Australian senator smeared by anti-Iran groups for saying Iranian women 'have a voice'

Fatima Payman, a firebrand independent Australian senator, has faced a smear campaign for her remarks about Iranian women in a recent interview with Press TV, with anti-Iran propagandists ferociously targeting her.

In the interview broadcast on Sunday, Payman – an Australian politician of Afghan origin who was elected to the Senate for Western Australia in 2022 and leads her own party, ‘Australia’s Voice’ – spoke about the freedom women in Iran enjoy and the progress they have made.

She was interviewed by Press TV on the sidelines of an event in Sydney that challenged Western narratives, including stereotypes about Iranian women portrayed in Western media.

Payman said Western audiences were not exposed to the "incredible place that Iran is, allowing for women to participate in the workforce, to ensure that they have a voice, and their voices are heard, they're involved in the democratic process."

She further stated that people in the West, including Australia, only receive propaganda (about Iran) from “single-sided organizations with a specific agenda.”

Her remarks did not sit well with anti-Iranian groups in Australia, including the so-called Australian United Solidarity for Iran (AUSIRAN), which advocates for “regime change” in Iran.

In a protest letter, AUSIRAN expressed "outrage" over statements made by Payman and another prominent Australian politician, Jodie Harrison, who sent a video message for the event.

Prominent anti-Iran and Zionist lobbyists also joined the vicious smear campaign against Payman and others who participated in the event, including senior Press TV journalist and host Marzieh Hashemi, who joined via video link.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British citizen who served a prison sentence in Iran on serious espionage charges before being released in late 2020, was particularly scathing in her criticism of Payman.

“Why agree to be interviewed by Press TV, English language propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic known for broadcasting false confession videos and forced interviews with prisoners before they are executed,” she stated in an X post, repeating claims that have long been debunked.

“Oh my God @SenatorPayman, girl, what are you doing!? What is this nonsense you are saying?”

Emily Schrader, a notorious Zionist propagandist, also took to X to attack the event organizers.

“Oh look, Sydney welcoming an Islamic regime propaganda event whitewashing the gender apartheid regime in Iran today. Why is Australia determined to self-destruct?” she wrote.

Schrader, who works for an Israeli propaganda outlet and is bankrolled by the Mossad spy agency, has built her career on spreading hate and canards against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Other anti-Iranian figures also seized the opportunity to attack both the event organizers and those who participated, including Payman.

Drew Pavlou, who describes himself as a “supporter of Western democracy,” went so far as to launch racist attacks against her, calling the Australian senator “a complete psychopath.”

“Fatima Payman’s parents fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s. She has used her spot in the Australian Senate to call Iran an ‘incredible place’ for women, denouncing criticism of its human rights record as ‘Western propaganda,’” he wrote in a xenophobic comment.

“So why did her family flee an Islamist system in Afghanistan?”

Since the Western-backed deadly riots in Iran in 2021, propaganda mills in Western countries – supported by American, British, and Israeli spy agencies – have been actively spreading misinformation against the Islamic Republic.

Experts believe these groups are bent on undermining the progress made by Iranian women since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in different fields of endeavor.

The event organizers, Benevolent Iranian Women Association, released a statement saying they aimed “to provide factual information, first-hand experiences, and authentic observations about Iran, women in Iran, and expose the skewed and incomplete narrative represented in Western media.”

Payman, an Afghan-origin senator from Western Australia, quit the Labor Party in July 2024 over the Israeli genocide in Gaza, vowing to continue speaking in support of Palestinian statehood.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk