Yashar Gulshen - November 8, 2015
The recent "Fetileh" program on the second channel of Islamic Republic Television is disastrous from every angle. It is a tragedy for the society that feeds such a program to its children and for the children who watch it, as their sensitive minds are scarred and corrupted by it.
The issue is not just about insulting a specific ethnic group. In fact, describing it as simply insulting does not do the program justice. It should be viewed as a sign of the systemic misery that, using the most vile tools, targets children for manipulation.
Let’s assume for a moment that the two hotel guests are not Turks and that the message conveyed in this program is not aimed at Turkish children. Let’s assume the hotel guests speak with the accent of a Farsi-speaking person from the capital, just like the hotel manager. Even in this scenario, the program, which claims to teach children how to brush their teeth, leaves such a scar on its young audience that it could stay with them for a long time. For every child watching this program, every act of brushing their teeth could evoke the image of the feces metaphorically hurled at them through this program. Children do not easily forget such scenes, especially those related to their daily lives, and they retain the filth associated with what is misrepresented as "feces comedy" linked to their daily routine of brushing their teeth.
Now, if we take into account the central feature of the program, which specifically targets an ethnic group, the issue takes on a new dimension, revealing the criminal, racist, and inhumane nature of the creators, hosts, and the overall system supporting this program, executed with malicious intent.
Looking at the various methods used to depict the hotel guests as Turks, we see that, contrary to the program creators’ claims, there was no carelessness or misunderstanding. On the contrary, the deliberate nature of the program's goals is unquestionable. The clues used are not limited to the way the guests speak. The repeated references to the hotel manager checking his dictionary for Turkish words, and the repeated focus on “qarpuz,” which the producers likely intended to imply something like "barbari" (a type of bread) and associate with being Turkish, indicate that every aspect of the program was designed to depict the guests—one of whom is supposed to be a child—as Turks.
Even though the audience of the program is all children in Iran, the target of the filth being thrown is specifically the Turkish child. When it is shown that a Turkish child cannot differentiate between a toothbrush and a toilet brush, and that their mouth smells of feces, it is very optimistic to hope that the child’s self-confidence won’t be destroyed. It is also not unreasonable to expect that this child will be denied an equal life with other children in Iran.
Of course, this program also has disastrous consequences for non-Turkish children. The result of such a program in the young audience cannot be anything other than the formation of a racist mentality with anti-Turkish thoughts and inclinations, which is instilled in the child’s mind from an early age. This, in turn, leads to a generation of ill and narcissistic individuals who are trapped in baseless illusions and fantasies about ethnic groups, including Arabs and Afghans, ultimately creating a sick generation.
Intellectuals in Iran, even if they do not feel any responsibility toward Turkish children, should at least raise their voices in protest for the sake of the generation of non-Turkish Iranians, who, through such programs, are morally corrupted.