Episode 196: The Revolution She Couldn’t Stay Silent About | Sara Seyed | Iranian Actor & Human Rights Advocate
Sara Seyed grew up in Iran, where she saw firsthand what happens when women are silenced, rights are stripped away, and power is used as a weapon. Now based in LA, she’s using her voice and platform to amplify the revolution happening in her home country. A former human rights lawyer turned actor, Sara shares what it means to live with purpose, speak up even when it’s risky, and turn grief into fuel. This episode goes deep into her personal story and what she wants the world to understand about Iran today.
“I became an actor because it ignited in me the strongest sense of vocation to engage politically, socially, spiritually, heart and soul in the storytelling that allows people to understand each other better, to get closer to each other. We’re only as good as how we understand each other.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Why I became an actor
01:45 Meet Sara Seyed
03:00 Mahsa Amini and the morality police
06:00 What sparked Iran’s most recent uprising
09:00 Women’s education, unemployment, and lack of opportunity
12:00 Why past reform efforts failed
14:00 How daily life is changing under protest
17:00 Childhood memories of state surveillance
19:00 How schools indoctrinate children
21:00 Smuggling Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears
23:00 Internalized guilt and early shame
24:00 Iran’s crackdown on freedom of speech
27:00 How the regime uses religion as a control mechanism
30:00 What international law can’t fix
32:00 Why she left law for acting
35:00 Losing her right to go home
38:00 Honoring her grandmother
41:00 Why change is inevitable
44:00 Mourning Iran’s lost future leaders
46:00 Where her power comes from
51:00 Small actions that matter
53:00 Finding hope in collective struggle
56:00 How to help: VPNs, petitions, and pressure
58:00 Final thoughts from Sara
But I guess I became an actor because it ignited in me the strongest sense of vocation to engage politically, socially, spiritually, heart and soul, and the kind of storytelling that allows people to understand each other better, get closer to one another.
That's Sara Seyed and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Hey guys, I'm Kara Duffy, a business coach and entrepreneur on a mission to help you live your most extraordinary life by showing you that anything really is possible. People who have mastered freedom, ease, and success, who are living their best and most ridiculous lives and are making the biggest impact are often people you've never heard of.
Until now, today's guest, Sara Seyed, is an activist, actor and prior human rights lawyer. The past few months, she's been dedicating herself full-time to sharing, discussing, and talking about the revolution currently happening in Iran. In this episode, we cover the latest news on Iran, how her love for acting and activism has been woven through her life and why it's so important for those of us who have the ability to speak up to do for those who cannot speak up for themselves.
Let's just jump in and tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
Of course. My name is Sara Seyed. That's actually short for a very long name. Thanks to my father. He used to blame. It's like the whole alphabet. I'm not gonna bother going into that, but I'm currently in la and what else,
what are you up to?
Just a few things. As you were saying earlier.
I guess with like all my other wonderful Iranian and also non Iranian we've had, alliances just like yourself. Kara I, what's been incredible about this journey, I guess the silver lining in all of this, in the midst of this tragedy, in the midst of darkness, is that we've all come together and we've realized how alike we are and how we can lift each other up and support each other.
I've when I go through my comments and messages and captions and other people send me stuff and they're like, I'm from Brazil, I'm a corporate lawyer, how can I help? I'm, I can go on. But currently as we've talked, we talked about it a few weeks ago. I guess the main thing that is my concern and has taken my attention almost 24 7, has been Iran and everything that has been happening in Iran about a few weeks back five weeks to be exact or six the tragedy occurred.
Tragedy a lady by the name of Masami, 22 years old was taken by the morality police and I can get into that. Later on because of what she was wearing, because of her hijab, by the way of way, she was wearing her hijab because she was actually covered and by all standards of Morality's own requirements she was more covered than most women that walk around than I've seen.
So she was unfortunately unlucky to be there. Target she was taken away. She was actually with her own brother walking. They were separated. Her brother was beaten at the time. She was dragged into a van and then taken away. A few days later her family were notified that she's been badly.
There was trauma to the head and the skull, and they found her in a coma. She passed about, 48 hours later. I if this is this it's so tragic that I have I had all the details down, but since then there have been numerous killings, numerous beatings 52 children we've lost 52 children.
Some shot point blank. Some beaten to death at schools with batons. There were many school ratings raids. Sorry. There were also there were people, there were mass killings at places of worship. We're talking about minor, just bloody Friday minorities Absolutely. At the city of Atch.
