Nazila Zahra

Feminist | Opinions are mine but I try to hold them lightly

[Nazila Zahra @NazilaVa]

Life consists of two days, one for you one against you. So when it's for you don't be proud or reckless, and when it's against you be patient, for both days are test for you.

Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

Someone recently asked me why I don't post about the internet shutdown in Iran. Here’s what I said:

If I thought there was even a 1% chance that my posting about Iran’s internet would convince the Iranian government to turn it back on, I would post about it 1,000 times.

But we know that Iran doesn't pay attention to social media posts in English, nor does it care what the citizens of the country bombing it say about human rights.

I post based on my theory of change, which is that we should focus our voices and political activism on what we can effect.

As Iranian-Americans writing in English, the United States is where we have the most agency. The fight for freedom and democracy Iran is a battle for Iranians inside the country.

And we’ve seen that US government pressure doesn’t help them:

Decades of US sanctions made them poorer and cut them off from the world. War kills them, destroys their infrastructure, and emboldens their government to crack down more harshly.

So I’m focused on how I, as an American, can help Iranians – and that’s by ending this war, lifting the sanctions, and giving them room to breathe and fight for their own future.

It also means holding accountable those I have pay taxes to – the US government and its ally Israel.

I urge members of the Iranian diaspora who are focusing on the internet or executions inside Iran to consider what effect they are having. When you’re “raising awareness” from inside the country bombing and sanctioning Iran, you might end up actually legitimizing more sanctions and bombs.

And that doesn't help Iranians. It literally kills them.

Focus on changing US government policy. Because if you can’t even do that, then what on Earth makes you think you change Iranian government policy?

What is your theory of change? How does Post A lead to Result Z?

More than ever, we need critical thinking about what we are doing and why. Because part of what got us into his mess is that a bunch of people with big platforms were yelling "Trump, do something!" or “Iranians want to get bombed! It's the only way to free them!”

And they didn’t stop to ask themselves – how exactly is Trump bombing Iran going to free anyone?

Today, 3,300 more Iranians are dead, on top of the thousands killed in January.

And they weren’t killed by Iran’s government. They were killed by us.

Oh yeah, and the internet that was just coming back on in late February, is now shut down again.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

Israel bombed the Rafie Nia Synagogue in Tehran.

Yes, you read that right. Israel bombed a synagogue. In Iran.

Most Americans probably didn't know that there are ~100 synagogues in Iran, 30 of which are in Tehran.

[Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا @SMohyeddin]

This is a crime against humanity. Israel is diabolical. Bombing the Pasteur Institute in Tehran?!? The vaccines produced here eradicated small pox in the whole of the Middle East.

[MUSAFIR @MusafirNafar]

A BBC investigation confirms it: IDF snipers are systematically targeting and killing Palestinian children, including infants

[kev joon @never_oppressed]

Israel/US have bombed the B1 Bridge in Karaj, a monumental project that connected Tehran with northern regions of the country, including the Caspian Sea. A major transportation artery. We are witnessing war crimes in real time. Again and again and again.

[jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill]

This is a heinous crime by Israel. An extension of its serial killer campaign, hunting and murdering journalists in Gaza. Shame on all Western journalists and news outlets who refuse to condemn these crimes unequivocally.

[United Nations Geneva @UNGeneva]

#Iran

"More than 1,900 people have been killed, including women and children, and at least 20,000 people have been injured.

Approximately 3% of the population is internally displaced.

The humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating." - @ifrc

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Parents of the 168 schoolchildren killed in Minab are struggling to process the scale of the loss, returning each night to keep vigil at their children’s graves.

Drop Site correspondent Mahmoud Aslan reported that families arrive carrying rugs and cushions, food, water, and candles, placing them beside the small, freshly dug graves. They clean the tombstones, tend the surrounding earth, and settle in for the night—keeping a quiet vigil until dawn.

🎥 Video report by @8Sarmad (full report is linked below)

[Amir @AmirAminiMD]

Not a word about the Iranian people. Not a single word about “regime change” or any future of peace and prosperity for Iran.
The real goals have never been clearer: the complete destruction of Iran as a sovereign nation into a failed dysfunctional state that can be hammered by Israel or Saudis once a week like Gaza, Lebanon or Syria.

@PahlaviReza and his delegation of fascist suppositories were never serious people to begin with. But by selling themselves to a horde of genocidal fanatics, declared and tested enemies of international law and human rights, to become marionettes of propaganda and a war, that they had planned for decades, they have committed the greatest betrayal in the history of Iran, to the oldest civilization and country in the world.
Their lies and propaganda have not only caused more suffering and deaths of Iranians in the process of manufacturing consent for this destruction, they have also killed all moderate voices, all previously gained progress and all remaining chances for a peaceful and prosperous Iran.

The only positive outcome of this disaster is that they have all collectively exposed themselves as the malicious lying trash they really are while Iran has revealed itself to the world as the proud, united and fearless nation it has always been.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

The United States has spent $174 billion over 4 years on the war in Ukraine, which Trump and his base strongly opposed.

Trump is now asking Congress for $200bn (!!!) to fund the war with Iran, which Trump officials admit was started for Israel.

Let that sink in.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

They raped a man.
They gang-raped him.
They raped him so brutally that he had to be hospitalized.
Doctors documented the injuries.
The video of the assault was leaked.

Now the rapists are free.

This is not just unlawful and immoral. It is sick!

