Extremism, Freedom, and Pride. Matthew Nouriel’s story Part 1

In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, Matthew Nouriel shares his journey from growing up around extremist ideology to discovering his own voice, freedom, and identity. His story explores the difficult path of challenging beliefs, breaking away from harmful narratives, and finding the courage to live authentically.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hi everyone, welcome to the Highly Jewish Podcast in association with Joyce. I'm Tanya Tsuganovsky and I'd like to introduce you to my dear friend Matthew Nuriel, who honestly I don't think needs much of an introduction. You guys probably know who he is. Um, especially right now, I'm so grateful that he's here to talk about Iran and everything that's been going on over there and how it's been affecting all of us here. Um it's I think it's really important that we continue to talk about it. So I'm grateful that uh he's willing to do that. And um anyway, so nice to have you here.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Bit see, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Of course, so nice to have you here.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

So nice to be here. Um lovely car.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Thank you. Yeah, so we were just talking about um how things have been like pretty difficult. Obviously, like the last few weeks with everything we've been hearing. Obviously, like you're you're Persian, but for those people that don't know, do you want to talk a little bit about your history? Uh sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Um, Matthew Nuriel, I'm I'm I I don't know how I don't know how to introduce myself. I'm always awkward with this stuff. Um I'm always bad at this stuff, so I'll just Matthew Nuriel. I'm um been and I hate saying activist too, so you need to help me. Everybody needs to help me find a different word because it just doesn't feel fitting. Also, I feel like that word's been so taken out of context. It just doesn't even have it hold any meaning anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Um so I mean you're a commentator, say you're a political commentator, you talk about current events, you I don't even know if that's what I like.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

I was just like a fucking I'm an outspoken person who can't keep their mouth shut about things that I care about.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I love that. That's it. Love that. Okay. Um but like your background, like were you born here?

SPEAKER_03 1:50

No, so Iranian Jew born in the UK in London. My parents left um uh the right before the revolution happened. Um but my entire mother's family mother's side of the family all were made in Iran. Um she left because she married my dad, and my dad's family all moved to the UK.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Um are they still there now?

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. My dad's there. Um all of his siblings, well, one of his oldest siblings just passed away a few years ago. But uh his siblings, all of my cousins, all my dad's side, they're all in London. And um I was raised there until I was just like days before I turned 14, and then when my parents divorced, moved to LA with my mom because we wanted to, you know, she wanted to be with her big fat Persian Jewish family who by that point had all um fled Iran and and came here. Um so I mean I don't know how deep you want to go, like how how far back do we want to go? Uh I came out, I came out when I was 15. So about a year later, a year and a half later, which was a challenging experience in the 90s um in the Jewish Iranian community.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I mean, that I mean, first of all, like that is like that's huge. And I and I know I'm sure people tell you that, but that's just that's a really big deal. I don't think people realize, especially those that are that are younger, like how much of a big deal that is to have come out at that age and also like in your community. Like that's no, I came out at 14 and I'm Russian, and that wasn't uh like a picnic either, but I mean, for you in the year that you did, that I mean there was a 10-year difference, I think, between us and you know, and that's that's it's commendable, like really commendable.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Thank you. I think there's a lot of similarities between um Jews that came out of Soviet countries and Jews that came out of the Middle East and North Africa, like on a lot of different levels. But I think in terms of community standards or whatever, and that particular issue of uh, you know, being LGBT, I think was probably very similar. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, it was incredibly challenging. It's not something I talk about that often, but like it and I want to preface what I'm about to say with like I'm not placing blame on my mom or her family or anything like that. I think that my mom did what she thought was the right thing to do, but in hindsight, I understand that um logically but emotionally, I still don't get it. Like, so what she did was that she ended up putting me in therapy, putting me on antidepressants, taking me to some whack job doctor who was like uh this Iranian doctor who was like, I'll fix him, he just needs hormones, uh, and put me on like a three-month round of testosterone hormone replacement therapy, and it was all really traumatizing. Um, and the reason I say I understand logically, because given where my mom came from and the culture she comes from, and and so on and so forth, in her mind this was an issue that needed to be fixed, and she didn't know any better. Right. She was doing it out of, I'd like to think she was doing it with love. Yeah. Um, but emotionally, when I say I don't get it, is that now as an adult, I have a nephew, I have friends who have kids, and when I see them, I couldn't imagine seeing a little child playing, whether it be with his train set or if it's a boy playing with a Barbie doll or just being himself, saying, Oh, there's something wrong with that, we need to fix him. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I I couldn't, I don't think I but I mean it's I'm coming from an understat from the understanding that I come from and also and I mean I think also too there is something to be said about the fact that we come from, even though our backgrounds are Soviet and Persian, I think we're also very westernized and thankfully for that, and that's probably why we're able to look at kids playing with a variety of different toys and not automatically like freak out. And I think that that that's exactly like why, you know, like people here really need to start being grateful for Persian people, especially in Iran, because like the regime literally wants to kill us. Like, and that's the part that I don't get that people don't seem to understand. Is like that it's not just isolated to Iran, you know, and and I and I think that that's um, I don't know, like it's it's really like how are you as a Persian guy, like how are you feeling here? Like, do you want America to like step in and and you know say goodnight to you know yeah and have it be done with that?

