Universal values
The power and force
of freedom and democracy
Goli Ameri
June 14, 2005
iranian.com
Statement read at the hearings on Iran held by the U.S. Senate
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe -- the Helsinki
Commission
-- on June
9, 2005. Ameri is U.S. Public Delegate to
the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Download PDF
file.
Also read NIAC's
report from the hearings.
Thank you
very much to the commission for inviting me here today.
I am deeply honored to be with you. I would like to extend special
greetings to Senator Gordon Smith, my home state senator from Oregon,
a long time friend and mentor. Let me also thank the members of
the Iranian-American community who have taken the time to be present
here today.
Let me start out by setting the record straight regarding my
presence at this hearing. I am not a scholar nor an academic. I
have not dedicated my life to studying democratic movements and
I am not an expert on the Iranian civic society. We have experts
here today that can speak more eloquently on the subject of Democracy
and Human Rights in Iran.
I am honored to have the opportunity today to share with you
some of my experiences at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva
as well as the feedback I received from the Iranian-American community
all over the country during my congressional campaign last year.
I believe, the unique insight that I might bring to this hearing,
is an intimate and first hand knowledge of the power and force
of freedom and democracy. Because these two words to immigrants
like myself are not abstract academic or political words. Freedom
and democracy are words that have had a direct impact on my life
and on the lives of hundreds of thousands of other Iranian-Americans
in the last thirty years.
Many Iranian-Americans who are citizens of the United States
today lost their homes, their businesses and everything they’d
worked hard for after the 1979 revolution. We witnessed our parents
displaced and futures put in doubt. Many with only the clothes
on their backs and with the accumulation of a first-class education
gained right here in the United States started their lives in this
great country. America believed in our future and our potential
and it brought out the best in us. We felt right at home here putting
our values of hard work, honesty, and perseverance to work.
Iranian-Americans know that everything they have accomplished,
careers and successes they owe to America and the freedom and democracy
we have experienced here. To quote Governor Schwarzenegger: “It's
a privilege to be born here. It's an honor to become a citizen
here. It's a gift to raise your family here.”
Who are the Iranian Americans?
Iranian Americans are a product of the American dream and they
have seized this dream with a vengeance. They have excelled in
law, medicine, business, education, art, the media and sports.
They serve in our military, law enforcement and the government.
They are the founders, co-founders and senior executives of Fortune
500 and Inc. 500 companies. They are university presidents. They
are the Director of the Mars Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratories, they are the Deputy National Security Advisor and
Deputy Undersecretary of Education, and they are nationally recognized
reporters and news anchors.
The Iranian-American community feels fortunate to have had the
freedom to pursue our interests, to select our vocations, and to
direct our destinies. They are grateful that they’ve been
able to practice their religion whether Muslim, Bahai, Christian,
Jewish, or Zoroastrian faiths. Iranian Americans have taken it
upon themselves to return the faith that America has placed in
us by giving back to our communities and keeping our democracy
vibrant. Iranian-Americans are supporting a variety of schools
and research programs at those exact same universities that gave
them an initial start in life in this country. An Iranian-American
woman entrepreneur recently made a multi-million investment in
the future of public space travel.
I have had the privilege to meet thousands of Iranian-Americans
around the country during my congressional campaign last year.
The mainstream Iranian-American community has not always been vocal
on the topic of Iran. Some have felt that the US congress has not
reached out enough to the community. So please know that the community
is grateful for this hearing and this invitation.
But there are also other reasons why the community has not been
vocal on US policy towards Iran. After losing everything, most
were consumed by rebuilding their lives, raising their families,
building careers and creating jobs. They had little time left for
political involvement.
Many living in the United States have family back in Iran. There
is a fear about speaking up, fear about the negative impact on
relatives or being stopped at the airport and thrown into jail
upon entry into the country.
And then there’s been the grappling with the public image.
How to separate the Iranian government from the Iranian-American
community? You heard I took a precious one minute in this testimony
to tell you about who the Iranian-Americans really are. To show
you that they are model citizens of this country; dedicated to
upholding the constitution and the institutions of this great land
Iranian-Americans love their heritage and the motherland, and
they abhor terrorism and extremism. The community cringed at the
hostage crisis, cringes at and condemns every act of terrorism.
I don’t know of a single Iranian-American who did not shed
tears in agony and rage after the tragedy of 9/11. Then there are
more complex issues at play. Family members of Iranian-Americans,
elderly parents, even those on their deathbeds, are denied visas
because Iran is recognized a terrorist nation. How do you separate
the people from the government? How do you articulate the difference
and the genuine suffering of families to lawmakers at a time when
the fight against terrorism is an important national priority?
It’s a complex subject so often times the Iranian-American
community chooses to be silent or has yet to find a champion to
open the issue for public debate.
