WJC Analysis: Slicing Syria ~ World Jewish Congress

Abstract 

(selected quotes)

Many regional and external actors are involved in the Syrian tragedy. On the one side is President Assad’s bloody regime propped up by Syria’s traditional allies – Iran, Russia, and China…France, on the other hand, is not enthusiastic about the prospect of the Brotherhood and prefers to promote the secular Syrian leadership that has long since found refuge in Paris…Saudi Arabia, who, like France, dislikes the Muslim Brotherhood, would rather promote the Salafists, who are close to al-Qaeda…Yet what is even more troubling is the fact that actual viable candidates to lead Syria are ignored by rivaling powers. Candidates include the Kurds of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria led by Sherkoh Abbas and a Sunni leader, Farid Ghadri, the head of the US-based Reform Party of Syria. 

WJC ANALYSIS - Slicing Syria

By Pinhas Inbari

16 July 2012

Over the past few decades, Lebanon has been the go-to place for internal struggles between Arab states. Arab nations would use their proxies in Lebanon in order to underscore a point in a larger confrontation with their neighboring states. When Syria and Saudi Arabia sought to avoid all-out war, the two rivals sent their representatives to fight in Lebanon, at that country’s expense, instead of sacrificing their home soil.

Thus, the Lebanese civil war saw Palestinians, Amal Shiites and Christians fight on Syria’s behalf, and Fatah-affiliated Palestinians, Sunnis and Christians do Saudi Arabia’s bidding.

Later, after Iran gathered momentum, Hezbollah won the day in Lebanon. Today, it is Syria that finds itself at the forefront of regional power struggles. However, unlike the conflicts in Lebanon, which were intended to preserve the status quo in the region, the multi-pronged struggle in Syria centers around the conflicting ideas of altering the situation in the war-torn country.

Many regional and external actors are involved in the Syrian tragedy. On the one side is President Assad’s bloody regime propped up by Syria’s traditional allies – Iran, Russia, and China. The rebels are supported by the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Europe, led by France. However, the rebels’ impressive list of backers should not mislead us into thinking that it gives them the advantage. Whereas Assad’s supporters are fewer, they form a more coherent and united block, compared with the rebels’ backers, who are split with regard to their vision of future Syria.

The United States, Turkey and Qatar wish that the Muslim Brotherhood control post-Assad Syria. That is the reason why the body meant to lead the opposition – the Syrian National Council (SNC) – operates out of Turkey and is completely under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood. France, on the other hand, is not enthusiastic about the prospect of the Brotherhood and prefers to promote the secular Syrian leadership that has long since found refuge in Paris. The former head of the SNC, Sorbonne Professor Burhan Galioun, a left-leaning Arab nationalist, recently lost his patron, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Turkey and the United States have since had an easier time isolating him and nominating a Kurdish exile, Abd al-Baset Seedah, in his stead. 

Saudi Arabia, who, like France, dislikes the Muslim Brotherhood, would rather promote the Salafists, who are close to al-Qaeda. While the rush to promote the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is coming out of Turkey, the Saudis have been pushing the Salafists onto Syria from Lebanon. France has also tried to bolster its position in the region by giving shelter to Manaf Tlass, so far the most meaningful defector from Assad’s ranks.

Astonishingly, none of the powers vying for regime change in Syria actually envisage a dramatic improvement over the government of Bashar al-Assad. Muslim Brotherhood rule in Syria will most likely result in the creation of a state akin to Sudan, or, at best, Tunisia. A Salafist takeover would produce the horrifying prospects of a new Afghanistan in the heart of the Levant.

The suggestion from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who proposed leaving the current Syrian regime in place and simply removing Assad himself from the equation, is troubling because such a plan would leave Iran’s deep infiltration into Syria intact. In light of these possibilities, it is not surprising that Russia is suggestingthat  the world stick to the devil it knows.

Yet what is even more troubling is the fact that actual viable candidates to lead Syria are ignored by rivaling powers. Candidates include the Kurds of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria led by Sherkoh Abbas and a Sunni leader, Farid Ghadri, the head of the US-based Reform Party of Syria.

They share the vision of a decentralized government in Syria that would guarantee the safety of individual citizens and minorities in the framework of a federation that would also guarantee the coherence of government, while preserving autonomy for minorities and religious communities. 