There was, and afterwards even there, there were being raided by military grade weapons. We lost about 66 people in 60 minutes. And I had previously said, I was like, that's more than a life per minute. If that's not the definition of genocide, and especially because they had targeted a certain ethnicity.
Then what is that, if if killing people for political means. Is not terrorism than what is, I think we need to revisit certain de definitions and when it comes to what the Islamic Republic of Iran's regime is doing, sadly, that tragedy occurred and Masa became the spearheading the force behind years.
I guess for beyond, I we talk about 40 years, but people of Iran have had decades of oppression and mistreatment by their governments. But I guess during the Shah era, which was before the 1979 revolution there was at least a system put in place where certain, there was a, if something like this occurred, you could go to the police and seek some sort of, justice, if you may. But unfortunately, this government has been has been oppressing, has been imprisoning, has been torturing. We have received news of rape in in prison cells. A lot of people have gone missing without any form of any information for their families. They've or any sort of, any information as to their whereabouts, their health, their condition, which is obviously completely against all kinds of laws, just even their own sovereign laws, even their own constitution even their own Sharia laws in their revolutionary courts.
So after that incident people had, people were just like, enough is enough. We've and I just wanna open parenthesis here because we've had many uprisings in the past. Even decade where people were seeking, they were like, we want our votes. We wanna know, we want our votes back. This election is rigged.
We want to live in a society where we are respected where women can become ministers, they can take ministerial positions, they can be judges where divorce is not a death sentence on someone's life, basically, where I will not lose my child even to a sick father. Cannot maintain or provide for the welfare of my child.
It, and that was just the aspect that's just the sort of, the gender apartheid aspect of this whole thing. There's also economy. We have 75% of our population almost I guess maybe even more than that below 35, 40. So let's say very young, vibrant modern liberal connected to the internet.
I guess that's also a very important to thing think, to think about this generations now easily they can, they have, they can have conversations, they can see what's going on outside. They wanna know what the latest, music out there is what the trends, fashion, all of that. And they're very tech savvy.
Which has helped in a lot of ways and I guess has mobilized this movement even beyond its beyond what we originally anticipated. But just to quickly circle back to Masa, it became, it came to a head, but it had all the un undercurrents of economical stagnation. People were fed up with all the this an economy which is basically mismanaged by lies. We have, if I'm not mistaken, 79% of college graduates are women in the higher education sector, so section. And we're thinking, and a lot of men, obviously a lot of boys who've got, they come out of their universities with stellar resume, like basically stellar grades and ready to work, ready to be part of the society or ready to offer their expertise.
Sadly there's no opportunity for them. They end up driving for what we have snap as opposed to Uber. They end up becoming taxi drive. Not, that's a very reputable job. I'm not saying, but I'm, what I'm, what I guess I'm saying is there are no opportunities like per buying a house, single, young couple is almost unheard of.
Rents are skyrocketing. Just I was talking to a friend of mine who was like, you have no idea. I get the receipt back from supermarket and it's like unbelievable. It's like, how can I afford strawberries nowadays? And we're talking about the affluent SEC sector of the society. And so these undercurrents came to a head economy, social oppression demand for civil liberties also this political deadlock, you may, because it's in a lot of ways what I was referring to when it comes to the initial uprisings about a few years ago I think it was 2001, 2003 I'm, I might be getting the years wrong, but 'cause I have to convert them, I know them in far c but the initial uprisings were about how can we fix the system?
How can we create measures within this system that is autocratic in a lot of ways. If not totalitarian to be honest. How can we figure out ways? And therefore there were many politicians who came about who, who were all about, a new measure, setting out new measures, finding ways to circumvent a very strict and very conservative way of interpreting these rules and regulations and allowing more space for people to breathe.
Unfortunately, that was quashed many times over and over again by an election that was rigged by creation of systems and, forces like the besiege or the morality police. And so this time it's different in that people are saying, enough is enough. We've had it, the system is not fixable.
And we want the dictatorships gone.
And I pulled some numbers this morning to use the latest based on Reuters. Over 14,000 people have been arrested. As you mentioned earlier, most of which we have no idea where they are. Only 300 have been confirmed killed, which we're guessing is significantly low.
Yeah. There have been protests at 129 universities, of which there's really only about 250 ish in the entire country. So that's, the majority of universities are having protests and it's been across 133 cities in all regions,
which is a huge difference to Yes. To what was happening before in that there were sections, there were these pockets of uprisings back in the days where it was like be it school, be it universities, be it strikes in certain oil refineries and what have you.
