Fake Civil Institutions in Iran: What They Do and What They Don't?

Islamist movements and the subsequent Islamist governments are reactionary and based on intimidation and terror, meaning they lack roots in the demands of the general citizenry and only target the interests of a small segment through violence. They have not presented any new ideas, institutions, thoughts, strategies, or tactics. Everything these movements have (aside from the customs of Arab tribes 1400 years ago) is borrowed from communism, fascism, and Stalinism. They have carefully avoided the ideas and structures of Western democracy and liberalism, or if there are elements in the teachings of some of their intellectuals, they have gradually purged them. They have also created fake examples of institutions, ideas, and strategies of democracies in front of their political rivals domestically and Western governments and international organizations to present themselves as modern in situations where they have not yet seized absolute power, so they can climb the ladder of power and overthrow it, while appearing democratic and civil in the global community (in conditions where they still do not hold absolute power in international forums; if they manage to monopolize power domestically, these actions will be forgotten). Democracy, Islamic human rights, rule of law, separation of powers, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and elections in the Islamic Republic are all fake because their content, methods, and desired outcomes are of the nature of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. In this writing, I will refer to some of the fake civil institutions created and crafted by the security and military forces and the propaganda apparatus of the Islamic Republic. The Geneva Human Rights travelers are among the areas where the Islamic Republic wants to muddy the protest atmosphere against its actions. This was once done by establishing the Human Rights Headquarters of the Judiciary or constructing Islamic human rights, but it was not very successful. The new policy of the Islamic Republic that emerged after the Green Movement is institutional ambiguity in this area. The Organization for the Defense of Victims of Violence, the United Nations Association of Iran, the Association for the Support of Refugee Women and Children, the Institute for Women's Studies and Research, the Charity Institute for Supporting Social Victims, the Child Foundation, and the Center for Sustainable Peace Development were among the institutions that, along with the official delegation of the Islamic Republic, participated in the sixteenth global human rights conference in Geneva. A 20-member Iranian delegation, which introduced itself as representatives of civil society in Iran and members of the above institutions, defended the performance of the Islamic Republic in the field of human rights and civil society in Geneva. This delegation focused solely on the subject of criticism and politicization of rights. For example, this delegation held a session titled Islamophobia. This topic has been one of the propaganda subjects of Islamists to normalize the issue of terrorism in the West and beautify the image of Islamists. The Transparency and Justice Watch is a group of officials from the Islamic Republic, all of whom have a long history of abusing power, secrecy, and managing repressive institutions, and no change has occurred in their beliefs, behavior, or conduct. They have gathered to establish an organization called the Transparency and Justice Watch to fight corruption in the Islamic Republic. The founding members of this institution are all from the appointed institutions of the government (state radio and television, the IRGC, the Expediency Discernment Council), and some have entered the parliament by eliminating their rivals through disqualification. The ten founding members (Ahmad Tavakoli, Ahmad Amirabadi, Mohammad Dehghani, Mahmoud Farshidi, Elias Naderan, Morteza Nabavi, Ismail Kowsari, Hossein Najabat, Parviz Sorouri, and Mohammad Hossein Hosseinzadeh) have all gained their titles, power, and wealth from their proximity and loyalty to the power in the Islamic Republic. This military-security-propaganda and corrupt group claims that they want to fight corruption and lack of transparency. It is interesting that this group has also included personal choices of individuals in clothing, food, and lifestyle among the issues they want to combat - cultural corruption - (Article 9, Clause 12 of the statute). It is astonishing that a group of individuals who declare their loyalty to the most corrupt and non-transparent person in the country (the Supreme Leader) every day and owe everything they have to the abuse of their absolute power claim to fight against corruption and lack of transparency. An organization that is a transparency watch has not presented a single page of paper regarding its expenses and expenditures in the two years of its existence (just like the Supreme Leader, all of its members). The propaganda campaigns focus on constructing civil institutions by government and state institutions centered around the propaganda programs of the Islamic Republic. For example, regarding Israel, dozens of headquarters and organizations under the title of 'non-governmental organizations' have been established by the IRGC