Comment Editor Dahlia Farzi outlines the hypocrisy of Ali Shamkhani: preaching piety in public but exercising immodesty in private.
In 2022, Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, led Iran’s National Security Council when a nationwide uprising gripped Iran. This followed Mahsa Amini’s death, an Iranian-Kurdish woman, who was arrested by the “morality police”. The “morality” police, gasht-e ershad, routinely arbitrarily detain women who do not comply with compulsory veiling laws. 3 days later, Amini was killed whilst in police custody, with her death sparking an international protest movement: “Woman, Life, Freedom”.
However, she isn’t the only tragic victim of the Islamic Regime’s strict authoritarian rule.
In October 2023, Armita Geravand, 16, fell into a coma and tragically died after an altercation with the “morality” police. In July 2024, Arezoo Badri was left paraplegic after she was shot by “morality” police over an alleged hijab violation. One can only be reminded of George Orwell’s 1984 Thought Police, who arrested and sought to erase people from history for non-compliance.
In March 2024, a UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran reported that 551 protesters had been killed by security forces during the protests. This was the highest number killed in any protest in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. For the “morality” police, hijab signifies control and religious veneration, yet murdering people for non-conformity is tolerated.
On the 18th October, Ali Shamkhani’s daughter’s wedding video was reportedly leaked and quickly became viral. Shamkhani is accused of leading a double life: forcing “morality” and piety in public, whilst leading a relaxed and immodest lifestyle with his family. In the wedding video, which he accused Israel of purposefully leaking, his daughter is clearly seen as wearing a low-cut, strapless dress which reveals her cleavage. The admiral’s wife is also similarly wearing a revealing blue lace gown with her back exposed. One rule for the women of the elite, another for the common working-class.
The reformist-leaning Shargh newspaper also shamed Shamkhani, headlining him as “Buried Under Scandal”. Furthermore, the staggering cost of the event an estimated at 1.4 billion tomans (around $300,000) is a mocking reminder to Iranians struggling with hyperinflation and water shortages. Where the Islamic Republic can lavishly splash out on luxurious weddings and twist laws for their personal use, ordinary Iranians have to cope with their hypocrisy.
Not only are these Iranian officials pretentious, but arguably, Western ideology. With most media sources concerned with affairs only affecting the West, the spotlight towards the Middle-East, Africa or the rest of Asia is mainly silent. The concern for women seems to be only gatekept for the West with ethnic women ignored or deemed insignificant to be pertained to.
