Iranian Lawmaker Claims Attack on Israel Will Boost Foreign Investment
One of the few female members of the Islamic Republic parliament has said that the April 13 missile attack on Israel will unify Iranians and help attract foreign investments.
One of the few female members of the Islamic Republic parliament has said that the April 13 missile attack on Israel will unify Iranians and help attract foreign investments.
Fatemeh Mohammad Beigi, a medical doctor by training, belongs to the hardliner faction of the outgoing parliament and has been re-elected for the next four years.
“Undoubtedly, the significant feat by the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace force against Israel has brought people's hearts closer together. In the light of this solidarity, other challenging issues in the country…can also be resolved,” Beigi told a local website. As one of the challenges, she mentioned the declining legitimacy of the Islamic government.
However, her reference to a potential increase in foreign investment contradicts recent decisions by the United States and Europe to expand sanctions on individuals and entities helping the Islamic Republic in its weapons proliferation activities and support for militant networks.
Also, contrary to her claim about stronger solidarity among the people, Many Iranians criticized the attack against Israel. Even some regime insiders and commentators warned of dire economic and security consequences.
Beigi is known for odd statements and actions. In February, during the electoral campaign for parliamentary elections she wrote a letter to the governor in her local constituency, reminding him that she is known by nice different names, and this should be considered during the counting of write-in ballots.
She provided a list of these nine names to the governor in a letter. One of these names was “Ms. Doctor”. Beigi said that if a voter simply writes “Ms. Doctor”, that would be a vote for her.
Project Nour, the regime’s new hijab enforcement plan, has seen Iranian authorities escalate their physical efforts to enforce the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab laws. It has led to a surge in violent crackdowns targeting women on Iranian streets.
Earlier this week, Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran's Chief of Police and commander of the country's Law Enforcement Command, announced that the police would continue the “Project Nour” with the support of the parliament, the government, and the judiciary, with "strength and precision."
In 2010, Radan was sanctioned by the US, EU and the UK for serious human rights violations and his role in the deadly and violent repression of protests during Iran’s 2009 green movement.
As reported by state-run IRIB, Radan thanked his colleagues “who are diligently involved in implementing this plan and are pursuing it with a jihadistic spirit.”
In another significant escalation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) also announced its participation in the enforcement efforts, forming groups known as "Mehr Ambassadors" to uphold the strict Islamic dress code for women.
Hassan Hassanzadeh, Tehran’s IRGC commander, emphasized that the group’s rigorous training aims to enforce hijab regulations with heightened intensity in public spaces.
Hassanzadeh was sanctioned in 2022 by Western countries for his role in the violent crackdown on nationwide anti-regime protests – often called the Women, Life, Freedom uprising, sparked by the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody.
Since the launch of the “Nour” project, reports have emerged detailing disturbing instances of police officers extorting money from women in exchange for leniency, alongside allegations of theft and sexual harassment.
The situation has raised alarm both domestically and internationally, with human rights organizations, student groups and prominent activists decrying the Iranian authorities’ violations of basic freedoms and human rights.
Despite the Iranian officials' scrambling to soften criticism of the hijab crackdown, speeches by Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi triggered a new round of suppression on unveiled women.
The regime’s enforcement campaign has also drawn condemnation from other quarters, including “The Laleh Park Mothers” also known as “Mourning Mothers” – a group of Iranian women whose family members were killed during the 2009 protests.
In their statement, issued on Monday, they condemned the renewed assault on women's freedoms, accusing the government of resorting to brutality to deflect attention from its failures.
"...with the order of Ali Khamenei with the plan of chastity and hijab in the name of “Nour", the war against women is more than intense,” the statement read.
Iran analyst and journalist Morad Vaisi posited that the recent efforts are the regime's attempt to reclaim control over women's rights, stating, “Women occupied many strongholds in the past years and forced the Islamic Republic to retreat, now the regime wants to take these strongholds back from women. Also, Khamenei has a grudge against women and feels inferior.”
