Latest / The Breakfast Club / Moj Mahdara Talks The Iranian Crisis, Women's Rights, Propaganda + More

Transcript

Moj Mahdara Talks The Iranian Crisis, Women's Rights, Propaganda + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, morning. Everybody is DJ Envy ange Lae, Charlemagne
0:04
Speaker 1: the guy. We are to breakfast club. We got a
0:05
Speaker 1: special guests in the building. Yes, indeed, did I say right?
0:09
Speaker 1: You did? Okay, you've had practice. I did. I tried
0:12
Speaker 1: to tell him you didn't trust me. But you know,
0:13
Speaker 1: you know what happens because a lot of times Charlemagne
0:15
Speaker 1: and tell me the wrong thing on purpose. I say,
0:19
Speaker 1: I believe you did that to me. A couple of
0:22
Speaker 1: times he's jealous of you. We're welcome. How are you
0:26
Speaker 1: feeling this morning. I'm good, I'm happy to be here,
0:28
Speaker 1: happy to have you man. I am very happy to
0:31
Speaker 1: be here. I'm very grateful for the time you guys
0:33
Speaker 1: are about to dedicate to this insane conversation we're about
0:36
Speaker 1: to have, so thank you. Please inform us on what's
0:38
Speaker 1: going on. And I ran because there's so much going
0:41
Speaker 1: on in the world, and I noticed is something that
0:42
Speaker 1: everybody should be aware of. But what what is happening?
0:46
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's hard to get accurate information to and know.
0:50
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it. I'd love first to know what
0:52
Speaker 1: you guys think is happening. It feels like women's right
0:56
Speaker 1: to being violated all over the world, and it feels like,
0:59
Speaker 1: you know, Iran is the episode. I know, everybody's definitely
1:02
Speaker 1: focused on what's happening here in America where Roe v Wade,
1:04
Speaker 1: but it feels like what's going on over there is
1:06
Speaker 1: like just cruel and unusual punishment. I saw the thing
1:09
Speaker 1: the other day, which I had to research it a a
1:10
Speaker 1: little bit because I was like, I just can't be
1:12
Speaker 1: real when they said that they were sentencing fifteen thousand
1:14
Speaker 1: protests to death. Yes, the parliament essentially gave the green
1:19
Speaker 1: light to so there's fifteen thousand protesters who've come out
1:24
Speaker 1: into the streets over the past eight weeks. Over Massa
1:28
Speaker 1: Gina Emini, whos a Kurdish woman. She had come to Tehran,
1:32
Speaker 1: which is the capital, with her family to just sight seeing,
1:35
Speaker 1: have a day out. And she wasn't even wearing she
1:38
Speaker 1: was wearing her job. She wasn't like taking her she
1:41
Speaker 1: was wearing her her job, but she had she was
1:45
Speaker 1: wearing coolts, so her ankles were out. Wow. And she
1:49
Speaker 1: was stopped by the morality police, which they called the Bastiche,
1:52
Speaker 1: which have been essentially empower since the Islamic Republic came
1:56
Speaker 1: into play in nineteen seventy nine. So they took her
1:59
Speaker 1: into custody. They tortured her, they beat her, and she
2:04
Speaker 1: unfortunately passed away a few days later well because her
2:08
Speaker 1: ankles were showing and she wasn't dressed as conservatively correct.
2:13
Speaker 1: It sounds very conservative already. That is that is a tragedy.
2:16
Speaker 1: It is a tragedy. It's a morality. Police walks around
2:20
Speaker 1: looking at what people are dressing in how they're acting. Yes,
2:23
Speaker 1: so I think is it women or is it men
2:26
Speaker 1: and women? So it's primarily women. I myself was stopped
2:31
Speaker 1: there in the mid nine early nineties. When I went there,
2:34
Speaker 1: my grandmother was passing. I grew up with my grandmother
2:36
Speaker 1: in the house. We spoke fasting the house. My grandmother
2:40
Speaker 1: would I would say, it's Iran inside this home, It's
2:42
Speaker 1: America outside this home. So I grew up very Iranian.
