Parvaneh Salahshouri: The Interior Minister must be held accountable for the internet shutdown

A member of the Omid faction and the Cultural Commission of the 10th Parliament says that many people have lost their jobs due to the internet outage, and efforts have been made to collect signatures from those who will not back down on this issue to impeach the Minister of Interior.

Parvaneh Salahshouri, a Tehran representative in the 10th Parliament, has demanded that the Minister of Interior be held accountable for the internet outage and has pointed to numerous text messages she has received from people about unemployment due to the internet outage.

The website “Entibah” quoted this member of the Cultural Commission as saying: “On the one hand, the issue of the internet is definitely there, and the issue of national security and the damage that the entire country has suffered during this period is also relevant. Both the people and the government have suffered very serious damage. I think the events this time have greatly increased the distance between the government and the nation. In a way, we have lost our children; whether they are Basijis or Sepahis or the young girl or boy who was hit. Everyone who has been hurt is from this nation and this is extremely painful.”

The Tehran representative considered the signatories of the impeachment motion against the Interior Minister to be among their complaints that they had “lacked planning to communicate with the public and avoid rallies and protests turning violent,” and said that the Interior Ministry had not made any determination in this regard: “They were responsible for this and should be held accountable, but it is interesting that they have not even given a single report to the parliament on the Internet issue, and I did not even see them come and speak in a closed session.”

Ms. Salahshouri announced that as a member of parliament, she receives a series of SMS messages saying, “You made us miserable and we lost our jobs.” She added, “Some young people say that because of work and career issues, the Internet is more essential to them than food, water, and shelter.”

He considered the internet outage to be a sign of distrust in people: "We can't shout on one side that we have conquered the world but we can't even do a simple search... I don't understand, does Google have a security issue that prevents us from using it?"

The Tehran representative continued by stating that people feel insecure from institutions such as the Ministry of Interior: "We have a security issue and a feeling of security issue... The internet is as essential as people's dinner, and people's online businesses have been damaged... We have tried to get signatures for the impeachment motion against the Minister of Interior from people who do not withdraw their signatures..."

The impeachment motion for Rahmani Fazli was announced by Ahmad Mazeni, a member of the Omid faction, on Sunday, December 2. A day later, Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran, stated that 19 representatives had signed the motion to impeach the interior minister due to “shortcomings in managing the protests.” He also added that if Khamenei opposed the impeachment, the motion would be stopped.

Motahari said that the Interior Minister was primarily responsible for implementing the decision of the Coordination Council of the Heads of Powers, but he did not make the necessary preparations and arrangements. As a result, serious damage was caused to the system and human and financial losses were incurred by the people.

Source: DW