Nostr Web Client

“A #keffiyeh in a broken frame. Some resistances are true, some are staged. The frame can shatter, but the cloth still hangs.”

During my stay in Istanbul for the Bitcoin++ conference, I stayed with a Palestinian friend. He welcomed me with such kindness that I’ll never forget — a reminder that our shared humanity is stronger than borders and politics.

But in many conversations, I noticed something troubling. People from around the world praised the Iranian regime, calling it the “only country resisting the US and Israel.” Their anger at Israel’s brutality in Gaza was raw and justified — the killing of children is unbearable.

Yet as an Iranian, I must tell another truth: this so-called “resistance” is a lie. The Iranian regime is not a hero standing against oppression — it is itself one of the greatest oppressors in our region. Inside Iran, it kills protesters, executes children, jails women for showing hair, silences every free voice, and robs generations of a future.

People outside often romanticize Iran as a symbol of defiance. But they don’t live under it. They don’t feel the fear, the censorship, the prisons, or the graves of our brightest youth. They mistake dictatorship for dignity.

Yes — Israel’s crimes in Gaza are real. But so are Iran’s crimes against its own people. And if we truly care about justice, we cannot choose which lives matter. The children of Gaza deserve life. So do the children of Iran, Ukraine, and Afghanistan.

True solidarity is not selective. It doesn’t excuse one regime’s brutality because it opposes another. Real resistance is about freedom and dignity for all people.

So please — don’t romanticize the regime that has turned Iranians into prisoners in their own land. Stand with the people, not the dictators. Because if our solidarity is selective, then it is not solidarity at all.

#free_iran

#free_palestine

GLACA 4mo ago

Genocide committed by Israel in Gaza and 70 years of ethnic cleansing is definitely a different thing.

I am afraid that if not Muslim regime Iran would be already under brutal US and Israeli boots. No doubt about that in my opinion. It is not ideal but it is a shield that Persia uses now...there is no other. Overthrow current regime and you'll have LGBT 🏳️‍🌈 flag in Teheran and that is GAME OVER.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Parham 𓃬☼₿ 4mo ago

I hear you — and I share the anger at Israel’s decades of crimes in Gaza and Palestine. That truth can’t be denied. And yes, foreign intervention in the Middle East has left scars everywhere. Nobody in Iran wants to live under the boots of the US or Israel.

But I also need to say this: the idea that the Iranian regime is a “shield” protecting Persia is a dangerous illusion. A shield defends life — this regime takes it. It executes children, jails women, silences poets, and drains the soul of our society. That’s not protection — that’s suffocation.

Iran is not surviving because of the regime. Iran is surviving in spite of it. Our poetry, our art, our joy, our culture — these are older and stronger than any theocracy or occupation. That is the true shield of Persia: the people and their spirit, not the men with guns and prisons.

As for the fear of Tehran flying a rainbow flag — let’s be honest: Iranians are not fighting and dying for foreign symbols. They are fighting for the right to live, love, dance, think, and speak without fear. Our future doesn’t have to be a copy of the West or a prison of the East. It can be our own.

The regime wants the world to believe it’s the “only alternative to foreign domination.” That’s the lie it survives on. But we Iranians know: freedom doesn’t mean trading one master for another. It means finally being free to define our own destiny.