Juno News - September 07, 2020Resisting the Regime
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Summary
Glenn Torshizi lost three of his brothers to the Iranian regime. He now lives in the United States, but his three brothers were killed at the hands of the regime going back to the 1980s. In this episode, he shares the story of their deaths and how their families continue to speak out against the regime.
Transcript
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This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
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Coming up, exposing the brutality of the Iranian regime
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with a man who's lost three of his brothers to it.
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welcome everyone to the andrew lawton show here on true north it is labor day monday september
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7th and very good to have you aboard this program we are going to do things a little
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bit differently today typically on holidays we break with tradition and do a bit of a different
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show than we normally do today i want to spotlight a story that is not one you're hearing in the
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mainstream media but is nonetheless an important one that i think has a message that freedom
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loving people in Canada, in the United States and around the world need to hear. Last week,
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in fact on Friday, there was a display put on at the Washington DC Capitol building
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by the Organization of Iranian American Communities. A photo exhibition honoring
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victims of the Iranian regime, a photo exhibition that was documenting systemic human rights
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violations, abuse, torture and executions at the hands of the Iranian regime going back decades.
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And one person who knows this struggle all too well is Glenn Torshizi.
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He now lives in the United States, but his three brothers, his only three brothers,
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were killed at the hands of the Iranian regime going back to the 1980s.
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Glenn Torshizi was one of the speakers at this exhibition on Friday and joins me on the line now.
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Glenn, thank you so much for your time today. Really good to speak with you.
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Sure. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my story.
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I mentioned in the introduction just the horrors at the hands of the Iranian regime going back decades, and you more than anyone else know these, not on an abstract level, but on a very personal level with the experiences that you've had with your family.
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And I mentioned just very briefly that you had lost your brothers, but you spoke at this event on Friday. Why is it that you're speaking out?
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What is the story that you can really bring to the table that illuminates the horrors of this regime?
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what i can tell that the story of iranian regime treating its citizen the way it treated my brother
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is still going on i lost three brothers during the 1980s my younger brother behruz he was executed
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for taking pictures according to the officials my other brother bahman was killed during a
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confrontation, they say. We don't know. And my other brother, Reza, he was sentenced to seven
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years in prison. And after seven years is over, my father goes and asks for his release. And they
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say, no, we cannot release him because he has not repented yet. And my father asked my brother,
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why don't you repent and go to your brother, me, in United States? And he said this horrific
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a story that that is not easy they have divided the prisoner in two camps one camp repent and one
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camp do not repent and they are asking people who do not repent who do repent to kill those who do
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not repent and i cannot do that but they say my brother he has a false idea with him and for that
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reason they sentenced him to seven years in prison and now they want to make a criminal out of him
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and that was something that my brother could not do and one day they called my dad to come and
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get him and my poor dad he thought that they are going to release him we could not believe
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that they do such a thing to kill an innocent person just for not repending and killing others
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you know your first brother to be killed at the hands of the regime Beirouz that was in 1981 and
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then of course you lost another brother Bahman in 1982 and in 1988 your final brother I believe Reza
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why was your family still criticizing or pushing back against the regime with this loss because
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that's not a level of courage that a lot of people could imagine in these circumstances
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I hear that a wrestling champion right now, they have sentenced him to death.
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And two brothers are, they have sentenced to long-term prison.
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And my brother Reza, he was a swimming champion in Iran.
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They told that mother two years ago, don't talk about it and everything is going to be okay.
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no nothing is going to be okay we need to talk we need to speak out we need to work communities to
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know that you are you cannot deal with these criminals you cannot negotiate with these
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criminals these are people whose hands is soaked with blood and how can you treat them as normal
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state persons you know these are criminals and the place for criminals are in jail not to be
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power in power in iran do you have family still in iran yes i do and my mother he is back and forth
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with me and goes back to iran you know what this is something that not many people can understand
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And my mother, he needs to be close to his sons in Iran, even if they are dead.
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My question, I guess, was coming from a place of,
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is there a risk that you and your family experience by you speaking out
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They have killed so many people around the world.
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And two years ago, I was in an event in Paris, and the regime, this time, they sent one of
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their diplomats to that event, and I was with my son.
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The regime has two things in hand to stay in power.
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Iranian people inside and pushing terrorism outside. And I cannot understand why the Western
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government, like the previous one, Obama regime, they sit down and negotiate with these people
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and give them plain load of cash. This is not acceptable at all, you know?
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You know, a moment ago, when you mentioned the possibility that you could have lost your son
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in Paris. And that was, I presume, the Free Iran Conference, where this is, again, a notable threat
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that has traced back to the Iranian regime. And you tear up talking about that possibility.
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So I guess I'm still trying to understand, for people that don't have this connection to Iran,
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how do you justify in your mind still fighting and still advocating when there is a risk to you?
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Because you live in the United States right now, you have a family, you have a career.
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A lot of people would wash their hands of this and say, this is no longer my fight.
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Because there is no day I cannot think about my brothers.
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This is Reza, this is Bahman, and this is Behruz.