2:47
Speaker 1: And she was passing. I wanted to go and say
2:50
Speaker 1: goodbye to her. She was the most important person in
2:52
Speaker 1: my life and my h my two cousins took me
2:55
Speaker 1: out for late night Friday night ice cream and we
2:58
Speaker 1: were listening to Inexus in the car and we were
3:02
Speaker 1: pulled over and they kept us overnight. So Yeah, that's
3:05
Speaker 1: what the Bastigi do. They are the morality police. Uh.
3:08
Speaker 1: They are not necessarily part of the military. They are
3:11
Speaker 1: part of the um Islamic Republic, sort of guard to
3:15
Speaker 1: protect that echelon of religious leaders, the Ayatola's um. And yes,
3:21
Speaker 1: they police your dress, what you're seeing, what you listen to. Dancing.
3:26
Speaker 1: Women legally have half the right there of men legally, right,
3:31
Speaker 1: So whether that's being accused of if someone who has
3:35
Speaker 1: raped you, if you want to divorce, if you want
3:37
Speaker 1: to choose how to spend your own money. Um, I
3:39
Speaker 1: sort of try to bring it to American audiences through
3:42
Speaker 1: the lens of a conservatorship. Right. It's pretty similar to
3:46
Speaker 1: what has happened with Britney Spears, which is you are
3:49
Speaker 1: essentially living Spears. Yeah. Yeah, Britney Spears, Well that's another
3:57
Speaker 1: we should talk about that too. Um. But Britney Spears
4:00
Speaker 1: lived in what a conservatorship I think for fifteen years
4:02
Speaker 1: where she couldn't even know, ye, touch her own money.
4:06
Speaker 1: She couldn't have doors on her own home, she couldn't
4:08
Speaker 1: you know, she had to work and then still give
4:10
Speaker 1: her money to business managers and agents and you know,
4:14
Speaker 1: her father and what have you. I mean, we're all
4:16
Speaker 1: learning about this now, but this is you know, there's
4:19
Speaker 1: eighties some million people in Iran, half of the population
4:22
Speaker 1: or women, and they are living there. And I think
4:25
Speaker 1: the context of it is this country was living through
4:28
Speaker 1: a secular leadership up until nineteen seventy nine, right like
4:32
Speaker 1: women could. My grandmother was a famous singer. She made
4:35
Speaker 1: her living being a famous singer. I always think of
4:37
Speaker 1: her as like the uh, like Lana del Rey of Iran,
4:40
Speaker 1: you know, fifties and sixties, and so women had a
4:45
Speaker 1: lot of freedoms previous to the Islamic Republican. Now they
4:48
Speaker 1: are being tortured, raped, terrorized at scale in broad daylight
4:53
Speaker 1: on video. Um, it's problem what happens when journalists try
4:59
Speaker 1: to cover this, because, like we were discussing, there is
5:02
Speaker 1: a lot of misinformation that's out there, and also just
5:06
Speaker 1: talk about the coverage there because I feel like that's
5:09
Speaker 1: also not allowed. So we are in an information war.
5:14
Speaker 1: You have a highly financed group of people in Iran,
5:20
Speaker 1: the Islamic Republic, their agenda. Iran has eight percent of
5:25
Speaker 1: the natural resources of the world. We're talking about uranium, copper,
5:29
Speaker 1: zinc oil, so we're not talking about a country that
5:33
Speaker 1: is resource poor, and the people who are making the
5:35
Speaker 1: most amount of profit off of this resource is the government,
5:39
Speaker 1: So they have a ton of incentive to stay in
5:41
Speaker 1: power there, and they do that by repressing people and
5:45
Speaker 1: most especially women. So what's happening is we don't have
5:49
Speaker 1: journalists on the ground. Every journalist we do have on
5:51
Speaker 1: the ground is currently in prison. Anyone who covers this
5:55
Speaker 1: is in jail, tortured. And it's not just like, oh,
5:58
Speaker 1: you're arrested and your lawyer is gonna and represent you
6:00
Speaker 1: in some you know, hearing in the next few days.
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Speaker 1: Your family doesn't know where you are. You are disappeared literally,
6:08
Speaker 1: and when you are reappeared, it's either bags of bones,
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Speaker 1: your organs are removed, your family's forbidden from having a
6:15
Speaker 1: memorial and ceremony for you. I mean, for Iranian people.
