The Iran Déjà Vu
Haven't we been here before?
13 years ago myself and some British Iranian and other activists organised an event and educational series called Nowruz No War. Nowruz is the Persian New Year. It marks the first day of spring; a celebration of renewal.
Our words in 2012 are as relevant now as they were then,
EVEN A CURSORY GLANCE of the media would seem to show a situation of an ongoing crisis with Iran and impending war. Young gamers are already playing in virtual invasions of Iran and Iranians are commonly shown as brutal savages. Meanwhile real covert operations are taking place, ordinary Iranians are suffering the consequences of ever more brutal sanctions and politicians talk not so much of whether violence should be used, but rather what kind of violence might be more “useful”: further sanctions, further assassinations, bombing or even full scale invasion.
The assertions of a crisis are vague and often based upon hearsay amplified by political leaders and sensationalist journalism. Unless checked they may become a self-fulfilling prophecy as tensions heat up.
I was reminded of it all this week not only because of Israel's illegal ‘preemptive’ attack on Iran, that killed top ranking members of their military, their nuclear talks negotiator plus countless civilians including scientists and children but because for a few days all the social media accounts I follow that normally post about war crimes and the genocide in Gaza were posting about Iran.
The photographer, Southbank Centre's chair of trustees and prolific poster, Misan Harriman who chronicles protests up and down the country, published a striking set of photos. Striking because they could very well have been taken in 2011/12.
How has nothing changed in 13 years apart from the quality of the photographs? Other than the countries on the placards reading at times, 'Hands off Syria/Lebanon or Somalia, we've been treading water.
As a reminder of that, this week CNN compiled a series of clips, over a thirty year span showing Israeli PM Netanyahu warning that Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon.
His first TV appearances announcing these patent lies is so long ago that it's not even in High def.
Netanyahu has warned of an imminent Iranian nuclear bomb as far back as 1992, then again in 1995, 2002, 2009 and 2012, where he claimed at the United Nations that “it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.”
He didn’t stop there.
In 2012 alongside apocalyptic warnings of being weeks away from the reality of an Iranian nuclear bomb, Netanyahu would get on his twitter account in the evenings and threaten to ‘mow the lawn’ in Gaza. I.e conduct short military operations (indiscriminate bombings of civilians) 'to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy'. Everything bad and nothing good felt possible.
The same people who ignored the warning signs of impending genocide then, who cheer led for the war in Iraq in 2002, and ‘regime’ change in Syria in 2011 are now back to cheer lead for a war on Iran.
The same man wrote these articles twenty-three years apart.
So 'NOWRUZ NO WAR' was an attempt to learn about Iranian culture and its links to our own. To humanise Iranians by bringing together, rappers and poets, showing Iranian films, providing Persian food and live streaming the performances and talks so people in Iran could watch them too.
In 2012 advocacy looked somewhat different than now. Social media wasn't so ubiquitous.
Now all my social media timelines are filling up with photos of Iran's unique architecture, video clips of Iranian hospitality in action and fact after fact after fact to combat misinformation.
For example, while America's literacy rate is 79%, Iran's is 89% and Palestine’s is 98%. The female literacy rate is 99.3%. Over 60% of university graduates in Iran are women as are 70% of STEM graduates. Iran's maternal mortality rate for 2023 was 16.00 deaths per 100,000 births. America's was more than double that in 2024 at 32.9 deaths per 100,000 births.
But why must we only uphold the undoubtedly good parts of their society as synonymous to ours?
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually”
Everyone reading that sentence by the author James Baldwin can relate.
I criticise Britain and its consecutive governments daily.
I protest against government policies and sign petitions all the time. This week I read that a 90-year-old Black woman with dementia was ‘red-dotted’ with a Taser, handcuffed and put in a spit hood. The police officers will face a misconduct hearing.
I and plenty of others were out on the streets in opposition to the Tories’ Rwanda deportations plan, the Nationality and Borders Bill, IPP sentences, deaths in police custody, prisons and psychiatric hospitals. Etc. etc. rinse and repeat.
Last time I was in parliament at a debate, as I left the room I shouted at a Labour minister about their lack of action over Imprisonment for public protection sentences, the largest cohort of prisoners for suicides.
The people who make policy that affect us on the ground are rarely around to see the consequences or take accountability for their decisions.
And I think until this country and others in the West face up to the wreckage of our criminal justice systems, the inequalities that working class and some middle class people are subject to, our politicians and media class will never fully understand or empathise with Iranians, Syrians or anyone else.
Iran has political prisoners.
The UK has political prisoners.
Much is made of the former, little is known about the latter.
Social media or tik tok specifically is filling up with American women proclaiming the need for 'regime' change for the sake of the Iranian women forced to wear hijabs. Bombing them to peace seems to be their preferred method.
However one reason for all the mobilisation and protests in Iran regarding human rights and political misogyny over the years, is because like us, Iran has a vibrant middle class. Do people outside the Middle East know that?
This week four female Iranian political prisoners, currently in Evin Prison who have every right to be furious at their government, issued a letter condemning the Israeli attacks, emphasising that democratic change can only be achieved through social struggle.
I don't like my government. I would like ‘regime change’. I said so only last week.
I've yet to be beaten up by police but I know others who have. None of us, including the Metropolitan police deserve to be nuked into peace though.
Which is looking like what the U.S will have to do if they really do want rid of Iran's nuclear sites.
According to the writer Nate Bear what Western mainstream reporting on 'Iran's nuclear program' never tells you is that Iran is one of the world's biggest producers of radio-pharmaceuticals and their uranium is used to make isotopes for cancer diagnostics and treatments. Iran's nuclear program saves many thousands of lives a year.
On top of that, sanctions against Iran prohibit the import of radio-pharmaceuticals. Without a nuclear program, Iran would not just lose a significant industry, it would find it hard, if not impossible, to treat people with cancer.
‘Zero enrichment is an impossible condition. Iran has always agreed to limit enrichment for these purposes, and for energy, and this was precisely the terms of the agreement the US ripped up in 2018. Israel-US bombed Iran for not agreeing to something that would destroy an industry and end lives. Pure arrogance and cruelty.’
The intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment is that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,”. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said the same thing this week.
Donald Trump backed out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, an agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program, which Iran was abiding by. But really at this point why should they?
Why are UK media/broadcasters seemingly forbidden from saying that Israel has at least 90 nuclear weapons— built in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — and blocks inspections by the IAEA or that the UK trained Israeli forces and sends recon flights from our military base in Cyprus to gather info for the Israelis about Gaza?
The writer Alan Mcleod said last week none of this (Israeli, U.S and Iranian missile strikes) would be happening if Iran really did have nuclear weapons. I tend to agree.
In 2012 we ended our Nowruz No War invitation to people in Iran, the public and Iranian diaspora by saying,
The chance for genuine indigenous progress on human rights and democracy is being weakened by sanctions, threats of war and the spectre of covert operations.
THE WORDS NOW RUZ OR NEW DAY perhaps act as a call to reflection and a rethink of our ideas and prejudices (remember the origin of the word is “pre-judgement” - to judge before one knows).
The last two weeks has revealed that a strike on Iran has been at least 30 years in the making. Viral tik tok videos, poetry and rap aren’t going to cut it. Israel may regret there intentions as they finally pay the price for this plan, if not the genocide in Gaza.
Nonetheless after three decades if not more they have lost the benefit of the doubt and support of much of the world forever.
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Have a great weekend!
Really great writing Samantha. It's so true - I have pics of placards at student rallies I went to in Belfast back in 2004 where the signs held could still be used today.
Thanks for highlighting that recent prison letter too, I wasn't aware of it.