Financial Times – Iranians are in uproar after a programme on state television joked about the corpses of those killed in the recent demonstrations, highlighting seething rage towards the country’s rulers following its most violent episode in decades.
In the segment, which was aired on Sunday on the political satire show Khat-Khati, the presenter poses a mock multiple-choice question in response to speculation that the Islamic republic was hiding the bodies of the dead.
“Which kind of refrigerator do you think the Islamic republic is using to preserve the corpses?” the presenter says. “1. Side-by-side refrigerators 2. Ice cream makers 3. Supermarket freezers 4. ‘I am an ice vendor. Don’t ruin my business!’”
The viral video has sparked widespread outrage among the public and activists and drawn criticism from reformist and conservative media outlets alike, striking a nerve at a time of national grief.
Iranian officials have put the toll from the weeks-long demonstrations, which were suppressed in a brutal crackdown last month, at more than 3,000, blaming the unrest on armed agitators.
But human rights groups overseas have estimated it to be many times higher, with the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency saying more than 6,000 people have been confirmed killed, including 214 members of the security forces. It has said another 11,000 deaths were under investigation.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said it dismissed the director of the TV channel that aired the show, Ofogh, and took the programme off air.
Tehran’s prosecutor on Monday also announced the channel’s director, host and producers would face legal action. Mohammad Hossein Mohebbi, the show’s host, offered an apology while claiming he was made the subject of a smear campaign with an out-of-context video clip.
The measures do not appear to have appeased critics, with growing calls for the dismissal of IRIB’s chief Peyman Jebelli. Reza Rashidpour, a well-known media personality and a former TV host, launched an online campaign on Monday for Jebelli’s dismissal.
Many Iranians accused the show of crossing a red line, with news agencies and activists denouncing the channel as “a hate-generating machine” run by a “bunch of narrow-minded, bigoted people lacking basic social literacy”.
“Every single one of those who are not with us today, whether their numbers exceed 3,000 by our account or 30,000 by the enemy’s account, are all our compatriots,” hardline newspaper Qods wrote on Monday. “Shame on anyone who calls themselves Iranian but remembers their deceased compatriots with buffoonery.”
IRIB, which is dominated by a radical hardline ideology, has in the past sparked public ire with insensitive and incendiary commentaries, and is criticised by many Iranians for serving as a propaganda arm of the regime.
The protests, which began in December over economic distress, spiralled into the most serious domestic challenge to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution, with many demonstrators calling to overthrow the regime before the unrest was suppressed.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s office has begun publishing the names of those killed, inviting families to submit missing names with national identification numbers in an attempt to rebut higher casualty claims.
But the ensuing anger towards the regime has triggered a series of cultural and sporting boycotts in the country.
A number of prominent figures, such as film director Saeed Zamanian, scriptwriter Saleh Alavizadeh and musician Sohrab Pournazeri, have boycotted Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival, held annually to mark the anniversary of the revolution.
Pournazeri wrote on Instagram on Saturday that taking part in any festival would be “trampling the blood of our youth” and that he was standing alongside the “bereaved” Iranian people to “mourn the loss of our loved ones”.
Elnaz Shakerdoost, an actor, also announced late on Monday that she was quitting acting in protest at the recent killings. “My soul cannot bear the burden of this horrific historic tragedy,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will no longer take part in any celebration, nor will I ever play a role on this soil that reeks of blood.”
In recent days, two members of the national women’s football team, Zahra Alizadeh and Kowsar Kamali, as well as national basketball player Behnam Yakhchali and handball player Mohammadreza Oraei, have withdrawn from their national teams.
“At a time when every corner of my beloved country is in grief and despair, I feel I can no longer play like I used to,” Alizadeh wrote on her Instagram page. “Today, standing alongside my people matters to me more than anything else.”
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