“Forced To Wear Hijab At 4” - Rita Ranahi REVEALS Life Under Iran’s BRUTAL Regime
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
165.45824
Summary
In this episode of the podcast, I speak to Iranian-American, Iranian-Australian, American-Iranian. We talk about her life growing up in Iran, her family's escape from the country and her views on the current situation with Iran.
Transcript
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is she born in arkansas or iran but you're born in arkansas pine bluff arkansas yeah who would
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have thought it's a long way from tehran isn't it yeah my dad was in arkansas studying there's a lot
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of iranians did pre-islamic revolution and went back after he finished the degree as expected and
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then a couple of years later the islamic revolution happened and the whole country as you know
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went backwards into the dark ages so yeah that's um how we eventually ended up in australia we
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escaped iran it took some time and um were granted asylum in australia so that's yeah that's the
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story yeah it's interesting because we had a lot of relatives that they would either go to
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europe to get their green card to come to the states or they'd go to australia
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there's a lot of asyrians also in australia yes yes absolutely a lot of my family ended up in
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Europe ended up in Sweden so they've really set up there they've got well to their third
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generation now um much smaller number of panahis in Iran in in Australia I should say still a lot
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in Iran so there's always so much worry about what's happening there because we've all got
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still family there who are trapped there and um I can't go back I haven't been back since I left
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the country when i was eight or nine um and it would be madness to go back you would be locked
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up and killed in record time so do you have memories i do i still remember um i regionally
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lived in um a coastal town on the caspian sea so that was ideally because i'm a beach
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like to this day you live by bandar palavi or um shomal shomal yeah shomal bandar palavi rash
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So that's my earliest memories, and then we moved to Tehran,
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That was the first time I was forced into the hijab
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because, of course, you have to wear a hijab to go to school.
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Even if you're a four-, five-year-old girl, you have to be covered.
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And that's where we were taught to chant Death to America
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at assembly every morning so yeah those memories i have but um happier memories in australia was
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1984 we moved to australia 84 you moved to australia so i was born in iran and i'm in u.s
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now you were born in arkansas but you lived in iran for eight nine years yeah and then you moved
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to australia what do you see what do you see from iran that maybe the rest of the world doesn't see
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When people say, why should we mind, why should we deal with Iran?
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Look, we should worry about Iran on a number of fronts.
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I can understand the America first absolutist to say this isn't, this war, this conflict isn't in our interest.
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i get it and i completely sympathize because we have say we america because i still see myself
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also as american i'm still a u.s citizen um we do have been involved in these forever wars that
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have cost so much so much human life so much money that could be better spent here so i
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completely get that but Iran is different to Iraq and Syria and Libya and some of the other
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regimes that have tried to be the US has been involved in overturning. One, Iranians sponsor
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terrorism as we know so it touches everybody that had plots to kill our president so I would
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have thought that would be a fairly good reason to take note of what they're doing but also the
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I think the overwhelming majority of Iranians want to be done
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It's very different to the rest of the Arab world,
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and it's something I think Americans have trouble understanding
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because they just look at the Middle East as one big region,
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they have a history that predates um islam by some some distance and and those traditions and
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those belief systems have withstood so much including the islamic revolution so i think
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given the chance a free iran would be a wonderful ally for the west and i think it serves as an
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example of what can happen when you allow forces that are anti-West to take hold. I think we're
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seeing signs of it in Europe. We're seeing signs of it right here. And we've got this
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ugly, unholy alliance between the Islamists and the leftists, whether you want to call them
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communists, socialists, or just the left in general, that share nothing in common with Islamists
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other than their hate of Republicans, conservatives,
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But in Iran, they got together and they overthrew the government
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and took hold in 1979 and they've been in power for 47 years
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and I think there's just a lot of lessons to be learnt out of Iran
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which are particularly noteworthy today in the West.
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And the left should realise that though they helped the Islamists
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gained power in Iran. What happened? As soon as the Islamists took power, they rounded up all the
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leftists and killed them. It's not a happy ending in this union. One side's going to prevail and
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it's not going to be the leftists. So it really makes me crazy to see even now when you've got
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people out there protesting, saying free Iran. Free Iran from what? The regime has been absolutely
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brutal in oppressing the people there. Why weren't you marching a month ago or two weeks ago when
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they were gunning down people in the streets, gunning down people in hospitals, recovering
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from injuries they had in the protests. So I've got very little patience for the left in this
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country and in Australia who are consistently on the wrong side of history and they do it from
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a position of complete ignorance of what's to come so yeah that was a very long answer to your
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question but i think there's lessons to be learned out of iran really important lessons that if you
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know history maybe you won't be doomed to repeat it yeah it's it's interesting to see not only the
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leftists i mean there's even some people uh on the woke right that are saying you know what are they
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doing wrong what's the big deal what's taking place there it's a very interesting uh thing
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taking place on which groups are agreeing with each other in iran especially in u.s and i'm sure
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it's happened in australia as well uh we're leftists losing it do you think you'll ever
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run out of content with your show this is the thing i mean i i mock the left because they're
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very mock worthy but there is no shortage of content the left are determined to be crazy
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that determined to be crazier than the next person and whether it's mainstream left like
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you know, the ladies of The View or your host on MSNBC,
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or the people who are just posting their rants on TikTok or Instagram,
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I don't think you're ever running out of content.
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not all of them, but a great majority are so left and so gutless.
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And it's like how much more crazy does your site have to be for you
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to use some of that material in such rich content?
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So, yeah, no, that's – and I think mockery is an important tool.
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I think the right needs to use mockery a lot more.
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It's a very powerful way to put across a point.
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And when the left give you so much to work with, why wouldn't you do it?
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By the way, there's a lot of guys that are doing it now, and it's working out.
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There's a lot of – we have a guy, Vincent Toshana, who makes clips,
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making fun of Newsome, and they always go viral.
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But for some of you that are watching it, that are fans, she's officially on Menexa.
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So if you want to connect her and ask her questions, you can.
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I think her QR code is going to be somewhere below here.
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