Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s mistreatment of a rights activist who stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people, describing its actions as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”
Esmail Baghaei made the remarks in a post on X, referring to reports that Israel “tortured and sexually humiliated” Greta Thunberg.
He cited Thunberg’s recent interview with a Swedish newspaper, in which the young activist described being violently assaulted during a protest.
“They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me,” Thunberg was quoted as saying.
The spokesman said Israel’s behavior reflects a deliberate effort to instill fear and suppress dissent amid its genocide in Gaza.
Iran has a complicated history having been one of the first and most progressive nations in the middle east.
They started a democratic parliament in 1906. Mandatory hijab was banned at some point in the 1930s. Women were educated and active in the professional sectors like lawyers and doctors in the following decades. Their royal family (shah) was still around but with decreasing authority, similar to many democratic European countries today.
Then a democratic elected leader wanted to nationalise oil the oil industry pissing off the UK and US
Operating Ajax was a CIA/MI6 lead coup that overthrew the democracy and reestablished the dictatorship of the shah with extended power.
In return for giving them a large share of the denationalisation oil they even helped train a secret police.
This helped fuel an anti-west sentiment as the shah was considered a western puppet. Actual progressive Political opposition got crushed making religion the primary public voice of dissent.
This turmoil ends in the islamic revolution and republic that dominates that eventually reversed all the progressive laws and brought back a mandated hijab for women.
These regime still rules today but you would be mistaken to consider them real representatives of the people. The majority of women today are still educated. Since a protest a few years ago there is mass civil disobedience, especially in big cities.
In effect 2025 the government of Iran has lost legitimacy towards the people but they still enjoy lots of military might to maintain their technical position.
It might be fair to say that some religious people in power would still wish to invoke their views on all women and make this argument in spite of the Irsael-US/UK connections but to equate that to the nation/people of iran is inaccurate.