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Yeah, so I I I f I care very, very deeply, as you know. I mean, obviously you've seen my work. I've been covering like Iran since even before 2022 with the Mas I mean the Woman Life Freedom Uprising. Um I care very deeply about Iran and Iranians and and the one of the reasons actually is because prior to to the woman life freedom movement and even prior to doing any kind of activism on my my social media, my page was a drag page. And a very good one. You're you're a great track. Thank you. I wish I I wish I could go back to just doing that to be honest with you. Um, but when I was doing that, the the young people and kids, like teenagers that would reach out to me from Iran um about my drag was something that really moved me. And they just wanted to know how do you do your makeup, or what they were just so in awe of it because like wow, this is an Iranian person who's free to do what you know I wish I could do. Right. So this is one thing that always really gets me, like the queers for Palestine situation. It's like where I don't I understand the idea of whether they hate me or not, if there's an injustice, I'm gonna speak up for it, but it's like where is that perceived injustice coming from exactly? And why are you not speaking up for LGBT people in Iran? Which is why I always say, like, and and I say it because I I don't expect anything of these people because they're idiots. The couple of people who have spoken up, it's like I'd rather you just stayed quiet, to be honest with you, but it's about pointing out the hypocrisy. Yeah, and it's if you if you claim that you're about feminism, about LGBT rights, about racial equality, um, about um ethnic and religious equality, etc., etc., etc., then where are you when it comes to Iran? Because those are all issues that the regime is specifically, you know, the regime kills gay people.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Unabashedly.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

But I mean, but how what do we expect? Because the Hamas kills gay people too, and the gay people were the ones supporting Hamas the whole time. Like, I I think that there's gotta be some kind of disconnect here with understanding that, you know, the the regime is quite possibly like the greatest example of of something that wants to destroy you. You know, and I just don't understand how the part that I don't get, I mean, it must just be money. They must just be really smart at putting money into the right hands because think of it like this like if if you have a place like New York City that experienced 9-11, and like not even 50 years later, you have uh momdani getting sworn in, and in a place that is that never has any American flags anywhere. I mean, like people are so even against the American flag in a city that to me shouldn't be the most patriotic. So there's in some way, like the Islamists have won. Like the extreme Islamists have have won if they've it been able to like I don't know, infiltrate our country the way that they have. And I I feel like they've done the same in with the gay community because otherwise, it truly does not make sense how uh no one is like why is woman life freedom no longer important right now, but it was a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

And I it just I mean there's a couple there's a couple of things. It doesn't make sense, but when you look at the way that what they did, which is really quite genius, I think that they've been infiltrating. I always say that their their brainwashing or their ideological subversion, if you will, it came straight straight from the top. And when I say that, what I mean is it came from academia, so they're getting people right when they're developing who they are in college, and now it's in K through 12, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Oh, yeah. Um it's it's insane. I mean, it's almost as if like these schools are just breeding complete and total misinformation and just blatant anti-Semitism. I mean, you have DEI initiatives that do not include Jews, you have but so much. I don't know, there's like there's just so much like books are being distributed that have the the map of Israel and that renamed it to Palestine. Like, I mean, it it's not even in the books, it's an airplanes. I mean, people are like quite literally like rewriting not just history, but like what's actually happening today. And it's um, yeah, it's it's really scary. And and you're right that it's it's it's an education, and that for me is what like was really scary watching what was happening on campuses because it made me feel like this was pre-Holocaust in Germany because that's where it started on campuses, and so I so I don't know, like I but the at the same time the woman life freedom thing was it spread like wildfire around you know the internet. So what what is missing now? Like what are we not doing this time around?