But now it's taken and I wanna point this out, Cara. It's I guess with this government's mis severely mistaken about is that. This, A lot of people who are against this regime are actually in their houses, but they believe that they have too much lose or have you.
So we, we have a sect of a society who's just very wild and ambitious and have had enough with what's going on, which are the students and people who have been under such such they've carried the burden of the economy being in such, such a bad place for so long. So they've, it's just reached up to here for them. But what's, what they're mistaking is that. Revolution is not just about the amount of people in the streets, it's about an ideology that has taken over many people's mindset. And that in itself is, brings about the demise of any regime. If you think about it, if you, if back in the days, women would walk in the streets with their scarves a bit, not quite right.
They would be told off or they would there would be an ultimatum or what have you. And now we see videos where police officers are passing by women without hijab or like women are just like, just carrying their scars on their shoulders or in their bags walking about having a great day with their friends and what have you.
Great. Relatively speaking, but, I guess that's that in itself is a huge reflection of what has happened throughout this movement in that it's transformed people. Now it's possible now we can have the life we want. There is a future. And I think once you see the end of the tunnel, once people get to see that light, it's almost impossible to go back and therefore there is a huge break between the relationship of the government and the people.
So once that ideology's take taken over, now you go to an office and people will, they would completely set aside the rules and regulations they have to abide by and they will do ads. As they think is right.
And to give everyone context for if this is the first time they're hearing you, of course you are an an ex human rights lawyer.
You are Yeah. Former, an actor. You were born in Tehran, grew up in London, now live in the us. So this is a personal passion project for you. Yeah. It's it's a part of you. There's no way that you can't be concerned and care. And we're seeing women across the world supporting the women of Iran, whether, as you mentioned before, there's Iranian heritage or not.
And there are protests literally happening everywhere in support of what's of the, as we mentioned on the podcast where we talked just about this. It was. How do we keep spreading the stories and the hope and the, we see. You keep going because when you look at 12-year-old girls literally protesting in the face of leaders it gives you a lot of perspective of what a chicken shit we are most of the time.
Yeah. I I guess there's another way to look at it as well. You mentioned that I grew up in London. I actually grew up in Tehran. I left Tehran when I was 16 years old. Okay. And so I've spent most of my adult life in London. But I grew up in Iran. I have had firsthand hand experience with the morality police.
I went to a correctional center. I slept there. I almost I had one, I spent one night in prison just for being at a party where we a mixed party with, with guys and there were alcoholic beverages there. Just like a normal, what a normal teenager would do. Yeah. And as I guess comical, it may sound now, for lack of a better word, it was pretty traumatic at the time in that during my sort of elementary years. At school I had the privilege of studying at a school where we were taught English. At the same time we learned English and far simultaneously at the same. And it was a very liberal open space. There was a lot of like curriculum was filled with, our syllabus was filled with arts and god knows what.
And as the years went on, and I'm talking about within five years time, all of a sudden there was a huge shift of, in terms of in the management sector of the education overall in Iran, they changed history books to accommodate what they feel like they should be teaching. Many of many of not just the education sector, but also journalism, freedom of expression.
There was a huge crackdown on on, on freedom of expression and the independence of journalists, which we now also I would love to get into that later on. Because there are two ladies who have they were the sounding boards, they, the of what happened tragically to Masa. And now they've been they've been conve convicted of espina espionage and capital punishment of which basically stands for those who corrupt the earth and that has capital punishment. So they're waiting, they're basically on execution. That's a sidetrack. I, mid school we were forced to wear chador, which is a long veil black long veil. We had to be covered. And just please just try to imagine like an 11, 12-year-old girl already wearing Magna, which is like a scarf a long socks long mon, which is like the long coat.
Trousers and sometimes in the deep heat of the summer, like it's, I, and when during winter it was pretty fine, but, and then in the mornings we would queue up and chant Death to America. Death to Israel. That was a thing for and for us, we, me coming from a family who's just so open-minded and my father's just in ways in shapes and form very much an atheist for him, we would just laugh about it.
And even amongst my friends that we would just be chanting at the same time we would be smuggling Britney Spear's posters this has been going on for a long, like we would we would smuggle CDs of Backstreet Boys at the same time. We had to pray during the Friday mass prayers and pretend as if we're very good Muslim girls.
