Social Media Users, Including Isfahan Representative, Criticized MP’s Remarks to Acid Attack Victim: Shameful and Presumptuous

What social media users called the “insulting rhetoric” of a parliamentary representative directed at Marziyeh Ebrahimi, one of the acid attack victims, has provoked numerous critical reactions from social media network users.

A group of acid attack victims appeared on Sunday, Ordibehesht 29, coinciding with the parliament’s review of a bill to increase penalties for acid attacks. However, rather than the details of this bill becoming newsworthy, the strange and insulting language of “Zahra Saeedi,” representative of Mobarakeh, directed at Marziyeh Ebrahimi, one of the acid attack victims, became controversial.

IRNA news agency reported that this parliamentary representative, addressing “Marziyeh Ebrahimi,” whose half of her face suffered severe injuries during the Isfahan acid attacks, jokingly said: “You were lucky to escape from the perpetrator, and only one side of your face was damaged! What happened to the acid attacker?”

Marziyeh Ebrahimi, who is also from Isfahan, responded to this representative saying: “I am truly sorry that you are the Isfahan representative and don’t know that the perpetrators of the Isfahan acid attack incident have not yet been identified, and you’re telling me I was lucky!”

The strange words of this parliamentary representative quickly faced reactions from social media users.

Pouya Aalemi, a satirist, while recalling the disrespect shown by the Saravan representative toward a customs employee, criticized the condescending attitude of representatives toward the people.

A journalist also referred to another acid attack victim, noting the parliamentary representative’s use of the word “lucky” when in fact only her hands were burned.

روکش صندلیها سوخته بود، بخش هایی از ماشین به آهن رسیده بود البته #قسر! دررفته بود که همه بخش به آهن نرسیده و جاهایی رنگ داشت و پلاستک ها مانده بود. مثلا فرمان ماشین هم #قسر! دررفته بود. مینا هنوز داروهایش روی صندلی بود یک شال سفید سرش بود روی صورتش کشیده بود دکتر گفته بود نباید/2

— Marjan Laghaee (@MarjanLaghaee) May 19, 2019

Sohand Iranmehr, another journalist, by providing a lexical definition of the word “lucky,” described this parliamentary representative’s rhetoric toward Marziyeh Ebrahimi as “shameful” and “presumptuous.”

Milad Alavi is another journalist who wrote about this representative’s insult and said that instead of apologizing, he denied his remarks.

Zahra Saeedi’s insulting tone, who happens to also be the representative of the city where Marziyeh Ebrahimi resides, comes at a time when more than four years have passed since the acid attacks on girls, yet no perpetrator has been identified or arrested, and there has been no support from officials in the treatment process of these victims or even the “Sheen Abad girls.”

Now these representatives who have brought the bill to increase penalties for acid attacks to parliament are proposing “execution” as a solution. A punishment that is not even accepted by the acid attack victims themselves, and they say they do not support execution but rather want the “cycle of violence” to be stopped.

Previously, the presumptuous rhetoric of officials and parliamentary representatives toward the people had also sparked controversy, including Mahmoud Hojjati, the Islamic Republic’s minister of agriculture, who, following the rise in poultry and meat prices, said in a television interview: “Given these circumstances, we should first thank God that (poultry and meat) exists.”

The incident of inappropriate treatment by Heydar-Allah Khademi, representative of the people of Izeh in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, toward a citizen’s criticism who had said “You should first learn how to speak. People deserve what they get,” is also among these examples.

The disrespectful representative of Saravan, who had insulted a customs employee, also, instead of apologizing in a closed session, threatened his colleagues saying: “If I fall short tomorrow it will be your turn.”

The acid attack incident, especially in Isfahan, dates back to 1393 (2014). At least four women and young girls had acid thrown on them. Some unofficial reports also mentioned 15 victims.

Some attributed these acid attacks to hardliners and Hezbollah members of Isfahan, especially since Youssef Tabatabaii, the then Friday prayer imam of Isfahan, shortly before the acid attacks, said the hijab issue has gone beyond mere reminder and that to counter improper dress, a stricter approach must be taken and coercive force should be used. At that time, some eyewitnesses said text messages were sent to the mobile phones of Isfahan citizens with the message “acid will be thrown on the faces of improperly dressed women.”

Despite four years of follow-up, judicial authorities have not arrested anyone as a suspect, and even Heydar Moslehi, the former Iranian intelligence minister under the Ahmadinejad administration, claimed that foreign agents played a role in the acid attacks.

Source: Voice of America