Display of Fake Body of Missing Soldier on State TV; Amirreza Khadem: It's Shameful

The display of a fake body of a missing soldier from the Iran-Iraq War to his parents on the Islamic Republic's Channel 3 program has sparked critical reactions from users on social media. Amirreza Khadem, a former Iranian wrestling champion, called this act 'shameful' on Instagram, writing: 'The pure beliefs of the pure-hearted people have become a ladder for a number of unethical, hypocritical, and self-serving individuals to climb up!' In the program, the mother of the missing soldier is told: 'That brave boy is no longer here. Do you still want to hold him?' A body covered in a shroud is then taken from a coffin and placed in the arms of the parents. Khadem wrote: 'Who has any sense of humanity and allows themselves to play with the emotions of pure-hearted compatriots by putting the elderly parents of a martyr in front of the national media's cameras?' Some users described this act as 'using martyrs to attract an audience' by the Islamic Republic's state television. Mohammad Heydari, the editor-in-chief of the news site 'Rooidad24', also described this program as 'a shameful act aimed at attracting viewers and heating up the mourning atmosphere.' The use of empty coffins under the title of war martyrs for families whose children have gone missing has been common in the past and is seen by many as a way to evoke the emotions of the families of 'martyrs' and distract them from current issues. Fatemeh Sepahri, a political activist opposing the Iranian government and one of the signatories of the request for Ali Khamenei's resignation, also reacted to Khamenei's meeting with 'martyr families', stating that the Islamic Republic has 'oppressed' these families for 45 years by exploiting 'the blood of martyrs.' She is herself the wife of one of the casualties of the Iran-Iraq War. While the Islamic Republic's state television has 'heated up the mourning atmosphere', this year, many people have used the occasion of the month of Muharram as an opportunity to continue expressing their protests against the government. Even some mourners have sung protest laments, including Haidar Qabadi, who, according to the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, was arrested by security forces, beaten, and forced to give a written commitment. A music group from one of the mourning ceremonies at the grave of Ghazaleh Chalabi in Amol has been involved in the Islamic Republic's attempts to impose mandatory hijab from the mourning podiums during Muharram. The group sang the piece 'From the blood of the youth of the homeland, tulips have bloomed' at a mourning ceremony in Yazd.