The Story of a Hashtag: "Agha _ Likes _ It"

The publication of the remarks of a seminary student supportive of the Islamic Republic, who was not allowed to express them during a meeting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei due to them not being "pleasing to Agha," has made headlines in social media. Haidar Abbasi, a graduate of Sharif University of Technology and former deputy of the university's Basij, was supposed to deliver critical remarks during a meeting between the Supreme Leader and a group of seminary students in Tehran on Tuesday (September 6). In a narrative shared on his Telegram channel regarding the preparations for this meeting, he wrote that his speech did not pass the "filter" of the organizers and was deemed "not qualified for reading in front of the Leader." According to Abbasi, "there was a final stage in the process designed for selecting speakers where selected speakers had to read their texts in the presence of a number of elders and officials, and the text was approved and amended by them; naturally, any text that did not pass this filter was not deemed qualified for reading in front of the Leader." Abbasi did not mention the names or positions of the "elders and officials" controlling the speeches, but he stated that the criteria for approving the text and the "content" of the speeches in this session was not based on "the number of speakers and the limited time" but rather on "the pleasure of His Excellency Agha." He added that the session organizers repeatedly said, "Speak in a way that Agha likes it." This seminary student pointed out that there were "numerous general and specific changes" made to the speeches by these individuals "based on their interpretations and tastes," revealing that the organizers opposed any serious critical or questioning text. The only permissible criticism for the speakers was criticism of government officials, and they were repeatedly asked not to seriously criticize other "elders of the system and the seminary." In part of his remarks, this young seminary student intended to protest in front of Khamenei that "a new phenomenon called 'Wilayat-Basandegi' has been born instead of the phenomenon of Wilayat, which not only has made having criticism of the Leader lead to exclusion from the revolutionary circle, but also facing the thoughts of other thinkers has also provided grounds for this exclusion." The "daily increasing corruption and political and economic elitism in the elected and appointed institutions of the system" and questioning the scope of the "fire-at-will" status of revolutionary youth were other focal points of his remarks. In a part of the published text of his remarks on his personal Telegram channel addressed to Khamenei, he stated: "To report the atmosphere, I must say that the whispers of inefficiency and corruption of some of your subordinates and appointees are serious among many of these youth devoted to the revolution. This issue has been raised multiple times in student meetings with you in recent years, but these youths did not feel satisfied with your responses." He explicitly referred to the "corruption of the judiciary" and the "inefficiencies of sacred institutions like the Guardian Council" and wrote that it seems the Supreme Leader has "no inclination" to take "harsh and costly action to restrain these circles." Haidar Abbasi also intended to ask Khamenei: "Since you have asked these youths to be fire-at-will; their question is whether this command is limited to elected institutions or does it also include appointed ones? If it does, what mechanism exists to realize this demand that does not have security repercussions for the individual and the organization?" Abbasi wanted to ask the Supreme Leader what "mechanism" he proposes for realizing the demands of fire-at-will youths from elected and appointed institutions that does not have security repercussions for the individual and the organization?" In the "always sensitive current period," it seems this question has been raised because a significant number of active Hezbollah members in cyberspace have been summoned, interrogated, and arrested for criticizing the judiciary and the inefficiency of this institution in combating corruption. This has visibly diminished their public criticism of the judiciary and other institutions under the Supreme Leader. The website Nimrooz criticized the security measures taken against a group of cyber Hezbollah members whose content had been reflected in Persian-language media outside the country on October 10, 2013. According to this website, the continuation of these measures "causes critics to express their subsequent criticisms more faintly due to the feedback of their words in enemy media and to move towards self-censorship." Kabire Asoupar, a principlist journalist, following the six-month imprisonment of Mojtaba Danesh Talab for "insulting" Ali Khamenei, questioned in a note on her blog why the Islamic Republic should fear those {Hezbollah} whose media are blogs, Facebook, and Google Plus, which also, due to "fear of enemy exploitation - in the always sensitive current period - is less updated with criticism of the Islamic Republic?" Haidar Abbasi's Telegram post shows that although the actions of the Supreme Leader's supporters against "insider" forces have led to increased self-censorship among them, their demands still face systematic censorship. This issue has also turned into a controversial topic with the hashtag #Agha_Likes_It on the social media platform Twitter, criticizing the process of amending speeches before the Supreme Leader on one hand and denying this phenomenon on the other. Some principlist cyber activists supported this hashtag, but quickly, and likely due to concerns about potential repercussions, a hashtag titled "Unseen Dictatorship" also became popular to downplay the issue by comparing the management of Khamenei's meetings with that of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Some supporters of the Supreme Leader also denied the amendment and censorship of speeches before the meeting with Khamenei, claiming that the speech review committee only emphasized that "do not flatter, Agha does not like it." Some of Khamenei's supporters, including Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, had previously claimed that a critical atmosphere prevailed in Khamenei's meetings with various popular groups, and he receives more critical individuals better than flatterers. Meanwhile, the website "Tribune of the Oppressed" reported on September 17, 2012, the removal of Khamenei's statement "I am not Stalin" by state television and the website of the Supreme Leader's office. As reported by this website, Khamenei had said in his five-year meeting with students: "I am not Stalin to sit and say a series of words, then bring a number of people to sit and theorize them." Mehdi Amirian, Secretary of the Central Council of the Office of Strengthening Unity, and Mohammad Pahlevan, Secretary-General of the Islamic Society of Students across the country, criticized this removal in a roundtable held by this website. Pahlevan expressed surprise at this action by state television and the Supreme Leader's office, saying, "This view is a concerning one. It means that some people within the organization feel that some of Agha's words should be known to the people and some should not." Amirian also criticized this type of handling by the Leader's office regarding Khamenei's remarks, stating that "narrow-mindedness has also infiltrated the institutions under the Leader's supervision."