Kaveh Shahrooz کاوه شهروز Profile picture
Sep 26, 2022 18 tweets 10 min read Read on X
1/ 🧵THE LIES THEY SOLD THE WEST- Pt. 1

The #IranRevolution has made clear that Iranians despise their regime.

Over the next few days, I'll look at some Iran commentators to assess what they conveyed to Western audiences over the years.

Today: Azadeh Moaveni
#IranLobby Image
2/ Ms. Moaveni is an author & regular commentator on Iran. She teaches journalism at @nyu_journalism and works at @CrisisGroup (I believe until recently under Rob Malley, President Biden's Iran Envoy.)
She has written for prestige publications such as @NewYorker @ @nytimes.
3/ And what does she write for those publications?
In 2016, she used the coveted real estate in the @nytimes op-ed page to attack chess champion @NaziPaiki's boycott of a tournament in Iran in protest against mandatory hijab.
4/ She didn't oppose the boycott on "your action is just but it won't help" grounds.
She argued 2 astonishing things: (i) the hijab is just "a light headscarf & modest outfit"; and (ii) most women wear the hijab by choice.

Is that what you're hearing from Iranian women today?
5/ And what did she write for the @NewYorker?
In an article much beloved by supporters of the regime in the West, she attacked the Trump State Dept (@SecPompeo) for saying “the women of Iran deserve the same freedoms that the men of Iran possess.”
6/ In that article, she continued attackign @SecPompeo for (i) a graph listing the # of women jailed for protesting the hijab (w/ decades in jail); (ii) comparing those women to American suffragettes (aren't they?); and...
7/ ...(iii) promoting regime change (exactly what protesters are now calling for.)
She objected to the promotion of Iranian emigres (i.e., Masih Alinejad, a woman Iran's regime has tried to kidnap/kill more than once), and claimed that Iran's feminists want "peaceful reform."
8/ Her writing comes alongside a trove of tweets celebraing the Iranian regime's achievements on women & mocking the claim that Iran is a gender apartheid state.
9/ Moaveni has minimized the importance of mandatory hijab as an issue (that's right: a regime making the most basic choice for you ranks "maybe tenth")
10/ Lest you think she's a partisan, Moaveni has also attacked the Biden State Dept (one that has accomodated Iran's regime in many way) for condemning the crackdown on women.
11/ Not satisfied with simply supporting Iran's hijab laws & undermining int'l efforts to oppose them, Moaveni connected the issue of the rights of women to ....." why Qasssm [sic] Soleimani", the Iranian terrorist general responsible many Syrian deaths, "was so ddeply admired."
12/ On more than one occasion, Moaveni celebrated that monster and claimed to convey the Iranian public's view that "he was a war hero who fought in the trenches who fought in the trenches to protect them..."
13/ This, incidentally, was one of the first things Iranian protesters did in Kerman (Soleimani's birthplace) when #IranRevolution broke out.

So much for "deep admiration".

14/ Moaveni greatest hits also include:
(i) celebrating the Iranian regime's "poise" in its propaganda (in which protesters in 2018 where painted as part of a US plot to destabilise Iran);..
15/ ...and (ii) "yawn"ing when National Geographic correctly pointed out that Iran's regime kills environmentalists on bogus spying charges -- justifying those deaths basd on the "political context".
16/ As we can clearly see, Iranians on the street want to change their regime. They openly shout 'Death to the Dictator' and 'Death to the Islamic Republic.
But Moaveni continued to portray "regime change" as a bad, imperialist project...
17/...and claimed that those in the Iranian-American community who, for years, have been voicing the Iranian people's desire for a new democratic regime as "a few loud voices" who are amplified by a "sycophantish media."
18/ The message to the American public then, is: you've been lied to for years about what Iranians want.

And the question to the @nytimes, @NewYorker, @CrisisGroup and @nyu_journalism is: what exactly have been your standards & how could Moaveni possibly meet them?
/END

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More from @kshahrooz

Apr 5, 2023
[رشتوی طولانی. امیدوارم بخوانید]

