this by Leah McElrath:https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gvda6fem6r7selm4gzjjww4a/post/3mbz26fcjz22u

@blogdiva

Oh yes Israel and the USA have designs on Iran

This is the secondary concern

The primary concern is the will of Iranian people

To invert those concerns is to betray the Iranian people because hating the USA and Israel is more important

Nah

Why do that?

Do this:

Fuck Israel

Fuck the USA

And fuck the Iranian regime

It's not hard to say that. There's no contradiction. In fact that is the most principled stand

just responding to say, the post is now a thread about the Pahlavis and how they exploited the white gaze to stay in power.

again, the insurrection is real.

what we need to be vigilant about is how media is used to americanize, and to a leasser extent europeanize, the global south. who benefits from that?

who benefits from selling images of insurrectionist Iranian women that look like out of Vogue?

i mean, there are still Pahlavites in Iran.

aesthetics are always political.

@benroyce

@A_Minion patience is a virtue and hope never dies (or dies last). @benroyce @blogdiva

@mc @benroyce @blogdiva Hmm, well is 80 years of patience long enough, are you sure hope is the last to die? I think the ignorance of human kind lasts longer than hope.

@blogdiva

i agree the photos will attract a white male gaze predicated on leering colonist transgression

but if we agree these are authentic iranian women protesting in this way, i choose to see them for what they chose to depict of themselves

the loaded derivative meaning then gets injected into the photos after the women's intentions

i don't know how to solve this problem

maybe iranian women become aware of western gooners, throw up a little in their mouths, and no longer take such photos

@benroyce @blogdiva The women of Iran have been seriously oppressed and suffered for a long time. Let’s not interpret their actions through any lens except empathy — stand in their shoes for a moment. This is their expression of self-determination, and it is very radical relative to the previous norms forced on them. So I say, good for them! Will others try to exploit these images for propaganda? Of course. That is the way of things, and it is good to be mindful of it. Right now, their resistance to the will of the mullahs is akin to the Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall. The joy is infectious.

@benroyce @blogdiva The women of Iran have been seriously oppressed and suffered for a long time. Let’s not interpret their actions through any lens except empathy — stand in their shoes for a moment. This is their expression of self-determination, and it is very radical relative to the previous norms forced on them. So I say, good for them! Will others try to exploit these images for propaganda? Of course. That is the way of things, and it is good to be mindful of it. Right now, their resistance to the will of the mullahs is akin to the Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall. The joy is infectious.

@blogdiva I think that's the clear problem. Running out of water. From what I've read it is disastrous. It's either death by regime or death by lack of water.

I was also reading that they have a massive corruption/oligarch problem who are looting the country.

The lack of water is leading to a reckoning because the govt is inflexible in fixing the issues. If they don't solve the water problems (they've been warned for years) Iranians are going to die.