Goats and Dolphins: Journalist under Fire and the Conservative Reformists
By Kamangir • Apr 24th, 2008 • Category: Features, Iran, Lead Story, mediaThree years ago, around these days, Masih Alinejad was banned from entering the Parliament [Persian]. At the time, Alinejad worked as the parliamentary correspondent for ILNA, a media source close to the reformists. When she published reports that indicated that contrary to their claims of “living an ordinary life”, the MPs do enjoy a high salary, she was accused of having stolen the regarding documents. Soon the allegations were denied, but she had already been banned from entering the Parliament [Persian]. Alinejad once again came to the spotlight when following Ahmadinejad’s request for “face-to-face discussion with Mr. Bush”, she asked for an uncensored interview with Ahmadinejad (see:Talk to Me Mr. Ahmadinejad, If You Dare To).
Picture from Ahmadinejad’s ongoing trip to Hamedan - Fars
Masih is once again on the spotlight, this time for a piece she wrote for Etemad Melli, a reformist newspaper [Persian]. In the piece, she refers to her recent experience in an aquarium, where dolphins danced to their instructor. She found a similarity between that event and the crowd which gathers around when Ahmadinejad goes to his numerous trips to under-developed areas.
These days, when even the administration confesses that the inflation is pushing hard on the people…the dance of the dolphins does remind us of the gathering of people around their president [Persian] [not literal translation]
Although Mr Ahmadinejad called his opponents “young goats”, and there was no official reaction to it, Alinejad’s dolphin analogy did cause huge outcry in the conservative camp. The shock was complete when Mehdi Karroubi, the head of the newspaper and a prominent figure in the reformist movement, denounced the article and apologized for it [Persian].
During and off-the-record discussion with an active member of the student wing of the reformist movement, she told me “I dislike Karroubi more than I do Ahmadinejad”. The likes of Masih Alinejad’s experience seem to confirm the rising idea that the so-called reformists might in fact be too conservative for the younger generation. What the implications of this change are, we need to wait and see.
Posted by Kamangir
Author's email address: arash@kamangir.net | All posts by Kamangir
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[...] According to Kamangir, Masih Alinejad, a female journalist, is under fire in Iran after she wrote about the similarity between dolphins dancing to their instructor and the crowd which gathers around when president Ahmadinejad goes to his numerous trips to under-developed areas. Posted by Hamid Tehrani Share This [...]
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