You address the fear that women in Iran have to face. This fear is fueled directly by the regime, the Revolutionary Guards and the repressive apparatus. But what needs to change in the long term for things to change for the better in Iran?
The system, the apparatus, must be weakened from within – and that is exactly what public relations work is aimed at. The Revolutionary Guards, the Basij militias, they’re all human. People with mothers, sisters, aunts and daughters. If things start to shake there, and some reports indicate that, then the regime will shake. And this regime has its back against the wall and is demonstrating a power that it no longer has – a sham legitimacy.
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In fact, the Iranian regime can only really be overthrown from within. Nazanin Boniadi also says in our book: “We never asked you to do it for us, we do it ourselves. But please don’t stab us in the back.” The public simply needs to know how this regime acts and how it treats its own people – so that processes that can bring about destabilization can take place.
How often have we in Europe also heard about the people in Iran that they wanted it that way, that they couldn’t live in democracy, that they couldn’t live in freedom and that they chose it all that way? At the moment we are experiencing just the opposite.
What do other states have to do to support Iran from outside? Would adding the Revolutionary Guards to the list of terrorist organizations be a start?
The other states must be aware that Iran is also dangerous beyond its national borders – you only have to look at the attacks on synagogues. There is sufficient evidence that the Revolutionary Guards belong on the terrorist lists as the executioners of the regime. If it is not enough for Russia to wipe out human lives in Ukraine with drones from Iran, then one wonders what else it takes to take active action against the regime with severe sanctions.
Now that this vast treasure of resistance is not seen and heard is dangerous and ignorant. How can we talk about universal human rights and women’s rights in Europe when we see what is happening there – that people are willing to risk their lives for women’s rights and freedom – and remain silent? In Iran, people are also fighting for our European values – freedom, peace, equality – and we are stabbing them in the back? We want to explain to these people that economic relations with unjust regimes are more important than their lives and freedom? This has to end, it needs a turning point. This turning point, which we are always talking about in Europe and in Germany, means a turning point in Iran policy and also a turning point. This is what the demonstrators in Iran remind us of, who take to the streets every day and resist at home and in everyday life.