Three days before International Women’s Rights Day, there is a country where women’s struggle is in the headlines. It’s Iran. Since September, the demonstrations against the wearing of the veil follow one another and are repressed by the power. How to cover these demonstrations from a distance without a visa, Eric Valmir talks about it with Armin Arefi, a reporter for the “Point”.
Covering the demonstrations in Iran is a headache for the Western press, since Tehran does not issue any visas, and the journalists present there are not necessarily free to move. Iranian reporters have even left the country to work, believing that their conditions would be better outside the borders.
But feedback from the field can also be collected through other channels, such as social networks. Since the beginning of the uprising in September, the Franco-Iranian journalist Armin Arefi, senior reporter at Point, follows the situation on site as closely as possible, while remaining in Paris. Frustrating but exciting.
Correspondent in Tehran for several press titles between 2005 and 2007, Armin Arefi, journalist, subsequently kept a blog on the portal of the World whose title left no ambiguity: Laces and Chador, and which made it difficult for him to set foot on Iranian soil. For nine years, he could not return there, and then in 2016, thanks to a bureaucratic misunderstanding, he was not only authorized to come to Iran to work there as a journalist, but in addition, the organization close to the power, who manages press accreditation realizes that he speaks Persian, and that he does not need a translator like other Western journalists.
Consequently, Armin Arefi is free of any movement, without anyone to accompany him and he can work on society, the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards), the Afghans sent by Iran to Syria, as cannon fodder. Two fruitful years of reporting for his newspaper, the weekly Point. It was under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. The one who holds power today, elected in 2021, is the former head of the Iranian judicial system, Ebrahim Raisi. This regime has no intention of applying the slightest reform, even less touching the law which makes it compulsory to wear the veil, and suppresses any demonstration with blood.
Covering these uprisings from a distance, once again the work of Iranian youth, is not a simple undertaking; it is even frustrating. But the fact of knowing the country, of understanding its mechanisms, of having networks, of contacts on the spot, is a major asset. Armin Arefi, by scrutinizing the Iranian situation, transmits reliable information, being careful not to take a partisan position.
Vigilance, monitoring, analysis of each piece of information, each image
The reporter is a relay, he gives to see and understand, and as for all crises, he must juggle with misinformation. Always this in-between, the propaganda of power, and the arrangements with the truth of the anti-regime channels. Vigilance, monitoring, analysis of each piece of information, each image. Check the sources. When it is said one fine morning that the regime is wavering, and that the prosecutor has announced the abolition of the morality police, the networks go up in flames.
However, for an insider of Iranian news, there is no shortage of inconsistencies. Firstly because the reference person to whom these remarks are attributed is not authorized to intervene in this field, and the context of this speech does not take place within the traditional framework of Iranian authorities. It will take two days before realizing that not only the regime did not intend to abolish the morality police, but that this false information had hidden a series of arrests.
To talk every day with Iranian men and women, to carefully follow the slightest evolution of the situation, whether societal, political, economic, diplomatic, Armin Arefi allows himself, in his own name, an analysis: the fear of rotting. The demonstrations do not overthrow power, despite their upsurge, and in this sense, one cannot speak of a revolution, at most an uprising, and on the other hand, the regime does not manage to stifle movement. The two forces neutralize each other.
But, three days before, International Women’s Day, there is clearly the emergence of a society that is no longer afraid, of women, many of whom have been killed in recent weeks, who continue to demonstrate, or to brave the ban on the chador, educated young university students who no longer want autocratic power, this regime of the Mullahs, propped up on its doctrines, and which only knows the language of the use of force, this situation marks the beginning of ‘a transition. Which ? Nobody really knows, but after the demonstrations of 2009, 2017, 2019 and now 2022, the gap appears noticeable between the regime and the population.
And with reporters like Armin Arefi, reading in their articles these pages of history being written, unfortunately with letters of blood, is precious, in these troubled times which aim to misinform.