#ThisIsIsrael

[Vali Nasr @vali_nasr]

I write in @FT that Iran is playing the long game. In war, geography matters as much as technology. Iran commands the entire northern shore of the Gulf, looming large over energy fields on its southern shore and all that passes through its waters. Its Houthi allies are perched at the entrance to the Red Sea and along the passage to the Suez Canal; Iran is thus perfectly positioned to squeeze the global economy from both sides of the Arabian Peninsula. Those in command of Iran today are veterans of asymmetric wars in Iraq and Syria. They are now applying the same strategy to fighting the US on the battlefield of the global economy. Drones, short-range missiles and mines setting tankers and ports on fire can have the same effect IEDs had in Iraq, only with greater impact — disrupting global supply chains and sending oil prices higher.

Iran could sustain its counteroffensive more easily and for far longer. Furthermore, a ceasefire alone will not lift the shadow of risk that Iran has imposed over the Gulf, which is now experiencing its nightmare scenario. That is why Iranian leaders are saying they will not accept a ceasefire until Washington fully grasps the global economic cost of waging this war. Businesses, investors and tourists may not return to the Gulf states if they assume that war could resume again. Unless the US is prepared to invade Iran to remove the Islamic republic’s leaders and then stay there to ensure stability and security, confidence in the Gulf will only return if the US and Iran arrive at a durable ceasefire.

Iran says it will only accept a ceasefire with international guarantees for its sovereignty, which would probably mean a direct role for Russia and China. It may also demand compensation for war damages and a verifiable ceasefire in Lebanon. The US would then have to agree to some form of the nuclear deal it left on the table in Geneva in February and commit to lifting sanctions. Iran’s leaders entered this war with the goal of ensuring it will be the last one. Either it breaks them or radically changes the country’s circumstances. They are betting on surviving long enough and squeezing the global economy hard enough to realise that goal.

Read full article https://t.co/63RNeA8Bza

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

Kharg Island isn't just a military target

It is home to a medieval Portuguese fort, religious tombs, and the ruins of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world

It also is home to 8,000 people and flocks of wild gazelles

This is what Trump just bombed:

[Nima Shirazi @WideAsleepNima]

You lied for this. You begged for this. You got paid for this. The blood of every Iranian baby, brother, sister, daughter, son, father and mother is on your hands, you fucking monster.

[Mehdi (e/λ) @BetterCallMedhi]

La fameuse libération du peuple iranien qui commence par faire respirer à une mégalopole entière le contenu d’un dépôt de carburant en fusion, un joli mix de particules fines ultra toxiques, d’hydrocarbures lourds, de gaz soufrés et azotés qui se baladent directement dans les poumons et dans le sang des gens

pour ceux qui ne le savent pas forcément, sur le moment tu as les yeux qui brûlent, la gorge qui gratte, y’a les enfants qui toussent, les asthmatiques qui finissent aux urgences etc, etc pendant que dehors il tombe une pluie acide qui contamine l’eau, les sols, les cultures, tout ce qui fait la vie quotidienne…

mais le vrai prix se paie ensuite pendant des années avec + de cancers, plus d’AVC, + d’infarctus, + de maladies chroniques…bref c’est une génération entière qui sera marquée dans son corps

elle est pas belle l’instauration de la démocratie ???

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

Though it is day, the sun cannot be seen in Tehran today because of all the smoke following the US and Israel bombing Tehran's oil refineries. People on the ground describe it as armageddon.

History will not forgive Reza Pahlavi, Masih Alinejad, Nazanin Boniadi, and all other "leaders" who tricked Iranians into thinking this war would set them free.

[Mehdi (e/λ) @BetterCallMedhi]

les enfants de la bourgeoisie iranienne vassalisée à l'occident dont les parents ont fui l'Iran en 79 avec les coffres pleins, installés entre Los Angeles et le 16ème arrondissement depuis 45 ans, qui n'ont jamais remis les pieds en Iran, qui ne parlent parfois même plus farsi et qui manifestent à Paris pour demander aux américains et aux israéliens de bombarder le pays que leurs grands parents ont quitté

à peine une centaine de personnes sur le pavé parisien avec des pancartes «France 1944, Iran 2026 »comme si les frappes américaines et israéliennes étaient un débarquement de libération, comme si les B-52 c'était De Gaulle, comme si raser les infrastructures d'un pays de 90 millions d'habitants c'était la même chose que libérer la France du nazisme, le niveau de déconnexion est clinique

et BFM couvre ça comme un événement politique sérieux mdr à peine 100 personnes même pas de quoi remplir un starbucks et c'est en bandeau sur la première chaîne info de France, pendant ce temps des millions d'iraniens sous les bombes n'ont aucun micro tendu, aucune caméra braquée, aucun journaliste pour leur demander ce qu'ils pensent du fait qu'on bombarde leur pays pour les soi disant libérer

c'est le même playbook que Guaidó au Venezuela, tu prends un héritier exilé sans aucune base populaire dans son propre pays, tu le promènes sur les plateaux occidentaux, tu lui donnes un micro et une légitimité fabriquée et tu espères que ça suffira à justifier un changement de régime piloté depuis l'extérieur, ça n'a jamais marché nulle part et ça ne marchera pas en Iran

[Mohammad Ali Shabani @mashabani]

Nazi Abad is a working class neighborhood that was a center of anti-government protests in January.

Trump is apparently "sending help" as promised.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

Israel is waging war after war against the people of an entire region. The US is its partner in crime.
I implore Member States who still have some decency to stop this. Together we can!

[Emma 🇨🇭 @EmmaRobinsonss]

Cette dame a entièrement raison. La déshumanisation des vies iraniennes, palestiniennes, libanaises ou syriennes.. dans les médias français est une honte.
Dès qu’il s’agit des victimes de l’État d’Israël, ces êtres humains disparaissent : ils n’ont plus de visages, plus d’histoires, seulement des chiffres et des « dommages collatéraux ».
Cette hiérarchisation des vies, entretenue par certains médias, restera une tache indélébile sur le journalisme français.