ژورنال سایت خبری سیاسی ژورنال
English Journal is published on Fridays
PDF-English Journal-30 August 2025-No29
Ahmad Alamolhoda, Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, said: “They want to turn Mashhad into a centre of entertainment and revenue, which is against the dignity of Imam Reza*.” He added that all cultural programmes in the city, including film and music, must be carried out with special approval and supervision.
This billionaire cleric forgot to add that the lucrative one-hour temporary marriage centres** are surely in keeping with his Imam’s dignity. In reality, in theocratic dictatorships like the Islamic Republic, religious authority not only dominates political structures but also intrudes deeply into individual and social life. Such governments seek to trap human desires in ideological cages: from dress codes to expressions of joy, from choice of music to human relationships—all under state supervision and restriction. Choice is stripped from human beings; life becomes a domain of forced surveillance.
Yet freedom is the foundation of human existence and the essence of dignity. For intellectual, emotional, and social growth, humans need a free and safe space: to think without fear, to create, to choose, and to live openly. Without freedom, all that psychology calls self-respect and human worth disappears.
Despite decades of repression, Iranians have repeatedly shown their desire to reclaim self-determination. New social movements such as ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ clearly express the collective will to break free from religious rule and political dictatorship—to redefine the people’s relationship with power and to rebuild a humane and free identity in opposition to any regime that seeks to control freedom, politically, culturally, or economically.
Alamolhoda, Khamenei, and every other rotten mind must understand: freedom is no luxury but a historical and moral necessity for every society. The coming events in Iranian politics will only display the depth and strength of this demand within Iran’s protest movement. Have no doubt about it.
* Imam Reza is the eighth Imam in Twelver Shia Islam
** In Shia Islam people can get temporarily ‘married‘ in these centres (for a fee); from a few hours to as long as ninety-nine years.
Editor: Patty Debonitas
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