Western Leaders’ Shameful Sycophancy toward Iran https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2016/07/western-leaders-shameful-sycophancy-toward-iran/

July 7, 2016 | Amir Taheri
About the author: Amir Taheri, formerly the executive editor (1972-79) of Iran’s main daily newspaper, is the author of twelve books and a columnist for the Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

Since the conclusion of the nuclear deal last year, a number of Western leaders have visited Tehran, often taking the opportunity to utter hypocritical praise of the Islamic Republic while displaying utter callousness toward its oppression of its subjects. Amir Taheri writes:

The Austrian president, Heinz Fischer, whose term has since ended, put flowers at Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum and praised the despot who had presided over the execution of more than 120,000 Iranians as “a man of peace and spirituality.”

Christine Defraigne, president of the Belgian senate . . . went around telling the mullahs and their minions that the West had “a lot to learn from Islam” to “improve the status of women.” She ignored the fact that, while she was flattering the mullahs, hundreds of Iranian women were arrested and insulted by Islamic vigilantes who claimed their hijabs were “inadequate.” . . .

[Only] two officials behaved with dignity. One was the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, who dressed normally and wore a white, thin, headpiece, and said not a word in praise of the mullahcracy. Another was Croatia’s president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. . . .

However, the main prize for dignified behavior must go to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. She simply refused to visit the Islamic Republic because she would not wear the hijab and dress up for what amounts to a farce endorsing tragedy.

Read more on New York Post: http://nypost.com/2016/07/03/westerners-who-don-hijabs-in-iran-are-a-disgrace/