More scary Islamophobia by choosing to use the spooky Arabic word. A "fatwa" is just a legal ruling interpreted by religious leaders. You may as well call it a verdict. You can have a fatwa towards one couple's divorce. You can issue fatwas on car traffic. On food. Elections. Fire departments. It's just scholars sitting down and saying "How should we interpret our religion regarding this issue?"

But that's not why the media uses the term. They're doing it to deliberately obfuscate what's being said and trying to make westerners associate "fatwa" with murder and assassinations. That way, when their audience encounters the term from other sources (like if they saw a post on the official Iranian Twitter account), they immediately think those dastardly brown people are plotting to kill people.

What's even more bullshit is Persians aren't Arabs. They speak Farsi, not Arabic. That doesn't stop the media from latching scary words to their story to reinforce orientalism.