"Listen to the Iranians": Sina Rahmani (The East is a Podcast)

**Note: When stuff in Iran goes down, my natural inclination is to avoid doing content and stay above the fray, at least until the media hysteria dies down.  Not the best way to run a media project, I know, but I just have a hard time with all the breathless coverage--BREAKING!!!--and don't really want to feed it. Even then, I am still Iranian, and if people ask me to record during these times, my cultural programming compels me to accept the invitation.   

This episode of Peacemongers with Mehmet and Erik was recorded as I was travelling for work recently and at the end of a busy, emotional day.  The scale of what had just transpired in Iran was becoming clear to me that morning in between working on the footage I had recorded the day earlier, itself an intense and emotional experience for entirely different, non-Iran-related reasons. 

All of this is to say that by the time I recorded with these guys that afternoon, I was feeling pretty loopy. You can kinda hear it at the beginning of the episode when I had the giggles and infected everyone else with them!  I have no idea how I come off in this episode (too lazy to check it too, sorry), and I was reluctant to even post to this feed!! In my memory, I was exceptionally wandering in my rants.  Maybe I'm wrong and it's the same Sini as usual. IDK.** 

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"Listen to the Iranians" they kept saying.

Well, we give you Sina Rahmani, the indomitable host of @eastpodcast and producer of countless other anti imperialist shows.

We talk about the events in Iran which have been one-sidedly and sensationally presented in the west. In the background the Empire and the Ethno-state have their fingers dirty.

So why is Iran such an important target for the Empire and what does it mean to be sovereign?

We discuss some of the contents of the imperial toolbox and factors leading up to the protests. Economic pressure with sanctions and currency manipulation, smuggling of Starlink units and weapons to foment violent riots and the media machinery.

We discuss the Shah and his son, the clown-prince in exile, Iranian diaspora, support for Palestine and what the destruction of the Iranian state would mean to people in the area.

While the battle may be over the war might just have begun. The peoples and states in the crosshairs of a dying empire will keep being demonised. If they resist they are authoritarian, if they open up they’ll be vulnerable. What the future holds and what the way forward to avoid a devastating war is unknown.

Early in the episode Sina reads a testimony from his friend Navid Zarinnal, who is living in Teheran. He hosts a podcast on imperialism called The Colony Archive, which we highly recommend.

Please note that we had some technical difficulties in the beginning, that led to a lot of chaos and laughter. Big thanks to Sina for being such a joyful human being even in these difficult times.

The genocide in Gaza continues. We urge you to support the Palestinians in these very dire times by donating:

- via @thesameerproject
- via @lifeline4gaza