Recent drone attacks on Iran by Israel have proponents for military force calling on the United States to take similar action. They believe that the best way to “free” Iranians is by blowing up Iran. As an Iranian and former refugee, I assure you that war is not the path to freedom.
In 2009, the Iranian regime brutally attacked the Green Movement, which rose after widespread allegations of voter fraud that delivered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office. Regime forces killed many protesters, detained thousands of ordinary citizens and sentenced them to long prison terms. College students were also expelled from school and detained.
I was involved with the Green Movement, and the regime imprisoned me. I was also banned from studying at university for life. Like many other activists, I hate the regime for what it has done to — and continues to do — to the Iranian people. I fled my country to Turkey in 2011.
Back then, I thought only of revenge. I believed that the United States and United Nations’ sanctions against the regime were the only solution that could stop the regime’s brutality and help democratic forces inside Iran. I changed my mind when I saw the impact of sanctions.
When I was in Turkey as a refugee, I knew many whose lives depended on receiving financial support from their families in Iran. In 2012, crushing financial and oil sector sanctions finally hit Iran’s economy, and the value of the Iranian rial dropped harshly. Many Iranian middle-class families lost their purchasing power, and subsequently, many refugees lost financial support from their families inside Iran.
Every day, I observed how refugees’ lives were getting darker and destroyed by the sanctions and, of course, the regime. I saw many refugees were forced to sell themselves to survive. The Iranian middle-class family shrank suddenly and lost its power to pursue democratic changes, which are the class origins of democracy in Iran. While the nuclear deal gave a brief economic reprieve to their plight, the reimposition of sanctions decimated civil society and led to further securitization inside of Iran, with countless human rights defenders imprisoned.
Fast-forward to today, and Iranians are facing a new wave of brutal repression in response to their righteous demands for justice. Following the killing of Mahsa Amini in September, hundreds of people have been killed, and tens of thousands have been detained. More than 18 people have been sentenced to death , and four have been executed the BBC reported on Jan. 18.
At this unprecedented juncture, the Iranian diaspora is in a unique situation. Regrettably, many are enamored by proponents of punitive sanctions and war that may sound good — particularly to those who have suffered at the hands of the Iranian government’s brutality — but that, in practice, will work against the long-term movement for democracy and human rights.
Cutting off negotiations, and turning against voices who have warned against the impact of sanctions on Iranian civil society, is a dangerous path. Many opportunists are exploiting the outrage and desperate need to stop human rights abuses by deriding proponents of peaceful interventions that invest in the Iranian people; they seek to divide our community and shut down any policy proposals short of war.
There are no shortcuts to building the power of the people of Iran at the expense of the authoritarian government of Iran. Regrettably, the U.S. has made many wrong turns because being tough on Iran is more politically popular than supporting the people of Iran.
Only by reducing tensions and easing sanctions that harm the very people who are resisting the regime can the U.S. empower the people of Iran economically and better position them to succeed in their long quest for justice, democracy and human rights.
____
ABOUT THE WRITER
Ali Tarokh is a doctoral candidate in law and policy at Northeastern University and an Iranian American who lives in Chicago.