۱/ دیروز نوشتم که سیاستی که برای دادخواهی در فردای پس از پیروزی انقلاب نیاز داریم به جای «نه می‌بخشیم و نه فراموش می‌کنیم» باید «کمیسیون حقیقت همراه با عفو و بخشش» باشد. در پاسخ به سوالات و انتقادات می‌خواهم که درباره‌ی این بیشتر توضیح دهم.
۲/ اول می‌خواهم درباره زندگی‌نامه و پیشینه خودم نکاتی را یادآوری کنم. خانواده من با اعدام‌ و شکنجه و زندان در دهه شصت از هم پاشیده شد. سالهای کودکی‌‌ام به ملاقات تعدادی‌‌ از بستگان شکنجه‌شده‌ام در اوین، گوهردشت و قزل‌حصار گذشت....
۳/ …و در ۲۰ سال گذشته، تلاش کرده‌ام تا با قربانیان و خانواده‌های بازمانده برای جلب توجه جهانی به جنایات رژیم همکاری کنم.
دلیل بازگویی پیشینه‌ام این است که بگویم بیش از هر چیز خواهان محاکمه‌ی کسانی‌ هستم که خانواده‌ام را نابود کردند. کمیته‌چی‌هایی که عزیزانم را دستگیر کردند،…
Read 24 tweets
Dec 13, 2022
🧵۱. من واقعا اطلاع ندارم که اپوزسیون متحد خواهد شد و #ائتلاف_اپوزیسیون شکل خواهد گرفت یا نه. ولی اگر قرار باشد این اتفاق بیفتد قطعا باید برای آن برنامه‌ریزی داشت.
در این رشته توییت به این پرداخته‌ام که چه باید کرد که ائتلاف موثر باشد.
۲. بنظر من اپوزیسیون باید فعالیت‌های پیش روی خود را در دو فاز مجزا ببیند: ۱- فاز انقلاب و ۲- فاز انتقال
۳. امروز به بررسی فاز اول می‌پردازم. ولی باور دارم که تصمیماتی که در فاز انقلاب گرفته می‌شود، به شدت بر فاز انتقال تاثیر خواهد گذاشت. (به عنوان مثال، یک انقلاب خشونت‌آمیز، دوره انتقال متفاوتی در پی خواهد داشت تا انقلابی خشونت پرهیز.
Read 28 tweets
Nov 11, 2022
مدافعان و حامیان رژیم درباره من دروغ می‌گویند تا مانعی بر سر راهم در برملا کردن واقعیت‌شان شوند. تلاش بیهوده‌ای است و جواب نمی‌دهد. Image
واقعیت‌: حسین درخشان خمینی و احمدی نژاد را قهرمانان خود میداند. ImageImage
واقعیت‌: حسین درخشان سپاه پاسداران را نماد وطن پرستی میخواند. Image
Read 6 tweets
Nov 9, 2022
🧵* 1/Why we need an opposition coalition comprised of figures inside & outside Iran, and why we need it urgently: a message to leaders of the opposition, including those reluctant to take up the mantle

[* A translation of the thread below, for friends who requested it ]
2/ Everyone has their reasons for why a coaltion is necessary. I see three reasons for it. But before stating them, let me say that I don't think forming this coalition is a "political" (or, more accurately, "partisan") act. It is a civil act.
3/ I believe that b/c the goal of the coalition isn't to have one's preferred faction win power. It's not a left-wing or right-wing move. Its only purpose is to ensure that this regime is toppled in the most peaceful way possible so that Iranians can choose what comes next.
Read 17 tweets
Nov 8, 2022
🧵۱/ چرا ما به ائتلافی از اپوزیسیون متشکل از چهره‌های داخل و خارج از ایران نیاز داریم و چرا این نیاز فوری و اضطراری است: پیامی برای رهبران اپوزیسیون، بخصوص آنانی که تمایلی به پوشیدن ردای رهبری ندارند.
۲/ هر کس دلایلی برای ضرورت ایجاد ائتلاف در اپوزیسیون دارد. من سه دلیل عمده بر ضرورت چنین ائتلافی می‌بینم. اما پیش از بیان دلایلم، لازم می‌دانم تاکید کنم که به نظر من تشکیل یک‌ جبهه ائتلافی کاری «سیاسی» یا دقیق‌تر بگویم «حزبی» نیست. بلکه یک کار مدنی است.
۳/ دلیل باورم این است که هدف این ائتلاف به قدرت رسیدن حزب مورد نظر شخص نیست. همچنین حرکتی در جهت طیف چپ یا راست سیاسی نیست. تنها هدفش این است که کمک کند رژیم جمهوری اسلامی به صلح‌آمیز‌ترین راه ممکن سقوط کند تا مردم ایران بتوانند برای آینده پس از جمهوری‌اسلامی تصمیم بگیرند.
Read 18 tweets
Oct 25, 2022
1/ A few days ago, I criticized @DokhiFassihian for her long-ago involvement with NIAC. But she's very open with her criticism now 👇 & a trusted friends in the human rights community tells me that she has aince been a solid voice for human rights protections in Iran, including..
2/... with respect to the establishment of the UN special rapporteur on Iran.

It's not my place, and I have no authority, to absolve anyone of anything. But my personal drive in talking about these issues has always been accountability, not vindictiveness. Image
3/ The goal should be to get people of good faith to genuinely recognize why their involvement with the #IranLobby was harmful and to take steps to rectify harms they may have caused.

Based on what I've been told and what I see, Ms. Fassihian meets that test.
Read 4 tweets

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