A Fuel Porter's Son Calls for Nonviolent Protest in Iran

Let there be a bit of honor and courage and humanity in you.

Do you have to take a side, either the Republic or Pahlavi?

Can't you be on your people's side?

You think my situation is better than yours? No, my dear.

When I was fourteen my dad lost his life just to earn a halal piece of bread.

My father was one of these fuel smugglers,

he went hit the road and never came back.

In this country some people have a father, an uncle,

a maternal uncle, they have a grandfather with a thousand kinds of backing,

and still their situation is not good.

Someone like me who has none of them, do you think my situation is better?

No, my brother, my wounds are deeper than the wounds of many of you.

But Instagram is like this,

you have to come and act like a hero, rile people up,

set the people and the officers against each other or provoke them, sprinkle salt on

the people's wounds,

play with their emotions and they turn you into a hero.

Someone like me who comes to make things better,

comforts people and says,“ People, protest…”

Do it, but do not let them take advantage of you,

do not let the country become unsafe.

Do not let some people come and start throwing rocks.

They call you Basiji, they call you“ values type,” I do not know, they insult you,

they slander you,

then some others come and threaten you too. My brother… protesting is good,

with the dollar now at one hundred thirty- six thousand, if we do not protest,

it will go to one hundred eighty thousand tomans too. But in the right way.

Do not come and destroy people’s private property,

do not come and destroy public property.

Someone who has opened their shop and not gone on strike might have just gotten

their paycheck.

Maybe their shop rent is overdue,

maybe their mother is hospitalized, maybe there is no bread on their table.

Why should we come and break their shop windows?

With this way, with setting officers on fire, nothing gets fixed.

Everything really gets worse. Side by side, for Iran, we protest, we go on strike in

the right way. From Baluchistan to Tehran, from Kurdistan to Isfahan,

we will build up Iran.

We throw out the officials who are incompetent, who are thieves,

who cannot run the country.

But let us not make the country unsafe. Let us not hand the country

to a bunch of Zionists to come and turn it into roses and nightingales for us.

No, none of that, my dear. If the country were going to be fixed this way,

Libya would be fixed, Syria would be fixed, Palestine would be fixed,

Iraq would be fixed, Ukraine would be fixed. Please open your minds a little,

think in a broader way.

It is not only your situation that is bad,

no one in this country feels well. Side by side, for Iran. Long live Baluchistan,

long live Iran.