and Basij and religious institutions to organize propaganda activities. The Assembly of Activists and Non-Governmental Organizations Supporting the Freedom of Quds (including the Headquarters for Commemorating the Martyrs of the Islamic World, the Zaytoon Institute, the Armageddon Cultural Institute) operates in the field of anti-Israeli propaganda. The budget for these institutions is provided through the Islamic Propaganda Organization and the IRGC. The Association for the Defense of Victims of Terrorism leads and executes political propaganda against the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization. None of these 'non-governmental organizations' have transparently disclosed the source of their funding. There is no area of cultural activity where a group has made an effort to establish an institution within it that the security and military institutions and close associates of the Supreme Leader have not created fake parallel civil institutions. The Sacred Defense Cinematic Association (in opposition to the House of Cinema), the Ammar Headquarters (in opposition to all cultural and artistic institutions), the Iranian Pen Association (in opposition to the Iranian Writers' Association), the Islamic Artists' Committee (in opposition to the House of Theater or the Music Association), the Muslim Journalists' Association (in opposition to the Journalists' Guild Association), the Assembly of Islamic Revolution Publishers (in contrast to the Tehran Publishers Union), the Union of Islamic Student Associations (which did not allow an independent institution to form in this area), the Islamic Students' Society (in opposition to the consolidation office that leaned towards reformists), and hundreds of other ideological institutions are all government-created institutions that have not been independent in budget, charter, or decision-making. In areas where a fake institution has not been created, the reason is that the seemingly civil institution has been entirely government-created, such as the Engineering System Organization, the Medical System Organization, and the Bar Association. The government is completely involved in the elections of these institutions and exercises its supervisory disqualification. Islamists create a historical narrative to present the fake institution-building activities as authentic by introducing all existing religious institutions such as clergy, mosques, and endowments as religious institutions. Some of these institutions, like endowments, have never been civil institutions. Endowments in Iran have always been managed under government supervision. Other institutions, like some seminaries or mosques, may have been civil institutions (independent in terms of budget, administration, and organization) before the religious government, but during the religious government, no independence is observed in them. Fake civil institutions have four characteristics: Most of these institutions are seasonal, and when their specific function, which is to suppress other institutions or discredit them, is accomplished, they disappear. The activities of these institutions are also seasonal. Some of these institutions are created overnight by one person to respond to an urgent need, like an institution created to take a stance on the Kashmir issue. The Student Center for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Beautiful Peace) only comments on the killing of Muslims in Kashmir, of course, immediately after the commander of the IRGC takes a stance on this issue. This seemingly human rights institution, like dozens of other human rights institutions created for display at the international level and global forums, completely follows the footsteps of the military, security, and religious officials of the government because it is defined based on specific government projects. The creation of these institutions is just like registering companies that close associates of officials build overnight to exploit government rents; most of these institutions, despite the government's generosity in funding, do not take off because their founders eventually go to the public and government sector. In that sector, there are more resources for corruption and plunder. Government institutions have limitations in paying these institutions, and in some cases, their hands have been revealed in political competitions (like the payment of 500 million tomans to the Zakani site or payment to the cinema site close to Shamkhadri and friends); these institutions cannot operate professionally and fairly in the same areas they work. For example, fake propaganda institutions complain about the detention of a journalist from the state radio and television of the Islamic Republic in Israel but do not say that it is impossible for Israel to have a journalist in Iran; and these institutions, due to their dependence on the government and feeding from it, cannot have any relation to the rights and welfare of the people or professional and occupational rights. In the charters and statutes and activities of these fake institutions, not a single bright point can be found in defending the rights of citizens, groups, and Iranian citizens. They have only been created and crafted for the continuity of the authoritarian and totalitarian government and to preserve the interests of specific groups and individuals.