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and still there are so many families are being destroyed this is the thing that it stopped is
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the same question like when fascism was in power in germany people should fight this regime has
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two characteristic and this is the support that we get is bipartisan last time i was in an event
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And Rudy Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York, he talked about the mafia nature of this regime
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And another person, Patrick Kennedy, he talked about the fascism part of the regime.
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because his uncle was killed fighting fascism he said i cannot sit here in washington
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or in u.s and watch this fascist what they are doing to iranian people that's the reason that
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we need this regime go and we need the world community understand that you cannot negotiate
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with these people these are do not belong to 20th century iran is a good country iranian
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people are nice people we can have normal relationship with everybody our passport is
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worth nothing you cannot travel with your iranian passport anywhere because of the government why
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that's the reason i want a better iran for my people we have suffered i don't want other to
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suffer the way we have suffered that's the reason i'm keep fighting and the thing about it is many
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the regime says if we go there is no alternative nobody can do better than us no there is a viable
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alternative we have national council of resistance of iran and we have a president elect mariam
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rajabi and these people are much much better alternative than the present regime and the
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fight with the iranian regime is not just the political it is a fight of religion at all
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there are two interpretation of islam one interpretation of islam is the reactionary
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islam that those people advocate and another interpretation of islam is the modern islam that
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mujahideen are promoting and in this interpretation everybody is equal regardless of their religion
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they are very tolerant they have a consistency with the modern world but those people they
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Their plan is the Islamic world government, and they are not shy about it.
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If you study the Islamic Republic constitution, they say that the duty of our forces is not
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only to protect the Iranian border, but to spread the Islam all over the world by force.
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And that's the reason you see them in Iraq.
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You see them in Lebanon, you see them in Yemen, you see them in Afghanistan, and they are
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spending billions of dollars of Iranian money to give to their so-called soldiers to fight
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You raised an important point there, actually, I think, because when the Giuliani comment
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that we need to treat them like the mafia or the Patrick Kennedy comment that we need
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to treat them like the fascists is accepted, we can look at those things and say that with the
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mafia, law-abiding citizens combine and unite and defeat the mafia. With fascism, freedom-loving
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countries around the world unite and defeat it. You just pointed out something that everyone needs
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to know, that Iran is not just content to focus on Iran. They want to expand and conquer in many
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cases. Yet the global community is not always aligned in combating Iran. In fact, even in
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you're in my countries, the United States and Canada. You have a lot of politicians
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that want to appease Iran rather than calling a spade a spade. So what's the message to them?
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Because those people, when they say that, oh, well, we can just give Iran some money and just
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shake hands with them and say that they're going to disarm nuclear weapons capabilities and all
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of that, they aren't thinking of your brothers. The message is that it's simple. They are coming
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eventually to bite you. Those Iranian people, the politicians, they are very shrewd. They have a big
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smile and they portray that, oh, everything is going to be okay. This is the opposition. They
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are just talking. We are not that bad. And they have hired, they have access to billions of dollars
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of Iranian money, and they spend millions of dollars of those money to buy to people
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We have a strong lobby group in Washington that these people are highly educated in Western
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countries, and they go and talk to the politicians, and they say, no, everything the opposition
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is saying is rise, and the regime is not that bad, and everything.
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Unfortunately, many people, money talks, I guess, get persuaded that maybe they have an argument.
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But the thing about it is I'm a physicist, okay?
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And I know Iran is on top of the sea of natural gas and oil.
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And all the major countries like Japan, Germany, they have realized that nuclear power is not
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They are going back to renewable energy like solar.
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I was surprised that in Canada, there are a lot of solar panels on top of the roof.
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And Canada, compared to the sun, is not getting the 100% of the sun's energy because of the
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Iran is directly in front of the sun, and we have a lot of land that they can use solar
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The money that they spend to build the bomb, and they lie about it, and they say, no, no,
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no, we don't want to build the bomb, we want to have the peaceful nuclear energy.
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And then the Western government, they said, OK, let's go and negotiate with them in JPO,
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I don't know the rest of it, and have a treaty with them to inspect what they are doing.
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No, the minister came and said that we had two kinds of two, one we showed to the Westerners
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and the other one we kept to build our bomb, basically.
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So that's the reason I say that this is danger and is the Western government, the politician,
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unfortunately, they think some of them for the next two years, some of them the next
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four years, and they don't see the long term what is going to happen.
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But the Iranian people are suffering every day.
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And they are spreading this terrorism to the Western countries.
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That's the reason this, and we are not, the Iranian people are not asking the Western
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The only thing that we are asking, not to negotiate with the regime, not to support
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the regime, not to trade with the regime, and the rest of it, the Iranian people will
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And we have the alternative in place that the minute that they go, the alternative will
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come and take over, and we are going to have good relation with our neighbors.
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relation in Middle East, good relation with the Western world. Why they don't see this?
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And of course, I'm glad that you are talking to me and the world is getting around. And many
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Western politicians are coming to the table. Last year, for example, the majority of the House in
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in the United States passed a resolution condemning the Iranian regime.
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So these are hopeful signs, and I'm hoping even what President Trump did, maximum pressure
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And these are the steps that we ask the Western world, Western politicians to take.