This plan was at the core of the dispute in the latest Cairo meeting of Syrian opposition groups. When Sherkoh and his colleagues observed that the prospects discussed were mere copies of yet another centralized government, either under the Muslim Brotherhood banner or the leadership of Arab nationalists like Manaf Tlass, they blew up the meeting. 

The distorted vision of post-Assad Syria is best exemplified by the Western elevation of Tlass – the former commander of the despised Republican Guards whose sole duty has been to protect Assad and his regime. What is more, Tlass’ chances of being accepted into the ranks of the opposition are close to nil, not only due to his professional history, but also to his provenance. The name Manaf is known as a pagan, pre-Islamic designation, which immediately raises a red flag with the Muslim Brotherhood. 

It is less important to see whether Manaf Tlass is accepted by the Syrian rebels. What is more puzzling, is the West’s rejection of parties that envision a better future for Syria in favor of the likes of Tlass and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are more than likely to perpetuate either a nationalist or an Islamist despotic regime in Syria. 

http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/12096/wjc_analysis_slicing_syria

"I Am Neda" film panel on The Glazov Gang, FrontPageMag.com

Jamie Glazov

FrontPageMag.com

July 16, 2012

On this week’s Glazov Gang,  Roozbeh Farahanipour of Marze por Gohar, Homayoun Mobasseri of Neda For A Free Iran, and Nicole Kian Sadighi the film's Director and starring actress gathered to discuss a new movie, I am Neda, about the Iranian martyr.

Three-Part Panel Discussion

Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax03VW-k1CY

Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Z5eVpit0w 

Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV2Yi4nH2Vk&feature=youtu.be

Article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/jamie-glazov/i-am-neda-on-the-glazov-gang/

Muslims Against Islamists: Samir Abdelkhalek

By Ryan Mauro

June 10, 2012

RadicalIslam.org

At only 18 years old, Samir Abdelkhalek is an anti-Islamist activist and is on the Board of the Directors of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and has been a core member of its Muslim Liberty Project since March 2011. He participated in the pro-NYPD rally on March 5, 2012.

Since January 2009, he has served as the Cadet Chief Petty Officer in a unit of the USN Sea Cadet Corps, a Navy youth program. In November 2011, he was flown to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to participate in their Diversity Program week. In June 2011, he was selected to participate in the Leadership Seminar week at the U.S. Military Academy. He has accepted an appointment to the Class of 2016 at the U.S. Military Academy and will be joining the “long grey line” at West Point in early July.

The following is RadicalIslam.org National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro’s interview with Samir Abdelkhalek:

Ryan Mauro: What got you involved in anti-Islamist activism at such a young age?

Samir Abdelkhalek:  Although I was only 16 years old when I first read about AIFD [American-Islamic Forum for Democracy] in a news article, I decided immediately that I would like to be part of the solution to a problem I had already recognized and could not ignore:  Threats of terrorism and radicalism by Islamist groups. I was concerned for my country’s future and felt it was necessary to preserve our American values which separate religion from state and guarantee equal rights and justice without regard to religion, race or gender.  

As an American Muslim, I can practice my faith in the way I believe it was meant to be practiced most freely here in the USA than anywhere else in the world. In other countries, Islamists control the government and enforce their own interpretations and applications of Sharia.  When free thought on religious or social principles is not encouraged and, instead, all Muslims are required to agree with the instructions of a few religious scholars and clerics, Muslims are unable to submit to God's will by their own free choice.  They are mandated to do so and most are only complying in order to escape fines and punishment.

Mauro: As an 18-year old Muslim, what can you tell us about the younger generation of Muslim-Americans? What are their attitudes to groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and their views on Sharia-based governance?

Abdelkhalek: Some of my peers do not have an opinion at all and if asked their opinion, they respond that they have not even thought about it at all.  Therefore, it is somewhat difficult to raise awareness of Islamism among my peers because they are focused on other things, such as education, employment and social activity. All of my friends appreciate and value our American system of pluralism and freedom.

However, a small percentage of them express an opinion that seems to be a bit misguided with regard to maintaining a healthy balance between love of God (faith) with allegiance to country.  When mass media only gives a voice to Islamists who claim to speak on behalf of all Muslims, this only adds to their confusion about what they "should" believe and understand.  If an American Muslim group denounces terrorism, yet refuses to denounce organizations which the U.S. government has designated as being terrorist entities, then young adult American Muslims will be forced to side with one or the other. 