That said there was, from very early on, you're forced to to assimilate to a system. That is very foreign to your body and to your everything. Like the trauma. That would ensue from like you when they told us to wear the chador, I was like, no, I'm not doing that. I'm already covered and I never forget I had me and, but 14 other friends of mine. And I still talk to my love of my tie our veils to the trees in protest which caused, me personally to be on probation for two months. And that was and you could, I guess what I'm trying to say is that these little pockets of protests, these little pockets of no, I refuse to live by your way, by your ideology.
That is in effect, boxing me as a woman. In some one of the ways that, as teenagers we grow up is our connection with the other sex, with the other people being open, being believe it or not, like I didn't know what sex was until I was like. And that is important for a woman until I was like, I guess 13, 12. Like I, I thought it was a sin. And when I heard that my parents had made me that way, I was like, I couldn't look at my mom in the eyes. I was like, you committed sin. You, and, and there was this sense of internalized guilt. Time tends to deconte, contextualize a lot of things.
Yeah. But the context of it all is that it's been happening for a very long time. And the trauma of it, we was, I'm, for me personally, I'm just reliving that. I'm reliving how they raided a the apartment that we were at a party and dragged women by their hair, put him in a van and took us to a correctional center.
What had we done wrong? It was just, it just came, this whole process is just, has kept getting more brutal and vicious and sadly, and it to where, has come to where we are now with the loss of lives.
And circling back on the impact on free speech and journalism, there's been of course, women as well as men who have been arrested for what they're saying who are either celebrities in some capacity, or journalists, musicians. Yeah.
We've got, yeah, just two days ago, too much, a very vocal, anti regime rapper. They and there's a reason why they arrest people, like too much to create fear.
To
create anxiety to create hopelessness amongst people and say, he was the big guy.
What can you do?
Absolutely. Sorry to interrupt you, you were saying oh no. It
just makes me wonder how many of the people who are. Being forced to arrest him. Actually want to, like, how many of your teachers are really cared if you wore whatever. I'm sure there's so many people being like, just please listen.
I'm gonna get in trouble if you don't
like there's, yeah. Oh my God, so many. Kara, so many. What I've always said to my non Iranian friends is what we need to understand about this regime is that unlike Daish or ISIS or Taliban, who. I'm not even sure they really believe what they're doing, but they use Islamism Islam, Islamic extremism to commit the atrocities for lack of, there's no way around it.
I can sugarcoat it and say they put pe women in holes and deny them education, but that's an atrocity to me, yeah. They behead women who, according to rules and regulations does that are very opaque and undo un unjust during unjust trials. They be, they behead people.
They they still stone like stoning a medieval brutal. That's, that happened. I guess the difference between the Islamic regimes way of going about it as opposed to Islamic is extremism of Alban is that they use this ideology, they believe in the ideology. That God has their descendants of, they get their power from some holy source, and anything other than that is spreading corruption on earth.
So everyone's a sinner, everyone's a criminal unless their devotion is practiced in the way that Dutch and is ISIS and what have you. The difference is that with the Islamic Republic, at least I don't believe they believe in these ideologies, they're using Islam as a, as an excuse to control factor, justify the control factor to suppress to, the whole the system is based on an idea that the leader is the descendant of gods or what have you, or the prophet.
Yeah. And so how can you, negate that in any way. If you're supposed to be a righteous Muslim and your leader is the descendant of the prophet, gets his has acquired his power through some holy means, whatever he says is Bible. It's Quran, right? Yeah. And so you can't, in a lot of ways, you are forced to accept it regardless of what you think is righteous regardless of your values and principles in complete disregard to human rights, human life, the sanctity of human life.
And so the Islamic Republic has used Islam and therefore hijab being one of the foundations of that. The, the gender IDE is a very well planned. System of not just divi creating, not just to create division between the sexes the sex of the society, but also to create this box where anyone who's outside it is either not accepted religious minorities, BAHAs have forever been denied education.
Their homes have taken, been taken apart or raid. They've been imprisoned for just believing a different way of worshiping God, for having a different language to what that higher being in Farsi we say, which means it's short for meaning come to yourself.
That's what God means. So in a lot of ways they've taken this extremist fascist mentality and codified it and use it to create something as. To be honest, in a lot of ways forget the fact that they're brutal, but they're ineffective. You cannot force morality upon anyone else in this century like you.
What is morality? Define morality. What is, how is it that your morality is more valuable than my morals? And just going back to what you were saying, they don't necessarily believe what they preach. They just use it because otherwise, why are we seeing all these, like, why are we seeing their children's in clubs in London?