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Speaker 1: This is making us go ape shit. This is making
6:22
Speaker 1: us go crazy right now, Like I think, I mean,
6:24
Speaker 1: I've bothered everyone I know. I'm like, hey, they're they're
6:27
Speaker 1: they're killing little girls, they're killing students, they're killing juvenile
6:31
Speaker 1: people in prison, and we can't report on it because
6:34
Speaker 1: we cannot get journalists on the ground. We can't get
6:37
Speaker 1: sources to all we have. They blocked the internet. Who right,
6:40
Speaker 1: they blocked the Internet, So how can this be covered
6:42
Speaker 1: here in the United States? Even so, I think that's
6:44
Speaker 1: why my friends and I started this this new group
6:47
Speaker 1: called the Iranian Diaspora Collective. It's literally been it's eight
6:51
Speaker 1: weeks old. It's a group of people in the diaspora
6:56
Speaker 1: who are in entertainment and social media and tech. We
6:59
Speaker 1: got together. We essentially said we're going to stand up
7:01
Speaker 1: an organization so we can be a resource. We published
7:04
Speaker 1: this insane document called how to Talk About a Run,
7:08
Speaker 1: and we updated every day for journalists and reporters and
7:11
Speaker 1: people who want to report it, and we put it
7:13
Speaker 1: up on our website. It's been downloaded thousands and thousands
7:16
Speaker 1: of times to essentially help the West better understand we've
7:19
Speaker 1: been holding. We held a news conference the other night
7:22
Speaker 1: with Secretary Clinton and twenty members of the press to
7:26
Speaker 1: come and essentially have a Q and A with her
7:28
Speaker 1: and I around how to cover this accurately. And I
7:31
Speaker 1: think I don't think we need to cover this perfectly.
7:35
Speaker 1: I don't think it needs to be perfect. I don't
7:36
Speaker 1: think it I think it has to be about progress
7:39
Speaker 1: of a perfection. I think you saw the same thing
7:41
Speaker 1: here when when we've seen atrocities covered around police brutality here.
7:46
Speaker 1: It's not going to always be perfect the coverage, but
7:48
Speaker 1: the coverage needs to happen. I think I was going
7:52
Speaker 1: to say, are they people who've escaped that have come
7:54
Speaker 1: here that can tell their stories. There are many people
7:57
Speaker 1: who've escaped who have come here who are refugees. There
7:59
Speaker 1: are many people they're living in safe houses in Turkey,
8:03
Speaker 1: they're living here on asylum in the United States. You
8:06
Speaker 1: have a ton of people here who've been arrested, who've
8:08
Speaker 1: been in ivin. But it's I think it's just this
8:12
Speaker 1: is like a crisis of to your point, women's rights
8:15
Speaker 1: are being rolled back globally, there isn't a global agenda
8:19
Speaker 1: to roll back women's rights. And I think the Islamic
8:23
Speaker 1: Republic's largest export right now is their violence against women.
8:27
Speaker 1: I think we have I think if you do not,
8:29
Speaker 1: if we do not find a way to shut this down,
8:31
Speaker 1: there will be copycatting of this behavior all over the world. Yikes.
8:35
Speaker 1: Do you think those stories like you know, the one
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Speaker 1: where they say fifteen thousand protests would send us to death?
8:41
Speaker 1: But they weren't do you think those stories called more
8:43
Speaker 1: harmed than good, because because when you see that headline,
8:45
Speaker 1: you're automatically all in like whoa. But then when you
8:48
Speaker 1: realize it's not real, you probably just dismissed the whole situation.
8:51
Speaker 1: So I, as you know, I am a little bit
8:54
Speaker 1: of a internet sleuth. I think that was a Islamic
8:58
Speaker 1: Republic strategy. I believe from what from what I understand,
9:02
Speaker 1: they've hired some of the most established blue chip comms
9:06
Speaker 1: organizations out of Europe, out of nowhere after eight weeks
9:09
Speaker 1: of no coverage, all this coverage. The the headline was salacious. Uh,
9:15
Speaker 1: the facts where the parliament gave the guards the right
9:20
Speaker 1: to execute all fifteen thousand people of those people, so
9:23
Speaker 1: the facts are those fifteen thousand people are at risk?
