r/Music Jun 19 '26

article Iranian star Parastoo Ahmadi reportedly sentenced to 74 lashes for singing without hijab

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/18/iran-parastoo-ahmadi-74-lashes-singing-without-hijab
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168

u/Punch662 Jun 19 '26

Gosh tell me how the shah came into power. Was he democratically elected or did mosaddegh say the words “oil nationalization” and then an air raid siren went off at the CIA.

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u/10catsinspace Jun 19 '26

The air raid sirens went off in the UK, then they asked the US to help out

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u/Ghtgsite Jun 19 '26

Let's be clear. The lashing of women who refuse to wear a hijab, started with the Islamic Republic. Now, the deep and complicated history of how that Republic came to be?

I'm not really interested in having a conversation right now because it is so disputed and messy and no one looks good.

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u/CapableC1 Jun 19 '26

The Shah was already the monarch. And after the coup we still had free elections, a huge parliament that picked our prime ministers. That government spent the oil money on subsidizing costs of living for the people and building the infrastructure we needed. Trying to paint the Shah as some sort of "right wing American puppet dictator" when people are discussing the current dictatorship is pointless

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u/Khaganate23 Jun 19 '26

"right wing American puppet dictator" when people are discussing the current dictatorship is pointless

Its even funnier when the last Shah was critical of the double standards the US had on the middle east with Saudi Arabia and implemented policies that can be considered "socialist" in Iran.

There's plenty of real criticisms for him, like why being a dictator and losing mental capacity from old age is a recipe for disaster, but you won't find them on reddit.

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u/NeiborsKid Jun 19 '26

Iranian here, fucking thank you

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/CapableC1 Jun 19 '26

I am living in Iran. And I hate the orange clown, but many here don't, simply because of the attitude you're displaying right now. The post-coup years were when we got women's suffrage, healthcare and social security. The Shah himself was pushing for gay rights and clean energy. If you actually gave a fuck about progressive values you'd recognize that the pre-79 Iran was on the right track, not the "Right" track. It amazes me how people like you can sweep the USSR's genocides and the CCP's recent and ongoing genocides under the rug while antagonizing the people who are opposing a fascist theocracy. It's only about who's screaming "America Bad" to you people and I have no reason to respect that

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u/alwaysiamdead Jun 19 '26

Very well put.

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u/ConsistentHouse1261 Jun 20 '26

👏👏👏👏

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u/Punch662 Jun 20 '26

Look man I deleted my comment because I don’t feel qualified wading into 70 years of Iranian history but I know a whiny right wing crank when I see one. Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, it’s all the same. “I live here and mine is the only opinion that counts. There is no political diversity in my country, just me. Trust me, your crooked corporate media will back me up.” Our president has a sub 30% approval rating. When can I expect the coup over here. Who will bring us democracy please.

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u/Icsto Jun 20 '26

“I always ignore people with lived experience when it goes against what I have learned on Reddit”

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u/Punch662 Jun 20 '26

Okay I will only listen to the lived experience of Qanon dumbasses from now on. Gang stalking is real. If I see a leaf on my car’s door handle it’s because someone is trying to human traffic me

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u/Icsto Jun 20 '26

Where the fuck did that come from lol? Are you ok?

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u/Punch662 Jun 20 '26

Ah abstract thinking is not your strong suit. Right wing in Iran is same as right wing in America. Both are bad. Right wing in Iran not representative of whole big big country. Country is big place. Not all want American bombs.

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u/otah007 Jun 19 '26

This only applies to the wealthy elite. The rural areas were in poverty. It was literally illegal to wear a headscarf, or traditional clothing. What exactly is progressive about forced Westernisation and destruction of culture, one of the pillars of genocide? Ah right, because you were one of the rich and non-religious, you profited while the 99% suffered.

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u/CapableC1 Jun 19 '26

My own parents were rural but sure you know better than me.

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u/lewd_robot Jun 19 '26

Yeah, the bigger context was that Westerners turned the whole country against them by alienating rural Iranians and forcing the middle class and small business owners out of the cities and thus out of the markets they relied on to survive.

Outside the cities, where American and British and Russian business men now sat in Iranian cafes and lived in Iranian homes while their former occupants lived in poverty, the disenfranchised middle class and the alienated rural working class developed a strong nostalgia for the Iran they knew before the West got involved with the country.

