by Sepideh Jodeyri
What does it mean when you say someone has quisled? And to whom do you refer as a “quisling”? It is little wonder that you, the western reader of this piece, have not heard of a phenomenon such as Vidkun Quisling for decades. He was a Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis in invading Norway during World War II, and his surname has been used as a synonym for traitor ever since. Even if we were convinced that the Germans manipulated Quisling’s motives for gaining power in Norway, there is no doubt that nowadays none of your compatriots would let any aggressor manipulate their opposition to your government in order to invade your country. Nevertheless we see the same situation today regarding Iran and some Iranian opposition groups abroad.
You may consider Iran a different case. It is governed by a tyrannical theocracy; its execution number is shocking; the government’s critics are jailed, exiled or even executed, and the government is intervening in other Middle Eastern countries’ affairs. Therefore, you may see fit and right to undertake any action which weakens the Iranian government. But, may I invite you once, forever, to listen to those Iranian activists who have not let the western powers manipulate them to gain their interests in the region?
The problem is that pro-war and pro-sanctions Iranian activists abroad as well as hardliners in Iran have dominated all the tribunes so that nobody can hear the independent voices — the other voices. Therefore, no wonder you are not informed that not only many exiled Iranian activists, but also some political prisoners in Iran such as Farhad Meisami, Bahareh Hedayat and Narges Mohammadi have spoken out against Western governments’ warlike policies—for instance, the unjust sanctions reimposed by the U.S. government against Iranian people.
The truth is that these sanctions effect not only ordinary citizens, but also the civil rights movement in Iran. We have to consider that activism is mostly not permitted, or at least it is not considered to be a job in Iran. The civil rights activists are voluntarily taking part in such actions. When even the middle-class has to work three shifts a day under the economic crisis, how can people have the opportunity and time for voluntary activities? Under such conditions they would logically focus on the jobs that earn them income, not the voluntary ones.
That’s why the majority of people in Iran believe in changes that can take place by themselves, not through sanctions and war. It is easy to understand. Imagine your country was ruled by such a government. Would you let other countries starve and bomb your people to bring freedom and democracy to them?
That’s the point. All I want to say is that there are more similarities than differences between you and us, but only the Iranians who insist on the differences have voice on both sides.
Let’s see why some Iranian opposition groups abroad favor sanctions and war on their own homeland. There are numerous Iranian human rights organizations, campaigns and projects in the U.S. and Europe that are mostly sponsored by the U.S. and Israeli governments; consequently, the activists who work for them may sometimes have to follow those governments’ policies. There is no foreign government who sponsors activism against your country’s interest, is there? However, this is how the western governments behave toward my homeland.
It may sound hilarious to you if you hear that Iranian women’s rights activists meet Western politicians with anti-feminist records to discuss the violation of women’s rights in Iran and ask for support, but that’s exactly what the Iranian anti-compulsory-Hijab campaigner Masih Alinejad did in her February meeting with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo’s extensive anti-choice record is clear to every women’s rights activist in the US and in the world. Afterwards the campaigner got a lot of backlash for it, not just in Iran, but also among Iranians in the U.S.
May 13 protest at the University of Tehran (Source: author)
But I have little doubt that you have rarely heard of the backlash. You just watch the trendy showcases that our Zainab al-Suwaijs have provided to justify the “Regime Changes” the U.S. has perpetrated or will perpetrate in the Middle East and in the so-called Third World. You may even not know that in Tehran’s biggest demonstration of anti-compulsory-Hijab, on May 13th at the University of Tehran, people carried signs reading, “Alinejad va Ershad: Erteja’ va Enqiad” (“Alinejad and the Morality Police: reactionary and domineering”). On May 17th, a group called “Justice-Seeker Teachers” in Iran issued a statement to support the May 13th demonstration, mentioning that both of Masih Alinejad and the Islamic Republic TV host Ehsan Alikhani were censoring and falsifying the news of the protest to represent the independent university students and civil rights activists as pro-violence groups and repressive groups as the victims.
Protest sign (Source: author)
These stories show that the Iranian civil rights movement wishes to stay independent of any pro-war and pro-sanctions groups abroad. While the U.S.-Iran conflict was coming to a head, in her article, “The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are terrorists — I’ve seen evidence with my own eyes” for The Independent, Alinejad disrespected the Iranian martyrs of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war by claiming that Iranian children were “brainwashed” to cry for those martyrs’ “heroic and selfless sacrifices.” According to valid sources, the war was started by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was named by the Iranian authorities as a “forced war” at the time. In any part of the world, people pay respect not to the aggressors but to the martyrs who have risked their lives to defend their land. Whereas through this the article tries to represent the defense as a worthless act, I suspect that it might be written for justifying the possible invasion of Iran by the U.S. army.
