These days mark the anniversary of a series of political assassinations in Iran, known as the “Chain Murders.” On this occasion, in 2008, the Iranian Writers’ Association declared December 4th, the day of the murder of the courageous writer and activist Mohammad Mokhtari as the Day of Struggle Against Censorship in Iran.
In the 1990s, following the end of the eight-year Iran–Iraq war, a new situation emerged, and Iran’s cultural and press environment was gradually opening up. Writers and civil activists once again began to organize. This process was seen as dangerous by hardline and security sectors. Intellectuals such as Mokhtari and Pouyandeh were targeted because they resisted censorship. The message of the killings was that independent cultural activity could cost one’s life. The murders of Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar showed that independent political organizing would not be tolerated.
The Chain Murders were a security project for eliminating dissidents and one of the most significant political and security events in the history of the Islamic Republic. These murders especially exposed and publicized in 1998 were the result of a systematic program to physically eliminate intellectuals, writers, political activists, cultural critics, and political opponents. Although the government claimed these acts were “rogue operations” carried out by a few agents, historical evidence, statements by former officials, the structure of the security apparatus, and the pattern of the murders all indicate a broader and organized project. The operations were years long, orderly, and targeted. The victims came from various political, artistic, and literary fields. The operations benefited from state facilities such as safe houses, unregistered vehicles, and tracking equipment. The agents involved were senior officials of the Ministry of Intelligence. Saeed Emami, then deputy security chief of the Ministry of Intelligence, was accused of designing and overseeing part of the killings. His mysterious death in prison in 1999 reported as “suicide in the bathroom” increased the ambiguities and prevented the official narrative from going beyond a superficial level.
The Chain Murders, as an engineered project, were part of a broader security policy. Their main goal was to restrain civil society and independent intellectual activity. In fact, these murders were an attempt to control the cultural future of Iran, an attempt that ultimately failed due to the resistance of writers, media, and public opinion, though the wound remains open.
The method of the killings followed a common pattern: abduction, suffocation or stabbing, and abandoning the body in remote places or staging a “heart attack.” Such planning and capacity would only be possible through an organized structure. In 1999, the Ministry of Intelligence issued a statement blaming “rogue elements,” but independent investigations showed that the operations went far beyond the actions of a few individuals.
Censorship of the press and the arrest and imprisonment of journalists which existed during the Pahlavi era dates back under the Islamic Republic to the very first months after the February 1979 revolution and the fall of the Shah’s regime. At that time, Khomeini explicitly ordered the breaking of pens and the burning of secular newspapers, books, and publications, and large-scale arrests and imprisonment of writers and journalists began. By attacking freedom of information, assaulting universities, and attacking revolutionary Kurdistan, the Islamic Republic started its efforts to suppress the Iranian Revolution and essentially finish the task the Shah’s regime had been unable to complete. From then on, journalists in Iran have been placed in a situation in which they must censor themselves, while being officially told through various channels what they may or may not say and write. The Islamic Republic does not even tolerate newspapers that defend the Islamic system but follow a different political strategy. The regime cannot tolerate foreign journalists either and, through entrapment, prevents their entry, denies visas, or forces them into self-censorship. Many foreign journalists have been framed and accused of espionage, interfering in internal affairs, instigating people against the system, or moral corruption. In recent years, a large number of journalists have been taken hostage to pressure foreign governments, spending years in prison without any valid reason.
In the Islamic Republic, any exposure of theft by senior officials, especially clerics and security or military figures is considered a crime. Showing scenes of violence by police, Revolutionary Guards, and Basij forces is a crime. Exposing the sexual misconduct of clerics is called violating the sanctity of Islam. Reporting on protests and popular struggles is treated as a crime. Writing about unemployment and poverty is equated with disturbing public order. Speaking about oppression of ethnic groups in Iran is labeled “separatism.” Showing images of unveiled women or women’s sports scenes is called violating public decency. “Insulting the Leader,” “acting against national security,” and similar charges are used broadly. Each of these “offenses” carries punishment under the Islamic Republic’s laws, and those deemed “guilty” are to be arrested and tortured, subjected to social exclusion, fired from their jobs, banned from journalism, and have their press licenses revoked. All these so-called “crimes” come with prison, flogging, torture, and even execution.
Nevertheless, the reality is that despite all pressure on the media, today the process of exposing the Islamic Republic and its policies continues in different forms, and the regime has been unable, through threats, torture, and imprisonment, to stop the publication of information about daily crimes, plunder, and corruption by its officials and it has become more discredited than ever before.
