An Australian academic who spent 804 days imprisoned in Iran has condemned Senator Fatima Payman for saying on state television that the Middle Eastern state “an incredible place” for women.
Payman, a West Australian and former Labor member, attended an event in Sydney at the weekend which was purportedly held to dispel alleged Western myths around Iran’s governance.
In a video clip where Payman is talking about the event, she describes the situation for women in Iran as favourable, and says any information to the contrary is propaganda.
“Incredible place that Iran is, allowing women to participate in the workforce, to ensure that they have a voice and their voices are heard, they’re involved in the democratic process,” she said.
Payman then said that the meeting allowed a focus on “realities that we’re not privy to” living in Australia, where she said propaganda was from “single-sided organisations” with “a specific agenda.”
But the comments drew the strong critique from academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a former lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne.
Moore-Gilbert was invited to attend an academic conference in Iran in 2018, only to be accused of espionage and detained.
As she was preparing to leave Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detained her at Tehran’s airport.
The regime had suspected her of being a spy for “the Zionist regime” simply because her then-husband—born in Russia but lived in Australia—had an Israeli passport.
Academic Says Iranian Regime Engaged in Human Rights Abuses
“What is this nonsense you are saying?” Gilbert-Moore wrote on X in response to Payman’s comments.“Iran has no ‘democratic process,’ least of all one which women are allowed to participate in.
“You should know this—I saw you sitting in the Senate enquiry into Iran’s human rights abuses just two years ago.”
Moore-Gilbert noted Payman was interviewed by Press TV, which she described as the “English language propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic known for broadcasting false confession videos and forced interviews with prisoners before they are executed.”
Moore-Gilbert said it was ironic Payman had used a propaganda channel to complain of propaganda within Australia, noting that Press TV was banned in some Western nations, but not Australia.
“The irony of a strong and powerful woman originally from Afghanistan, who fled that country as a refugee and is well aware of the horrific gender apartheid perpetrated there against women and girls, denying that her Iranian sisters face similar challenges just next door,” she said.
“To what end, Senator? Are there really that many votes to be found in cosying up to a brutal authoritarian regime like Iran’s?”
Well-known British Iranian lawyer and activist Elicia Le Bon also fervently rebutted Payman’s comments.
“Australian Senator Fatima Payman describing Iran as an ‘incredible place’ for women to take part in the democratic process is like saying that Nazi Germany was an incredible place for women because it also allowed women to participate in Naziism,” Le Bon wrote on X.
“The role of women in the IRGC is hijab enforcement, meaning what they are responsible for is targeting, identifying, and arresting women who violate mandatory hijab laws and bringing them to ‘justice,’ which means being flogged.
“Further, there is no “democracy” in Iran. Iran is under a system called Velayate Faqhi, which essentially vests in the supreme leader absolute power over the state.”
Le Bon said any perception of democracy in the region was a sham.
Situation Deteriorating
A report released by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) last month claimed “honour” killings and family violence were skyrocketing in Iran.“Women in Iran are being shot, stabbed, and burned to death by husbands and fathers in shocking numbers, but the government does not take even the most basic measures to try to prevent these crimes and the Iranian judicial system lets these cases go with little or sometimes even no punishment,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.
In 2022, global headlines were made around the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who favoured her traditional Kurdish dress over the strictly regulated Islamic hijab.
Amimi died after being detained by Iran’s morality police.
Her death sparked widespread protests, with some Iranian women later walking in their underwear in public to protest the nation’s harsh laws for women.
Payman’s office was contacted for comment.
