How do Iranians, exiled Iranians or people with Iranian roots living in the West observe the protests in Iran? With a questionnaire we collect voices. This time: Afsoon, a displaced person from Iran.
The protests in Iran have been going on for weeks. With what feelings or thoughts are you currently observing them?
First and foremost, I am extremely impressed by the courage of the Iranians, and at the same time I am very saddened by the fact that it takes courage to do this. After all, the people there are only demanding their human rights. Above all, they want to live their lives self-determined, free, with dignity and equality. I myself am caught between gratitude and powerlessness. Grateful that I was spared this struggle by my parents fleeing with me, powerless because I want to do so much more and contribute, but realize how limited my influence is. Therefore, I try to make a contribution on Instagram, so that especially non-Iranians can better understand what is currently going on in Iran and thus increase the identification with Iranians.
Do you have direct contact with the population in Iran? If so, what do you hear or read there?
My personal contact with the population is very limited; after all, I don't know my family personally. I was born in Iran, but I have never been back on Iranian soil since we fled. So I don't want to come around the corner now and put family members in danger, if necessary, by talking to me about the situation in Iran. But my mother told me that she talked to a friend who is almost 70. She told me that the demonstrations are more for the younger people, who are also better able to run away, but she would walk the streets of Tehran every day and talk to the security forces. In doing so, she probably tries to appease them and talk them into their conscience that "we are all Iran after all and killing each other cannot be the solution." So the form of protest is multifaceted.
How do you assess the current situation? At what stage are the protests?
Unfortunately, I think there will be a lot more deaths. And the longer the West produces only limp words of admonition and no real consequences follow, the regime of injustice will blithely continue. But the mullahs and their henchmen have no other patch of earth on which to continue. They will cling to power with all available means, even if 100,000 people have to die for it. Iranians simply don't want the mullahs anymore, and thus the demand is truly for a change in the regime and the form of government. I am not an expert on revolutions and changes of this magnitude and therefore any prediction would simply be arbitrary. But I think there will be no going back to the before. Either the IR will now have to bludgeon, imprison and execute its population to the point of taking away their last shreds of freedoms, or the regime will fall. And in this polarity, we, the people who live in peace, freedom and democracy, can definitely make a difference. The more focus we put on it, the more our policies derive the appropriate measures from it, the greater the pressure on the government in Iran. If we continue to be so toothless, the likelihood increases that the regime will continue its inhumane and repugnant practices until even the last critical voice has been silenced in one way or another.
Unlike many other major protests and revolutions, this one stems directly from the uprising of women. What makes the feminist revolution so special?
It is a revolution led by women who are simply completely fed up with the day-to-day paternalism, constant humiliation and belittling by the country's political elite. And what is special here is that they are supported by the men. By all those men who are accused of chauvinism here in the West. The reason for this is quite obvious to me. The Iranians have recognized that there can never be a free Iran unless the women are free. So this is not exclusively about demanding women's rights, but they are demanding a secular and free Iran. Both are absolutely out of the question with the mullahs. Accordingly, it is a novelty that women in leadership make such demands and receive such broad support.
In this country - in Germany as well as in other Western countries - the topic is overshadowed in the media by other issues such as the war in Ukraine. What needs to happen to change this?
Ukraine is an equally important topic and should not be overshadowed by the situation in Iran any more than the other way around. I rather wonder why the parallels in both states are not addressed and seen? In both cases it is despotic governments that want to expand and maintain their position of power on the basis of murder and war, Russia against Ukraine, Iran against its own population. And the relationship between Iran and Russia, which has never been as close as it is currently, is not to be misjudged in the process either. They are deliberately destabilizing the world in order to weaken the supremacy of the Western democracies. They do this hand in hand. But why is Russia then portrayed as the great aggressor and punished by politicians, and Iran is not?
In addition to this question, I observe that people from the West tend to sympathize and empathize with Ukrainians* because they are Europeans and look so much more like people in the West. And I am really talking about the appearance. Humanity and empathy should not be based on similarity, but on the common maxim of human rights, dignity and freedom. And these are precisely our values, for which the Iranians are currently risking their lives.
So the West has to accept the reproach of not being able to look past the dark hair and dark eyes to recognize that the majority of Iranians are basically Western and similar to the West in terms of their values and, in part, their behavior and way of thinking.
This is where I would start: to underline that our values and freedoms can only be strengthened if we stand in solidarity with other countries that are thirsty for them and are willing to die for them. We all benefit from this.
What is your prognosis: In which direction will Iran or the uprising develop in the coming months?
The situation, interests and mix of interests is extremely complex and it is quite obvious that international politics is afraid of a change in the current balance. I suspect that the regime will continue to use maximum brutality to put down the protests. But the people of Iran certainly do not want outside interference. Everyone is aware that outside interference has so far only brought greater suffering. The Iranians want to overthrow the regime themselves and alone, for their common goal: a democratic Iran in which religion and state are strictly separated. If the revolution is successful, Iranians need a referendum where they can decide for themselves what kind of government they want to be led by in the future. But until we are ready, there will be a lot of suffering, pain, disappointment, but also hope. I wish especially for the local people, but also for the whole world, that this inhuman system will now finally fail and above all that our German democracy will stand on the right side of history.
Afsoon was born in Tehran in 1984 and fled to Germany with her parents. Since then she has never been back to her country of birth and only knows Iran from her parents' stories. Her main occupation is working on changes in and within organizations. Currently, she observes the developments and the impulse for change in Iran, but from the perspective of a displaced person who feels the feeling of home in relation to Iran for the first time and processes this on Instagram.