Sheda Vasseghi: 2006 World Cup

This is from Sheda Vasseghi. A short reply from me follows.

Iranians in Exile Support the Islamic Republic's Flag?

An American friend, who thought majority of Iranians especially those living in exile were against the Islamic Republic regime (IRI), recently posed an interesting question to me.

He just returned from Europe after attending some of the World Cup events. He asked why was it that hundreds of exiled Iranians in Europe, who themselves ran away from the theocratic Islamo-fascist regime of the IRI, were carrying the IRI flag? Indeed it was a fair and logical question. The only answer I could come up with was that Iranians are in this horrific situation today because they do not think about their actions and the consequences of such actions. Blindly following the leadership of a backwards radical mullah in 1979 put them in the situation they are today and 27 years later, they still haven't figured out that they should not drape themselves with the flag of a regime that has killed and tortured tens of thousands of Iranians. The Shir-o-khorsheed (lion & sun) flag is the true Iranian flag; not the one created by the IRI that forced hundreds of thousands of Iranians to exile.
When will we learn what is right and wrong? How do we answer to those who are suffering in Iran while we live in comfort and freedom abroad? Do we not have a responsibility to those left behind? Shouldn't we have taken this opportunity to tell the Iranian people that we are for their freedom and will fight for it from afar?

The first step towards this freedom is to defy the Islamo-fascist flag.

I welcome an explanation or rationalization for supporting the flag of IRI under any circumstance.

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Dear Sheda,

There are two simple explanations as to why they waved the Islamic flag. One, because they support the regime, and two, because they are ignorant, either of the meaning of the flag they wave, or of the significance and consequences of the act. Had your friend not been misled into believing all self-described Iranians abroad as “exiles”, he would still have been distressed, but would have had a more clear understanding of these circumstances. The term “exile”, with its political overtones and as a category, does not lend itself to IR supporters, of which there are tens of thousands abroad, or to those ignorant of the disaster that has befallen Iran.

Dear Sheda, a character such as Manoke Khodabakhshian, having raved weekly and daily against the Islamic Republic (albeit praises of Reza Aslan, Azadeh Moaveni, etc. mixed in!) joins a panel of reporters in Tapesh TV and sits before the Islamic flag! Our so-called “Iranian” websites recycle articles by the sworn enemies of Iran and display them as headline! They meet in London to form a unified opposition front, but invite those who not only gave us the revolution, but who subsequently supported the IR!

IR supporters merely do their duty, but with “non-IR supporters” behaving in this manner, what else can one expect of the ignorant? To shed one’s state of ignorance one needs information. Where are they to get that information?

Lastly, and this may seem as a contradiction of what I’ve just said, it was natural to wave the Islamic flag in support of the “Iranian” team. The team was, after all, the team of the Islamic Republic. Iranians should have boycotted the games. And many did, despite the disinformation.