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Dina Afkhampour

Hur nåddes du av nyheten om situationen i Iran?

I heard about Mahsa Jina's killing online -- a scholar friend posted about it and I am ashamed to admit that I immediately had a very cynical response. I thought, 'just another victim of the regime.' We have been desensitized to such an extent that we no longer have normal, humane responses to these deaths. Then something burst. Quite literally, it felt like the center could no longer hold and everything collapsed all at once. WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE. Ever since, I have often thought about Mahsa Jina dying alone. She was a tourist in Tehran. That was not her city. She was a guest. And if you know any Iranians, you know that we are very hospitable people. There is nothing we will not do for our guests. It hurts me to think of Mahsa Jina alone in a place that was not familiar to her. That she was treated with so much contempt and that she probably thought no one would care enough about her. But look now, her name has spread the fire of justice around the globe. We cannot forget her and we can never go back to being cynical in the Diaspora.

Hur får du information om utvecklingen i Iran och har du tankar om rapporteringen?

I get most of my information from non traditional sources including visual edits on social media. I hate the reporting all together. Its been terrible. The mainstream outlets have been extremely slow to report and when they do, its nothing in-depth. I appreciate the difficulties of reporting from the inside of Iran or getting fresh, on the ground accounts. But even the analysis has been wrong or inaccurate. Unfortunately, Iranians both inside and out of Iran are not immune to conspiracy theories. We have trust issues. So there has been just as much time spent discrediting analysts, journalists and outlets as there has been actually reporting the news. I call this 'noise.' The noise is just too much and at some point you begin to treat all items of news as carrying the same weight because it just takes too much effort to analyze the truthfulness or credibility of each one. Its a real mish-mash of reporting out there. From a visual point of view, the videos or snippets coming out daily are very frequently filmed secretly, from a distance so that as Diaspora, you feel removed from everything even more. At least I do. The videos make me feel desperate and helpless. I can only rely on telepathic communication. That each person feels my heart is connected to theirs somehow and that every victory they feel or every loss is not equally felt here but that it reverberates. And more deeply, if given the chance, I will share their fates. I define myself as part of their problems so that I can be a part of some solutions. I feel responsible. As someone who was born in Iran, speaks Persian fluently and shares in the cultural traditions but has never really lived there, I am an inbetweener -- I cannot kid myself that I am one of them. And yet I fully am. It is my homeland too and my fate is bound up in every one of theirs. I hope they know that we, in the diaspora, are partners to them in their joys and their sorrows.

Vad tänker du om vad som händer i Iran?

Its been three years of global challenges and tests. A pandemic, wars, political upheavals and personal tragedies. From a global perspective, that there is a sense of being fed up with the way things are and have been, makes sense. For Iranians, what is happening now is RADICAL. But it is not MARGINAL. It is radical to stand up to deep patriarchy that is re-enforced by 'religion'. You have to understand that unlike Swedish culture and society, Iranian culture is built on deference to elders and deference to men. Like other Asian cultures, we respect older people even if they are just a few years older than us. So to go against these mullahs who have held us at the neck with fear and intimidation is HUGE. It means much more than you can possibly perceive as someone who has grown up in a western,secular, liberal democracy of some kind. The natural harshness of life has been removed for you. Swedes, especially Swedish women not only enjoy equality but they expect it. I would say that Gen Z in Sweden doesnt even know what a world without gender equity looks like. Thats why they can afford to overwhelmingly vote for M/SD. Iranian women and girls are highly educated and self confident so they have an inherent inner worth and value. Now they are fighting for hard won rights. In Sweden, you have your rights, but I often hear about 'duktiga flicka syndrom' or women who suffer from really low self esteem issues. Here, the battles are all in the inner lives. On some level, the Islamic Republic created the perfect conditions for this revolution. They had a successful family planning campaign which insured that over 60% of the 80 million population is under 30. They separated the sexes and allowed women to have access to higher education which almost everybody completes. They were dedicated to violently forcing religion on people which secured a base. I also am very hopeful that once this regime is destabilized and their hegemony in the region is destroyed, their dark alliances (with Russia, Hezbollah, Assad in Syria) will disintegrate as well. This is a new opportunity for Iran to be a good faith actor.

Påverkas du och dina närmaste av det som sker i Iran? Hur?

Yes, very much. We escaped from Iran in 1979 because of religious persecution -- we are Baha'is. When we left, we had no hopes of ever going back. It has been impossible to have hopes for change until now! We are very worried about members of the Baha'i community who have historically been systematically persecuted, harassed and excluded from society from birth into old age. We know that there are many Baha'is imprisoned at the moment and there is very little communication about their wellbeing.
What is happening now also brings up a lot of emotional and psychological issues -- we buried so much in 1979 that we have not revisited. My parents never spoke about their experiences before or after the revolution and it is a completely new phenomenon to publicly identify as a refugee or immigrant. These were things that were hid. I think this is because my parents never wanted to be viewed as 'less than' so there was a push to integrate.

Har du tankar om vad som hänt historiskt i Iran?

There is no country in the world that has more of a public disconnect to its private self than Iran. Meaning, we are truly family loving, art loving, fun loving, food loving, warm and hospitable people. But you dont see that on the face of it -- the Islamic Republic is the least representative of Iranians. I find it revealing and bone chilling that when Khomeini was on the Air France flight back to Iran from a near fifteen year exile, after successfully overthrowing the Shah, an American journalist asked him how he felt finally being able to go back home. His reply? 'Hichi' -- 'I feel nothing'. He reiterates it several times, face devoid of emotion, making no eye contact with the journalist. If you ask a Khomeini-ist, they would claim his response demonstrates a staid mastery over one's emotions, a sort of spiritual maturity -- non plussed about the material world. However to me it was a sign of deception. Plotting a regime of terror requires giving nothing away, keeping your cards close. And I believe that Khomeini and the system he created was fundamentally hostile and had real contempt for Iranian people, particularly women. He hated his people and felt nothing for the country, which is why this regime has used the Iranian economy as their own bankomat. Extract, extract, extract. And what did they give? Poverty, oppression, a serious break down of societal norms, degraded culture. When their own children and grandchildren are sent to live in the West, you know that they hate the country and its people.

Hur ser du på framtiden kopplat till det som händer i Iran?

As a Baha'i I see the future of Iran and its people as resplendant, as it says in our writings: 'Iran shall become a focal centre of divine splendours. Her darksome soil will become luminous and her land will shine resplendant.' I have no doubt that what is happening in Iran right now will set an example for the rest of the world in terms of human rights, human dignity, gender equity and rule of law.

Beskriv bilden, videon eller ljudklippet:

The only image I have of Iran is this picture of my parents on their engagement, a year before I was born. I have no pictures of myself as a baby because my parents were forced to leave everything personal behind.

Upphovsperson för bild, film eller ljudklipp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL_97MHbnsc I want to add this link as well.

Licens för mediafil

CC BY-SA 4.0

Födelseår:

1976

Kön:

Female

Bostadsort (ange gärna stadsdel):

Stockholm

Namn (hur du vill bli presenterad om din berättelse delas på Stockholms Kvinnohistoriskas hemsida eller sociala medier):

Dina Afkhampour

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