New Phase of Destruction of Hashemi Rafsanjani on Television

As the date of March 10 approaches, the day of electing the new head of the Assembly of Experts, the political alignment of two factions in Iran has become increasingly media-driven. The newspaper Ebtekar reported in its Saturday issue on a 'new phase of destruction of Hashemi Rafsanjani on television.' Concurrently, the newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, highlighted the statements of Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani during Friday prayers in Tehran, quoting him as saying, 'Individuals elected to the Assembly must have complete obedience to the Supreme Leader.' Javan reported that Mohammadi Kermani emphasized during the Friday prayers that 'if any weaknesses have been seen in these 36 years, they should be stated without bias,' even referencing some mistakes made by Ayatollah Khomeini, Mohammad Beheshti, and Mohammad Ali Rajai. The newspapers Etemad, Shargh, Shahrvand, and Iran published reports about the visit of Mohammad Nahavandian, the head of the President's Office, to Qom and his meetings with several high-ranking clerics. Shargh described this visit as 'consultations in Qom.' Etemad reported under the headline 'Qom; Pleased with Rouhani' that 'the clerics praised the government's activities and emphasized their support for negotiations and economic policies.' The newspaper also noted, 'The visits of government officials to Qom have increased significantly; these visits will peak next week when the religious capital of Iran hosts the President and his delegation.' Shahrvand dedicated its front page headline and photo to Nahavandian's trip and his meetings with some clerics in Qom, emphasizing the 'support of clerics' for the government's 'nuclear diplomacy.' The newspaper Resalat quoted Ali Larijani, the head of the ninth parliament, stating, 'If negotiations are based on force and sanctions, the nation will resist.' Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, the Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a conservative representative, defended representatives who received money from Mohammad Reza Rahimi in an interview with Shargh, saying, 'They said 170 representatives received five million tomans from someone; they probably received 50 million from others, and they have been careful about where this money comes from. At that time, none of the claims being made about Rahimi's financial sources were mentioned.' Bahonar also told Shargh, 'I am definitely not among those 170. Because I did not take money from anyone; rather, I have given money to many. Do not exaggerate this issue.' Shargh reported that the latest estimates from the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development indicate that '33 percent of households are below the housing poverty line, and all of them belong to low-income households,' and according to statistics and calculations of the comprehensive housing plan, 'low-income households would need to save for 94 years to achieve standard housing.' Molavi Abdolhamid Ismailzahi, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan, told the newspaper Qanoon, 'Iran belongs to all Iranians and not to a specific ethnicity or religion. The best successful policy for running the country is to bring all ethnicities closer to each other and to the system to preserve national unity. Without national unity, national security will not be achieved.' The newspaper Te'adol quoted the Secretary-General of the Nurses' House as saying, 'Half of the nurses do not enter the job market in Iran.' Mohammad Sharifi-Moqaddam, the Secretary-General of the Nurses' House of Iran, told Te'adol, 'Every year, 8,000 people graduate in nursing,' but 'only 3,000 participate and get hired in the 16,000-person recruitment exam of the Ministry of Health. In other words, more than half of the nurses in the country either emigrate, change jobs, or leave the profession.' The news of the passing of Zaven Ghoqasyan, a filmmaker, critic, and cinema researcher, has received widespread coverage in Iranian newspapers on Saturday. The newspaper Bani Film dedicated its front page to 'Zaven Ghoqasyan,' describing his passing as 'the silence of a humble lover of half the world.' Shargh published a report titled 'Isfahan is not without Zaven,' stating, 'March 1, 2015, was not a good day for cinema enthusiasts. Isfahan mourned the passing of a man who said goodbye to the world after months of battling stomach cancer; Zaven Ghoqasyan passed away at 2 PM on Friday at his home.' Ali Khodai, a writer and friend of Zaven Ghoqasyan, told Shargh, 'The worst incident that happened to me this year was Zaven's passing; even my father's passing was not as bad for me as this. Isfahan cried today, Chaharbagh cried today, and cinema wept today in memory of Zaven.' Dariush Mehrjui, in a note in Shargh, described Zaven Ghoqasyan as a 'true critic,' writing, 'He was one of the best cinematic writers and true critics who not only wrote short articles but also thick books about cinema and renowned filmmakers, demonstrating that he was truly