2013-05-18T20:38:06-04:00 Arshavez Mozafari http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=arshavez-mozafari Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Arshavez Mozafari Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1911580 2012-09-26T00:01:01-04:00 2012-11-25T05:12:01-05:00

Arshavez Mozafari http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arshavez-mozafari/ invite a group of Iranian-Canadians to Ottawa as a way of proving how cozy and cordial relations actually are between Iranian-Canadians and the federal government.

The meeting, which happened soon after the forced closure of the Iranian embassy in the Canadian capital, was also an attempt to showcase how Iranian-Canadians were overwhelmingly in support of the draconian move. For Harper, the meeting could not have gone more smoothly.

Activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam, one of the Iranian-Canadians present, gave the PM precisely what he wanted: "Within our different circles we had come to the conclusion that the vast majority of Iranian-Canadians were very pleased with this decision."

Of course, when you have someone who uses one of the most elementary forms of logic (there are more logical sequences to choose from in a two-storey building elevator -- at least there is an emergency button!) to say things such as the following: "I am pleased that the government consistently differentiates regime officials in power versus freedom-loving Iranians," one cannot ask of much more from these "circles" or their representatives. However, this tendency to insult (through omission and neglect) complexity and nuance is what registers most effectively with the public.

In an attempt to bypass the notion that they are completely beholden to Conservative opinion, one of the delegates, York University professor Farrokh Zandi, stated that the invited guests -- which we, as Iranian-Canadians, personally hoisted onto our shoulders as examples of the most erudite and discerning members of our community, those who should be fed our praises like grapes from the vine -- brought up the difficulties faced by some members of the community as of late, such as disrupted consular services and TD Bank's recent decision to close the bank accounts of several Iranian-Canadians.

What is truly heartbreaking is that even though both parties walked away with more than minimal degrees of contentedness, there was something still wanting. It is said that "although the meeting did not yield any definite answers" for the delegates, Zandi was satisfied with how the discussion unfolded. The truth of the matter is that these types of personalities (those who harbour ill-will towards any semblance of what must be called infinite thought) will never get their definite answers from Harper, so let me dish it out straight away. Harper's invitation was spurred by the realist demand for a photo-op, which in turn was to quell any notion that the PM could care less about the repercussions of the state's draconian measures on Iranian-Canadian opinion.

Either misguided due to their lack of thinking or truly due to their sycophancy, the delegates, along with their ideological cohorts, reflect, in their conduct and rhetoric, those who were so very close to turning Iran into a British mandate in the early 1900s -- the opportunistic anglophiles that were reviled by so many Iranians.

In 1907, Russia and Britain devised a convention that carved Iran into three zones. The north was occupied by Tsarist forces, the south by the British and the markaz (or middle zone that included the capital) was considered neutral territory. Like a trash compactor, these spheres pressed against the royal palace of Ahmad Shah (1898-1930) -- the last monarch of the much tormented (mostly self-induced) Qajar dynasty (1785-1925) -- to such a great extent that he had to request a formal pardon for scratching his nose.

When one of the major things that kept Iran from becoming a colony was the antagonism between the two competing powers (and not the so-called determination of the Iranian nation), one must ask oneself "how could anyone sugar coat this instance of near unadulterated domination? What Iranian in their right mind would subject themselves to such beguilement?" Apparently, quite a few.

In the preface to the 1907 Convention, it is stated that "The Shah's government will be convinced that the Agreement ... can not fail to promote prosperity, security and interior development of Persia [Iran] in the most efficacious manner." How is this in any way structurally different from the press release (of the meeting) that Afshin-Jam so proudly displays on her web page: "The Prime Minister expressed his deep concern with the actions of the Iranian regime and stated that he stands with the Iranian people, who seek democracy."

Of course Harper is going to say such a thing and try to fit the embassy closure into this normative pretext. Was it not Lord Edward Grey (1862-1933) who, in 1912, said in the British House of Commons that Iran was now "more independent because of the [1907] Convention?" Unfortunately, if you talk of history with the delegates, they might playfully trip over cuneiform engravings in their attempts to recount matters.

After the October Revolution of 1917 and the withdrawal of Tsarist forces from northern Iran, Britain -- in the form of Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon (1859-1925) -- sought to tighten its grip over the country by routing Bolshevik sympathizers and insurgents from the north and turning the country into a virtual mandate under the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919.

Although it resembled its 1907 predecessor in terms of the number of subterfuges used to direct focus away from its oppressive basis, the 1919 Agreement went a step further by heavily utilizing trustworthy Iranian anglophiles to implement it. Either through self-deception or lies, Iranian statesmen such as Vosouq al-Dowleh (1868-1951), Akbar Mas'oud (1885-1975) and Firouz Firouz (1889-1938) (especially Vosouq) pushed forward the extra-parliamentary acceptance of the Agreement under the pretext that they were acting for the sake of the nation. However, circumstantial evidence points us in the direction of treachery.

