ساره

Someone recently asked me why I don't post about the internet shutdown in Iran. Here’s what I said: If I thought there was even a 1% chance that my posting about Iran’s internet would convince the Iranian government to turn it back on, I would post about it 1,000 times. But we know that Iran doesn't pay attention to social media posts in English, nor does it care what the citizens of the country bombing it say about human rights. I post based on my theory of change, which is that we should focus our voices and political activism on what we can effect. As Iranian-Americans writing in English, the United States is where we have the most agency. The fight for freedom and democracy Iran is a battle for Iranians inside the country. And we’ve seen that US government pressure doesn’t help them: Decades of US sanctions made them poorer and cut them off from the world. War kills them, destroys their infrastructure, and emboldens their government to crack down more harshly. So I’m focused on how I, as an American, can help Iranians – and that’s by ending this war, lifting the sanctions, and giving them room to breathe and fight for their own future. It also means holding accountable those I have pay taxes to – the US government and its ally Israel. I urge members of the Iranian diaspora who are focusing on the internet or executions inside Iran to consider what effect they are having. When you’re “raising awareness” from inside the country bombing and sanctioning Iran, you might end up actually legitimizing more sanctions and bombs. And that doesn't help Iranians. It literally kills them. Focus on changing US government policy. Because if you can’t even do that, then what on Earth makes you think you change Iranian government policy? What is your theory of change? How does Post A lead to Result Z? More than ever, we need critical thinking about what we are doing and why. Because part of what got us into his mess is that a bunch of people with big platforms were yelling "Trump, do something!" or “Iranians want to get bombed! It's the only way to free them!” And they didn’t stop to ask themselves – how exactly is Trump bombing Iran going to free anyone? Today, 3,300 more Iranians are dead, on top of the thousands killed in January. And they weren’t killed by Iran’s government. They were killed by us. Oh yeah, and the internet that was just coming back on in late February, is now shut down again.