This is why it is important that other voices, like AIFD, AILC (American Islamic Leadership Coalition) and MLP (Muslim Liberty Project) be heard so that other viewpoints regarding serious topics like Sharia and politics can be considered, instead of distracting young American Muslims with news about Muslim converts in the entertainment industry.

Mauro: Have you received any negative reaction in your community to your activism?

Abdelkhalek: My community is well aware of my activism from my participation in AILC's March press conference to show support for the NYPD's surveillance program.  I live in a very diverse community of Muslims and non-Muslims and have received nearly 100% positive feedback, support and encouragement. Incredibly, I received some negative feedback from non-Muslim classmates who insisted I was supporting a surveillance program that was unconstitutional and discriminatory.

However, their arguments refuse to deter me because it exposed their ignorance of our constitutional rights and misunderstanding about supposed "violations" by the NYPD in their effort to keep us all safe, Muslims and non-Muslims.

Mauro: How can we best educate young Muslims about the danger of the Islamist ideology?

Abdelkhalek:  We need to perform active outreach to young American Muslims via schools, sports teams, clubs and other extra-curricular activities.  Since Islamist ideology is actually a political ideology that "attaches" itself to a religion, it would be helpful if imams at mosques would be part of the solution, instead of ignoring the problem altogether.  Some Muslim Brotherhood front organizations have positioned themselves well to capture the attention of youth, while deceptively avoiding discussion of the Islamist threat.  Some well-known terrorists are former members of some of these organizations. 

The Muslim Liberty Project (MLP) has begun to perform outreach to students before they may be incited to radicalism by other Muslim student groups. MLP members are planning their first chapter of a Muslim Liberty Project at Arizona State University, scheduled for the fall semester. We intend to open more chapters on public and private college campuses across the nation. MLP will give young Muslims an alternative to the Muslim Students Associations’ to raise awareness of the dangers of the Islamist ideology, rather than promoting it.

Mauro:  Where do you see yourself in five years? What do you want to do over the long-term?

Abdelkhalek:  In five years time, I will have graduated the U.S. Military Academy and will be serving my country as an active-duty Army officer. While I'm at West Point, I've been authorized to retain my position on the Board of Directors of AIFD and will continue to work with MLP as often as possible. Encouraging young American Muslims to appreciate their American citizenship by practicing their faith free from political and religious pressure is something I will likely continue to do over the long-term. I hope other young American Muslims will join me in taking ownership of both their religious rights and pride in their American heritage.

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/muslims-against-islamists-samir-abdelkhalek

The SNC, SDC, and Timbuktu's Warnings For Syria and Beyond...

by Gerald A. Honigman

      Professor William G. Moseley's analysis in Al Jazeera of the new, would-be nation of Azawad is among the best out there so far...http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/20124149184982408.html. Having written about the quest for justice by the region's various peoples for decades myself (http://q4j-middle-east.com), I have watched these new developments in North Africa very carefully.

     What has been of special interest are the unique players involved. These are not just more Arabs demanding yet another state--almost two dozen to date--at everyone else's expense....

     The Touareg make up the majority, or at least a good proportion, of the population of the northern part of Mali. Like other native, so-called "Berber" peoples (about 35 million remaining who have not yet been effectively Arabized by their conquerors), for a variety of nasty reasons they were denied their own share of political rights when the region was being primed and/or fought for independence after the mid-20th century. Their collective fate was tied instead to various Arab or black African nationalist entities and neo-colonial manipulators. Like a similar number of Kurds, the Amazigh too were deemed unworthy, by other powers that be both in and out of the region, of their own national existence.

     Neglect and other problems festered for decades, and when a power vacuum was created during a coup in the south, Touareg fighters, who had been paid to fight for Qaddafi, returned home from Libya loaded with arms. By April 2012, they had joined their brothers in the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and booted the southern Mali forces out of northern strongholds such as Timbuktu.

     While Professor Moseley's analysis was good, for whatever reasons (I suspect deliberate, given that his article seems to have been written for the Arab publication, Al Jazeera), he only slightly hinted at what the true stakes were and are in Azawad...especially the emergence of the region's first Amazigh state, and the potential nightmare-come-true for adjacent Arabized nations, such as Algeria and Morocco, with their own long-subjugated and large Amazigh/Kabyle populations.

     From the get-go, it was feared that Islamist groups like Al-Qai'da in North Africa and Ansar Dine would also do in Azawad what they did earlier during the so-called Arab Springin Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt: emerge from the background to take control.