When Afshin-Jam and the other delegates who met with the PM state that they are toiling for the sake of Iranian freedom, they seldom want observers to remember historical parallels. It is time for these activists to be exposed for who they are -- expendable sycophants waiting for definite answers from someone who will never be willing to provide them.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1865978 2012-09-11T12:16:20-04:00 2012-11-11T05:12:01-05:00

Arshavez Mozafari http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arshavez-mozafari/ depart Canada per foreign affairs minister John Baird's Friday morning decision, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, the Iranian-Canadian wife of defence minister Peter MacKay and a human rights activist who vigorously fought for the embassy's closure over the past couple months is spreading news that she is expecting her first child with the Nova Scotian MP.

During this time of untempered jubilance when the envoy of a detested government is forced to crawl back into the womb of his originator, we, as Iranians, are made to prepare for the entry into this wretched world of the child of our diaspora's beloved daughter.

For many Iranian-Canadians, the marriage between MacKay and Afshin-Jam was meant to absolve our alienated condition as distant participants in Canada's development. Finally, we were allowed to bask in the knowledge that we were right all along: We share with old stock Canadians certain core values that are rooted in antiquity. For Afshin-Jam and her cohorts such as Sayeh Hassan and Shabnam Assadollahi, the closure of the embassy represents the full blossoming of this ancient but till now unrecognized unity. Is this unity actually real?

As the Defence Minister's wife put it, "What Canada has done along with courageous peace loving Iranians everywhere is step up the pressure to bring about positive [sic] change for freedom we all desire inside Iran." These "courageous peace loving Iranians" that she refers to represent a very vigilant and injudicious group. As I will describe, this group consists of individuals who were once (and, in actuality, still are) so filled with self-hatred and embarrassment after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that they delved into the ancient past as a way of escaping the anguish associated with being linked to a theocracy.

While the return to the ancient past -- the origins -- was meant to be a homecoming where they would be met with the purest manifestations of what it means to be Iranian (as opposed to what the "alien" theocratic apparatus in Iran has been projecting since the revolution), they discovered the ancient Persian monarch Cyrus the Great having tea with Stephen Harper! Like frightened animals, Iranians escaped to the past only to find that which they currently wish to be assimilated into. What a travesty of thought...

Do you recall all those times when we wanted to evade the imposing and dauntless veneer of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic? All those shiftless excuses that we came up with early on in the 1980s are still with us today. Do you recall the days of the 1979-80 Iran Hostage Crisis when Iranians in North America started posing as other nationalities as a cowardly way of escaping irrational criticism? We were so indolent and tired of propounding cliché and thoughtless excuses that we just started pretending to be Southern Europeans.

Now, things are a little different. After escaping ourselves in this pitiful way, the 1990s brought us enough of a respite for us to engage in an ambitious project: No longer should we escape ourselves by posing as others -- let us now begin escaping ourselves by constructing a new self. Recall all the labours that went into constructing this new identity (which amounted to just repeatedly smashing two stones against one another). The construction of "Persian Pride" indeed helped us gain some marginal respect but for all the wrong reasons.

Through a sleight of hand, we were able to reinforce the indolence of the early 1980s, the passion of assuming the identity of another. In order to escape ourselves without anyone noticing, we decided to take the ideological norms of a society we yearned so dearly to be assimilated into and implanted them into the furthest reaches of our collective history.

For instance, take a look at Afshin-Jam's much publicized book The Tale of Two Nazanins. In it, she says, "Ever since the time of Cyrus the Great the region that is now Iran has encompassed people from many cultural backgrounds. Yet they lived peacefully with each other. This balance was upset when Shia Islam became the official religion of the state. Discrimination increased further after the 1979 revolution."

Forget the fact that this is one of the most vulgar distortions of Iranian history I have ever seen in print -- focus in on the comment regarding Cyrus the Great, the ancient Persian monarch of the Achaemenid period (550-330 BCE). As a way of escaping ourselves through ourselves, we have taken a prominent liberal motif (multicultural co-habitation) and embedded it in the furthest reaches of our collective history. This is something that was not there at the time! In the same way that you cannot imagine Cyrus the Great having a cup of tea with Stephen Harper, you cannot impose liberal platitudes upon Cyrus the Great's imperial strategy. These types of uneducated impositions are completely unwarranted.

Let us end with the closure of the embassy. The only way for Baird to have made this decision so effortlessly and without debate was through the forthright consent of Iranian-Canadian human rights activists such as Afshin-Jam. This consent is partly rooted in the rationale I have just described. In order to be recognized as subjects worthy of any kind of consideration, we are to assume a position that necessitates the wholesale dismissal of ourselves.

