Middle East Focus: A Rafsanjani is Sentenced to Prison in Iran: Love to Death on the Gulf......

Arabia Deserta

A Rafsanjani is Sentenced to Prison in Iran: Love to Death on the Gulf......

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday on the charge of spreading propaganda against the Islamic system. She was also banned from having political, cultural, and media activities for five years…………..”

It is easy to forget, with all the tensions swirling around the Gulf, that he Iranians have their own serious internal political issues. The fallout from the disputed 2009 elections continue. There is a boycott of the March parliamentary elections and turnout should be low. In the Middle East (be it Iran or Arab countries) they can't charge someone openly for being against the ruling elites. It is silly to charge someone with "not liking" or "not agreeing" with the regime. The term used is "spreading propaganda". There are many in prison across the Middle East under that charge; there probably are more of these prisoners in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia than in Iran now. It is a product of the Arab Spring.

Actually saying that one "doesn't like" the rulers can be a crime across the region. Ahmadinejad, for example, is moderate in that respect: the Iranian media doesn't claim that he is "loved". He may not even expect it, maybe. In contrast: in our Gulf states of the GCC, the media scream everyday that everyone LOVES the rulers and the other potentates. Yep, even Prince Nayef and old Shaikh Khalifa are supposed to be loved to death by the people. There are songs about all that, sung by guys who claim to be truly passionate about these potentates. Not just ordinary everyday love, but a passionate love that comes second only to the love of money (mostly before love of country, which seems to take third place although everyone claims otherwise). I used to think that only their mothers loved these guys, although I have doubts about even that in the case of Shaikh Khalifa. All that may explain a lot of what is happening in Bahrain and Qatif.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com