     While on the surface some may claim that this is a good thing for democracy (whether others like the results or not)--since the masses (if not endangered minorities) got what they wanted out of the new situations--please consider the following...

     Democracy--at least as we have come to recognize it in the West--can be a wonderful idea. No doubt, while variations can be found, equality and freedom have been closely identified as important characteristics since its origins. While ancient Greece is often touted as its birthplace, other nations and peoples also contributed to democracy's basic concepts. America’s own Liberty Bell, for example, has a quote from Leviticus 25:10 in the Hebrew Bible on it…”proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.”

     But there are, indeed, different species of democracy--and this is where the problems emerge.

     Some provide more freedom and representation, others provide better protections for minorities, and so forth.

     More importantly, however, democracy may also simply be translated to mean the rule of the majority, and--especially in some situations--such a system can easily lead to the oppression of others. These latter points are key to understanding some of the main concerns about what is now taking place in the region.

     Since my focus here is now mostly about North Africa, how, for instance, can the plight of tens of millions of native, but non-Arab, people not be addressed in a discussion about democracy? Actually, the story of the various Amazigh peoples has been too often deliberately ignored--even by most of the experts in academia and the State Department. Arabs and Islamists have had their way as well. Native Amazigh culture and language have often been suppressed and outlawed, to the point where parents have been forced to name their own children with Arab  Islamic names instead of their own. Berbers (earlier allied with native, North African Jews who also pre-dated the Arabs) resisted the Arab Jihadi conquests for centuries and are still murdered when they protest against their subjugators too loudly. Imagine, for one moment, what the reaction of the world would be if Israelis were doing such things to Arabs. Arabic, by the why, has been made the second official national language of the oft-criticized--and yes, imperfect--state of the Jews.

     How will democracy change things for such people (be they Imazighen, Copts, Kurds, Assyrians, native kilab yahud "Jew dogs"), and so forth when Arab majorities, with their non-egalitarian elitist ruler and ruled mindsets towards various non-Arab/non-Muslim populations still prevail?

     This is not to say that grievances of the Arab people hemselves should not be addressed and are not valid. But it is to say that the mere fact that millions of Arabs, who suffer under the type of rulers that their own culture seems to specialize in producing, demonstrate and rebel against their own repressive regimes does not erase the fact that there will still be much to worry about by non-Arabs even when Arab despots, medieval potentates, or other autocrats are toppled.

     In this case, whether the oppressors are Arabs or black Africans (who should certainly know better), justice demands that the plight of the Amazigh people at long last be addressed as well.
 

     That brings us back to Azawad and the latest news out of Timbuktu...

     
     The secular Toureg MLNA had pleaded for outside support to counter Islamists who were also making their moves to capitalize on the new power vacuum resulting from the coup in the south of Mali.

     No one listened...It was if, for a variety of reasons, an Islamist regime was favored over the emergence of the first Amazigh state.

     Whether for fear of alienating other Arab and black African nations, a desire to keep the oil and mineral-rich country intact, and/or whatever, Mali's former colonial French masters, the American State Department (which rarely met a Muslim Brotherhood clone it didn't like), the Arab League, black Africa, and so forth were all determined to see Touareg Azawad aborted. It appears that the plan has become to unify the outside opposition to theAllahu Akbar crowd which has now apparently defeated the MLNA and razed parts of Timbuktu. This is still confusing, however, considering that no such plans exist to topple other ascendent Islamist regimes which have replaced secular ones.

      And perhaps it really just doesn't matter...Anything to the above folks would likely be preferrable to the birth of that first Amazigh state which would likely send shockwaves into neighboring North African "Arab" countries the same way the creation of a truly independent Kurdistan would do likewise and for similar reasons in the area of Mesopotamia and its environs.

     Since I brought up the Kurds, the lessons of Azawad and Timbuktu are profound.

     It's just a matter of (bloody) time before the butcher of Damascus falls. But the question in Syria is the same as in Azawad--or in Egypt, Libya, and so forth...

     Who will replace Assad and Saddam's Syrian version of the Ba'th?

     If it's up to most of the outside world--including the Turks, the Arab League, and the latter's American State Department rah rah squad--Syrian counterparts to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood or the Ansar Dine will prevail.

