Hey Kids! Let’s Learn About Rape Today!
Aug 28th, 2009 by pedestrian
Keyhan Bacheha (Keyhan for Kids) is a weekly children’s magazine published by the Keyhan Institute, the same publisher that prints the Keyhan newspaper headed by the notorious Shariyatmadari. The picture above is of their very first issue, which came out in 1956.
I have vague memories of being bought the magazine as a kid, and being read the stories by my elders. My grandfather had also kept a great collection of these from the time my mother was young, and I remember I loved the stories in those in particular. From what I remember, the magazine was aimed at grades 1 to 5 and being a state owned publication, was always heavy on religion and admiration for the Shi’a saints and the Iranian leader (Ayatollah Khomeini, and Khamenei after him). Another common theme of the magazine was remembrance of the Iran-Iraq war martyrs.
I remember excitedly holding my aunt’s hand at newspaper kiosks and picking up my magazine, just like the grown-ups. It was so exciting! And I even remember the smell of the pages. So archaic and warm.
Here are some covers of the magazine, dating to 1981, 1982 and 2005.
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this:
The magazine was always heavy on state religion, but I don’t recall it having a political page. This is a page out of last week’s issue. In this recent issue, they go through a lighter version of Karoubi’s letters about the rape and abuse in prisons, and they write of how that’s all a big lie and how the poor man couldn’t prove his case. The article:
The Claim that was Never Proved
Last week, a letter was published by Mr. Mehdi Karoubi. In this letter, it was claimed that those who were arrested for having had a role in the recent riots, wee abused and harmed in prison.
Mr. Karoubi wrote this letter to Mr. Rafsanjani and asked him to investigate. After the letter [was published], parliament and the judiciary started looking into it. They investigated and saw that Mr. Karoubi’s claims have no truth to them [yes, in less than 24 hours!]. To top that off, when they asked his son [Karoubi's] where his father’s evidence came from, he said: “our evidence is phone calls which have been made to our newspaper!”
Do you think that a reasonable person accepts whatever claims someone makes over the phone? Do you even think that you should believe just anyone who says just anything?
Mr. Karoubi’s reasons for writing that letter were just a few phone calls. Phone calls by anonymous callers who have no name or identity. When Mr. Karoubi’s letter was published, the TV and radio stations which are against the Islamic Republic were made very happy. They said that in the prisons of the Islamic Republic, people are tortured. Their only evidence was Mr.Karoubi’s letter. A letter, which, according to the parliament speaker, was all lies. Allegations that made the enemies of the Islamic Republic happy so they could claim that prisoners were mistreated in prisons.
The top page also includes an article on the BBC:
The English Lie
It was only a few days ago. Some foreign TV networks, like the BBC and some local newspapers reported a piece of news with much fanfare! The news was this:
“A young Iranian boy by the name of “Behnam” was killed by police batons!”
We were all worried! Has the police really killed a young boy?! But it did not take long for the truth to be revealed. Everyone found out that the enemy, with its television and newspapers, lied once more. They lied so that the reputation of the police and the Islamic Republic would be be tarnished. They lied so that some would riot in the streets.
Now hear about what the real story was! … ”
I actually think that the main essence of the last article (getting kids to be aware of the lies they will see and hear in the media) isn’t such a bad idea. I wish more kids in North American knew of the lies and the murder being advertised on their TV screens.
Of course, it only works for the betterment of our human condition if the people giving this lesson to the kids aren’t brutal, ruthless liars themselves!
[h/t balatarin]
Sadly; they are perhaps distributing this for free to schools in small towns that people have no access to other books and etc …
You know, we ALL have been indoctrinated … maybe if we were not, we wouldn’t be turning ourselves into prezzels to defend Mousavi or Khatami or Hashemi or before it Ahmadinejad and etc …
Maybe this is why we feel so righteous to get mad at “monarchists” or “mojaheds” and think ourselves the “real” Iranina dissidents versus them flimsy ones … maybe because of this indoctrination we feel the green movement belongs to certain and allow ourselves to tell others “shut the fuck up” …
Naj, these are distributed in smaller towns and they work quite well IMO.
Personally, my problem with the monarchists or mojaheds isn’t that they’re not the “real” Iranians. Of course, who am I to even make such a statement? They believe in something, they have specific objectives, goals, etc. That’s fine. What’s troubling, from what I’ve seen of them at least here, is that they hide behind the greens. For instance, why do they crash the green demonstrations, protests, sit-ins, etc, and bring dozens of flags each, when the organizers repeatedly ask that no flags be brought? If it were a monarchist demonstration, I would think it extremely rude if someone showed up with an IRI flag. And it works the opposite too.
You see, I too was very offended when I saw shir o khorshid flags … but then I also heard some IRanians who regretted this appropriation of this movement by the greens!
We CANNOT dismiss any of the old opponents of the IRI anymore. We are now living and witnessing what they have witnessed and experienced 30 years ago.
Now that I think of it, I see that for a group of 10 people to come to a group of 5000, and still carry their flag is a sign that they REALLY do care; they care about Iran, just as we do.
This green movement is for IRAN, it is not for mousavi, khatami or anyone. Green = Iran; green != monarchy; != islamist != reformist … green = IRAN!
Monarchists brought Iran’s flag; yes I think people with IRI flag should be allowed in a protest organized by monarchists for IRAN.
In Los Angeles, an exile group showed up with the old flag, actually trying to intimidate people from voting in the presidential election. Then, after the election, people in support of the opposition began demonstrating on a busy LA street corner. Upon hearing of this, the exile group crashed the demonstration with a large number of oversized shir o khorshid flags. There was a confrontation. It was pointed out that the old flag didn’t represent what the demonstration was about. It was further pointed out that the use of the old flag would be very detrimental to the opposition group in Iran, if Iranian media picked up images of it from local television reporting. The exile group didn’t care one bit about this line of reasoning, and actually came close to being violent. Sure enough, IRIB broadcasted those images in Iran, providing “proof” to their viewers that the opposition movement was Western sourced and treasonous.
Here in San Francisco, I saw the same thing. Loads of oversize shir o khorshid flags, and none of their wavers giving a damn about how this negatively affects the opposition movement in Iran.
The way I see it, support of the opposition movement is a positive thing. Whereas the expression of the exile groups, with their old outdated flag and out-of-touch ideas, is a decidedly negative thing. They are just against it all.
One highly intriguing feature [not the only one!] of your blog(s) for an Iran-illiterate like me is the discussion between pedestrian and naj!
Pirouz, my main objection to these groups is exactly what you mention: I’ve seen them react very, very violently towards the so called greens. I didn’t want to write about this, but one man even attacked one of the student protesters here because she was carrying an IRI flag. At least that’s what he said. Given that these people have been away from Iran for many decades, and may have every right to be angry and bitter. I can’t justify their “sabotaging” other people’s efforts.
اول برید فارسی یاد بگیرید بعد سنگ ایران رو به سینه بزنید!ا
Irani, mamnoon, vali man Farsi khoob baladam.