A recent article in the Washington Post focuses on Iranians’ political activities in the Dutch city of Delft. Thomas Erberink the author of the article conveys the impression that Deft, a “dreamly university town” is a “major center” of current Iranian activists. The main point of the article is that young intellectuals who have recently come from Iran believe in gradual reforms, and not a regime change in their homeland. Perhaps for those who live outside Holland the article may succeed giving the above- mentioned impression but for Persian community in this country, Washington Post’s piece is quite shocking and disappointing.
In April 2010 a group of Persian and Dutch protesters occupied parts of Islamic Republic Embassy in The Hague in protest to Iran’s oppressive and violent policies. During this act of protest, the flag of the Islamic Republic was lowered and replaced with a banner bearing an image of Neda, the woman who was shot to death in Tehran’s street protests after the disputed June presidential elections. Later on, presence of Islamic Republic figures in the Netherlands was heavily protested by the Persian-Dutch community. Most recently, head of Iran’s national broadcasting, Ezzatollah Zarghami, cancelled his trip to visit a Dutch television network due to these protests.
In this situation and contrary to such blatant evidence of the desires of the opposition movements, Thomas Erdberink considers Delft, that “dreamly univ…