By going back in time to the ancient past and by citing Cyrus' exploits, we find that which we wish to assimilate ourselves into -- core Canadian values and nothing Iranian whatsoever! This and other contradictions are structural, of course. While members of the Iranian-Canadian human rights industry want to constantly assert their fundamentally Canadian condition, to underpin the fact that they have brought with them to Canada only the most superficial and pliable aspects of Iranian culture, they still want to underline the fact that the essence of being Iranian is within them -- that they truly embody the radically "liberal" ideals of Cyrus the Great, the "fondly remembered" patriarch of Persian pride.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1836628 2012-08-29T00:00:34-04:00 2012-10-28T05:12:04-04:00

Arshavez Mozafari http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arshavez-mozafari/ The Tale of Two Nazanins (2012), Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a prominent Iranian-Canadian human rights activist and former Miss Canada pageant winner (2003), narrates how she chose to commit herself to the case of Nazanin Fatehi--a young Iranian woman who was sentenced to death in early 2006 for killing a would-be rapist in self-defence--as a result of being drawn to the coincidence of their names. Can this nominal identity help us discern the implicit function of Iranian-Canadian human rights activism relative to Canada's acrimonious stance towards the Islamic Republic of Iran?

While the Iranian-Canadian industry of human rights activism has been on solid footing for a few years now, the electoral successes achieved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's conservatives during the last parliamentary elections has cast the belligerent interventions of this industry in a particularly daunting light.

In fact, a number of activists have recently spotlighted a few cases that are generating interest among the nation's conservative press and Harper's government.

On August 15, Sayeh Hassan contributed to a National Post piece on the Al-Quds Day rally that was held a few days ago in front of the provincial legislature in Toronto in which it is stated that this Pro-Palestinian event was part of the Iranian government's attempts to "spread its ideology and influence throughout Canadian society, particularly via Iranian ex-pats," an "abhorrent" and "hate-filled ideology" at that.

This paranoiac stance concerning the activities of the Iranian embassy in particular became pronounced after the 2010 establishment of the 'Center for Iranian Studies' in Toronto, an institute that--though nominally mandated to engage in independent scholarship -- has been connected to the embassy.

More recently, activists Shabnam Assadollahi and Shadi Paveh of the Ottawa area attempted to alert the federal government of the embassy's attempts at recruiting Iranian-Canadians to fulfill supposedly nefarious designs, such as the infiltration of "high-level ... positions" in Canada.

This latest attack against Iran's activities in Canada runs on the coattails of a few recent events sponsored by the embassy, such as the June 2 conference "The Contemporary Awakening and Imam Khomeini's Thoughts" at Carleton University. In a letter to the university, the institution is described as having become the "site of a celebration of human rights violations, gender inequality and anti-Semitism."

The Iranian government's reach has also been detected near the site of Canada's 'primordial crime', i.e. the topic of aboriginal oppression. In July, Afshin-Jam is said to have "pleaded" with Manitoba chief Terry Nelson to disengage from all interactions with the Islamic Republic because she fears that "they might be trying to use them [Native Canadians] in a way to benefit their own advantage."

Another move that caught Afshin-Jam's attention was TD Bank's July decision to close down a number of accounts registered to Iranian-Canadians throughout the country due to the pre-existing regime of sanctions established by the Canadian government. In reaction, she stated that the bank "unintentionally misrepresented" the actual targets of the sanctions and that if the institution had conducted "more investigation rather than harming innocent Iranian Canadians," we would not be in the predicament that we are in today.

While it is of paramount importance to actively struggle against conspicuous violations of the most seriously thought out and radical ethical systems, this industry of human rights activism constantly puts Iranians in terribly compromising positions by encouraging the federal government to enforce retrogressive measures.

One perfect example is rooted in the Khavari Petition that was circulated late last year. While the activists behind the petition were completely in the right in terms of their efforts to highlight the former head of Iran's National Bank Mahmoud Reza Khavari's involvement in the "largest financial embezzlement in Iranian history," their encouragement of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to "utilize legislation introduced in 2010 to better protect the values of Canadian citizenship by streamlining the revocation process" seeks to reinforce, according to Shadi Chaleshtoori and Justin Podur, a "securitized discourse" that threatens the residency status of unfortunate Iranians and non-Iranians who are in a state of "legal limbo" in the country.

What is truly astounding is that university professors, otherwise respectable notables and rigorous scholars who take care to think through matters methodically and critically, are many times supportive of these activist-based projects.

While their intentions may at times be wholesome, what is clearly patent is how the lack of critical discernment and the trappings of scholarship and a disposition that reeks of intellectual laziness of not only Afshin-Jam, but also activists such as Hassan and Assadollahi, has resulted in the production (or 'borrowing' for that matter because there is not much thinking going on) and deployment of the most generalized and superficial liberal platitudes that, rather than lending to a serious and generative engagement concerning the future of Iran, has resulted in the much needed 'insider' support (implicit at times) for Western warmongering and other abrasive measures.

*The complete version of this post is available to read on the author's blog]]>