SPEAKER_03 11:26

So I think I've heard people say this before, and I was very deeply entrenched in that movement in in LA, obviously not in Iran. Um and there it did explode in some ways, but it it wasn't there's this misconception that it was very popular amongst the social justice crowd, and it wasn't. If you juxtapose it to like the the and I use pro-Palestine in quotation marks, it's really pro-Hamas movement of the last couple of years. You saw people from across the board, right? Because it was entrenched in this leftist ideology. The woman life freedom movement. I went to protests for a year straight, almost every single weekend. There was barely ever anyone who was not Iranian at those protests, and if it was, it was usually somebody Jewish or Israeli. A few, a hand few, very few people came that weren't. Wow, that's so sad to hear. Yeah, it was sad, and I remember even then being like, where the fuck is everybody? So there's this perception, I think, because people saw stuff online, but who are you seeing the stuff online from? It was from us, yeah, the same, the same usual suspects. Exactly. And then um, yeah, there was stuff on the news, and yeah, there was stuff like the Grammys giving an award for uh uh Shervin for for his song about Aya and stuff like that, but we're seeing that now, it's on the news now. It's it but it isn't for some reason it isn't translating to the broader public in the same way, and I and I think a lot of it is to do with that same propaganda and that same disinformation and misinformation. Um, you know, the the anti-Israel ideology has rotted people's brains to the point that they can't see what's right in front of them, which is they refuse to speak up about this because the Islamic Republic regime is the biggest backer and ideologically aligned with Hamas.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And is Do you think they even actually realize that? Like, do you think they've even connected those dots, or are they just so angry that that Trump is on the side against the regime, so they just want to be quiet because they just want to do everything against Trump? Like, is there a part of political?

SPEAKER_03 13:45

I think it's both, and I think it runs the gamut. I think some people it's one, some people it's the other, some people it's both. But it all, you know, one thing I realize, I mean, speaking about Trump over the last few years, and listen, I I've I I personally don't believe in political binaries, and I think I realized over the past couple of years that a lot of people have firmly placed themselves within a political binary, and that means if Trump is for it, I have to be against it, which to me is intellectually just dumb. Like it's just it's not the word intellectual doesn't even belong there, like it's stupid. And you see the same on the other side, but exists on both sides with this specific issue. Like, open your goddamn eyes. Like, we have people out here with signs saying hands off Iran. What are you talking about? The hands what hand you care about hands on Iran? The hands that are on Iran are the hands of the Islamic Republic regime. No, it's imperialism.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

The regime is one of the biggest imperial forces around today, and funding so many of the others that are trying to infiltrate everywhere else around the world. I mean, it's it's insane. It's really insane, it's very sad. It's um yeah, and I it sucks too because you know, like as a we're also, I mean, for me, like I I don't mind the word activist as much. I consider myself a Jewish one, right, and a gay one, but not so much a gay one anymore. But I'm a Jewish activist, and I I'm concerned that maybe as Jews being so vocal for Iran or doing them a disservice, because so many people that hate us are gonna, I don't know, by proxy and by association hate the people of Iran too. They're gonna think, oh, it's a Zionist agenda, and I've seen that, I've seen that.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Yeah, they already think it.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