     The good news is that there is in Syria--as there was and still is in Azawad, if the MLNA could only receive support--a viable alternative to the Islamist-dominated Syrian National Council. The latter will not even acknowledge the political rights of millions of various non-Arab peoples (Kurds, Druse, Assyrians, and so forth) in the land...no different from Assad's Ba'th Party's own position for decades now. While this is indeed nothing new for Arabs, who like to proclaim that the entire region is simply "purely Arab patrimony," this subjugating mindset should not survive a post-Ba'th/post-Assad era. Others besides Arabs are also entitled to their own fair share of the justice pie--if not in unity with their Arab neighbors, then by themselves in their own newly-designated lands. Iraqi Kurdistan is the model here--despite the jitters it too creates in the neighborhood.

     The Syrian Democratic Coalition (SDC) represents an opposition truly dedicated to democracy Westen style--far more tolerant, more inclusive, more egalitarian, and so forth. What the SNC offers, in contrast, is simply the democracy of majority rule...and this bodes nothing but nastiness for the future of non-Arab, non-Sunni Muslim, and non-Muslims in general in the nation and elsewhere as well.

   

     The defeat of repressive secular autocracies should yield something besides oppressive Islamist theocracies when the dust finally settles in the wake of the alleged Arab Spring.

     http://q4j-middle-east.com

Syria: Kurds accuse SNC of hijacking the revolution

Kurds accuse SNC of hijacking the revolution

Hurriyet Daily News

July/05/2012

By İpek Yezdani

ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr

Opposition group the Syrian National Council (SNC) has “a hidden agenda to bring an Islamist, Sunni Arab nationalist regime to Syria by excluding the Kurds and other minorities,” according to the president of the Syrian Kurdish opposition group the Kurdish National Assembly, Sherkoh Abbas. He was speaking after talks between the different opposition groups in the Egyptian capital descended into chaos and fistfights.

“The SNC is hijacking the Syrian revolution on the ground. It sees Syria as only Arabs and this is not correct. The people on the ground don’t see the SNC as their representatives anymore,” Abbas told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview yesterday. 

Chaos in Cairo talks

Syria’s fractured opposition groups yesterday wound up talks in Cairo that descended into chaos after they failed to forge a common vision for a political transition of power. 

More than 200 participants from 30 different movements had gathered in Cairo to form a unified front against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. 

After two days of meetings hosted by the Arab League, the groups agreed broadly that any transition must exclude al-Assad, and agreed to support the rebel Free Syrian Army, Agence France-Presse has reported. However, the participants failed to present a united bloc as disagreements led to heated arguments, walkouts and even fistfights, participants said.

The Syrian Kurdish National Council stormed out of the meeting late on July 3, protesting that the final document failed to specifically mention the Kurds, a senior Arab League official said. Abbas said the Syrian Kurds believed in federalism in Syria and that the SNC did not address Kurdish rights in its statements. “We will not accept less than a federal government in Syria. However, the SNC wants to replace the regime with a different regime that is Islamist in nature and led by the Muslim Brotherhood. They don’t recognize the rights of Kurds, Alawites, Christians and other minorities.”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/kurds-accuse-snc-of-hijacking-the-revolution.aspx?pageID=238&nID=24773&NewsCatID=359

"I Am Neda", FrontPageMag Interview with Director Nicole Kian Sadighi

“I Am Neda”

FrontPageMag.com

By Jamie Glazov, June 29, 2012

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Nicole Kian Sadighi, an actress, writer and now first time Director of the award winning movie, “I Am Neda.” The daughter of famous Iranian journalists, she was born in Tehran, Iran but has lived in London, England since the age of two. She is a graduate of Brookland Performing Arts School and holds a degree in Fine Arts.

Ms. Sadighi will be screening “I Am Neda” at the “Neda For A Free Iran” Event, on Sunday, July 1, 2012, at United University Church Center of the University of Southern California, 817 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089.

3pm & 6pm followed by a Q&A for Ms. Kian Sadighi.

For more information, visit IAmNeda.com.

(Interview below)

FP: Nicole Sadighi, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.

Let’s begin with why you decided to make a film about Neda.

Kian Sadighi: Thank you Jamie.

For me, Neda was the representation of a courageous Iranian woman.  Since the inception of the current regime in Iran, Islamic laws have enforced limitations on the lives of the Iranian people, prohibiting their fundamental human rights — whether they are the religious minorities, the labor force, the students or women.  Sadly, women have been the most exploited and targeted of the penal codes.

