So I have been recently hired as a researcher at a European university. Most colleagues in the laboratory where I'm working are Iranian. One of them is a Kurdish Iranian who has been heavily outspoken against the Iranian government.
Today at lunch break, he mentions to me that he's planning with a friend to go to a city about 3 hours away. I ask him what he's going to do there. He replies that he wants to attend a protest. Apparently, he told me, some local "far-left, pro-Palestinian" protesters had harassed some Iranian people there, even going so far as to threaten one woman with rape. He tells me he's going there to make a stand against it.
Obvioulsy I tell him that's fucked up and there is no reason for someone who is pro-Palestine to be harassing an Iranian woman like that. He continues the conversation by denouncing the Iranian regime, he tells me he personally knew protesters back in Iran who were killed and that he heard from sources close to the government that the official death toll according to them is 93,000. "Whether you want to believe it or not" - he added to me.
For context, I've known this guy for slightly over a month now and had never mentioned politics to him before, so this conversation comes completely out of the blue for me.
He says that western pro-Palestine protesters do not truely believe in the cause and do nothing to support it, that they're only in it because they hate Jewish people. He says that Iran destabilizes the region by funding terrorist groups, so there is no freeing Palestine unless the Iranian regime is made to fall first.
Finally he says that he hates the western press because he feels they do not truely care about Iranians. He mentions a interview to Pahlavi he saw where he complains that the western journalists would only ask him whether he's a US or Israel asset.
I don't really know what to say to him at this point. The man looks clearly emotional, almost to the point of tears. The only thing that comes out of my mouth is that unfortunately, I don't think any government on Earth truely cares about the Iranian or Palestinian people, and that what makes me angry as a westerner is that our governments have been inflicting so much war and violence on the Middle East while claiming to be liberators. He replies: "there is no choice between bad and good for the Iranian people, only between bad and worse". At which point, the conversation abruptly ends.
I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this. I don't think this guy is some privileged "gusano" by the way, he seemed very genuine. And he's no zionist either, in fact every time I've heard him mention Israel in these past few weeks, it's never been positive. I just feel worried I might have acted insensitive towards him, even though I could barely muster anything to say throughout our chat. Beyond everything, what's truly upsetting about this experience is the feeling there is nothing I could have said to truly comfort or reach out to him.
In the end, I maintain what I said: there is no trusting the West or Israel or any puppet they may hold up as the "legitimate" leader. Not while they bomb school children, for fuck's sake. If the Iranian people - or any people - truly want liberation, they should take matters into their own hands. But I can't very well say that to the face of a man who is suffering for his friends and country, can I? It'd feel like telling him to raise himself up by his own bootstraps.
Such is today's world: that bloodthirsty demons feast on us common people's bones while we feel like we have to walk on eggshells trying to express solidarity to each other.