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inews.co.uk – The BBC has filed a complaint to the United Nations about the harassment of women journalists as Rana Rahimpour reveals the abuse she faces while trying to do her job
By Rana RahimpourMarch 23, 2022 7:03 am(Updated 10:59 am)
“One day, we will arrest you, we will rape your daughter in front of you, and then we will cut both your heads off.”
Can you imagine receiving those sorts of messages? Every. Single. Day.
I don’t have to imagine, for me and many of my female colleagues, it is a grim reality. Our crime for this horrific threat? Simply being a BBC News Persian journalist.
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For more than a decade Iran has targeted us and our families since the BBC News Persian service launched satellite TV in 2009. We have an audience of nearly 13 people million in Iran, but the authorities want to silence our voices.
They don’t want fair, trusted or impartial news to reach the shores of my homeland.
And it seems they will stop at nothing. Our family members in Iran have been detained, held in degrading conditions, interrogated and ordered to tell us to stop working for the BBC.
In 2014 my father was summoned for interrogation several times. Iran was nervous about possible election related protests. During the interrogation they asked him for my personal contact details, and told him to make me stop working for the BBC. He refused.
They threatened to cut his pension and said that they would confiscate his passport unless I gave up my job.
It has been hard on my family. Both my parents were put under a travel ban in 2013 for over a year – they could not visit us or even meet their first grandchild. My elderly father cried on the phone when he told me he could not come to London. It broke my heart.
My colleagues have also suffered greatly. Not being able to return to Iran without fear of arrest means missing out on precious time with loved ones.
Parents have died over Skype, which due to the pandemic, tragically became a familiar experience for the rest of the world, but for us, it was not a virus that took that right away, it was the Iranian government. We missed many funerals, the last chance to say goodbye and to hold their hands.
In 2017 Iran imposed financial sanctions on 152 BBC News Persian current and former staff, freezing our assets in Iran. It deprived us and our families of property, including the ability to sell or rent assets. It was designed to force us into leaving the BBC.
Now, increasingly the attacks include the spreading of highly misogynistic and false stories in state media. One colleague of mine was subjected to a fake story that she had been raped by a colleague and had given birth to a child. They took personal photos of her holding a friend’s baby from social media and showed her father as “proof”. She had to reassure him that the story wasn’t true.
Over the years, their techniques have become more sophisticated. They cut and edit parts of our interviews to change the context of the interviews in order to discredit the BBC and our journalism. Their presence on social media platforms is much more significant than before. There are thousands of accounts targeting journalists, especially the BBC, especially women.
We receive countless online threats of sexual violence and graphic images. They are trying to scare us, to silence us, to counter our ability to use social media for our journalism and drive us out of these online spaces.
It can have a negative effect on mental health, with disgusting words and images still running through your head hours after deleting them. All because we are journalists for the BBC. It might not be personal, but it feels it.
We call on the international community around the world stand to in solidarity with our women journalists, to hear our voices and take a stand against online violence.
This is why today the BBC has filed an urgent complaint to the United Nations about the gendered harassment of our women journalists. The UN has raised concern about Iran’s online violence towards women, how it is closing the public space for women’s voices and resulting in gendered censorship.
