Iran

Iran Slams French 'Crackdown' on Student Protests

Is Iran's criticism of France grotesque hypocrisy from a regime that hangs protesters or a fair test of the standards Paris preaches?

Published 2 hours ago

Iran Slams French 'Crackdown' on Student Protests

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Above: Riot police face protesting students outside a school in Aubervilliers, near Paris, Oct. 1. Image credit: Lou Benoist/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-Iran narrative

The hypocrisy is staggering: Paris lectures Iran on human rights while its own police beat, gas and mass-arrest teenagers demanding decent classrooms. Hundreds injured and thousands detained would trigger international outrage if this were Iran, where authorities faced protests that included armed and foreign-backed elements. Tehran hardly needs to invent Western double standards when governments claiming moral authority display them so openly at home.

PressTV RT The Washington Examiner Al Jazeera

Anti-Iran narrative

Tehran lecturing anyone about protest crackdowns is grotesque when its own forces shot into crowds, cut the internet to conceal the scale of the violence and continue to hang young people to frighten an entire generation into silence. A woman begging from a prison cell for the world to save her life says everything about who the real brutes are. French students face tear gas and mass arrests; Iranian students face prison, executions and early graves.