Few regimes in the world are more despotic than the current rulers in Iran. Sadly, there is little sign yet that the Iranian population can be freed from it.
New Zealanders got a glimpse of the conditions under which Iranians are living when earlier this year two NZ travellers were detained by the regime, and were only freed after tense negotiations by NZ diplomats.
A deeper insight comes from Green MP Golriz Ghahraman who in an article that appeared in last week’s Guardian Weekly wrote that being an Iranian woman is a heavy birthright.
“It comes with knowing a true, deep, feminism,while also knowing violent oppression at the hand of the government ruling our homeland.
“And for millions of us, it means displacement”.
She goes on to relate how she and her parents were granted political asylum in Aotearoa New Zealand when she was 9 years old. “We were never to return to Iran.Like most Iranian refugees, as long as the Islamic regime remains in power, our fear of persecution persists”.
She says they have missed the births and death of loved ones.“But what the world has learned over the 60+ days of revolution in Iran is that exiled Iranians have never lost our fervent connection with the plight of our people back home.
“I hope that sends a chill down the spine of the Iranian regime”.
Ghahraman believes what is stunning is “that our movement today is global, led by the breathtaking courage of protesters in Iran, and amplified by Iranians around the world.
“None of us have slept a full night in the two months since the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the ‘morality police’ after being arrested under hijab laws. She became a symbol of our pain. Every one of us has known the violence of that regime. Every Iranian knows someone flogged, detained, tortured or killed”.
Ghahraman tells her Guardian readers that last month in faraway NZ, she and others gathered at the Iranian embassy. “We knew the ambassador was inside….Police officers told us the ambassador was inside, reporting a public disturbance. But protest is not illegal in Aotearoa.
“The diaspora movement of Iranians has the power of freedom. We get to criticise our western governments for their inaction on Iranian human rights. In my case, I get to be elected to NZ’s Parliament as the first ever refugee and a Middle Eastern woman. I get to meet with our minister of foreign affairs and our prime minister to outline exactly what we need.
“What we need is to freeze Iranian assets and bank accounts. Outlaw their funding mechanisms, designate them as terrorists known to be responsible for atrocities against our people. That must include leaders of the Revolutionary Guard, who have tortured and killed for 43 years”.
Ghahraman argues that the act of separating so many Iranians from their homeland is one of the worst impacts of this regime.
“But it could also be the vehicle for its downfall”.
For this member of the Point of Order team, who visited Teheran when the current regime was in its first months in office, the message Ghahraman has conveyed so vividly revived memories of an already oppresive regime.
That message should also make New Zealanders cherish their own freedom.
this lady is out of step with Jacinda, who loves ISLAM. AND ALL THE TEACHINGS OF
THE KORAN from Trevor.
LikeLike