Why are we seeing massive migration of their own if Western societies are so bad and vicious and mean, why are all your children in Ivy schools? Yeah. Why are pictures of you with your mistresses in the, that's small talk. I don't wanna get into that, but but because of that they've allowed themselves to oppress and one of the ways they do that is by controlling media, by controlling journalism, by by quashing any form of dissent, be it an ideology, be it a form of, that's why we have prisoners of conscious.
And that's why we have prisoners of thought and religion minority, it's all comes stems from freedom of not having freedom of expression which is the the cornerstone of any democracy. Did I miss something in, in your question or they
No I, no, I think you covered it and I think what keeps coming up for me is you've been quoted as saying that you've always wanted to be an actor. And you're clearly so passionate about like human rights and freedoms and justice, and I am so curious if, when you were practicing as a human rights lawyer, are you, were you then in this tug of war and are you still in this tug of war of how do I get to fulfill both sides of who I'm?
Absolutely,
that's a wonderful question. I guess there was a process for me, Cara, in that I I guess it the starting. I always, I've always loved, like my first love was theater and film. You can ask my mother, I would, she would turn on, turn off the TV at 4:00 AM when I had to go to school at seven.
I would watch classical classic movies of like golden era of Hollywood, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy and what have you. And and for me, theater is the most alive form of art, that connection with the audience, I don't think, I guess a lot whoever has had this feeling would understand what I'm saying.
That that feeling of connecting with the masses in a way that is deep. And energizing and also changes you. That's just I guess with any type of art, with any type of music. And that's why in a lot of ways I go back to how our Iranian youth want to find their God with art, within art and and music and creation. But for me personally, the journey was one, I became disillusioned with the whole system of international law, as I guess there is still power to the pen of these petitions. I always I always say there's power in signing a petition.
There is that, but one, when I was working in, in. When I was working as a human rights lawyer in the International Bar Association, which was like the largest bar association in the world, they help lawyers get acquainted with international law because a lot of lawyers don't actually study it.
But the system is based on agreements between states. And that in itself really depends on who takes. For example, Iran signs onto the and protect, like convention that protects women's rights. But then based on their sovereign laws, they can take reservations against anything they want. So they say something like, we will support women and this and that, but then we take reservation against that based on SHA law, which in essence is everything.
Yeah. Because we're talking about, we're talking about laws and re rules and regulations, which in essence, say a woman is half that of a man. So how can you bring about change if that is the, in very first blockage. And I always tell my friends, I'm like, don't think that when you sign a petition that someone's worked really hard on, that's your, you've done your bit and you can just go home and rest because that's not true.
We can look at the history of United Nations in general Assembly. They've been very effective and certain in a lot of ways. Absolutely. I will never deny that. And I admire the institution and value what they stand for and I will forever believe in them. But for example, if you were to look at how they set up a special investigative unit in 2017 for Syria where BA was basically using chemical weapons on.
On his own. And what has happened since then, they haven't even been able to get those people, those rapport inside to make those impartial investigations. So we need to understand the politics behind it as well. And how there's not really that much executive power. System. However, it is important because they stand as the beacon of hope in the institution that would make sure ensure, like for example Ms.
Kamala Harris who said today, there was a statement released that we will be standing by. As symbolic as that may be. And the gestures are very, I think there is still value to that that should be that should be acknowledged. And she was saying that we will stand by them and we will ensure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is no longer on the women's council, on the Women's Commission.
Isn't that interesting, by the way, the fact that there, they're all they're the leading force in the women's commission on women's rights. And that apparently that's u United Nations way of teaching the bad baddies what to do. But I guess I became an actor because it.
Ignited in me, the strongest sense of vocation to engage politically, socially, spiritually, heart and soul. And the kind of storytelling that allows people to understand each other better, get closer to one another. Because as you said, when we started this whole thing, when we were talking about in the beginning, in the podcast we're only as good as, how we understand each other.
I think that's the only way I always say my success is in being effective, not just for people I love, but also for Cara, but also for, humanity. Why else are we here?
And what I think is so interesting, the, you were in young Wallinger and the character, it's you look at the show and you're like, oh, crime drama.
But then you look at the conversations and the layers that are in it. It's much bigger than, oh, another Nordic crime drama. That's not oh, a
hundred.
And even the character that you play and how it's talked about and looked at I was not expecting the layers to be in that show at all.
Oh, thank you. That means the world. I'll definitely tell the producers Alf, tell Burn. It's really interesting, that process was wonderful in that initially we, I was not supposed to even have an accent. And I felt like just as an extra layer of representation, even though in a lot of ways career wise, it doesn't help 'cause you get boxed in.