At the same time, it’s also been the Iranian women who have been at the forefront of the ongoing demonstrations — as there is a massive women’s movement in Iran. When the world watched with bated breath as the streets of Tehran erupted in 2009, those of us Iranians living outside of Iran were glued to our television and computer screens, multi-tasking every news that came out through the social media and leading news outlets. And of course, we saw this young woman Neda, one minute innocently standing there, and then the next she was gone right before our eyes.

We usually see casualties in the aftermath of the war and turmoil but never during, never as close up as this. It was so shocking. There are no words to describe it. You go through an array of emotions. I was angered when I first saw it. She didn’t deserve it. I wanted to know more about this girl called Neda. What inspired her, what were her beliefs, her likes, dislikes? What was she like in private amongst her loved ones, what was her driving force? Who was she?

So I started to research her and put pen to paper and wrote her story through my eyes. I say through my eyes, but this film is really through her eyes. This film, as I feel, is Neda’s calling card. She is my inspiration.

It’s difficult not to get involved in someone’s story whilst researching it. She saw the world with such hope and romance and beauty despite the depressing restraints of the country she lives in. Wow, what a woman! It doesn’t matter who you are, Iranian or otherwise, Neda’s story translates all language barriers. It’s a human story. And that is exactly what I have hoped to have achieved with “I Am Neda.”

FP: You have received a fantastic reception at various festivals, specifically at the Cannes and Houston film festival where you were awarded the top prize. How do you feel about this great success?

Kian Sadighi: I cannot begin to express my excitement and pride for this film. Since we locked the final cut last autumn, it has been awarded the Platinum Remi Special Jury Award at Worldfest Houston International Film Festival and was the Honorable Mention Winner at the Los Angeles Movie Awards, and so far it has been showcased at eleven film festivals, most recently as a finalist at Cannes American Pavilion.

Receiving this tremendous news is a great sense of achievement for me as a first time director. But what all this really means is that these festivals believe in the message of the movie, and appreciate it as an artistic form of telling a story. They are moved by Neda’s story as I have been. At the same time, amongst the celebrations, it is also a time to sit back and reflect on why I began walking the path to make this movie in the first place. A moment in history, that was engulfed by tragedy, an inspiring legacy that Neda left behind. Like the nameless man standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square, or the little naked girl running away from the napalms during Vietnam, Neda is an iconic image forever engraved in our minds. Whether they are aware of it or not, these great festivals are giving a voice to the voiceless, for which I will be internally grateful because they believe in this movie as I do. They are not only giving this movie a platform but also something much greater than all of us. This is huge. It gives me a sense of warmth and hope.

FP: Aside from the awards, what do you hope that your film will achieve? And what is the film’s one single message that you would like to get through to people?

Kian Sadighi: The world only knows of Neda in her tragic death. We will never forget that beautiful face. Those glaring eyes. I wanted to know her in life and I wanted to share what I had discovered with everyone. Neda was no different from any other young woman. There are many preconceived ideas, particularly in the west, of Iranians in Iran. They are no different from the rest of us. Neda had the same dreams and aspirations as anyone. There’s nothing unusual about the Iranian people living in Iran that is any different from the rest of the world, except for the tragic circumstances they live in.

I hope that an audience member can see that no matter what language we speak, Neda could be any one of us, your sister or brother, your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband, your children, your best friend or you. I wanted to bring a human factor to this tragic image that we saw of her. In addition, I wanted to show the innate difference between the people of Iran and the Iranian regime. The two should not be confused. Neda represented that difference. The tragedy is that the government has made enemies of its own people.

A film like “I Am Neda” will speak to everybody who sees it in different ways. A million people will see a movie like “I Am Neda” and they will have many different opinions and reactions. I think that the subject matter of tyranny and torment will never be exhausted –such as WWII films and the horrific atrocities of the Nazis.  Likewise, the many horrific events during the last 30 years in Iran like the 2009 Green Movement and the massacre that we witnessed. The personal reaction that people had to those events, no matter where you were watching them from, can’t be 100% duplicated, but it can be echoed in a movie like “I Am Neda.” That can be the power of film regardless of the subject matter. More often than not it can translate audiences’ feelings better than they are able to express by themselves.

With that said, I also realized that I was not only documenting history but also retelling it, which is a huge responsibility and I wanted to do it with the honor and respect it deserved. In the process, I also made a vow to uphold Neda’s legacy and memory. Neda has become a symbol of all the Nedas of the world. We mustn’t forget any of them. In this amazing technological age of Twitter and Facebook, we cannot hide from the truth anymore. There is a reason that these innocent people across the other side of the world are filming what’s really happening on the ground with their camera phones. They want us to take notice and listen – and we are listening.

