To be a Democrat or a Republican in the US is neither good, nor bad. It is a choice that shouldn’t bring either shame or honor either way. All those who are qualified to vote can either pick a party or register as independent.
It is very easy to change parties and it doesn’t lead to ethical or political troubles for anyone. The current US President Donald Trump was an independent until 1999, registered as a Democrat in 2001 and in 2009 changed over to the Republicans.
The other presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg, was an active member of the Democratic Party for decades. In 2001 he changed to independent. In 2018, because he wanted to run in 2020, he changed back to Democrats.
You can be a Democrat and believe in some of the principles of the Republicans; you can also be a moderate Republican and be closer to Democrats on some points. The beauty and credibility of the US constitution comes from the fact that you are able to express yourself and enjoy individual, religious, ethnic and racial freedoms. Belonging to a party, group, race or religion doesn’t limit these freedoms. So long as one is not an active member of a political party or doesn’t register in a party organization or attend a convention, tendency toward a party doesn’t give you any legal identity.
We Iranians who have come to the US in the past few decades are free in expressing our political tendencies in a society that is racially, linguistically and religiously diverse.
What takes place in the US today is a demonstration related to racism followed by the killing of a black man by the Minneapolis police. It has nothing to do with Trump’s presidency or any of the two main parties.
The American society, with a population of over 300 million people, boasts a racial, religious and ethnic diversity that makes it one of the most diverse in the world. The black people in this country have come a long way to achieve equal citizenship rights and freedoms. The election of Barack Obama was a turning point in the struggle for equal rights.
Those who consider the recent demonstrations in America a violation of democracy or who consider countering of the looters a violation of human rights and individual rights are either biased or are intentionally lying.
Iran’s human rights record is one of the worst in the world.
Those outside Iran who help spread around the Islamic Republic’s propaganda are victims of the same massive human rights violation that bans them from entering their own country or even conducting transactions there.
Those of us who have migrated to the West in the last few decades, escaping the tyranny and oppression brought along by the rulers of the Islamic Republic have forgotten all that the second country has given us. Iranians are a successful migrant community in the United States. They have used the opportunities given to them and today Iranian-Americans range from many successful businesspeople to scientists.
It is good for us to worry about the rights of other minorities such as Black Americans. But should we also worry for looting, chaos and destruction of property? What about peaceful demonstration in support of citizenship rights?
In the US, 40 million have lost jobs due to coronavirus. Mostly from low-wage minorities and people with low skills and education. As predicted by experts, the three-months quarantine period has had an adverse mental effect on people, including Americans. To loot, burn and destruct private property is not to demonstrate. The constitution stipulates punishment for such actions. The media of the far left invert the truth, blow fire on the rage of the people and incite them.
Should I remind you of the suppression and killing of protesters in Iran from 1999 protests to the ones in the last few months. Has justice been done for the victims of the 2009 or 2019 protests in Iran?
Neda Agha Soltan was killed on June 20, 2009 by Basiji forces (according to eye-witnesses.) According to the Time magazine, the moment of Neda’s passing is one of the most watched moments` of death of a human in history. Has justice been done for Neda and dozens of others killed in peaceful protests following the disputed 2009 elections?
No country can enforce justice 100 percent. But in America the voice of dissent is not silenced. No one is tried or arrested because they insult the president or the government. Opponents are not tortured or tried on fabricated charges.
In my opinion, what has dashed the relationship between the current US president with the big media bosses is his new ways in dealing with mainstream media who are too proud and set in their own ways. We saw this in a White House press conference where, instead of going to high-name reporters of big media, he went to a reporter of Rudaw named Majid. He didn’t know his name and called him Mr. Kurd. This was an important step in valuing small media who lack fame.
In the US more than 110 people have received 1,200 dollars in their bank accounts. Twenty million more have received the same amount in a cheque. What other country has done this for the unemployed? The families of those New York subway staff who lost their lives due to coronavirus have received half a million dollars in compensation. What have people in Iran received?
In Mashhad, they did a candlelight vigil for George Floyd. Do they know he was a porn star? The Shiite Ayatollahs and Mr. Khamenei speak of Floyd’s citizenship rights being violated. In Iran, he could have been executed and buried in an unmarked grave long ago.
According to polls, 43 percent of people in Tehran oppose Afghan citizens living the capital and demand segregation of their schools. If this is not open racism, what is?
In the United States, following three to five years of permanent residency you become a citizen and you can even start working for the goals of the Islamic Republic here (for those still belonging to political groups inside Iran.) But the people of Afghanistan, fleeing war and Taliban oppression, come to Iran, are born there, grow up there and still lack Iranian citizenship. Many Afghans grew up in Iran and now work for the Persian-language media abroad. They speak Tehran’s Persian dialect as well as those of us from Tehran. But they still lack Iranian citizenship.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not a journalist close to the Republicans. I am a Democrat who can see the chaos-making Democrats are ready to invert the truth just because they are anti-Trump. Should I also be called a Republican-leaning journalist?
Camelia Entekhabifard is editor-in-chief of the Independent Persian
*This article originally written for the Independent Persian.