Hopefully now you can imagine to what extent the manipulation works. It makes people deny every humane aspect of their own homeland.
Unfortunately, the Iranian activists who willy-nilly act like Zainab al-Suwaij are numerous overseas. They even concentrate on the character assassination of Iranian opposition leaders such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi who have been under house arrest for more than eight years and are among the only hopes for changing conditions in Iran. However, the quislings don’t seek change, they seek money, power and fame.
Whereas one of the Iranian Green Movement’s leaders, Zahra Rahnavard, as a well-known artist, author and academic figure has published 14 books so far, recently I asked PEN International to begin a campaign for her freedom. I had asked the same for freedom of a few Iranian writers before and PEN had always accepted my request and done it for them. They even led a campaign for Rahnavard’s freedom in 2013. But this time, they replied that due to the political nature of the case, they were afraid that they couldn’t work on it at this stage. Now this is the question: what has Rahnavard done since 2013 other than being under house arrest for six more years? I suspect that PEN’s recent decision about this case might be affected by the character assassination that those Iranian opposition groups have perpetrated against Rahnavard during all these years for the reason I mentioned above. But why does an independent organization such as PEN have to listen to them and not to us? I am wondering to whom we can explain our sufferings, when there is no listener.
Sepideh Jodeyri is an Iranian poet and feminist activist who has published 10 books. She lives in exile in Washington and is a critic of the Islamic Republic.
Dear Alex freedom
I feel your pain!
I also want to see free iran.
But how could a “civilized world” that has been killing innocent people around the world since WW2 come to our rescue?
Don’t you think as wise old nation we can bring change ourselfs?
Should we even have democracy if we are not able to achieve it by ourselfs?
Ms. MNEMOSYNE,
You can adore whom you wish, but I adore peace and justice–hence I resent both forms of brutal oppression: Internal despotism (currently Khamenei) and external colonialism–currently Trump/Netanyahu/Ben Salman.
I am a “social democrat” (like Mossadegh and Bernie Sanders) who advocates, among other nonviolent measures, voluntary hijab–because forced hijab is UN-Islamic.
You may wish to google my name, to learn (if you wish) about my background and activism–so that you don’t pre-judge me (hence prejudice), thinking of me as a person who fetishisez hedonistic “personal freedom.”
“Blessed are peacemakers,”
Moji Agha
“for instance, the unjust sanctions reimposed by the U.S. government against Iranian people” Fact is, people inside Iran have been under sanction of a fascist theocracy for the past 40 years and are willing to put up a little longer if brings an end to regime of Islamic savages. Sanctions, not WAR, is proven to be best weapon to assist people inside Iran to force that regime to accept a referendum under the UN allowing them to choose type of regime they want. For the past 40 years, leaders of that regime, their cronies and leaders of their Revolutionary Guards have been robbing Iran and either pocketing or through their “Qods” terrorist brigade giving it to Palestinians, Hizbullah of Lebanon, Hoothies and many other terrorist groups in Africa in hope of expanding power of their Satanic cult of Shiite. All this, while majority of people in Iran have no job, no money, no security and if they say something against the regime or its diaper-heads, either are shot or end up in Islamic dungeons. If anybody, including Trump administration, thinks savages running 12th Imam’s government understand any logic or peaceful negotiation, they need to get their head checked. Leaders of Islamic Regime in IRAN understand only one language “FORCE” and for new that sanction might be a good substitute for bullets and bombs.
The article is filled with inaccuracies & unsubstantiated Bolton-like claims:
1. “You may consider Iran a different case. It is governed by a tyrannical theocracy; its execution number is shocking; the government’s critics are jailed, exiled or even executed, and the government is intervening in other Middle Eastern countries’ affairs. ”
The above statement is utterly baseless & false. “Tyrannical theocracy” is a phrase that we would expect to hear from Bolton, Pompeo and Netanyahu and their ideological cohorts. Slogans for which you do not need to support with any evidence or facts. She does not offer any evidence in support of her above paragraph. There is no question that Iran has taken a drastically different path in history than the West; e.g. 300 years before the Europeans invade America and engage in rape, genocide, and decimation of its indiginous population and at the same time begin to kidnap, enslave and transport millions of their kidnapped African hostages to the new continent, in 1258 A.D. in Shiraz, Iran, the Iranian poet Saadi wrote his famous poem, “We human beings are all members of the same family; like branches of the same tree / once one branch is in pain and distress; the other branches become distressed / you who do not feel pain when others are distress; you do not deserve to be called a human being.
