Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

How a Symposium on Iran Cinema Turned into Glorification of Islamic Revolution

Potkin Azarmehr | 14.02.2007 12:13 | Repression | Terror War | World

British universities turned into platforms of propaganda by Islamic Republic embassy in London.

"Note that propaganda is on the top of our agenda. Today's world rotates around propaganda. Note that the highest action that can bear fruits for our revolution here and help its export outside Iran is propaganda. Increasing and widening propaganda outside Iran should be at the top of our programmes". These are quotes from Ayatollah Khomeini on the importance of propaganda.

Whatever one thinks of Ayatollah Khomeini, it would be unfair not to admire his enormous talents in the art of revolution. He knew what levers to pull, and recognised so well the importance of the propaganda lever.

It seems those who carry Ayatollah Khomeini's legacy and represent the interests of the Islamic Republic in UK, have rightly seen the importance of the Western universities, as a useful propaganda platform for strengthening and export of the 1979 revolution. Universities after all will produce the future diplomats, think tank units, journalists, politicians, managers etc.

It is ironic that while secular academics are expelled and forced into early retirement in the Islamic Republic, student activists are imprisoned, and banned from furthering their education, and while actions like "gender rationing" in favour of more university places for male students instead of female students are being considered by the Islamic Republic, secular Western universities rather than restricting the Islamic Republic's political agenda on their campuses, knowingly or unknowingly, provide more and more opportunities for the Islamic Republic to give a rosey picture of a theocratic state.

Take a look at what happened at SOAS last week:


A request was made by an Iranian student at SOAS for a "symposium" about Iranian cinema. Later on an organisation named "Council for the Promotion of Persian Language and Literature" took over the organisation of the event and the "Iranian Cinema Symposium" actually became a pretext for an official celebration of the Islamic Revolution in a British university, organized and sponsored by the Iranian embassy in London.

The "Council for the Promotion of Persian Language and Literature" is actually a front for "Organisation for Islamic Propaganda and Communication" in Iran which amongst its long list of previous activities, printed literature in support and justification of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa for the assassination of the British writer, Salman Rushdie.

The official advertising poster for the event did not show the English translation of the Persian text. The English text was kept neutral, but the Persian text was aall about the glorification of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

On the first day of the event, a diplomat from the Iranian embassy in London, acted as the master of ceremony and the event was opened by recitals from the Koran and posters glorifying the Islamic revolution in 1979 were exhibited along with bookstalls disseminating Islamic Republic official literature.

Pictures of this event can be seen here on the Islamic Republic embassy related website:

 http://london.icro.ir/?c=newsShow&NewsId=290259&t=4

University officials say that they had not realised the political content of the event, and have expressed their displeasure at such tactics used by the Islamic Republic embassy and have notified the Foreign Office.

Potkin Azarmehr
- e-mail: potkazar@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://azarmehr.blogspot.com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. u r an imperial east — xyz
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech