Re-abusing abused women

We, as part of the Iranian society, express our concerns about the "documentary" program with the title "prostitution behind the veil" about prostitution problem in Iran, broadcasted by CBC channel on Monday, Feb 21, session of "The passionate eye" . This documentary is produced by Dr. Nahid Persson, an Iranian refugee living abroad, during her visit to Iran after 17 years in exile.

Considering our own observations and knowledge of the current situation in Iran, we found it a biased and unfair presentation of a complex situation in a country, already engaged in internal and foreign conflicts. This film undermines the many positive achievements of Iranian women by exaggerating the social issues which are not uncommon in other Islamic or non-Islamic societies, as well.

By definition, a documentary film is a program which presents the facts about a person or an event based on justifiable evidences. This film, for the following reasons, fails to satisfy this definition and, consequently, fails to consider the different aspects of the issue under discussion:

1) In this film the stories of only 3 people are considered, which are clearly related to each other. Because of the limited number of the people being interviewed and the clear dependency of the sources, this film has been unable to investigate different aspects of the topic from a wide perspective.
In documentaries general public opinions are usually used only to give an overall idea of the subject. A deeper study of the topic and finding the roots of the problem, usually, requires experts in that field, who can provide a broaden view of the problem, its roots,the actions taken to resolve it, and accurate statistics. In this film no expert in the filed is interviewed, for instance, a social worker, not even a human right activist. Nowhere in the film is it mentioned that the efforts of the director to reach the officials in charge were all unsuccessful.

2) The two female characters of the film are not even representative of the group under observation. Clearly, these two are drug addicts and, because of their addiction and unemployment, they are forced into this line of work. Their problem is mainly their addiction not the prostitution.
There is no explanation about the roots of the problem in this film. Although the director tries to present a general picture of life after the revolution in Iran, there is no reference, not even a minor one, to the two recent presidential elections won by a reformist president. She does not mention that, despite of all the limitations, more than 50\% of the university students in Iran are female. Why the director, did not interview a female university student and ask how she can manage to study and pay for her expenses? Why no female journalist, lawyer, or human right activist has been interviewed in this film? This clear deficiency makes the intention of the director highly dubious.

3) Some of the information provided throughout the film are not valid. For example, it is said that the legal age for marriage in Iran is 9 years old which, in fact, the correct number is 13 . These incorrect statements either show the lack of knowledge of the director about the reality of life in Iran or her intention to emphasis only on the empty half and to exaggerate the situation by providing invalid and vague statistics.

In our opinion, a respectful news agency such as CBC should be more careful and selective about the programs which directly address issues related to the dignity and national pride of its viewers. Documentary programs usually have the power to shape public opinion about a foreign country; false and biased documentaries can highly deteriorate the social image of a country and in long term may damage the reputation and credibility of the corresponding news agency.