You know, and so and and obviously we've seen pictures of Pahlavi on the right near the the Western Wall and be saying that he would support Israel's, you know, a a nice relationship with Iran and Israel. And so I I I'm concerned with how much the hate that we get is getting rubbed off on, you know, just normal Muslims in Iran that want, you know, freedom and peace, you know, and so it's um yeah, I I wonder how much of that is playing a part in it also.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Because I think it's deeper than that, though. I mean, yes, that does play a part in it, but I I think whether we were uh whether there was a prominent Jewish support for the uprising or not, I think it would still be there just because, again, this this propaganda of Islamophobia, if you speak up against anything to do with Islam, it's Islamophobia, has grappled people's uh brains, grabbed people's brains. And a lot of this uprising of what we're seeing within Iran, within the general population of Iran, which is a population of 92 million, um, a lot of people starting to denounce their Muslim identity because they're coming to the real and this isn't listen, it's not everybody. There are people who still identify as Muslim who also are against the regime and with good reason. But there's this this sort of awakening happening of this realization that Iran was not originally a Muslim country, it was a Zoroastrian country with a very rich history, and the well, this comes back to the Jewish um thing as well. Yeah, but there's a history there also that's very, very uh ancient and intertwined with the two people or two nations, if you will, specifically with the land of Israel and with with Persians, and that is that, and we all know the story of Cyrus the Great, uh uh uh uh uh freeing the Jewish uh population from slavery and allowing us not only to go back to our not a lot, like giving us the option, if you want to go back, they've facilitated us going back and facilitated and paid for us rebuilding our temple. Yeah. So, and I it's a very interesting because I just saw a video that somebody posted today that it never even clicked to me that people are showing this video and images of um Prince Reza Pahlavi at the Wailing Wall, you know, praying at the wall, and how people are using that to say he's a Zionist puppet, and this young lady, Iranian woman who's not Jewish, was saying, you know, on the surface it might look like that, but there's this ancient history that is the retaining wall of the temple that King Cyrus the Great helped facilitate rebuilding. So there's a connection there that's ancient, and I think it's really um uh unfortunate that we even have to stop and think, well, are we doing are we harming the movement? The Iranian people need allies. I agree, just like the Jewish people need allies. We do, absolutely, and um it's a shame that that even has to be said. Um, but from what I've seen and from what I understand, that allyship is greatly appreciated.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

And so Yeah, I mean, I the amount of comments that I'm getting and messages for people just saying thank you so much for the support our community needs, all the help we can get. I mean, it's it's clear, especially with the blackout. I mean, to not have internet access for going on how many days are we looking at? Like 12, 13 days. It's crazy to think that like people just can't, not just a matter of communicate, they have no access to information, like they're just completely shut off from the world. Yeah. It's you know, it's it's it's really it's really sad and it it's it's scary to to think, you know, that maybe nothing will be done. And that's what scares me, to think that all of this time and blood and effort, and maybe, you know, like I I'm going to try to believe that America and Israel won't pass up the opportunity to to finally take this regime down, but you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

I think something will be done. Yeah. I know we're getting such conflicting messaging, and it's really difficult.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

And I think I mean we shouldn't really know anyway. Like, we shouldn't know anyway.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

I'm like, and I I've been on a couple of briefings now, and they're like, yeah, it's gonna take months. And I'm like, mm, is it gonna take months? Like, why is all of this, these warheads, the warships, whatever you call them, are going out there now? It could happen much sooner than in a period of months. Yeah. I understand the idea that they need to make sure that whatever they do succeeds, so they need to be strategic and careful about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

And they also, I don't think, want to kill innocent people. I mean, if we look at Trump's history, he has wanted to end wars without casualties.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

So this is where he scares me because I saw a video of him today was saying, well, if they try to take because they threatened the regime threatened to assassinate him, if they take me out, we're just gonna obliterate them or start bombing them. Like, I'm like, mm-hmm, that's not the no, that's not what we want. That's not the messaging. You don't want to, but I think he I think he genuinely cares, and I think that's why he came out and was like, we're gonna send help, we're gonna send help, you know. I I think it's because he had this visceral reaction like we care, um, or I care. I and I think he may have spoken before he should have. Yeah, you know, but I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. I hope see what happens. All right, you go first. Save that. Hi, good. How are you? Good, good, we'll kind of guess it. Can I have just the burger combo, not the double, like just the regular with a cheese on it, okay? Yes, with the grilled onions and a diet coke. You got it, please.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Uh and uh would you guys write this in a box you guys can do in the car? Yes, box would be great. So just a cheeseburger fry and a drink?

