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Movement against mullahcracy -- with patience

By Shahla Samii
November 20, 2002
The Iranian

The students in Iran are continuing to demonstrate, in many cities, but they have learned over the past few years not to rush it.

I would like to add that we in the West should also show restraint in pushing the students and all who are voicing their discontent and frustration in Iran. This will take time; in order for it to succeed.

The movement against the mullahcracy is going about it with patience. They understand that each time violence erupts at demonstrations, they have been squelched with brutal force. None of us in the West can allow ourselves to ask the students or others to put their lives on line - we are quite safe and they are not!

The demonstrators need time and have to keep their cool. The avalanche has started down the mountain, but in order for it to gain more momentum and finally come down with full force and succeed to crush those who have harmed them and the country, they have to remain vigilant and patient.

They now know that reform within this regime, be it with Khatami or any other so-called "reformist" mullah, is not possible. Freedom of speech and human rights through secularism are their goal.

What we can do is spread their voice around the world, as Shahzadeh Reza Pahlavi has been doing, so that Western governments do not bury these grievances from within Iran for their own selfish economic reasons.

We have to alert the media, the human rights groups, the United Nations and the EU governments, and relentlessly bombard them with letters and petitions. We have to support Iranian websites, because they can reach thousands. We have to use the internet for communication, exchange of ideas and show our moral support.

We have to support Iranian satellite TV and radio stations, because the human faces and voices that are carried both ways can bring solace and hear grievances and expose the truth.

We, the Diaspora, have to stop bickering amongst ourselves. We have to woo the disengaged and cynical and unite as one voice with one aim, and that is to help our compatriots who are valiantly struggling to free themselves from hypocritical religious fundamentalists. We owe this to them as to ourselves.



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