Iran Unchained: How the Islamic Republic Holds Power and Why Protests Keep Returning | Sana Ebrahimi & Ameen Soleimani
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I think what people don't really understand is that we are not dealing with a normal government. We are dealing with a terrorist mob. And they are armed to their teeth. And they are not hesitant to use all of those arms and all of those powers on their own civilians. They cannot just... stand here and watch and say let them handle it themselves well they will be killed what we hear from people on the ground is something above like 30 000 people killed they kill thousands and if they have to they will kill millions
Bankless Nation, I'm here with Amin Soleimani and Sana Ibrahimi. Amin, Sana, welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me.
We are going off of our beaten path today to talk about a subject matter I think is critically important for the world. This is usually a crypto podcast, but crypto is about freedom. freedom from oppression and freedom to exit from systems that we don't agree with or align with. And so maybe there is some overlap between what we typically talk about on the show and what we're going to talk about here on today's episode. Amin, Sana, you guys are both Iranians. How does it feel to be an Iranian right now?
Right now, being an Iranian in the diaspora feels stressful, feels very tense, alone. Sometimes I feel very guilty to just not be there. especially when you see all the names and all the photos of the people who have been murdered. And I feel ashamed. I genuinely sometimes feel ashamed to be sitting in safety and to have everything that people are fighting for over there and giving their lives. So that's that. And at the same time, I feel very proud. I don't think there has ever been a time that any of us been more proud of being Iranian because of what we see and how our people stood up, like genuinely to pure evil, empty handed. That's how I feel these days.
Very similar, angry, sad, you know, sad because you open, you know, social media and you see the recordings of, you know, massacres and bodies and morgues filled with bodies of protesters who, you know, are just freedom-seeking Iranians that stood up to the Islamic Republic and got mowed down with machine guns. And then, you know, it's just like, adds up and then angry at the world for conveniently finding reasons to potentially ignore this, but fury at the Islamic Republic and everybody involved in that organization.
Amin, we've had you on the show before at least a couple of times. Maybe long-time Bankless listeners will remember our episode about Moloch, which is a metaphor parable that has some deep roots in Bankless DNA. Sana, you are new to the show. You are outside of the crypto industry. Maybe you could just introduce a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you came from, and your life story to kind of give us the context that we need to progress in this conversation.
So I am 30 years old. I was born and raised in Tehran in a lower middle class family. I was raised in the southern part of Tehran, south towards the middle, very lower middle class upbringing. I went to Sharif University. for my undergrad in computer science. And then in 2019, I moved to the States to go to graduate school. Right now, I'm a PhD student in computer science at University of Illinois, Chicago, soon to be graduating. And yeah, been here, been very vocal. When I was in Iran, I would attempt to protest anytime, any chance I got. And now trying my best to be as vocal as I can.
Maybe let's start with some foundation that we need to really have in order for this conversation, I think, to be effective. I think there's just an education gap, an information gap between the typical Western person about what Iran actually is and why it is that way. So maybe we can start with kind of just like talking about the Iranian regime, because I think that's something that's just so foreign to the average person who's probably listening to this podcast. Yeah. What actually is the Iranian regime? What does it want for itself? What does it want for the world? Does it have like a North Star that we need to identify?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:49
2
How do Iranian exiles describe what it feels like to be Iranian today?
6:49–25:23
3
What is the structure and ideological goal of the Islamic Republic?
25:23–30:42
4
How does repression, corruption and the IRGC function as a control system?
30:42–48:55
5
What is an Ayatollah and how does clerical authority concentrate power in Iran?
48:55–1:23:23
6
How did the 1979 revolution’s promises compare to the reality Iranians experienced?
1:23:23–1:34:20
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Bankless
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