Four Iranian voices on Iran

This is a series, first published by Norwegian PEN on 17 January 2020, of four Iranian voices on the situation in Iran and the sentiment of the Iranian people following the past few months’ uprisings and USA’s killing of general Qassim Soleimani.   

Iran is on the verge of collapse. But will conditions improve?

Sahar Bayati, journalist, Haugesund

The past few months more than 1500 people have been killed by the regime during demonstrations. Internet was shut down last autumn, but no international media took it seriously. This time, I was optimistic and said out loud that now the world cannot disregard the situation anymore. They cannot kill more people. But from experience, I didn’t let my optimism persist.  

After 41 years of propaganda from the Islamic republic of Iran, the regime has started to run out of ideas, and then the killing of Soleimani became a great opportunity for the regime to make its mark again. They organised demonstrations against the USA and claimed they wanted revenge. Days followed where an American military base was bombed, but no one were killed, and president Trump gave a warning. Then came the lie about what had happened with the Ukrainian airplane before the regime finally admitted that they had in fact shot it down.  

Iran is on the verge of collapse. The regime is unable to govern the country and it struggles to create good relations with the rest of the world. The economic crisis is on its worst. People have lost faith in the government because they lie too much. We are coming to an end, but will anything improve? Will Iran have its democracy? Or will it become a new North-Chorea?

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More support to human rights movements is better than sanctions

By Benyamin Farnam, filmmaker. Oslo.

What is needed to push the Iranian government to accept radical changes is not to impose more sanctions, as more sanctions or military interventions in the Middle East and the threat of a military strike would weaken social and civil protests and movements against the government. Instead of implementing these failed policies, it seems better to help Iran’s social movements and civil society. The pressure of human rights and international law can increase the cost of suppressing the protesters by the Iranian government.

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The people long for a miracle

By Mehdi Mousavi, poet, Lillehammer

Two months ago, after gas prices rose, people in different cities took to the streets and chanted slogans against dictatorship and economic pressures. But the regime isolated the Iranian people by shutting down the Internet and then in less than three days killed more than 1,500 people in different cities and arrested or injured thousands. Two years ago, ten years ago, and twenty years ago, there were nationwide protests in Iran, although each had a different pretext, all of which were a common slogan against the dictatorship and the Islamic Republic regime. But every time the regime fired shots at the people and mass arrests, it ended the protests, and countries around the world did nothing. They condemn these crimes but continue their trade relations with the Iranian regime.

Perhaps – if it was not for the pressure of the regime and the absence of social and political freedoms, Iran would have been one of the world’s best countries to live in. But economic sanctions, rather than pressure on the government, have left many people in trouble and struggling.

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Compares the Iranian regime with cancer: - The tumour must disappear

By Elahe Rahroniya, writer and filmmaker. Bærum

After lying about what had happened to the airplane that was shot down by the Iranian Air Force, many people who has previously dimly accepted the government’s statements, have started to wake up and take to the streets. Many have refused to believe that the regime has evil intentions and capable of taking innocent people’s lives. The know better now. Support from the rest of the world contributed to this. This time Iranians were not alone.

This is a new situation for the Iranian government. The air force, the military and the regime have previously tried to cover up what they are doing. This time they didn’t manage. They don’t have unconditional support among the Iranian population anymore. Unfortunately, we have lost many young, beautiful human beings in the demonstrations that have taken place the past few months.

Read the complete text on Norwegian PEN's webpage