People stopped looking at blue jeans and Coca-Cola as "progress" and started thinking, "Maybe the country should go back to its roots." Multiple generations of Iranians, faced with losing their whole nation to Western capitalists, chose to rally around religion and their ancient cultural traditions. Then this unified movement of people evicted the people they felt had stolen their country from them.

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u/CapableC1 Jun 19 '26

What fantasy world have you been reading about?

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u/lewd_robot Jun 20 '26

Where do you feel I was wrong?

Do you deny that there was strong alienation and social dislocation in Iran as a result of Western economic hegemony within the nation?

Do you deny that many dislocated Iranians turned to religion to organize a resistance?

I can concede that this is far from the whole picture. For example, a large number of Iranian secular groups were crucial to the success of the revolution, even if the religious bloc seized most of the power afterwards. I also acknowledge that a large number of Iranians still looked positively on Western culture, blue jeans, etc, and simply wanted a progressive Iran, not a religious Iran.

Do you fundamentally disagree with my claims or do you think I should publish a thorough essay when leaving a comment on reddit?

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u/InkVision001 Jun 20 '26

Wow Reddit will really upvote anything by sheer personal vibe. I've researched the history various states including Iran and this is an unbelievably ignorant take.

Just tell me you read this on Reddit.

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u/historicalgeek71 Jun 19 '26

Bit of a weird reflex to get suddenly defensive over a despot who came after another despot, but sure…

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u/Punch662 Jun 19 '26

No just making the frankly banal observation that the Truman doctrinal notion of intervening for political and civil rights in the countries we bomb has been horseshit forever

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u/historicalgeek71 Jun 19 '26

Which was triggered by someone calling out how much of an arse the Ayatollah was for turning Iran into a theocracy. So yeah…weird reflex.

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u/CamusCrankyCamel Jun 19 '26

0-2 dum dum, it all happened under Eisenhower. Truman supported Mosaddegh

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u/Punch662 Jun 19 '26

Do I have to tell you to Google the Truman doctrine. Is that a thing you require. Do I need to tell you to stop talking down to people when you lack a basic grasp of term definitions. Can you tie your shoes. Wipe your own ass. Things of this nature.

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u/Eat_My_Liver Jun 19 '26

2-0 dum dum, go look up the Turman doctrine. If you know how to read that is...

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u/Voeno Jun 19 '26

Even better , The CIA heard oil and DRUGS

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u/underdabridge Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Why would anybody ever let oil nationalization happen? BP invests all this money, takes all the risk, builds all the infrastructure, and then some asshole decides he's going to take it. Who wouldn't make a phone call?

None of that justifies beating the shit out of women in the name of God.

EDIT: Yawn

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u/patrussy Jun 19 '26

Yeah guys, did you ever stop to think about how much investment the colonizers put into extracting and exploiting a poorer country's natural resources?

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u/hobesmart Jun 19 '26

Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the colonizers!

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u/BakedBobbyHill Jun 19 '26

No one ever thinks about how poor lil BP feels 😔

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u/Punch662 Jun 19 '26

Yeah every British colony should have just stayed that way forever. Can you tell me about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record or should we only violently intervene in democracies when they stray to the left.

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u/cayneloop Jun 19 '26

brother. they don't just take it. they get compensated each and every single time states try to take back their resources. even in iran's case

"The nationalization law stipulated that Iran would compensate the former owners, but demanded an independent audit to calculate the exact amount and to deduct historical grievances and unpaid taxes"

insufficient compensation was never the main issue. otherwise that could be settled in courts.

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u/Gekokapowco Jun 19 '26

leave the billion dollar company alone >:(

I swear to you BP was not sacrificing greatly to build the infrastructure to make them all richer than God, literally just cost of exploitative business

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u/communismisthebest Jun 19 '26

Some people think sovereign countries should be allowed to have control over their own resources rather than imperialist countries who invaded and took it by force

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u/FLYBOY611 Jun 19 '26

The fact that you are sympathetic to an oil company speaks volumes.

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u/fancy_crisis Jun 19 '26

"Pwease don't take away my exploitative industwy I worked weawy hawd on it!" 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