professional and took the profession of contemplation and reflection on cinema very seriously.' The newspaper Iran, in a note titled 'The historian of cinema has joined the history of cinema,' wrote, 'Perhaps the most prominent aspect of Ghoqasyan was the works he published about Iranian filmmakers or films to immortalize his name as the living oral history of contemporary cinema. He first published a cognitive film about 'Cheshmeh,' a work by Arbi Avanesian, in 1971, and in subsequent years published works for Jamshid Arjamand, Masoud Jafari Jozani, Masoud Kimiai, Abbas Kiarostami, Bahman Farmanara, Khosrow Sinai, Golab Adineh, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, and Majid Entezami. In recent years, he conducted a project - with about 200 programs - titled 'Oral History of Iranian Cinema' under the supervision of the Cinema Museum, which was supposed to be published as a book or film collection. As the election of the head of the Assembly of Experts approaches, 'a new phase of destruction of Hashemi Rafsanjani on television' has emerged. As the date of March 10 approaches, the day of electing the new head of the Assembly of Experts, the political alignment of two factions in Iran has become increasingly media-driven. The newspaper Ebtekar reported in its Saturday issue on a 'new phase of destruction of Hashemi Rafsanjani on television.' According to this newspaper, 'At peak viewing hours, a clip shared on social media was broadcast in the television program 'Merely for Information,' in which one of the participants at a rally in recent years chants against the head of the Expediency Council.' Ebtekar wrote, 'In the rebroadcast images from television, instead of the voice of the chanting individual, we hear a reporter named Kamran Najafzadeh saying: Those who are angry about the release of this clip did not bother to go see it. This clip does not belong to this year's 22 Bahman rally but to one of the rallies from several years ago.' According to Ebtekar, during the broadcast of this clip against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on television, the music from the film 'The Godfather' was also played as background music. The newspaper emphasized that 'the story does not end here, and on the day of the 22 Bahman rally, simultaneous with the announcement of the presence of prominent political figures in the main news programs of the first, second, and news channels, images of Hashemi Rafsanjani's presence at the rally were broadcast in a limited manner and without dialogue, accompanied by some side notes. In contrast, the presence of other leaders of the system was generally accompanied by discussions and was extensively broadcast.' Ebtekar wrote, 'It seems that the Islamic Republic's Broadcasting Organization, under Mohammad Sarafraz, is also trying to ignore the head of the Expediency Council and undermine him, following the lead of the Broadcasting Organization under Ezzatollah Zarghami.' The newspaper wrote, 'Alongside censoring figures like Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini and 'diminishing' government programs, it attempts to convey the services of the system and revolutionary figures based on its political perspective to the audience through programs like 'Merely for Information' or the program 'Shenasnameh,' which is considered a platform for the Steadfast Front.' Ebtekar raised the question, 'Why is Hashemi being targeted?' quoting Gholamali Rajei, an advisor to the head of the Expediency Council, as saying, 'The new phase of destruction of Ayatollah Hashemi on television coincides with the approach of the upcoming elections for the Assembly of Experts and the Islamic Consultative Assembly, aiming to reduce Hashemi Rafsanjani's popularity and influence.' The newspaper also reported that Gholamali Ali Khani, another advisor to Hashemi Rafsanjani, on the sidelines of the party congress of the Nation's Will Party, regarding the question of 'Will Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani participate in the elections for the Assembly of Experts?' said, 'Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has said that if he feels a sense of duty and danger, he will come, and I do not know more than this.' Ebtekar, referring to criticisms of the performance of the Islamic Republic's Broadcasting Organization, also mentioned the issue of 'receiving money in exchange for the destruction of political figures' and asked, 'Do some television programs receive money to defame certain individuals from a group or organization?' The newspaper wrote, 'This question is very important, although no information or documents have been published to confirm this hypothesis or question, but the unilateral performance in the dissemination of information from television programs does not rule out the possibility of some of these hypotheses being correct.' The temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran; Khomeini, Beheshti, and Rajai also made mistakes. Simultaneously, the newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, highlighted the statements of Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani during Friday prayers in Tehran, quoting him as saying, 'The elected members of the Assembly must have complete obedience to the Supreme Leader.' According to this newspaper, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani during Friday prayers in Tehran mentioned the duty of the people to obey the Supreme Leader and to be careful and insightful in choosing officials, warning against the wrong selection of officials by the people, which would lead to a great catastrophe, saying, 'Individuals must be elected to the Assembly who have complete obedience to the Supreme Leader.' Javan reported that Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani emphasized during the Friday prayers that 'if any weaknesses have been seen in these 36 years, they should be stated without bias,' saying, 'We may have made mistakes. Just as the late Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) said regarding the appointment of Bazargan, we made a mistake.' Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani also stated, 'If individuals like Martyr Beheshti [Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti] and Martyr Motahari [Morteza Motahari] also made mistakes, they should be mentioned; Martyr Beheshti trusted Kolahi, and that was a mistake, and there should be caution in selecting individuals to avoid infiltration and harm; Martyr Rajai also made a mistake in trusting Kashmiri because Kashmiri pretended to be very religious, and eventually, he was burned, so officials should not trust individuals too quickly.' According to Javan, the temporary Friday prayer leader emphasized the 'necessity of officials' vigilance regarding concerts and their being free from accompanying moral corruption' and stated, 'There should be oversight on film screenings, and if it is 100% Islamic, permission should be granted,' and 'do not let individuals with a bad history, bad character, and collaboration with the Shah's regime and the 2009 sedition appear in society, as the people hate them.' The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development: 33 percent of households are below the housing poverty line. The newspaper Shargh reported that according to studies conducted to draft the comprehensive housing plan in the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, '33 percent of households are below the housing poverty line.' According to this newspaper, the latest estimates from the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development indicate that '33 percent of households are below the housing poverty line, and all of them belong to low-income households,' and according to statistics and calculations of the comprehensive housing plan, 'low-income households would need to save for 94 years to achieve standard housing.' Shargh noted that in 'the draft studies revising the comprehensive housing plan prepared by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development,' it is stated that 'calculations regarding the poverty line in urban areas in 2012 show that households earning less than one million tomans per month are below the poverty line, which constituted 35 percent of urban households, while in 2005 this ratio was 26 percent.' On the other hand, 'calculating the risk of housing poverty' in 2012 or the minimum amount a household must spend monthly on housing to benefit from adequate housing was 480,000 tomans, thus 33 percent of households were below the housing poverty line. Shargh recalled that in 2005 this ratio was 28 percent, and in both methods of calculation, the number of households that need to be covered by one of the forms of social and supportive housing has increased.' According to this newspaper, the draft studies revising the comprehensive housing plan also stated, 'The rate of home ownership among low-income households has decreased at a faster pace than the overall community, while the security resulting from home ownership is more important for them,' and this is due to 'the reduced ability or affordability of households to own housing. So much so that the price of a standard home has reached 32 times their annual income, which should not exceed about 5 percent, and therefore they would need to save for 94 years to achieve such housing.' The Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan: 'National security cannot be achieved without national unity.' The newspaper Qanoon dedicated its front page to Molavi Abdolhamid Ismailzahi, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan and a senior Sunni cleric in Iran, quoting him as saying, 'National security cannot be achieved without national unity.' Molavi Abdolhamid Ismailzahi, referring to the fact that 'in developed countries, everyone can live together regardless of their beliefs,' told this newspaper, 'Iran belongs to all Iranians and not to a specific ethnicity or religion. The best successful policy for running the country is to bring all ethnicities closer to each other and to the system to preserve national unity. Without national unity, national security will not be achieved.'