O World! Enough hesitation! It’s time to act

Hundreds of newspapers have been shut down in Iran; international reporters have been banned; hundreds of Iranian journalists are in prison; internet has almost been shut down; the sophisticated filtering system has blocked the contact of the Iranian people with the world; the police is massacring people in the streets in broad daylight and then blames the violence on the people themselves; the government is giving out lies after lies; all the minority ethnic and religious groups are suffering from the official oppression; prisoners have been tortured, raped, murdered; the Basij militia shoots unarmed civilians in the streets; students have been expelled from the universities because of protesting against tyranny…

While you, people of the world, are celebrating the New Year by embracing your loved ones with joy, while you dance to the Christmas tunes, the young people in Iran are dancing to the macabre music of the bullets and embrace batons and teargas. While you are hugging each other and wishing a happy new year, mothers in Iran are forbidden to shed tears for their children who were brutally murdered by the police trucks running them over. The people of Iran are alone, they are broken, they are tired, but determined to go on.

Do you think this has nothing to do with you? Do you think that you only need to worry about your domestic affairs? Do you think that saying a few words of condemnation will redeem you from your global responsibility towards human rights? Is this the global citizenship you preach?

This is the most dangerous State in the world. Hesitate in acting and you will see how this government, rooted in lies, will destroy your own children. What do you expect? Do you think that a totalitarian regime that does not show mercy to its own children will have pity on your people? Do you think that this beast will stay calm and watch you? Wrong! Hesitate and see.

The people of Iran have spoken with their torn throat and through the last sparkle of life in Neda’s eyes; they have written their vows with their own blood on the pavements in the streets: They want to be global citizens, they resent terrorism, tyranny, lies, wars, nuclear weapons… and they have died the most brutal deaths for speaking out. Why are you watching silently? Do you think you are safe? Do you think that this cancer will be contained inside the borders or Iran? Do you think that the rotten claw of this grim reaper will not reach you? Wrong. Hesitate and see.

It is time to act. There are people drowning in Iran. Do not believe the lies of the Iranian government. This government that denies all these brutalities is the same that denies the Holocaust, that claims that there are no homosexuals in Iran, that Neda Agha Soltan was killed by CIA, MI6 and BBC, and there is freedom of press in Iran.

How to act? We do not want any violence. This government is falling. Just do not support the government. Do not recognise the current government of Iran. Do not negotiate with them – How can any negotiation with someone who tells nothing but lies and is willing to break any promise, be fruitful? Do not be deceived by their lies. Expel the Iranian ambassadors and diplomats. You will lose nothing and will gain everything by supporting the future of Iran. Hesitate, and you will be run over by the evil machines of this rotten government. Hesitate, and you will be weeping over the graves of your own children.

It is time to act. Hesitate, and when you regret your hesitation, it will be too late.

Arash Hejazi, 30 December 2009