[lbo-talk] it's ok to kill an unmarried couple walking together

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 4/19/07, Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at aapt.net.au> wrote:
> At 9:41 AM -0400 19/4/07, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >When this gets overturned in the final decision, I assure you that
> >there will be no front page article in the New York Times to report on
>
> Haven't seen any further news on that other case either:
>
> >A judge caused outrage in 2004 in Neka, in the north, after he issued
> >a death sentence for a 16-year old girl for what he said were
> >chastity crimes. After the summary trial, he had her hanged in public
> >immediately, before the necessary approval from the Supreme Court.
>
> Has the judge in that case been sentenced for murder yet? As you say,
> it might just  be that the western media has simply failed to report
> it if so. But until I know that the judge in that case has been
> sentenced to life imprisonment, I'm never going to be able to share
> your touching faith in the Iranian judicial system.
>
> To tell the honest truth, the fact that the judge in that case wasn't
> torn limb from limb by an enraged mob, within 24 hours of the news
> getting out, is an indictment of the Iranian people as well. What's
> the use of retaining a primitive legal and religious vigilantism, if
> it isn't applied to psychotic misogynist members of the judiciary?
>
> Please, no more ridiculous defences of this backward barbarian
> society. It turns my stomach.

Can you remember any front page story that positively portrays Iran,
or any other country that is in the crosshairs of the USA?  As my
Persian teacher, who is a determined opponent of the Islamic
government of Iran (who lost a tooth when he was attacked by its
agents while he was demonstrating against it in Pakistan) says, the
media are determined to paint the ugliest possible picture of his
country, to prepare the public for acceptance of whatever is done to
it.  That is not to say that unjust executions, unjust exonerations,
etc. do not happen in Iran -- for instance, Iran is one of the
countries that use death penalty most frequently, quite reprehensible
in this respect.  But _that_ is the only aspect that the
English-speaking public are encouraged to see.

Generally speaking, excepting the best allies of the USA, coverage of
any non-Western country is poor at best and hideous at worst.  It is
no wonder that people like Wojtek eventually begin to think that
colonialism was better than post-colonial governments.
-- 
Yoshie