Open letter in Condemnation of ‘Opportunistic Activism’

By Iranian scholars and activists

This year on the International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity with women’s rights and other social activists in Iran, while rejecting the abduction of their struggles by “opportunist activism.” We condemn U.S. interventionist policies against Iran that instrumentalize Iranian women’s demands for equality as an excuse to escalate regime change efforts and to implement sanctions that cause misery for the Iranian people, women and men alike.

Many of us are political dissidents, who have paid dearly for our fight for democracy and the freedom of association and organization for women, students, workers, and minority groups in Iran. While reaffirming our opposition towards the ongoing human rights violations by the ruling regime in Iran, we principally stand against any form of staged agenda that appropriates our voices to justify the imposition of further sanctions or the use of any military force on Iran.

Since the early days of the current administration in the White House, a disconcerting coalitionhas shaped between long-time American warmongers (e.g. National Security Advisor J. Bolton and Secretary of State M. Pompeo) on the one side, and some renowned Iranian groups and “activists,” e.g. the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), Iranian Liberal Students and Graduates, and the My Stealthy Freedoms Campaign on the other side. The U.S. government supports the activities of these groups, directly and indirectly, through such media platforms as the State Department-funded Voice Of America (VOA) Persian, or the Tavaana Initiative, funded partially by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED). These organizations use media platforms to depict a sympathetic stance towards oppressed groups in Iran, while at the same time advocate for hostile U.S. policies towards Iran, significantly worsening the conditions for marginalized groups in Iran, including women. We warn all activists, inside and outside of Iran, against the fundamental damages that opportunist activism of this sort can bring upon our struggles.

The most recent example of the efforts of such hired activists is that of Ms. Masih Alinejad, the host of the VOA Persian Tablet program and the founder of My Stealthy Freedoms Campaign, who met with the U.S. Secretary of State M. Pompeo on Feb 4, 2019. Representing herself as the voice of Iranian dissidents, Ms. Alinejad called upon the U.S. administration to help amplify the voices of the women and oppressed minorities in Iran, and asked the U.S. government to officially recognize the opposition. We believe this meeting was highly worrisome for the following reasons:

1. Despite the official claims that paint the U.S. foreign policy apparatus as protective of freedom, democracy, and human rights, it is no secret that American foreign policy has consistently privileged other priorities. While the U.S. atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan were carried out under the pretext of promoting democracy and human rights in these countries, the current administration is led by a man who openly expressed disappointment with the U.S. leaving Iraq without taking its oil. By appealing to the warmongers in power, Ms. Alinejad at the very least ignores this hypocritical record and takes advantage of the current conditions in Iran to justify her support for yet another ill-intentioned intrusion.
2. The fact that the current U.S. administration has an untenable record on women’s rights further discredits Ms. Alinejad’s claims of fighting for women’s rights. From denying reproductive rights to women, to several cases of sexual misconduct by the president, there is no room left for any illusion about this administration’s intention for promoting women’s rights.
3. In the aforementioned meeting, Ms. Alinejad presented herself as the voice of many who trusted her, and stated that the Iranian opposition should be recognized in any negotiations between the United States and Iran. It is obvious that legitimate representation of the Iranian opposition can only be recognized by means of democratic elections, and certainly not through social media accounts. Representation claims of this nature do no more than exploiting the Iranian people’s discontent with undemocratic political processes.
4. At this crucial moment, when many feminists and other independent and progressive activists in the U.S. have created a powerful force against the pernicious attacks of the U.S. government against vulnerable groups nationally and internationally, Ms. Alinejad’s meeting with Secretary Pompeo means nothing but distancing herself and her campaign from progressive forces, and thereby implying a conflicting link between a central women’s rights issue and conservative U.S. politics.

We the undersigned hereby declare that the struggles of Iranian women for freedom and justice are not to be appropriated as a pawn for justifying the interventionist policies of the U.S. While we are adamant in the pursuit of justice for Iranian women, we condemn any women’s rights or human rights activism that is funded by foreign governments and corporations with the goal of manipulating public opinion for foreign-backed “regime change” policies at all costs. No claims about human rights violations in Iran justifies the means of widespread economic, political, and psychological suffering due to sanctions, and life under a constant threat of violence and war.

See the signatures.