Republic’s federation said according to regulations by world football governing body FIFA, players should avoid "any political act." It said some of the players did not observe "professional ethics." 

Mentioning FIFA’s regulations is unexpected from the Islamic Republic’s authorities who have been ignoring such rules when it comes to allowing women into stadiums or female referees to officiate matches in men’s leagues. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has expressed concern over possible problems that may happen during the FIFA World Cup scheduled to open later in the month. Earlier in November, he tasked the Foreign Ministry to contact Qatari officials regarding the issue to find ways “to predict and prevent possible problems."

Earlier in the month, FIFA President Gianni Infantino wrote to the World Cup teams asking them to concentrate on soccer in Qatar and not let ideological “battles” be dragged into football fields. “We know football does not live in a vacuum and we are equally aware that there are many challenges and difficulties of a political nature all around the world… [but] at FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world,” Infantino said in his letter.

He wrote the letter in reaction to calls by a group of Iranian sports personalities and lawyers who have requested FIFA to eliminate Islamic Republic’s team from the World Cup. 

Sosha Makani, the ex-goalkeeper of Iran’s national team told Iranians in a video on his Instagram late in October that it is wrong to go to Qatar to watch football matches because the Iranian regime will exploit their presence in stadiums to tell the world they support the Islamic Republic.

Since March, many Iranians have been urging FIFA to ban Team Melli from the World Cup for forcibly barring women from entering stadiums to watch matches. Under FIFA pressure, Iranian authorities started to let in a cherrypicked group of women so they would not face bans and penalties. However, since the start of the current uprising and a lackluster support from the national squad, the calls on FIFA to ban Iran have become stronger.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday, that these people were detained in different provinces as well as “at the eastern borders while fleeing the country.”

The ministry identified the assailant in Shahcheragh shrine as a Tajik citizen named Sobhan Komrooni with the nickname “Abu Aisha” and an Afghan person named Mohammed Ramez Rashidi as the “supporting element” of the operation.

Earlier, Esmail Mohebi, a top official at Fars governorate, announced the death of “the perpetrator of the attack on the shrine” who was injured and hospitalized in southern city of Shiraz.

In the statement, a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan was named as the “main element of directing and coordinating” the attack, who “flew from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku and entered the country through Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport.”

“After arriving in Tehran, this person announced his presence to the coordinating element in the Republic of Azerbaijan and immediately contacted the network of foreign nationals of the ISIS to inform them about his presence in Tehran,” reads the statement.

The allegations by Iran cannot be confirmed by any independent source and the Republic of Azerbaijan has yet to react to the claim.

ISIS took responsibility for the attack on the Shahcheragh in Shiraz on October 26, but some questioned the Islamic Republic’s account saying it was staged by the regime itself to distract attention from nationwide protests.