The West’s blind spot on Iran

The Western media promotes Iranian voices who support the United States and Israel bombing Iran. The only other Iranian voices they broadcast are those that rally around the Islamic regime’s flag. But these voices do not speak for the majority of Iranians — Iranians like me. And this blind spot has existed for many years.

We, the majority of Iranians, stand against the war and the regime. We stand against the US, Israel and all aggression against innocent civilians, be that in Iran, Palestine or Sudan. But we are made invisible and talked over. The suffering of the Iranian majority, and others at the hands of regimes and foreign powers, needs to be acknowledged.

The Western media ignores us, preferring to promote those who back the monarchy, the regime or Western imperialism. Western regimes use bombs and sanctions to oppress peoples already oppressed by their own regime. In this sense, Western governments are no different to the Islamic regime. If the fight against these evils is to succeed, we must support the invisible majority who reject these powers.

Yet, I have been to anti-war demonstrations in England and, to my horror, witnessed English people waving the Islamic regime’s flag. Have they not heard how this regime treats people in Iran? Do they not know how many people are in prison there simply for expressing dissent or attempting to form a union?

They seem unaware that there are Westerners in Iranian prisons being used as leverage. They seem clueless to the fact that Iran is the world leader for executions per capita, or that there are millions of child workers and homeless children in Iran. Yet, with minimal research, anyone can obtain information about these humanitarian crimes.

Unfortunately, many people view this as a black and white conflict between great powers. They support the “anti-imperialist” power because they are against imperialism. They do not know — or prefer to ignore — that the Islamic regime is ruthlessly capitalist, with many of its leaders having become extremely wealthy by stealing the country’s wealth and investing it privately.

The Western media is uninterested in the voices of Iranians who oppose both the Islamic regime and Western imperialism. Some media outlets even generate support for the regime by amplifying an inaccurate and oversimplified narrative that garners sympathy from anti-imperialists that do not know better. I ask these people to wake up.

Westerners with little knowledge of Iran view the regime as a victim, and not as a product of capitalism that is devouring its civilians in an existential struggle. The regime is not fighting this war for the Iranian people; it is fighting to preserve its system of oppression to protect the financial interests and comforts of a small group of people. The Islamic regime has never sought to meet the Iranian people’s needs. Rather, it has squeezed them so much that there have been countless uprisings during its 47-year reign.

I find it interesting that some Westerners see the former Shah’s regime as oppressive, but not the Islamic regime. Based on their opposition to the US, certain Western intellectuals reject a US-installed monarchy, but support a regime that is strongly pro-Russia and pro-China.

It surprises me that self-described intellectuals could support a regime that oppresses its own people. It surprises me that government-approved chants of “Death to America, Death to Israel” could lead some to support a regime that beats workers for establishing unions and executes activists. I wonder if this support would waver if the same rules were imposed upon these regime supporters.

Their thinking mirrors that of the Western media they so often criticise. When the US explicitly tells its soldiers to go and die in a self-described religious war, there are no repercussions in the Western media. But when a non-white majority religion does the same, it is portrayed differently.

Conversely, these Western intellectuals oppose oppression in the West. But they believe it is okay for Iran to oppress its own people because the regime is pro-Russia and pro-China. They fail to understand that one can oppose imperialism and the Islamic regime.

They choose to ignore the fact that, except for a short period after the people’s revolution in 1979, the censorship that existed under the Shah remained in force under the Islamic regime. That all of the Shah’s prisons quickly filled up again under the Islamic regime. That in some cases, what was once tolerated by the Shah became arrestable offences under the Islamic regime: exercising personal freedoms, immodest clothing and being a woman in public with a man outside marriage would place you in danger.

These Western intellectuals reduce Iranians to objects exploited only under the Shah’s reign. They ignore the voices of workers subjected to lashings by the Islamic regime for wanting a union. Similarly, the numerous executions of activists that go unreported by the Western media. The Islamic regime’s treatment of women is also brushed aside.

So too is the Iranian women’s 47-year fight for their rights. This movement was born just one month after the Islamic regime took power, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed women must cover their hair. My generation was imprisoned, executed and defeated. But Iranian women continue to fight for their basic rights. We want to wear what we like, say what we believe in, love who we want, live freely and not be forced to marry. Why are we women not heard in the West?

Some of these Westerners accuse every uprising in Iran of being pro-US or somehow organised by Western forces. I wonder why we are viewed as so naive as to support another power crushing us in our own country. The truth is that foreign meddling is no excuse for ignoring the voices of those calling for freedom from oppression. It does not negate the genuine cries of people who need bread and freedom. But these people remain pro-regime, no matter how many people are killed or tortured, as I was.

There was foreign meddling during the January uprisings in Iran. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah, called on Iranians to come out into the streets when they were already there calling for change. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israeli agents were “on the ground” with the Iranian protestors. This meddling was the excuse the regime needed to start massacring demonstrators under the charge of being foreign agents. Pahlavi and his US backers knew this, but they still chose to sacrifice countless lives so that they could appear powerful. These regimes help each other while barking at each other's throats.

I also wonder why Westerners who are not pro-Russian equally remain silent on Iran? It seems such people only see systems of power, and not the people exploited by them. It is not seen as a problem if teachers cannot pay their rent or nurses must work overtime to raise a child. They have no knowledge of the women arrested for not wearing “proper” clothing or journalists placed in psychiatric hospitals for saying the “wrong” thing.

This war has worsened the lives of those in Iran significantly. Unemployment is at a record high, people have lost loved ones, and many are suffering from the impact of the bombs. The loss of homes, jobs and loved ones is made worse by the lack of food and destruction of infrastructure. So, we must march against this war — for the people of Iran, not for the regime.

Let us finish all wars being waged on peoples around the world. Let us fight for the universal rights of peoples around the world. The right to a peaceful life means an end to all wars. The war in Iran is clearly illegal. We must demand the arrests of the warmongers, their trials in international courts and, ultimately, their imprisonment.

We also need to call for the sanctions on Iran to be lifted, as it is the people not the regime who suffer their effects. At the same time, we must demand the Islamic regime stop its executions, release political prisoners and provide Internet access for people. Human rights should not be forgotten in these ceasefire talks. The Iranian people have lost so much under the regime and the recent bombings — they too must get something out of these talks.

Nasrin Parvaz is author of the award-winning One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, A Prison Memoir (Victorina Press 2018) and The Secret Letters from X to A (Victorina Press 2018). Her articles have been published in The Guardian, The New Arab, Morning Star, LBC and Huck, among others. Her website is nasrinparvaz.org.