FP: You never had the opportunity to meet Neda, how difficult did this make it and what kind of research did you do?

Kian Sadighi: Well, this was one of the challenges of course.  In deciding to make the movie, the first step was to research her story and research it well. If I wasn’t sure about something in her life or could not back it up, then it just had no place in the movie. After all, this was a real person, not a fictional character. I wanted to honor and respect the process of making this film and shining a light on her legacy. I spent the best of a year researching who she was. I read the articles, watched documentaries, and the first hand interviews with her family which came to be such valuable information for me. I went through many drafts until I was satisfied. It took the best part of the year. It was not only important to convey the atmosphere in Iran at the time but also to keep her story as authentic as I could.

FP: Can you give us an example?

Kian Sadighi: Sure. I discovered her love of music, the arts and literature. She was such a romantic at heart. One of her favorite books was Brontes “Wuthering Heights,” so I searched high and low for the Persian cover of that book and included it in the film. The dialogue was elemental and it really helped watching interviews with her family about the conversations they had with Neda during those tumultuous days in Tehran. And they told stories about what kind of a girl she was since her childhood.

There’s one story that stood out for me: since her childhood Neda hated to wear the mandatory headscarf and when she was a young child, at school she campaigned hard not to have to wear it – and she succeeded! Neda had gumption and tenacity since a small age. She hated any kind of injustice and she seemed to be a little stubborn in that she didn’t like to be told what to do. Her mother would recount how Neda had always been a little rebellious. Quite frankly, the more I learned about her, the more I grew to admire her. She really was a force for good. This added a lot of depth to the film.

FP: Please tell us about the cast, and also why you have cast yourself as Neda.

Sadighi: The award-winning famous Iranian actress Mary Apick plays Neda’s mother Hajar Rostami. Mary is famous for being involved with thought provoking films and the famous theater production “Beneath the Veil,” and the up and coming musician Poet Ali, who to my surprise is a very talented actor, he plays Mohammad, Neda’s brother. Vida Irani plays Hoda, and I play Neda.

Having graduated from performing arts school, my first passion has always been acting. When you first set out to research the life of a person, it’s very difficult not to get deeply involved in who they are. You can’t help but get affected. I understood and looked up to her. At the same time on a time line and small budget like this film, it wasn’t realistic to bring another actor on board and to trust them with such a responsibility and with having the same level of understanding of her as I did. Playing somebody like Neda, someone who inspires me, someone who is in my age group, I can identify with her, I admire her on so many levels, and it’s been an honor to be able to play her.

FP: Tell us about the other challenges you faced in making this film.

Kian Sadighi: There were many. As a first time filmmaker, I have a limited budget and I had to wear many hats. I directed it, wrote it, produced it, and also starred in it. I had to find locations, cast the film, get a crew together and I didn’t want this movie just to be about four people in a room, with a camera on a tripod. I really wanted to “up” the production value.

This is also a Persian film with English subtitles, with an American crew and the only people to speak and understand Farsi were the actors. So we not only had to have the script translated into Farsi-English but also into what we call “Penglish” which was Persian with English lettering so that the crew could follow.

In addition, Poet Ali and I only knew first grade Farsi, so with the help of a dialogue coach we spent countless weeks learning the script and a lot of the dialogue for the first time, for authenticity.

One of the biggest challenges of all was that we couldn’t film in Iran. Although a lot of people think we did, which is a great testament to the crew and team who worked on this film, we actually filmed it in Los Angeles. But we couldn’t film something like this in Iran without some kind of retaliation from the government over there. This is not a movie that can happen in a country like Iran, and also the parallels of making this movie and Neda’s story, where here we have this young woman, Neda, standing up for her freedom, and with this film we are demonstrating the lack of that freedom by not being able to film inside Iran.

FP: Your future plans?

ian Sadighi: My goal has been to inspire and educate people with “I Am Neda.” I want this film to reach every corner of the globe, and allow Neda’s voice to live on. I would ultimately like this movie to get into as many festivals as possible to reach as many people as possible. We want the whole world to see this film and eventually I would like to get this film to the 2013 Oscars and when it gets there, then we’ll be satisfied to know that this film will ultimately reach the masses on a wide scale and Neda’s legacy will live on forever.

FP: Any other future projects?