I was like, no, I wanna do Jasmine with a hint of my mother. Yeah. And that sense of care and that sense of motherhood and that sense of what home feels like to me.
I
don't know if you're aware Cara, but I haven't been able to go back for a long time. First off, I did a lot of dodgy protesting.
I but also I did had this thesis written on women's rights and the comparative study, the studies of Islamic law and women's rights and then case study of Iran, and then it got published. It's so funny, I'm, most of the time I wasn't even attending classes and now all of a sudden I get something published.
And then I got involved with a news channel sorry. I got involved with a channel that was outside Iran. Very reputable, phenomenal, creative people. And just by nature of being in that channel, it was very dangerous for me to go back. I couldn't go back because I was seeking the truth.
I wanted
to know why I am not, as a woman. I'm supposed to be thinking of myself and my fellow sisters as half that of a man and have not have the privileges. And you can understand how the sense of idealism of a girl who comes out, leaves her family, leaves her friend, leaves her very incredible life.
Yeah. When you're home, you have, I tell my friends when you're home, you have that connection. You don't have to, you don't, a lot of times you don't even have to send out a resume. People know you. Yeah. When you're out outside, you're an alien. You will forever be searching for a home.
There's, I said it in this speech, I was like, home is where the mothers are. And that is, in its sense, it's very symbolic in that for me, also very personal, just not just symbolic. I lost my grandmother a few years back and I couldn't go. To mourn her. I couldn't go back.
That would've been dangerous for my family. That would've been dangerous for me. And in, interestingly enough, they, I got the news in a middle of a scene of a film I was doing. I'll send it to you. It's in Farsi, but it's pretty, pretty something I'm pretty proud of. Even though we had a lot of issues.
It's like this gigantic piece of beautiful artwork and it's very theatrical. We worked with the inter, with the National Theater in London. It's just like stunning piece of footage, I guess visuals a lot of beautiful. But I was in the middle of a scene where we, where my character says goodbye to her mother.
I will send you that thing. Yeah it's, please gives you goosebumps. It's a song, so I'm just talking about it. I literally said goodbye and there's like a collapse of everyone around 'cause it's very, the scene's supposed to be very loud and grotesque and sad and dark, and all these different characters just fall as I leave.
It's, I would love for you to see that. Yeah. It's just it's, but I got the news and all I was thinking was, and mind you, my grandmother was a huge source of inspiration for me. A great deal of my knowledge, my understanding of my, my my womanhood comes from her. She was very much of the opinion that I have to be independent.
I should never need anyone. I should stand on my own two feet. I have to be able to speak and speak aloud about things that matter to me. And you can just, I still haven't mourned her. I still feel like she's alive. And she is she's speaking to me. She had dementia towards the final years of her life, and she used to call all my other cousins my name.
She's Sara, why? Yeah, why, where were you? I have cooked for you. Where was like, anyway but I guess and that, that is also interesting that a woman that age, my, my grandmother passed away about eight years ago. She was 92 years old. Just to give you an idea of the foundations, even our foundations were against.
This notion that women should not, that women should be controlled. And I'm talking about women who was 92, 8 years ago. I guess it would be, it would be essential for me to tell you this, Cara, in that change is inevitable. And I'm not saying it in a cliche way. This government this regime as it stands, is bound to go.
And the reason other than the bravery and the uprisings and the protests and this transformative movement that has, that has taken over the world in a lot of ways that I'm speaking to you right now about, that's just, let's just put all of that aside. There is a new generation coming. It's not even about me anymore.
It's not even about people like, even 10 years before me. There's a new generation with new ideas with the power and the in inte intelligence and the perseverance. To get what they want. And I and you can think of that as a wave. Yeah. Waves cannot be stopped by rocks. They will leave their imprints on the shores of history.
And when we look back at this, we will be like, this was, wow. This was just a matter of time. It's not an, if it's an, it's a win, when is it gonna happen? That's how I get people, that's how I recruit people into this. It's if you wanna get on board, you might as well do it quickly because you know the ship's about to sail and this generation's not gonna have a no for answer.
And if it means sadly, the only thing that worries me is. The loss of life. The loss of our beautiful, we lost 19-year-old chef. When you look at him, like his videos, his creativity, we're doing a we're doing hopefully a wonderful remembrance piece on him. We're, I'm hoping to get in contact with the culinary, the international culinary community and like well-known chefs to just say his name.