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let the iranian people take care of this regime but not helping them they help the regime by
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sending plain load of cash i cannot understand why do you send plain load of cash to this regime
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and what that cash was not used for iranian people the cash went to outside
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they want to have a path to the mediterranean i don't know yeah and that's i think the very
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important point here is that there's a huge divide always between what the Iranian regime
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tells the world it wants to do and how it actually ends up acting with its people. And this is, I
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think, a great example of that. I do have to ask you, because your brothers were not soldiers in
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any conventional sense. They weren't going to war with the regime on a battlefield. One was a
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photographer, one was a documentary filmmaker, for example. But even so, you have called them
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martyrs and freedom fighters. And I was wondering if you could explain that.
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The reason is my younger brother, he was taking pictures for opposition group, MEK.
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They had a daily newspaper, 500,000 people, they would buy these newspaper and they would
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give it to other people, millions of people could read those articles, could see those
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My younger brother, actually, he was a photographer for the paper.
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And the reason that they killed him, to silence the opposition, to silence the truth, to not
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And my other brother, he was making documentary, it's the same thing, because the regime was
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saying everything is good, and he takes his camera and make a documentary.
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And look at this, look at this situation in Tehran, look at this place.
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people are suffering and they don't want the truth to come out and their number one enemies
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are people with cameras people with uh knowledge to make documentary and there are a lot of
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reporters are in iranian jail they close a lot of newspaper every day they close a newspaper
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people they go and open up another newspaper they close it again they close it again and there are
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And it's important to note that this was the early 1980s.
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It was a lot more difficult to be a photographer,
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And those days, if you remember the cameras are bulky
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He says taking pictures is a crime by execution.
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because these people are cold-hearted, ruthless,
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They want the 20th century to conquer the world.
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Everybody be Muslim like we tell them to be.
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People can study if they like it, they believe it.
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Why do you want to put everybody under your guidance to take them to God?
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These people just, I cannot understand, to be honest with you, what is in their mind,
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this is something that we want the world to see what they are doing you know so despite the
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tragedy to your family you believe there was a meaning to these deaths of course of course
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when i saw my brother's picture in the lawn in front of the
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congress of the united states in front of the washington monument and many people come to me
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and they say that they inspired us so there is something to it you know they
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and to think about it is my brother they wrote their will and in their will they explain what
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kind of uh uh society they want they said that they want that he said in our belief of islam
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there is no distinction between jew christian zoroastrian um people who do not believe in
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nothing we are all iranian we should live in peace and harmony in iran this is a quite different
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interpretation of islam because they say that in islam there is a verse in quran it says law
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there is no force put pushing your belief on other people you can advocate your belief but
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you cannot push it but those people are doing the opposite they do not advocate their belief
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they push it for example uh people's majority in our organization of iran mrs mariam rajavi
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she herself has a job but she's not forcing this on other people they say that this is a freedom
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of how you want to wear you know and this is completely opposite to
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what the other people are advocating i remember one time i was walking on the street of
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tehran with my wife and some of these revolutionary guard they came and separated us
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and they were questioning me why do you let your wife to wear clothes like this and my wife my
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poor wife she was a young girl young woman and what she had she had a colorful shirt on i said
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i cannot tell her what to wear is it's not my to say she is a human being you need to respect
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her as a human being ask herself why she chose that dress is and she said no no you should tell
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your wife not to do that these are people like this you know many people they cannot understand
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you just laughed you know what kind of craziness this is that they question me for what my wife is
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wearing you know and unfortunately these things is going on and but mrs rajabi says whatever they
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want to wear if you go to mek meetings you see that a miniature of the iranian society in those
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meeting we have people of all kinds of religious belief zoroastrian jew christian non-believers
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we have people from court lord gilak all kinds of different ethnicities that they live in iran
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we have people from all walks of life highly educated doctors engineers and ordinary people
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this is what we want a an organization that represents everybody and the reason that they
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can represent of everybody because they believe in freedom freedom for mek is not something just
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in word is indeed they have proven after so many years that they are not
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lying about it you know in practice they have showed it so that's the reason i appreciate this
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group that they are still fighting and i'm happy to help them you know so i'm hoping that the end
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is near this regime cannot go on like this and if the western government they do not trade with
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them they do not give them money the money that they have is not their money is the iranian
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people's money and if you sign a contract for 25 years with them this is betraying the iranian
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people, you know, and that's all we are asking, you know. And I think that that goal for freedom
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is something that all in Iran and all around the world should embrace. So I thank you very much
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for speaking out about your story. And obviously, I thank your brothers for taking a stand, even
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though it had a tragic end. As you said, there's a meaning and a purpose to that. Glenn Torshizi,
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thank you very much for your time, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew, for taking the time and
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listening to me thank you wow i mean a moving story and as i said at some point in the interview
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glenn's story is not just about politics it's about his life and that of his family so i thank
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him very much for sharing that that does it for me i want to thank all of you for listening and
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also glenn torshisi for coming on the program we'll talk to you in a couple of days with another
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episode of the andrew lawton show thank you god bless and good day thanks for listening to the
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Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.