The Guardian has not deleted its article. UK 'mainstream' media are not neutral and not be trusted unless claims are independently verified

Saeed Kamali Deghani’s 2010 Guardian article about a woman executed in Iran played a significant role in setting the anti-Iran narrative of the following years. Titled “Iranian facing stoning speaks: ‘It’s because I’m a woman’”, Deghani’s “exclusive interview” relayed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s accusation that the Iranian court was lying about charges of adultery and murder. The article said that the charges were made up.

Mina Ahadi is a communist Iranian exile who serves on the committee of Atheist Alliance International. She presumably has little reason to want to help the image of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But she has posted a screenshot of Deghani’s confession. In the accompanying caption, she says that Deghani had already confessed to her in 2010, and that he had begged her not to expose him in case he was sacked and sent back to Iran.

    • mysteryhumpf@feddit.orgEnglish
      113·
      7 days ago

      Sure the journalist may have made a mistake but it in no way absolves Iran of their medieval and woman hating laws. I already said it and will say it again: this does not justify a military intervention in the country. But it should make it pretty clear to anyone who is humanist or feminist that the regime there is extremely brutal and their crimes should not be belittled either.

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        66·
        7 days ago

        this does not justify a military intervention in the country.

        But it does. That’s why these lies are done. To justify the military intervention.

        This is similar to the 40 beheaded babies and Hamas raped women hoaxes. Western propaganda makes up false stories because the real stories aren’t sobby enough (and the US is basically doing worse to black people on a daily basis). Then when the truth eventually comes out people have already internalized the propaganda.

        Sure Iran has its problems but there’s a reason why writers need to make up stories to really get the demonization going. Recently we had the US-backed terrorist attacks in Iran during the protests where Iranian think tanks made up crazier and crazier numbers of casualties to justify US imperialism.

        The latest US economic sanctions are actual mass terror against Iranian civilians but we’re not going to get any Guardian sob stories over that

        • mysteryhumpf@feddit.orgEnglish
          93·
          7 days ago

          Hamas did in fact rape women and they did in fact kill babies (I don’t care if beheaded or not). This does not justify Israel’s response but it’s true. I feel like you want to justify your black and white worldview by completely ignoring the atrocities committed by one side.