You Have Scared Us. Now What?‎

Nooshabeh Amiri
Nooshabeh Amiri

These days, the cities of our country have once again become the playing field for the ‎armed masked military-security mafia groupes. The streets are the scenes of show force ‎and a violent band whose judges - the likes of Mortezavi - have a criminal record; and ‎whose military commanders pray to God while intoxicated behind naked women. ‎‎“Operation Peace and Security” is a sign that God does not leave those who criticize the ‎ninth administration, as proclaimed by Iran’s supreme leader Mr. Khamenei.‎

In the world, however, there is another “operation” going on. An operation in the ‎presence of the leaders of 20 powerful countries of the world: a number of always-‎powerful states, and a group of ascending powers. They are working to protect the “peace ‎and security” of the world rather than wearing masks they display their names openly: ‎Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Turkey, Argentine, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, ‎South Africa, etc.‎

In our country, however, those who claim to be the leader of the Muslim world and ‎managing the affairs of the Earth, are not worried about Iran being left behind the ‎powerful. To them, power means crackdown of young women whose strands of hair slip ‎out of their headscarf. To them, power means pointing the muzzle of a gun at those ‎whose hearts beat for their country. A student who asks a security person, “What was the ‎killing of 1988 all about? A woman who says, “Iranian women can no longer be returned ‎to the home”. A worker who demands his bread. A young artist who asks Khatami to ‎return to the political scene and gets her response in the form of a burned down cinema ‎theater (Jomhurie cinema was burnt down last week; it belonged to actress Leyla Foruhar ‎and Ali Mosafa). Shahrvand Emrouz publication who tried in every possible way to ‎remain within the confines of the red lines … ‎

So while during these last thirty years of Islamic rule in Iran many countries left ‎underdevelopment behind and carved a place for themselves on the economic and ‎political expressway, our Iran lost an opportunity every day because of mismanagement ‎by men with forged college degrees. Today, the pockets of known unwise men have been ‎filled, while the country bank accounts have been emptied. Saudi Arabia is referred to by ‎Malek Abdullah and has been elevated to the top, while Iran is referred to by Mahmud ‎Ahmadinejad whose name brings laughter to the populace and the elite because of his ‎letter writings and school-level speeches. Turkey is now a party in these negotiations, ‎while Iran is the object of threats. India says what should be done, what can we do, while ‎Iran is seen as a culprit and uranium enrichment is called to a stop. Brazil is slated to ‎participate in monitoring international bank, while the governor of Iran’s Central Bank is ‎not even allowed to participate in cabinet talks. And the story goes on.‎

These men have put their heads under the snow and are thus missing what is going on ‎around the world. And using arms, prisons, Mortezavis and generals they crush and ‎oppress. They do these things one day in the name of “Peace and Security”, while another ‎by marching sting men wearing coffins, and still another in the name of God or his ‎representative on Earth.‎

But the irony of the affair is that these men know well that this story is at its end. They ‎see the gaps in the house, the cracked ceiling. They know that if this was not the case, the ‎sons of the clerics (in Iran known as the Aghazadehs) and wives of the Hajis would not ‎be in a race to buy residence cards in the powerful states of the world; low level advisors ‎in America and Europe would not be, on their pleas, sending them to the palaces and ‎decision-making forums; they would not be buying armed men in some corners of the ‎world; they would not be enlarging the prisons or masking the prison guards. They know ‎these things, but what they do not know is that after the state of fear, what are they going ‎to do? After forcing every intellectual, every politician, every economist, every student, ‎every artist, etc to house, what are they going to do? What will they scare the empty ‎treasury of? With what weapons are they going to revive bankrupt factories? With what ‎power and tool are they going to fill the hungry stomachs of people? Through what order ‎are they going to provide the shortage of power and gas? How are they going to warm up ‎the cold days of winter?‎

Yes, we are scared. But what are you going to do now?‎