Attitude of Iranian-Americans
But please don’t think for a moment that because mainstream
Iranian-Americans are not vocal, they don’t care about what
happens to their motherland and to their compatriots in Iran. In
fact Iranian-Americans feel a great sense of responsibility to
the Iranian people as well as an obligation to the interests of
the United States, a land which they love and are sworn to protect.
In my encounters with thousands of Iranian-Americans in the past
two years, an overwhelming majority want for the people of Iran
to enjoy the same basic freedoms we have enjoyed in this country:
freedom of press, speech, religion, separation of church and state,
the rights of women, right to property, etc. They want for Iran
to be respected and recognized as an example of freedom, democracy,
human rights, rule of law, and economic prosperity in the Middle
East and as a trusted partner in the world community.
They also care deeply about Iran’s sovereignty and the
preservation of its borders and are profoundly concerned about
a military conflict between the United States and Iran. Ultimately
they believe that a free, democratic and prosperous Iran cannot
be a nuclear or any other form of threat to the US or any other
nation.
In my experience, there are three different views on US policy
towards Iran amongst Iranian-Americans. One group believes that
the US needs to take an active role and make regime change an official
US policy. The second group believes that freedom from decades
of oppression can only come from the Iranian people themselves
without any type of outside involvement.
In my travels, the majority of Iranian Americans I met, have
a third more considered way in mind. They speak as concerned CITIZENS
of the United States and independent of political opposition groups
or extremist political doctrines. They care about US’s long
term interest as much as they care for their compatriots in Iran.
Because of these two factors, this group of Iranian-Americans instinctively
understands the requirements and the process for democratization
in a country like Iran. They believe in the people of Iran and
want them empowered to take their destiny in their own hands.
Iranian Americans support the promotion of a civil society in
Iran. However, they want to ascertain that the format of support
does not hurt the long-term security and interests of the United
States as well as not sully the mind-set of the Iranian people
towards the United States.
Because of the country’s strategic and geographic position,
for centuries Iranians have been weary of what is commonly known
as “foreign influences”. In my father and grandfather’s
time, everything that happened in Iran, the good, the bad and the
ugly, was because of the British. The Russians and the French had
their own designs, and the overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh
by the CIA in the 1950s dragged the United States into the fray
as well.
Transatlantic Alliance
This is where the transatlantic alliance becomes so important.
To quote the upcoming Freedom House report which has studied 70
countries where authoritarian systems have collapsed: “The
U.S. and other countries need to increase their focus on and support
for nonviolent means of civic resistance, led by broad based coalitions
that unite mature and skilled civic organizations and a citizenry
that has been awakened to the misrule of their [leaders].” I
must emphasize that Iranian-Americans differentiate between support
for opposition groups and support for civic organizations, with
the former being of zero interest.
Broad-based civic support is
already happening in the Netherlands through the efforts of the
Iranian-Dutch parliamentarian, Ms. Farah Karimi. She passed a bill
in the Dutch parliament which appropriates 30 million Euros to
a credible and professionally-managed Persian language satellite
broadcasting station for defending human rights in Iran. A web
site, iran-emrooz.de has also been established and it publishes
articles and editorials from Iran’s internal civil society
as well as experts outside of Iran on such topics as children’s
rights, prisoner rights, and a review of internal weblogs. We hope
that the EU will not create obstacles for its implementation.
It is extremely important for the United States and Europe to
cooperate closely on supporting a civic society so that 1.
Members of the civic society in Iran will not be punished for accepting
help from the United States, and 2. Fingers will not be pointed
at the United States for meddling in the internal affairs of Iran.
You will hear this from any Iranian-American who has visited Iran
in the past decade. There is no populace in the Middle East that
is more pro-American than Iranians. The Iranian-American community
wants to ascertain that these feelings are long-lasting.
As you already know, I recently had the honor and the privilege
to have been a US public delegate to the human rights commission
in Geneva. I witnessed first hand the fruits of close cooperation
between the EU and the US. We passed the resolution tabled by the
EU condemning Belarus’ human rights record together. We cooperated
on the resolution regarding Sudan and the genocide in Darfur. The
EU helped us in defeating Cuba’s retaliatory resolution on
the situation in Guantanamo. None of this came easily, but it shows
we can work together.
As an immigrant to this great land, I’d
like to say to the Europeans that America is not attempting to
craft the world or Iran in its own political and economic image.
For freedom and democracy are not American values. They are universal
values. They are values that were born and nurtured in France right
on the heels of the end of the war of American independence. The
French Revolution was a powerful force behind ideas and movements
of liberal democracy and popular sovereignty. As Secretary Rice
said in her recent speech to the Community of Democracies, “The
real division in our world is between those states that are committed
to freedom and those who are not.”
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, Once again on behalf
of the Iranian-American community present, I thank you for this
invitation.
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