SPEAKER_01 21:23

And then I will do a um a hamburger. Hamburger? With grilled onions and uh fries and a diet coke. And fries and uh you said uh a drink? A diet coke. Definitely. Did you want fries in?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yeah, and this comes with fries too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I have a hamburger with grillinion, a cheeseburger with grillinion, two fries, two diet coats. Then you guys sit in the open box, right? Yes, 1970 at the windows. Thank you. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Um, I I agree that I think it was like his knee jerk reaction to to just say, like, yeah, like help is coming, and I definitely I I think he was well intentioned with that, and I Just hope that health actually does.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

I hope so too.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Because time is definitely of the essence. I mean, the fact that they're they're literally going in and shooting people in hospitals.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Like that's Tanya. I don't think people grasp and I don't think people know how many people have been like killed. And I think that the whatever the official numbers are, it's way beyond beyond that. Yeah. So that for example I I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that figure of 12,000 that came out like a week ago, people are like, that's just in Tehran. Yeah. Like it doesn't even count the rest of the country. Like, it's it's a true human rights catastrophe and it needs to be taken care of. And I I just wish I I don't know. I don't know what to think about the Trump thing and the, you know, we're sending help. I think it was as even if it was well intentioned, it was very irresponsible because I don't know if you realize this how much the people in Iran were hanging on to those words. They felt so emboldened by them. And they thought, well, help is coming, let's get out there, and you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

I think it may it I mean, I hate to say it, but I think it works kind of like both ways. You know, the the best way to on a global scale or encourage or justify, you know, American or Israeli involvement is a threat that's this bad that people are actually dying. Yeah. And so like to encourage people to actually, but you like he almost like wanted to create or help create like the uprising so that it could justify his going in, which all of this makes sense if he actually does go in. So I I I just hope that that that happens before any more people have to die. Um and yeah, and it's true. Like I keep on saying how like Starlink is like turned on, and that's great, but if kit if people can't access it, then it's not helping anybody either.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Like yeah, like you can just like it's another thing that people don't seem to understand. Is I remember saying something about the internet and so many comments like um the um there's Starlink, Starlink's been set up as service. Like, first of all, the equipment you have to have to access Starlink is illegal to have in Iran. Second of all, so few people have it. Yeah, there are people that have it, and that that is coming out, and I think there are new, you know, I think that the Israeli and American governments would probably are already doing this, is finding ways for people to surpass the internet blackout would be really, really helpful. Um, I think I just saw today some company put out some app that that you can use with just Bluetooth. Um, so all of these things I think are happening that's way beyond what any of us even know.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

And I just hope it happens quickly, and I hope it's successful, and I hope that we see an end to this satanic regime sooner rather than later, and it would benefit everybody.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Um, and I think one of the problems is also some of these um Arab countries that are saying they don't want um uh they don't want the regime taken out and they don't want this and don't want that, and that's because they would rather have a weakened regime in power than a powerful uh than a powerful and wealthy, prosperous Iran.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yeah, like imagine like a an actual democracy or like an actual like friend of the United States and Israel. Like I mean that would that would totally change Yeah, but also I mean in terms of oil.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Yeah. Right? Like if if Iran was a democratic, free, prosperous country with with the amount of oil um that they have and natural gases that they have without sanctions placed on them, they would surpass uh any of the other Arab nations in terms of power. Yeah. Um and I don't think a lot of those nations want that.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah. Every nation wants to see what's best for them, and you know, our nation included. So I I certainly get that. Um but just on I don't know, like on a human level to see people that are actively fighting for for freedom and the values that we have here, you know, like people tell me all the time, like, well, why aren't you worried about the kids in in Gaza? And I'm like, I certainly worry about kids in Gaza too. I don't want kids dying. Like, come on, like let's be real. But like we're fighting completely different battles here, and people don't seem to really don't seem to understand the difference.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

