A must-read post by Maryam Nasr Esfahani, an Iranian feminist philosopher and ethicist, translated by Alireza Doostdar and wonderfully contextualized by Naghmeh Sohrabi. open.substack.com/pub/naghmehs... #Iran
This is among many reasons I find it hard to go to Iran protests
A Tehran resident says civilians expected regime change without widespread destruction, but Israeli airstrikes hitting infrastructure and areas near homes have shattered that hope.
“We weren’t supposed to be bombed,” she said after an explosion near her apartment.
Source: FT
It’s obviously completely insufficient, but this sort of instinct is what actually makes a culture civilized.
Two games in Los Angeles. This is or was a huge deal for the Iranian diaspora.
I had to read Elijah Anderson's "The White Space" for a course I'm teaching and I couldn't help but think of how moderation policies on social media platforms increasingly create "white spaces" through policing such that white comfort becomes the norm of the space.
June was also an undercount. Contrary to any halfhearted ”human shields” argument, the Iranian government doesn’t like admitting how many people it was actually unable and unwilling to protect.
If you launched one of these from a schoolyard, everyone within a few miles would be able to see it, and also we'd likely have at least one US or Israeli drone video of destroying one in a schoolyard or hospital. We don't. Instead, they are in empty desert areas or on roads.
This is a Kheybar Shekan ballistic missile, likely the smallest missile Iran possesses that can reach Israel. It's like 30 feet long and is fired from a 3+ axle truck. When it launches, the rocket motor will scorch and damage an area of hundreds of square feet due to the extreme energy output.
really reminds me of 1990s Serbian propaganda... they besieged cities and shelled them mercilessly in plain sight, but any time a market or school were hit, they'd demand an independent forensic analysis, knowing that was impossible but useful to sow doubt and make it seem like "no one knows." sick
The irony of all of this is that these Zionists replicate protocol of the elders bullshit but with Muslims instead of Jews
And this is who CNN picks as their Iran correspondent. Pathetic
And I still think there is behind the scenes collusion with the U.S.
It’s not going to turn out the way anyone thinks, I think.
I understand and agree with you ☹️ And many Iranians also understand this. It’s a terrible state of affairs.
I truly think if there were a credible alternative within Iran people would jump for it. There are definitely figures who know how hated they are & could ostensibly do something about it.
People in this state have to believe that the Minab attack was staged and that Trump & Netanyahu & Reza are actually on a sort of rescue mission, even if parts of the country are destroyed, because that is truly their last source of hope.
Who can tell them otherwise?
Very depressing to read accounts of people in Iran, beaten down, murdered, and left utterly despondent for years, who truly believe—still—that this war is their only hope.
Just incredibly depressing that the Islamic Republic has brought us to this point.
I hate IRI with every fiber of my being. The IRGC & its Basij arm made my teenage years a nightmare that Margaret Atwood could only imagine.
… but let me tell you that this is a blatant lie. There is no way possible that there are rocket launchers in Iranian hospitals & schools. This is a just lie.
If you have young children or grandchildren, I hope you are shielding them from what's being said and done in our collective name.
Very intense bombing in Tehran and Karaj, a city of about 4mil immediately to the west of Tehran. Several electrical plants were hit and went offline. Widespread electric outage in most of Tehran. Eye-witnesses report explosions never seen before.
Feels so weird that I am an Iranologist and that Iran as a country might no longer exist. I know the culture goes way beyond the nation-state, & that I work on the pre-modern period, but it still is a bit odd to be a specialist of a land that everyone seems to hate & gleefully watch being destroyed…
400-500 years older than Israel, gets destroyed by Israel
Good to see Andy Ogles getting pilloried for his bigotry, but he’s also riding Randy Fine’s coattails. As I’ve been monitoring developments in online Islamophobia over the past ~16 months, there appears to be a disturbing coalescence around caps to “denaturalize and deport” Muslim-Americans
The longer it goes on, the targets will also include the cultural and religious heritages of Iran, as Trump threatened six years ago.
Sanandaj.
The equivalent polling for Americans shows that barely a quarter to around 40% support or approve of this war.
Trump chose this war personally, himself, and it wouldn’t have happened without Israeli influence.
This is a fact. Some on here are too precious about it while people are murdered.
Look at the polls. 80+% of Israelis want this war. Netanyahu visited Trump 7x within a year to make it happen. Lindsey Graham planned his charm offensive on Trump with Israelis during visits to Israel. When Iranians are bombed, the survivors can’t tell the difference between US or Israeli bombs.
It’s not “those sneaky people tricked the US into this war.” The U.S. also chose to join. But it chose to join a war pushed by Israel with Israeli interests in mind, because it sees them as synonymous with American ones for increasingly delusional & racist reasons.
My family lives under bombs & will choke on toxic air for the rest of their lives if they even get the privilege of remaining in their home land. I’m sorry, but yes, this war wouldn’t be fought without Israel. The elected Israeli leader lobbied for this war. It’s popular in Israel. Not in the U.S.
Revisiting this thread as I hear Americans fantasizing about a new Pahlavi monarchy
Iranian journalist Elahe Mohammadi, who broke the news of the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini and went to prison for it, writes:
“It’s been more than a year-and-a-half that I’ve been the target of a sex and gender-based abuse campaign by the monarchists and their cyber army.
They have attacked other Iranians in this way for years—even and especially those who oppose the Islamic Republic.
Please don’t listen to and legitimize our Nazi fascists as the authentic grievances of a country of 90 million in order to feel better about the fact that your country is bombing them.