Kian Sadighi: I have another movie in the pipeline. It’s an amazing WWII/Holocaust story that has never really been told. Its confidential right so that’s all I can give away at this stage. But I know audiences will not be disappointed!

FP: Nicole Sadighi, thank you so much for joining Frontpage Interview, and thank you so much for making this film and for being the person that you are — and for shining a light in a world of much darkness.

Our readers should know that “I Am Neda” has won the Remi Special Jury award at WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, and Honorable Mention Award at Los Angeles Movie Awards.

It has been finalist at Cannes American Pavilion for Emerging Filmmakers, USA Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival, Free Speech Film Festival, World Music and Independent Film Festival, BeFilm The Underground Film Festival, Arpa International Film Festival and Santa Rosa International Film Festival.

Nicole Kian Sadighi has also been invited to screen “I Am Neda” at the “Neda For A Free Iran” Event Sunday, July 1, 2012, at United University Church Center of the University of Southern California, 817 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089.

3pm & 6pm followed by a Q&A for filmmaker Nicole Kian Sadighi.

Panelists include Writer, Director and Lead Actress Nicole Kian Sadighi, Elahe Amani, Shiva Mahbobi, Shirin Ershadi, Gissou Nia and Homayoun Mobasseri.

Panel Discussion: “Discrimination against Women and Religions in IRI.”

Free admission. We encourage all of our readers who can make it to attend.

And make sure to visit IAmNeda.com.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/06/29/“i-am-neda”/

Iran We Care: A Conference on Gender Apartheid & Religious Based Discrimination in Islamic Republic of Iran

By Neda For A Free Iran 

www.nfafi.org

To support the religious diversity the event will be held at: 

United University Church Center of the University of Southern California

817 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90089

Sunday, July 1, 2012

3:00pm until 6:00pm in PDT

RSVP: Homayoun.Mobasseri@nfafi.org

Post 2009 elections demonstrations in Iran have been in protest to the rigged re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran for a second term. These protests have reportedly been met with brutal force by the authorities. Neda Soltan became the symbolic face of the martyrs; she was shot in the chest as she took part in one of the many peaceful demonstrations on the streets of Tehran. Since the elections, the basic human right to the freedom of expression for the press, as well as the individual, has been disregarded by the authorities in Iran and the voice of dissent is not tolerated as well.

The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) continues to violate the most basic principles of the international law. One need only look at the chilling accounts of torture released by Amnesty International – Indeed; Amnesty has catalogued the widespread and systematic use of beatings, sexual violence, electrocution and mistreatment of prisoners, all of which amount to crimes against humanity. The people of Iran are demanding human rights and democracy through non-violent opposition to the Iranian regime. Women activists are at the forefront of this struggle, leading the Green Movement, which has become the symbol of unity and hope for Iranians concerned with justice and human rights.

Neda for a Free Iran (NFAFI) is to amplify Human Rights violations in Iran in a way that it can globally strengthen peace, justice and equality. NFAFI is committed to highlight the human rights situation in Iran and to encourage the development of a greater awareness in contributing towards enforcing the effective international human rights instruments.

With the view of the above, NFAFI will be holding a series of conferences in near future to examine Gender Apartheid and religious based discriminations in the IRI. 

The first of which will be held on July 1st 2012 in Los Angeles , on the occasion of the anniversary of rigged elections, also the June 20th has been named a day to support the political prisoners held in the IRI jails who have committed no crime but expressing their views. 

Guest Speakers 

- Elahe Amani, Lecturer at California State University on Women's Studies, and active in UN Commission on the Status of Women 

- Nicole Kian Sadighi, Producer and Director of "I Am Neda", featured at Cannes Film Festival 

- Gissou Nia, Executive Director, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

- Shirin Ershadi, Board Member of International Criminal Court Alliance 

- Shiva Mahbobi, Campaign to Free Political Prisoners, International Committee against Stoning (ICAS), TV Host and Producer

- Homayoun Mobasseri, Board Member of Neda For A Free Iran 

Invited (Pending)

- Banafsheh Akhlaghi former Professor of Constitutional Law at JFK School of Law

- Nazanin Afshin Jam, Founder & Executive Director, Stop Child Executions Foundation and serves on multiple boards for human rights

Formal Announcement 

http://nfafi.org/events/conference-gender-apartheid-religious-based-discrimination-islamic-republic-iran

Facebook Invite 

http://www.facebook.com/events/436129783072591/