There's a huge difference, and it's endlessly frustrating to me. And and I and I I it's so frustrating when people are like, you don't care about children and women being killed and god. I care more than you do. Yeah, literally. Okay, I care enough to point my finger at the cause of all of it, which is Hamas, point blank. And anybody who says otherwise is full of shit. Yeah, well, no, the the the cause is this white colonizer, European colonizers coming in and stealing land. Nope, it's not. I'm sorry, it's just not. If you look at history and know actual facts and actual history, you will know that that's not the cause of it, and that the the Palestinians could have had a state of their own, numerous already with all of the money that they've had flowing in there. 100%. It's crazy. They could have done gotten you all of that aid money, used it for good, just Gaza alone. Okay, it could have been a prosperous nation, they could have proved to uh to Israel and the world that we're willing to play ball. They've repeatedly said no, that's a choice that they made. So don't dare compare that choice that they made to the people of Iran who don't have that choice. Absolutely, they have no choice, they're fighting for their freedom, and if somebody offered them freedom and and liberty and sovereignty as an option, they would take it in a heartbeat. But they don't have that choice, so it's not the same thing, and it's infuriating to me.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah, no, it's it's infuriating to me too, and it's really infuriating to see people that keep on I don't know, pushing like this narrative that you know it's it's a white colonizer situation when Israel is not white. Like that's the part that like really kills me. Like, and I I don't know, like it's um I don't know, it's it's it's really it's really frustrating.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

I mean, you know what's how sick these people are? You know when I saw somebody tweet the other day, I don't forgot her name. I I retweeted something of hers. Some Pakistani British woman. Um Efron Sultani is the young man who was 26 years old, the first So was he executed? Do we allegedly he wasn't executed? So he was scheduled to be the first official execution. Then Trump said he negotiated with the regime and they said they weren't gonna execute him or anybody else. So that's why we haven't attacked, the US hasn't attacked. Um then it started coming out that he had in fact been executed, and then a video came out of allegedly one of his family members saying he has not been executed. We had a meeting with we we got to see him go visit him, and he's alive and well. However, you have to know how this regime works. They very well may have forced her to make that video. They they could have been standing right by in front of her with a gun.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

So we don't exactly know what's happened, but it's also crazy too, because like on the one hand, you have the regime indiscriminately just shooting and killing and blowing people's heads off right in the middle of the street, and then on the other, you have them trying to like execute in public in a way that they're using this all as just like negotiating tactics, they don't care about the person's life, they don't, and and so this is just all it's all crap. So they're just trying everything they can to to manipulate the public into thinking, oh like well, if America works with us, then we're not going to hang this person. It's like okay, if you're sparing him, but you just shot how many people find outside? So, like, where is the and how people don't see that?

SPEAKER_03 30:02

Like it's um and it's interesting because it it also ties in with but I think there's a similarity there with the regime in Iran and Hamas, which are obviously are ideologically aligned. The regime sponsors and and funds Hamas sponsored October 7th. Literally, um, but neither of these governments, on quotation marks, could give a shit about their civilians that they're supposedly governing. They don't care about uh human loss, and when you're in that situation, when they actually not only don't care about the human loss, they they utilize it, right? In that sense, it's like the human shields thing, right? Like the more people die, the more we can say, look how many people. They just don't care. Yeah. So how do you how do you strike? How do you militarily strike at a country like that that doesn't care if you bomb their cities? They they they ideologically do not give a shit. That's why they are the Islamic Republic. Of Iran, we say anyone in our in the Iranian community because they are not of Iran. Iranians care very deeply about their land and their culture.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Hello, Pokio. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, would you like uh catch up? Yeah, please, that'd be great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

That's gonna be Pokio Kato.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Oh, so this this woman, this pundit person, whatever she is, she tweeted a picture of Efron because he's lighter complexion, he has blonde, like dirty blonde hair, and she goes, Of course, the Midwestern media is showing this person is being at risk of being executed, the white passing person. And I'm like, you sick fuck. That's what you're talking about. You think Iranians sit around thinking about who's more white looking? Like, we it's not and it's actually very similar to um Jewish cultures. We come in all colors. Like it's just crazy to me. And it's really sick. I'm sorry, that's really sick that this is something that person that person um would tweet publicly. Like that's what you're thinking, like with no shame, and it just speaks to where we're at as a society. Like, it's messed up. No regard for what this person's family might think, no regard for how this might affect the commun the Iranian community, none of it.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Well, that's how I feel like communication on social media seems to be, you know, anyway, like the types of things that I see people say to one another, I'm I'm mind-blown. Like, I'll get so many hate messages, and people will say, like, are does it hurt you? And I'm like, honestly, like, no, and only because I would never have my lowest point take time out of my day to something nasty on someone's like thing. If I don't like it, I'm just not gonna look at it. I'm not gonna support it, but like, I'm not gonna sit there and be like, oh, like I hope you die, or like you know, and so the people that do that, they're the ones that have the problem. But it's it's really sad that there are so many that seem to have that problem. Like, we said have no regard for someone's family. No, just it it's it's so sad. Can we have one extra box, please do? Like, can we have one extra just plain box? Like an extra box that you're always yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Okay, easier for us to use.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

