A candidate for the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Motahari, who is widely considered a reformist, on Tuesday issued a racist and misogynist diatribe against black men and women during a group telephone call with more than 6,000 participants.
Motahari said during a Clubhouse telephone video discussion that “right now they have problems in Europe. Men are not aroused and women are resorting to African men.”
He termed “freedom of dress” for women an “animal right.” The Islamic Republic imposes a compulsory hijab system on women. Motahari, who is slated to run as a presidential candidate in the June 2021 presidential election, added: “If somebody is not aroused on the beach, then he is sick. God wants us to get aroused. Men must be aroused. It is good that a young man is aroused by seeing the hand of a woman.”
The women’s right campaigner and journalist Masih Alinejad responded to Motahari’s statement in a tweet: “What an outrageous comment.”
Arash Azizi, the author of Shadow Commander: Soleimani, US and Iran’s Global Ambition, tweeted: “Remember when Ali Motahari, a pro-Rouhani Iran MP & Majlis former deputy speaker, supported BlackLivesMatter? He is now running for president and has this gem: ‘In Europe, there is a problem of men not getting aroused by women which is why women are going after African men!”’
Remember when Ali Motahhari, a pro-Rouhani #Iran MP & Majlis former deputy speaker, supported #BlackLivesMatter?He is now running for president and has this gem: "In Europe, there is a problem of men not getting aroused by women which is why women are going after African men!" https://t.co/mFAlOoDFqI
— Arash Azizi (@arash_tehran) April 6, 2021
The online website IranWire wrote that Motahari “went on to set a new low in terms of racism and sexism even by his own, well-documented standards.”
Critics of Iran’s regime argue that the alleged difference between the Islamic Republic’s so-called hard-liners and reformists is a distinction without a difference.
The 63-year-old Motahari, who has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Tehran, served in the Iranian regime’s parliament. He is the son of Morteza Motahari, who was a Shi’ite scholar and disciple of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
According to IranWire, Motahari delivered a 2002 speech to the Iranian parliament, declaring the “spread of bad hijab” in Iran.
He said then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and vice president Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei implemented a “pants and knee-length manteau” for women that triggered “sexual incitement.” He warned that the Ahmadinejad administration is contemplating “setting up cabarets and nightclubs.”
Separately, security forces for Iran’s regime on Wednesday arrested family members of victims of the regime’s 2019 mass murder of protesters against regime corruption. According to social media posts, the regime’s forces in Isfahan arrested at least 30 family members who sought to commemorate the memory of their murdered family members. A Reuters investigation determined that Iran’s regime murdered roughly 1,500 of its own people during the 2019 nation-wide protests.
The mother of Ebrahim Ketabdar, a protester killed by the regime during the 2019 demonstrations, suffered a loss of consciousness.
Alinejad tweeted: “These families lost their children when the Islamic Republic of Iran killed an estimated more than 1500 Iranian protesters in Nov 2019. They’re singing Iran’s national anthem, forbidden by the regime. They’re patriots. Yesterday, the regime arrested 30 family members.”