It is thus expected that different historical paths would result in different cultures and civilizations. Materialism with its obsessive lust for more and on the other hand a region out of which all Abrahamian-based spiritual prophets, leaders and philosophers originate.
It takes a simple mathematical analysis to compare the ratio of voter participation in 40 years of Islamic Republic to that of the US and conclude in which one of the two (Iran’s voter participitation in all its elections consistently well anove that of the US) system the population is more engaged. Furthermore, polls after polls conducted by Gallup and more recently by the University of Maryland Iran Poll 2018 clearly shows despite “maximum” economic pressure by the US system which grew out of 300 years of slavery, the percentage of Iranian population that is behind the Islamic Republic is significantly higher than that for the US. With the above-referenced undeniable statistics on one hand, it become clear that the Bolton+Pompeo+Netanyahu+Raytheon+their puppets, MBZ+MBS’ narrative of “theocratic tyranny” is rooted in falsehood.
Now, let’s get to the claim of our “quisling” author re, “the goverment’s critics are jailed, exiled or even executed …” Again a parrott-like repetition of slogans after warmongers like Bolton without any evidence. The fact is there is absolutely no example of ONE case where during the past 40 years the Islamic Republic of Iran having “exiled” one single person – “exile” mostly being a Western form of sentencing with no comparable equivalent in Iranian culture. On the claim of “critics having been executed”, it appears the author is competing with Bolton to, perhaps, get ahead of him in absurdity. Where is one example of a “critic” of IRI having been executed.
Comparison of the social and legal systems of different societies needs to be analyzed in the correct historical context unless one, like Bolton & Co., is deliberately engaging in mass deception and fraud.
IRAN has been surrounded by a vicious enemy 110 times its military budget from the other side of our planet, threatening it on a persistent basis that its going to attack and invade it while “maximizing” a barbaric siege it has laid on it (“sanction” is a false phrase since children with rare forms of cancer are being murdered by the total siege of the monstrous enemy). Now, let’s take a step backward to December 7, 1941 and its aftermath in the US where a single bombing on a Sunday morning by the Japanese enemy on an island (HI) located 3,000 miles away from US mainland resulted in quick suspension of Habeas Corpus and rounding up and internment and incarceration of thousands of US residents and citizens who “appeared” to look Asian or Japanese. Even though the present situation in Iran has been much dire than that of US on December 7, 1941, one could not find one comparable example where “thousands” of people who “looked like” the enemy have been incarcerated.
2. The author miserably fails to present any analysis of the photographs of a small recent anti-hejab protest in Tehran on May 13, 2019. Who were these protesters? How were they organized? Did this small gathering had anything to do with millions of dollars the vicious right wing enemies of Iran are spending on a massive psychological warfare Bolton & Co. have launched against Iran? With the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent round up of “slanted eye” folks as the enemy’s 5th column, what would be the legal ststus of the small minority in the Iranian population who obey the enemy’s calls (through its 100’s of social media accounts, 100+ free satellite TV channels, and dozens of its bogus human rights, workers, and women rights advocacy sites) to get out on the streets and disrupt social order by protesting as the vicious enemy’s aircrat carriers and destroyers and airbases have surrounded and encirled Iran. The author appears to be parroting Bolton’ s racist implication that only Americans are entitled to suspension of their Habeas Corpus and civil liberties at the time “of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” Apparently, according to Bolton and our quizling author (I prefer, “Americanized Imperialist Liberal”), Iran has absolutely no right to suspension of its Habeas Corpus and civil liberties even though the seriousness of its situation is many folds worse than that of US in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor attack.
The author without any analysis of reliable sources on the opinions of Iranian population, and in fact contradicting those sources, without offering any evidence claims the only hope for positive change are the disgraced ex-politician Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Rahnavard. Considering the result of the comprehensive & well-designed 115-question University of Maryland Iran Poll 2018, it is clear that the majority of Iranians are in fact in support of their indiginous Islamic Republic and in fact criticize it for not doing enough to protect and enforce social Islamic values.
To Mohsen Sarfaraz
As an iranian what we see among the people in Iran is veryyyyyy different from what you have claimed!
Maybe you live in a different country!?!?!
First, tell me why Esmail Bakhshi, Sepide Gholiyan, Nasrin Sotoude, Narges Mohammadi, Masuod Kazemi, Mehdi Hajati, Hosein Janati, Farhad Meysami and many others (i cant remember all the names!) are in jail now?!
They have down nothing but writing or protesting human rights!
This is the evidence you need! Just take a look at the names mentioned above!
answer this then we can discuss the rest!