Like Mr Fazeli, I also appreciate Persian culture even though I am not Persian. Yet anyone who advocates the rights of non-Persians in Iran is immediately rubbished as a separatist or anti-Iranian or anti-Persian, etc. In fact, Mr O’Connell keeps using the word “separatist” when describing minority rights activists arrested by the regime, but says nothing about the forced confessions, the torture they endure, the closed trials, the arrest of defence lawyers, etc, in the case of arrested Ahwazis (VOA won’t even use the term Ahwazi because it is deemed too separatist). This is despite the statements of UNHRC experts who have condemned outright the treatment of Ahwazi Arabs. And so what if someone was separatist? The UN states that self-determination is a right. Is Mr O’Connell going to take the right to self-determination away from Arabs, Balochis, Kurds and Azeris in Iran? VOA supported the self-determination of those living under communism, so why not those living under fascism in Iran?! Are Ahwazis and Balochis less deserving of freedom than Estonians and Ukrainians living under Soviet domination? Are the Azeris in Iran less deserving of self-determination than the Azeris who won freedom from Russia and created an independent Azerbaijan?
If VOA is to remain relevant, it must broadcast a broad range of Iranian voices: federalists and separatists as well as the monarchists and Islamists it currently broadcasts. It is not doing this now, despite what Mr O’Connell says. I would be surprised if he is a Farsi speaker and what worries me is that he is being misled by vested interests involved in VOA Persian Service. Instead of listening to the criticism above and making an independent assessment of the content of VOA broadcasts, he simply dismisses them. None of the human rights and political activists he mentions have spoken a word about minority rights, including Shirin Ebadi, who is a Khatami supporter.