You know, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Um, you know, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

You know what's interesting about that and what I realized because uh I've started using action a little bit more and then I'm gonna have to take breaks just because people are psychotic on there. But what I realized is that all these streams have come anytime I have a post on the exit that does well, meaning it gets attention.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Like a couple order, but no, we're fine. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Um, I'll get this stream of like uh responses of people call me gay, call me a faggot, call me this, that, the other. And are you a man or a woman? Are you I love that crazy shit? You're also gonna have a thank you. Thank you so much. And what I realized is, oh, and all of these like anti anti-Semitic shit. Oh, you did it already. Cool. Um, what I realized is good. The more they do that, the more they prove that they don't have a fucking argument and that they have to resort to calling us names and like ridiculous shit, you know? Anyone who actually has something worthwhile, thank you. This smells amazing, by the way. Yeah, I'm so excited to do it. Anyone who has something worthwhile to say wouldn't need to resort to that. Yeah. So it just kind of now I just kind of it's jarring, and then I'm like, huh, cool.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

They don't they don't Yeah, they're the ones with the problem.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Yeah, anything to say. So no.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Fist So you said, you know, you have family in London, but do you have family in Iran?

SPEAKER_02 35:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

We all left?

SPEAKER_02 35:02

All left. Smart. Well I had.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Do you know people there though right now?

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah. No people who have family though.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah, they're really going through it. They don't have they don't want to talk to their family.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

It's scary. I don't even know what to tell them. Like, oh, it's gonna be like, what do you say? I haven't spoken to my relatives in a week. Like my dentist I went to yesterday. Well, like, do you it's the only issue that my my parents live there. My mom was here when it started, so she's now with us, but my dad is still there. Oh my god. And he has health issues, and it's just devastating.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

So I just keep seeing reports of like these mothers finding their kids in body bags. And so what they just go downstairs and like because they haven't seen their kid, I guess, in a day, and uh have to go see if they can find them and just like arc Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Essentially that's what it is. Um it's a a human rights catastrophe. It's not getting the attention it deserves.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

And all their money is like worthless now. So like how are they even eating? Or like having access to things and I guess the part that kills me is like when why won't the Islamic Republic like why won't people turn on their like why can't there be a coup?

SPEAKER_03 36:33

Like why can't they just turn so for a coup to happen, usually you need to have forgive me, I'm not a political analyst, but just from what I know, you need to have don't some element of the governmental apparatus turn on the rulers, right? Whether it be the military or the police forces, usually it's the military, I would say. And what people don't understand is that the Islamic Republic regime, from the time it came into power, or what I say hijacked Iran, they created an infrastructure that was impossible to shatter. The IRGC is not the same as the country's military. They have an air force, they have a military, etc. etc. Then they have the IRGC. What is the IRGC? The IRGC is a force of, I believe, about 200,000 strong, and I believe that's not even include including the Basij, which is militia, like it essentially volunteers. Right? Their sole purpose is to keep the regime there, to protect the regime. That is the sole purpose of IRGC. That and to train um, you know, foreign militias like Hezbollah, Hamas, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

How do you how do you break that? Well, so wait, so then tell me.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

I don't closed it.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

If the army and the navy and all that are not connected here, then why can't the army and the navy just turn? There's gotta be more by numbers. I that I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

