Jason Rezaian

This is not tenable.

Our life is getting worse and worse.

Our standard of living is decreasing by the day.

And you have no answers and no credible path to a better future for us.

And so really begging the world to help them and not finding too much help.

You know, and Iran, we forget, is a multi-ethnic country, lots of different languages, Azeri Turks in the north, Baluchis, Kurds, Afghans, everybody rising up.

And actually, what's really unique about these protests and the Masa Amini protests in 2022 is this sort of a call and response between these different ethnic groups

and religious groups saying, we support you.

I think the truth is that Iranians, whether they're Muslim, Shia, Sunni, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Baha'i, they think of themselves as Iranian first.

And that's something that goes back 2,500 years, and I think it's something worth preserving.

I think it's the ideological fervor mixed with the fact that they can still sort of buy the loyalty of those kinds of people.

When they can't buy that loyalty anymore, you'll start seeing them switch real fast.

But that hasn't happened yet.

And I think when it does happen, that's game over, right?

But I haven't seen visible signs of that yet.

It's not something that people can go back to their daily lives after.

I've been able to communicate with some relatives and friends back in Iran.

And, you know, the bearing witness

and sharing what's happened is what's so important to them right now.

People are just saying, you can't imagine what we've just experienced.