Creative. There's this voice message of his saying, we will find the right job. We will, don't worry to his friends saying, don't worry. We'll go somewhere. Who pay like to people that pay us what we deserve and we're gonna, we're gonna be amazing. Trust me. We're gonna be famous. We're gonna be, it's like mind blowing.
We're talking about these lives that were so full full of potential. And just to end, end it on a note of we've Kara, we've lost our future leaders. These were our future leaders, and I thank them. I thank them. I thank all of them. The ones who are alive, the ones who've lost their families.
I thank them because they have transformed us and united us in ways that no other leadership could. Yeah, no other leadership could. We have, after 40 years finally come together people with like different ideas about how we should go about this. Different ideologies different. Like we have women who are full on wearing hijab.
Like one of, one of one of the most outspoken people against this regime is a lady who was one of the members of the parliament who like worked as as one of the ministers and was, she's they should go, they should be done. Get rid of them. They have taken everything from us.
They have taken joy, happiness, livelihood. They promise of a future.
Yeah. One of the questions that I ask everyone on this podcast is where you put yourself on the powerful 80 scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where do you put yourself today and on average, and how do you think about your own power?
Kara, if anything this movement has taught me is that. Each person is a platform. And I don't mean it necessarily like in a technical social media way. Every person, like every person has the power can create the means if they don't and take one step towards change. And I, very early on I had this I wrote this speech in which I said just, appealing to the masses out there, to the world saying Iran is bleeding and the world's silence is is breaking our hearts.
And I made a case for why this is a fight. That far sees Iran extends beyond the borders of Iran because it is a free, a fight for freedom of choice. To choose. Because how can you, for fact, and for someone's a true believer of anything, if they have no choice in choosing otherwise.
And this is what these dictatorships, these autocrats, I guess understand 'cause they cannot be that dumb. But go about it anyway, because they have, there's greed, I guess the greatest sin of all, so going back to your question, I feel I might not feel powerful. I might feel very vulnerable, but I feel very empowered.
I feel extremely empowered by my friends. Who inspire me, who give me hope. I feel extremely empowered by our allies, such as yourself for going, for moving ahead, for taking a step each day. If I were to, I wish I tell my friends, I wish I could fast forward this whole process for you and have you look back at this in five years time and make you realize how every step, every action that you've taken has been a hack at the root of this dictatorship.
But the name of this game is perseverance, is consistency, is this is a matter of be having each other's back, lifting each other up being there for one another. Because this is not just taxing on, on, on just physically. It's also very mental. Very mental. We wake up every day to, to an unspeakable amount of brutality, killings, beatings, imprisonments.
Just to think about those families who had to wait nine days just so they could go identify their unre, their children's unrecognizable faces and body backs. Nine days of waiting just so you could, and then I go, so I'm not going to allow for that life to have gone in wan vain.
I'm not going to that is a mission. That is what I'm here for. So I will get my power. From whoever I can, whenever I can, I will call Kara and be like, give me some of your give me some of your nuggets of energy intellect. Show me that what I'm doing is right and I will get somewhere and you're gonna be like, you know what?
You have already one. You have already won. We have already won. Yeah. We three weeks ago, no one would've imagined celebrities such as Angelina Jolie write about Iran and quote mo. No one would've imagined cold play singing to Shevin and call him a sweet guy. He was really one this sweet guy in Iran who is no, no one would've thought that cheering a, a body or noble laureate, a peace laureate would be talking about Iran.
In front of everyone, in front of the world and making a case for why it's right to support this movement, no one. This was unheard of. We all thought, you know what, it's not in the international community's best interest. They need a boogeyman in Iran. They need someone to act like that so that they could sell weapons to their other allies.
Yeah. Think about Akar, the Islamic Republic has been, has only been bad for its people. It's been great for all the countries around it. Yeah. And the countries far from it, including America.
And I heard today that there's the conversation that they might attack Saudi Arabia to distract from what's happening.
And I'm like,
Their ways. Yeah. Their ways. Because that's a way of uniting it's a way of them appealing to the patriarchy of the nation. Yeah. Being like, we are under attack and that's what they've done for a long while. That's how they justify their. Oppression of minorities.
They're saying, oh, Kurdish, people wanna, WW want our separatists, our terrorists. What Kurdish people have been literally fighting for in our borders for as long as I remember. And I'm, this is their, that's why they continuously, if you watch Iran's main news channel, you'll be amazed.
It's like a joke. It's like, it was heartbreaking to watch one of their I don't even wanna name his name, but he was like, we are the reason why Beshar asked that has been able to fend off 40 countries. You think we cannot get rid of you? You little God knows what little teenagers, he literally named two girls, Nika Shaka and me and Masini, and said it like they're nothing.