I do know that there's members, like individual members who have defected, but it needs to be a mass-scale thing. Like the generals need to organize and basically say we're gonna do this. That's probably why they cut off the internet. If they started to see how much power they actually could have, maybe they would. And also don't forget, because the IRGC has trained all of these foreign militias, that's what we're seeing, and it's not the first time they do this every time. They bring in aligned militias from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from Hezbollah, from Syria, from all over the place. They bring them in. The minute they came, even before the regime came to power, Khomeini was was uh working with the PLO in the 60s and 70s. That's why the the first foreign uh um representative they brought in was Yafser Arafat. The first thing they did was take the Israeli embassy and rename it the Palestinian Embassy. Like this is a very aligned move, these are very aligned movements.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Both ideologically and financially. It was a while ago when we saw them bomb the nuclear sites. And you know, like it's it's it's been quite a while until that actually ended up triggering an uprising. And now that it's triggered it, it just seems like, well, what I mean, obviously I'm not a not a war general, I can't I obviously like I don't think my opinion really matters much, but I just I'm trying to I hope I can some at some point understand like even a little bit of the story. Because right now I'm I'm I'm a little bit I feel like we're all on edge waiting for something to happen.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

We are.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

I think I could what I can imagine happening is once it becomes more obvious that the regime will not be able to last, that we'll start seeing a lot more of that. Meaning police, members of the police force, the military militaries are sworn to protect who they're sworn to protect, right? Um we saw the same thing when the the Shah was ousted. The military was protecting the country as the Shah's country until they realized he wasn't coming back, they realized things were changing, and then it was like, okay, now this is our this is our duty. So they just follow Robert's empower. Yeah. I think that that's what I'd imagine.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

I wonder, like, what what do you think really sparked it this time in particular?

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Like why right now versus I think that um it's accurate to say that that the um the financial situation, the economical situation is what sparked it initially. But I think it very quickly turned it. It doesn't take much for the Iranian people to it was like the straw that broke the camel's back, right? It's always something that sparks it and it always leads back to the regime. So in 2022, it was the murder of Masa Amini for improperly wearing her hijab. It's kind of like these boiling points, and each time the boiling point it's it it boils over more and more. Like the um the Masa Amini uprising wasn't as intense as this. And you can tell because of the the reaction to it. And one analyst told me to believe that there was like upwards of three million people protesting on the street. We're not getting that information. That's a lot of fucking people. That's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

What's the total population of Iran?

SPEAKER_02 42:24

And only to 92 million. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

I mean the the bravery of these people is like on another level.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

I know because you can't just go to a gun store and buy a gun on Iran the way that you can here. So they're they're fighting with fists.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Yeah. Yeah. I believe there's some there were rumors that there were some Kurdish militia in the Kurdish region that had had um some weaponry. I don't know where they got it from. Um, but that's not anesthesia. The whole, you know, the whole nation needs to be armed.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

And the Kurds are getting massacred right now and sh I think it's in Afghanistan or in Syria. Or yeah. Not Afghanistan. No, they're in Syria, they're getting massacred.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

They always get the short end of the stick, Melan. It's really shitty.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Anyone that's not Muslim seems to be getting the short end of the stick. Yeah, but there's been a I mean there are Muslim cards.

SPEAKER_04 43:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Um They just for whatever reason, I I I don't know enough about that to get into it, but I do know that they always get the short end of the stick and it sucks. But in in essence, you are, right? Anybody that's I mean there people don't don't realize how many ethnic and and um religious minorities. There are in Iran. I mean, sorry, in the Middle East. They've all been flattened out into this Arab Muslims. They're not. I mean, first of all, Persians, Zoroastrians within Iran, there's Baha'i, which have no rights under the regime. They're not recognized at all because they came after Islam and therefore are illegitimate. Those peop those Baha'i people have their property confiscated, their cemeteries stormed and destroyed, businesses taken from them, like literally have zero rights. Where are the protests for them? Like nobody's where the in now they encampments.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Well then you have the Jews too. I mean, how many Jews live in Iran right now? Yeah, there's about 90 million, 92 million people.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

There's like they say 8,500 to 10,000. Some people estimate up to 15,000. That's but it's not I mean it's literally nothing. I mean, because people are like it's the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

What did it be?

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Why why why is a 10 a population of 10,000 people the largest? That's not like something to boast about.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Is a lot is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Like that's crazy. Oh my god. And where where did the other 90% of us go? And why?

SPEAKER_01 45:45

All at once we just decided to to migrate over. I mean, people don't think before they speak, or they just don't know.