Since the start of the women, life, freedom revolution, many politicians from all walks of life came out in ‘solidarity’ with the ‘brave women of Iran’. At the time, this solidarity was appreciated. We were shocked and saddened by a stream of images of dead or dying children and youth in Iran.
Over time though, as we collectively demanded that these nice words of solidarity and photo ops, be backed up by action against the perpetrators of the crimes, it has become apparent that many that we thought would be our natural friends – are in fact, not our friends. They are in fact the friend of our enemy and here I’ll show you why – though I will keep it brief.
This might surprise a number of my friends – many of whom vote for ‘progressive’ parties like Labor (in Australia) and Democrats in the US. It has left me puzzled too. Surely a movement that is fighting to end gender apartheid, treat religious and ethnic groups equally and fight for the rights of the LGBTQI+ community – in the MIDDLE EAST should be welcomed and helped right?! isn’t this what these progressives are espousing day in day out, in tears and on TV every day? isn’t this why they were voted in to begin with?
It seems not. Because when it comes to the action of siding with the Iranian people – they are in fact, siding with the oppressors of the Iranian people.
People inside and Iranians outside Iran are asking governments in the EU, Australia and Canada to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation. Why are we all focussed on this so much? Because it addresses the root cause of a lot of the evil and suffering. Everyone knows this will deal a heavy blow to those in power and precipitate the government’s downfall, which is exactly why world bodies and leaders are actively trying to stop it happening.
There is ample evidence of their terrorist activities – from terrorist acts carried out from South America, to the middle east and Europe and the fact that their remit is to protect the Islamic regime in Iran and not the country (they are not the army).
The IRGC is the Iranian state’s armed force charged with defending Iran’s revolutionary regime. It is separate from Iran’s conventional military force. The IRGC is composed of ground, naval, and air forces, and includes other components—such as an internal security militia (the Basij) and an external operations force, the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).
The IRGC-QF is one of the Iranian regime’s primary organizations responsible for conducting covert lethal activities outside of Iran, including asymmetric and terrorist operations. Iran views terrorism as a tool that it can use to support its efforts to deter and counter its perceived foes, assert leadership over Shia Muslims worldwide, and project power in the Middle East.
The IRGC-QF has plotted and conducted covert operations worldwide, and it provides guidance, training, funding, and weapons to Shia militant partners and proxies in other Middle Eastern countries. These partners and proxies offer the IRGC-QF a measure of deniability and increase its ability to operate around the world. (https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/irgc_fto.html)
The IRGC celebrated the fact that a television station had to move its London Offices because the safety of the journalists could not be guaranteed. Australia has said that it has foiled plots and there are literally dozens of other cases of direct IRGC plots to kill and carry out operations on Western nation’s soil including Europe, the UK, Australia and US.
With all this evidence and the fact that the IRGC is killing, raping, blinding, gassing, maiming, jailing and torturing tens of thousands of innocent Iranian women, men and children – it does baffle one’s mind as to why ‘progressive’ governments that supposedly care about human rights continue to appease this government by working to relieve sanctions and continue to meet and shake hands with their officials.
So with all that in mind, I have been ruminating on the ‘why’. Why is this so and why are they getting away with it? This is big and complex, but has its roots I think in September 11. At that time, after the war on Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been concerted efforts by progressives to embrace Muslims. This is not a bad thing. So lots of work on celebrating women who wear the hijab, on going hard on Israel and removing US presence in the Middle East. Not all of this is bad of course, but the result has been that progressives voters have become conditioned to think that ‘Muslims’ are good and that those that speak out and want to embrace what they see as western values are bad, because all the other stuff is Muslim and middle east culture right? and according to them, we should let them be.
This is why politicians like Jacinda Arden are widely celebrated and treated like rock stars when they wear the hijab as she did. Because hijab is middle eastern and Muslim culture and so it’s good. There is even an Islamophobia register here in Australia. Again, not a bad thing. Nobody should be discriminated against for their religion. But all of this creates an environment where people are afraid to demonstrably support women in Iran to whom the hijab is a symbol of oppression and are fighting for their right not to be forced to wear it. I mean who wants to be on that Islamophobia register? This fact is clearly lost on progressives who fail to actually understand Iranian culture, its people and Islam as a religion. We are not fighting against those that want to practice Islam, but are fighting for our right to choose how to practice or even whether to practice this religion.
I was shocked that this was normalised on TV in Australia through a TV show where non-Muslim and Muslim children do a culture swap. The premise of the show – understanding between differnt people is good, but in one episode a non-Muslim girl goes to the Muslim school wears the hijab (because it’s a compulsory part of the uniform), then comes on saying how okay she was with it after a few days. Watchers of the show then celebrate this cultural awakening and diversity. What the?! Firstly, why are girls forces to wear the hijab at school – even if it is a Muslim school? and why normalise this forced practice? Shameful.
My other take on why progressives are failing the people in Iran also goes back to the US Iraq war where sanctions against Iraq resulted in considerable suffering to the Iraqi people. This has resulted in another false narrative that that is being abused by policy makers to dupe their electorate that all sanctions are bad, so let’s not sanction, because they don’t work – unless they’re on Russia – because they’re bad. Let’s not sanction Iran though – because it is somehow different. What?!
Let me put this straight – no Iranian wants the people of the country to suffer, nor for a war with Iran, but it’s a complete lie to conveniently fabricate to the broader population that listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, or sanctioning government officials will lead to suffering of the Iranian people. The government themselves are doing a fabulous job of driving everyone to poverty – these sanctions are not going to be the thing that does that.
So the blatant hypocrisy of progressives (I mean here the major progressive parties and not the minor ones) means that instead of helping the people of Iran in their fight for freedom, equality, democracy – they are actually actively working to protect the IRGC which pockets billions and uses it to export terrorism and to continue to ruin the lives of many in Iran and overseas. You know that country FIGHTING Russia to which your war economy pumps billions of aid and weapons to, that is bombarded with Iranian drones?
This extends beyond governments to also include international billionaires with reports that George Soros and Koch brothers amongst others holding secret meetings to ram through the nuclear deal which will unlock billions and billions more to Iran. You can 100% know that this money will not go to the betterment of Iranian people or the country.
This influence is clearly working because it looks like the Biden administration is following their demands and not only telling other countries not to list IRGC as terrorists (The UK and US are both pointing the finger at each other and calling the other a liar here), but also looking to do a deal with Iran. They very people they should not be financially propping up.
At the end of the day, a lot of dodgy people are making a lot of money out of the suffering of the Iranian people and that is the sad and honest truth of the matter. So when you next go to vote, really consider whether the party you are voting for is a true friend or foe to human rights, equality and democracy. It’s an uncomfortable truth for many of you, but I’m asking you to look at the actions of parties like the Democrats and Labor and not their rhetoric, because when it comes to Iran, I think they’ve shown their true colours and thrown us all under a bus.
What they don’t realise though is that we will be victorious and we will not forget their actions, nor will we forgive. I however will go forth with a clean conscience having remained true and authentic to my values – their hands though are tainted by the blood of millions.
Some further reading for you: UK Parliament Committee
Women, Life, Freedom 