They, he was like, you think you are our problem? These two are a problem. This is nothing. The amount, the audacity,
the indecency is just, everyone has a struggle every day. And what I really hear in so much of what you're sharing is why it is so important to have a community and to have anchors of what hope is because the people who win are the people who do not give up on the hope piece.
The people who win are the ones who are committed to seeing the goodness that is everywhere versus everything else. That becomes a distraction and I think that we are beyond a we have surpassed as a globe that thinking that the people are the leaders. We power are the
people. Yeah.
Like that illusion that whether, whatever country you're from oh, Americans are like Biden or Trump, you're like. No, and it's the same for any other country you name. And we, because of the technology we have now to be connected to anyone anywhere, it's just echoing more and more of how much our core needs and commitments and the things we care about are so much more similar than ever before.
At least that we know of it.
That's that's beautifully said, Cara. 'cause I also, just to piggyback off of what you were saying it's sad that we only come together during our times of hardship, but it's also the silver lining of that is that we realize we suffer from the same pain.
We're hurt by the same oppression. Trauma is caused by the same, and I, by same, I don't mean same in the nature of the act. But in, in the way that it manifests itself in our body at a cellular level because body doesn't, I guess body has a language, but it doesn't understand it in, in, I guess words or actions.
It understands it in, for me, I feel like in a lot of ways, if you were to, if you may, in colors, in intensity, so when something isn't right, you can feel something isn't right at your core level, whether you deny it, take action against it, or as you said, seek out a community. I think what's been so wonderful is that literally within days the diaspora created a collective gathered funds, and we're like, how can we, okay, there are sanctions.
Okay, so what can we do to keep the voices alive? And we had the biggest billboard in the middle of Times Square. Set up by the donations of people. And this is pretty expensive stuff. This is very, very time consuming to do, but the power of community, the power of someone in having, connections in Instagram, apple, what have you, this, that to now part of our main concern which I would love to say on your podcast because we're soon to launch a fundraising, is sadly VPNs, which are our way of circumventing the internet blockage because the free flow of information is essential for this movement to go on.
And you wouldn't believe the amount that is needed to set that up and create. And we've been doing it we've offered VPNs to many people in remote desk areas. But we need it on a bigger scale because the crackdown is much more stronger. And I think, just one last thing, I also need to tell people just in case they're even wondering how to help, is that we need to understand that we've gotten the voice out there.
Everyone knows we've gotten the attention of our leaders. That's why Ms. Kamala Harris would write a statement. Now we need to shift a little bit towards creating creation of measures that are impactful for people on the ground inside. 'cause there's one, one thing is weakening the regime. The other one is empowering the people.
And because of rules and regulations in the international, national arena, maybe weakening the regime might become actually more devastating cause wars, as we were talking about. But empowering the people is so easy by merely incentivizing big companies to offer, allow better provisions of technology.
And it's just so easy to do, so putting pressure on people. And then if you if there's anything that I can just add and squeeze in there, there's like a petition for the removal of Iran from the Women's Council. I would love for people to take two minutes of their time and just sign that I know the problems of United Nations.
I know, but I think it's important even. Even on a symbolic level. And also, please, there's, there will be a day I'm not sure what the date is. I can post it on my Instagram that we're all calling our world leaders, like calling them the White House. There's a line that you can, apparently, I did not even know that before this.
And even send out, like basically sometimes you get a voicemail, you can just send out your concerns. Sometimes you get a person. There's a sort of international call to action. To contact your leaders, be it, email, be it, what have you, to just put pressure on them. We need that, sadly. We do need that.
We need the international community's help. And if anyone can take a couple of minutes of their time to I, I will post it on my Instagram. I'll send it to you, Kara, so that, sure.
Thank you again so much for taking time to Of course, share what's going on. Thank you so much. Your wisdom. Take time for us.
This means a lot to the power plays community. It means a lot to me. I, and I'm, I am, I have gratitude for what everyone in Iran is doing and for the women who are not in Iran, like yourself for being such a voice. Thank you. It supporting each other matters more than ever. And thank you for the work you're doing.
Yeah. And I look forward to having many more conversations with you.
All the links to connect with Sara are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening. And thank you so much in advance for leaving us of rating and review. It is so critical to help us get to more listeners like yourself. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, please visit kara duffy.com or Kara under Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and a great new guest. Until then, I hope for taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
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Music by Joakim Karud
