Parvane Salehshouri: Interior Minister Should Be Accountable for Internet Shutdown
A member of the Hope faction and the cultural commission of the tenth parliament says many people have lost their jobs due to internet outages and efforts are underway to obtain signatures from those who will not back down in impeaching the interior minister.
Parvane Salehshouri, Tehran’s representative in the tenth parliament, has called for the interior minister to be held accountable for the internet shutdown and has referred to numerous text messages she received from people about unemployment caused by the internet outage.
The “Entekhab” website reported the cultural commission member as saying: “On one hand there is the internet shutdown, and on the other hand there is the issue of national security and the damage the entire country has suffered during this period. Both people and the government have suffered very serious damage. I believe these events have greatly widened the gap between government and people. We have lost our own children; whether Basij members, Revolutionary Guards, or young girls or boys who were injured. Everyone from this nation has been harmed and this is deeply painful.”
Tehran’s representative cited among the objections raised by those signing the impeachment motion against the interior minister the “lack of planning for communication with the people and failure to prevent protests and demonstrations from turning violent,” and said the Ministry of Interior had provided no assessment in this regard: “They were responsible in this matter and should be held accountable, but what’s interesting is that they haven’t even submitted a single report regarding the internet issue to parliament, and I haven’t even seen them come to the open or closed sessions to discuss it.”
Ms. Salehshouri announced that as a parliament representative, she continuously receives text messages saying “you have made us miserable and we have lost our jobs.” She added: “Some young people are saying that because of work and employment issues, internet is more essential to them than food and water.”
She considered the internet shutdown a sign of distrust toward the people: “We cannot on one hand boast that we have conquered the world but on the other hand cannot perform a simple search… I don’t understand whether Google poses a security problem that we cannot use it?”
Tehran’s representative further stated that people feel insecurity from institutions like the Ministry of Interior: “We have a security issue and a sense of security issue… Internet is like bread to people and people’s internet businesses have been damaged… We have tried to obtain signatures for the impeachment motion against the interior minister from individuals who will not withdraw their signatures…”
The impeachment motion against Rahmani Fazli was announced by Ahmad Mazandarani, a member of the Hope faction, on Sunday, November 24. One day later, Ali Motahari, Tehran’s representative, stated that 19 representatives had signed the interior minister’s impeachment motion due to “negligence in managing protests.” He simultaneously added that if Khamenei opposes this impeachment, the motion will be halted.
Motahari said the interior minister was the main official responsible for implementing the decision of the coordination council of the heads of branches but failed to provide necessary preparations and measures. As a result, serious damage was inflicted on the system and financial and human casualties were incurred by the people.
Source: DW
