Dear Mr. Barak Obama
Mar 22nd, 2009Dear Mr. Barak Obama, the president of the United States of America,
On the first day of the spring, and on the occasion of the Iranian New Year, you spoke “directly to the people and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in an effort to pursue diplomacy to try and resolve “serious differences that have grown over time” between the Islamic Republic and the world community.
The tone of your message in treating the people AND the leaders of Iran as one entity causes serious concerns among the people of Iran and the rest of the world’s peace loving and justice seeking community. With all due respect and good will, we would like to draw your attention to the following in connection with your Nourooz message:
During the last three decades, the people of Iran have been confronting their “Leaders” to achieve basic human rights, justice and dignity; the chance to live, prosper and to lead a normal life rightly deserved by all humans on this earth.
Whilst the leaders of Iran have been busy in plundering the wealth and the natural resources of this great and ancient nation through which a significant portion of their feast has been channelled in aiding and promoting instability in the region by their direct sponsorship of terrorism via Islamist fundamentalist groups such as HAMAS and Hezbollah, the great majority of Iranian population has been enduring hardship under the poverty line!
The most basic human rights of the Iranian people are systematically denied and every day, the freedom loving people of this great nation are executed and persecuted for demanding the right to live as humans.
Different Iranian ethnic natives and non Moslem Iranians are constantly and systematically denied of their basic rights and are brutally repressed.
In order to establish and maintain itself as the ruling power, the Islamic Republic of Iran has executed in excess of 100,000 of its own citizens, merely seeking justice, freedom and equality. Many scholars and thinkers including writers, poets, philosophers, politicians and innovators have been imprisoned, tortured and executed or have been forced to exile. The unfair and discriminatory treatment of the Iranian women who constitute 50% of the Iranian society has been legalised through fundamentalist Islamic laws; another unjust and shameful treatment of its own citizens which for 3 decades has been confronted by many brave and defiant women’s movements.
Mr. Obama, we don’t believe that such rulers with such decadent and perverse track record against its own nation can be regarded as one entity.
The people of Iran or at least the majority of Iranians have long dissociated themselves from their rulers and have been determined to rid themselves of such despotic system which has been casting its horrifying shadow over them for 30 years.
“For nearly three decades relations between our nations have been strained” you added in your speech.
Mr. Obama, the people of Iran have no quarrel with any other people and in fact have been reaching out to the rest of the international community to assist them in their quest to rid themselves of the tyranny of the Islamic Republic and to establish democracy.
The nuclear standoff between the rulers of the Islamic Republic and the rest of the world is also protested by the majority of the peace loving Iranians and is considered as an unnecessary extortion whilst Iran benefits from a massive wealth of natural oil and gas resources.
Mr. Obama, the people of Iran also seek a peaceful resolution to their predicament and would not welcome any military intervention by any State to resolve the nuclear standoff between their rulers, and the rest of the free world. Any military attack by any State would certainly jeopardise their freedom seeking movement against the Islamic Republic in the form of increased repression and violence against the Iranian people.
The people of Iran expect the international community and in particular the United States of America to have realised by now that the rulers of the Islamic Republic are determined to acquire a nuclear arsenal in order to establish themselves as a super power in the Middle East and to expand their fundamentalist Islamic aspirations beyond their borders.
The people of Iran expect the United States of America and other free world States to recognise their unequivocal rights of establishing a secular democracy in Iran. Appeasing the rulers of Iran for commercial and economic gains by the free world’s States, which has been adopted so far, will have grave consequences upon world peace.
The channels of dialogue and negotiations with the rulers of the Islamic Republic have been long tried and have proved to have been exhausted without any resolve.
Your New Year message to the rulers of Iran will once again fall on deaf ears, as the aspirations of the Mullahs is beyond your good will, and their determinism to acquire nuclear bomb.
The only way to halt the nuclear apparatus of the rulers of the Islamic Republic by all the international community would be to cut off ALL the economic and diplomatic relations with the rulers of the Islamic Republic and to side with the people of Iran through the opposition groups’ movement within Iran and abroad.
Your good will to people of Iran and ultimately the international community in order to uphold world peace can only be achieved in this way.
Finally, may I remind you of the rest of “Saadi’s” poem which recites:
“Human beings are members of one whole,
In creation of one essence and one soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.”
With warmest New Year wishes
Dariosh Afshar
Well said.
I think it is important to SEPARATE AND ISOLATE the EVIL LEADERS from the GOOD PEOPLE of Persia, modern day Iran and it’s cultural neighbors. So true for the rest of the world and their leaders. Once we separate the “WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF” the GOOD FROM THE BAD we can reject the bad and save the good for the future of all Humanity.
I like the translation of Saadi’s poem (I am guessing it must be Sayeh who helped on this:
““Human beings are members of one whole,
In creation of one essence and one soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.”
Mr Afshar,
What you said is fair enough , but when you ask Mr Obama to “cut off ALL the economic and diplomatic relations with the rulers of the Islamic Republic”, do you ever think of the Iranian people there, or are you just thinking about us , living happily ever after in the land of freedom. No sanction is going to effect us or our children , so what rights do we have to ask for sanctions specially economic that only and only effects the poor. Do you honestly think that would affect the Mollahs?
You have so far seperated yourself from the Iranian people whom you ‘claim’ to understand, however you are deluded in thinking that YOU know what is best. . You can ask for these when you are prepared to have your child go to bed without food.
Ask for these policies when you go back to Iran and live under Mollahs.
Regards,
Vida
Dear Vida,
Many thanks for your comment. I will try to explain my thoughts and motives behind the sanctions.
The Islamic Republic has ruled in Iran for 30 years. There are already millions of people unjustly living below the poverty line while the rulers themselves are enjoying the fruits of their plunder through trades with western and Eastern governments!! People in Iran have to resort to the direst solutions such as selling parts of their internal organs as well as their dignity to make the ends meet whilst the Islamic Republic has had its trading gates open to both the East and the West for 30 years!! The lifeblood of such tyrant rulers and their means of survival so that they could continue plundering the country and our nation and inflicting more misery upon the people have been while trading with both East and the West and yet, our people have been getting poorer and poorer, and the rulers fatter and fatter and more BRUTAL! So would you agree that even when there are no sanctions, our people would still suffer? They would still send their children to bed on an empty stomach and would still have to beg, borrow or steal to make the ends meet? Isn’t this called misery while the trading doors have been open to the tyrant rulers of Iran?
Whilst I agree with you that sanctions would also hurt the innocent people, but the current inhumane and miserable situation endured by millions of Iranians must also come to an end. The great majority of Iranian people who are already enduring a miserable life under the Islamic Republic regime will have very little to lose for a short period while the Clero-fascist rulers will have ALL their lifeblood cut off!
The Islamic Republic has had 30 years of opportunity to provide a descent life style for its citizens, but as you and I know, the situation in Iran has been getting worse year after year. Unless some radical action is taken by the Iranians themselves, this situation will continue until the whole country would collapse with long term detrimental damages incurred (This is already the case!). Unfortunately, none of us live in an ideal world and sometimes we have to pay a price to gain what we deserve in return.
In my opinion, paying a price in the form of sanctions against a barbaric regime to cut off its lifeblood and to help trigger off a mass movement within Iran to rid itself of it, seems to be a more caring and humanistic view and a better outlook for the rest of the nation than the continuation of destruction of our land by a bunch of medieval fanatics who have got hold of our nation’s wealth and have imposed misery, poverty, and disgrace upon our nation for 30 years. This surely must come to an end. Wouldn’t you agree?
Kind Regards
Dariosh Afshar