Shahram Gilabadi, Qalibaf's deputy in the municipality, was accused of "sexual assault" on several women.

Accounts of abuse of "job position", "assault", and "sexual assault" by Shahram Gilabadi, deputy to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Tehran Municipality and a senior manager of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, have been published on social media.

The Twitter account of the #MeToo movement in Iran has published the accounts of these sexual assault victims of Mr. Gilabadi’s treatment of them when he was the head of the municipality’s communications center, Ghalibaf’s deputy. Gilabadi has not yet responded to these accusations.

These are the first accounts of sexual harassment at the hands of a senior government official shared on social media by the movement.

One of the victims, who was working as a journalist in a social media group at the time of the harassment, wrote that Shahram Gilabadi was running the "Night Tour" project at the municipality at the time and "every time he would take a group with him to see the strange and strange nights and midnights of Tehran."

According to this account, the senior municipal manager contacted the female journalist, who had good knowledge of the field, under the pretext of showing her "carton dormitories, hothouses, and hangouts," and lured her to his office under the pretext of showing her "a place you've never seen before."

This reporter writes: "A couple of nights before Arba'in, he called to come. I said, 'I can't now. I had told you to tell me in advance.' He said, 'I'm leaving for Arba'in tomorrow morning and I'm not used to having an open file. When I go to Karbala, that's why we have to go tonight. Where are you? I felt a little relieved by the spiritual atmosphere he gave me."

The reporter continued by writing that although Shahram Gilabadi had "raped" her several times that night in her office, "he would occasionally send her messages or if we saw each other somewhere, he would act normal, as if nothing had happened."

Another narrator also wrote that Gilabadi "raped" him in the same "Night Tour" project, and that the process of gaining his trust was also carried out by abusing his job position. In addition, Shahram Gilabadi had a "reasonable and prayerful" appearance, and that "his entire office was full of religious elements."

This victim of abuse also went to Gilabadi's office, which was "part of a large government building" and "always had a guard and there were always several people there," at Gilabadi's insistence, and was assaulted in the room where the Islamic Republic director's bed was located and "there was a wide carpet there."

He told the woman, who was terrified and begging him to let her go: "Look, the prayer rug is spread out there. I don't do anything illegal. I'm going to be okay. We're going to recite the sigh now, and then you're going to leave." He started reciting something in Arabic and said, "Hey, Qabiltu?"

When the woman says "yes" in response to "do you want to go?" Gilabadi assumes this answer as her consent to the question "before you" and rapes her.

He also added that "after that incident, he would sometimes message me and I would see him at some events due to my work. But from one point to the next, I couldn't do it anymore. I wouldn't accept anything that had a trace of Shahram Gilabadi in it so that I wouldn't have to face him."

At the same time, the fact that the female rape victim had to find her "headscarf" to escape the building after being assaulted by Shahram Gilabadi has sparked outrage among cyberspace users.

Shahram Gilabadi's managerial background includes being the Deputy Director of Information and Research of the Secretariat of the Expediency Discernment Council, the Director of Tehran Radio Networks, Youth, Drama, and the Center for Performing Arts, and the Deputy Director of Information and Research, the Director General of the Foreign Missions of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, the Head of the Communications and International Affairs Center of Tehran Municipality, a member of the board of directors of the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality, a member of the board of directors of the Hamshahri Institute, and the Secretary of the First and Second Ashura Photo Mourning for Students Across the Country.

In 2011, he was introduced as an exemplary researcher and professor of the Iranian Broadcasting Organization and has taught at institutions such as the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents, Soure University, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the Faculty of Radio and Television, and other schools in Lorestan and Tehran.

Following the formation of the "Me Too" movement in Iran in the summer of 2020, following which Iranian victims shared their experiences of sexual harassment on social media, especially Twitter, familiar names among men in the fields of cinema, television, music, and painting have been targeted for accusations.

Source: Radio Farda