9:26
Speaker 1: They are They could listen, don't The Islamic Republic is
9:33
Speaker 1: the leader per capita in mass executions. This is not
9:37
Speaker 1: This is not some organization that's never done this before.
9:40
Speaker 1: We're not sure. And that headline was if this has
9:42
Speaker 1: happened before, they've done it before in the eighties. They have.
9:46
Speaker 1: They have done it two years ago fifteen hundred people
9:49
Speaker 1: were killed, So why would they not take out fifteen
9:52
Speaker 1: thousand people now that have been live streaming this protest. Ye,
9:55
Speaker 1: what is the US doing to help if any Well,
9:58
Speaker 1: I mean I think the US this isn't It's okay.
10:02
Speaker 1: France has done a lot. Macrohn basically acknowledged Massy Elenajad
10:06
Speaker 1: as an activist and leader, and I think he said
10:09
Speaker 1: something important, which is this is a revolution, This is
10:11
Speaker 1: not a protest. The US, I think, is trying to
10:17
Speaker 1: course correct the past. For I mean, the history of
10:21
Speaker 1: Iran and why these guys are even there is tied
10:23
Speaker 1: up with you know, the CIA, Jimmy Carter. How the
10:28
Speaker 1: Islamic Republic even came to be was you know, Iranians
10:33
Speaker 1: believe they were put there by the United States. Right now,
10:37
Speaker 1: whether that was intentional, whether everyone had a plan that
10:40
Speaker 1: this would be the outcome, I don't think that's the case.
10:43
Speaker 1: I think people make the best choices they can at
10:45
Speaker 1: the time. But the Islamic Republic would not be in
10:48
Speaker 1: power without the United States. So I think they have
10:51
Speaker 1: a huge responsibility to help the Iranian people to remove them. Right.
10:56
Speaker 1: So the US, I think, is figuring it out. I
10:59
Speaker 1: think you'll see movement from France, Germany. I think you'll
11:02
Speaker 1: see Europe move first, but I think the United States
11:06
Speaker 1: is trying to figure out it's equal footing. I think
11:09
Speaker 1: part of what my group has been trying to do
11:12
Speaker 1: is we are trying to be the diaspora partners by
11:16
Speaker 1: being Iranians who are born here but Iranian, so we
11:20
Speaker 1: have empathy for the West and relationships to the West,
11:24
Speaker 1: but also family there. Can we help navigate communications because
11:29
Speaker 1: right now we don't even have a relationship. We don't
11:31
Speaker 1: even have a diplomatic relationship with this country, So how
11:34
Speaker 1: can we help. I think they're trying to figure it out.
11:37
Speaker 1: Did they even care? You think, of course they care.
11:40
Speaker 1: I mean, we care about a safe Israel. We care
11:42
Speaker 1: about a safe Middle East. We need uranium to power
11:45
Speaker 1: nuclear power in terms of green energy go forward. We
11:49
Speaker 1: need their oil where we've got them aiding and abetting
11:52
Speaker 1: Russia and Ukraine. Right now they're sending over drones. I mean,
11:56
Speaker 1: you can't. I mean, governments care about governments, but they
11:58
Speaker 1: rarely care about what's happening on ground with the people,
12:00
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. Well, that's why we're here, Yeah,
12:02
Speaker 1: because I think, as you know, I believe culture impacts
12:05
Speaker 1: policy and government and I think the more chitter chatter online,
12:10
Speaker 1: the more people posting, the more they believe that the
12:13
Speaker 1: public at large cares about this is this human rights issue,
12:16
Speaker 1: not a political issue. I think the US government will
12:19
Speaker 1: have to stand up with the Iranian people. You've seen
12:21
Speaker 1: Canada do it, right. What does standing up look like?
12:26
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, these people's children come here, go to
12:29
Speaker 1: the best schools, live in the best places. They use
12:32
Speaker 1: the government's money to do whatever they want. Sanction them,
12:35
Speaker 1: shut down, revoke their visas, close their embassies immediately. Now
12:40
Speaker 1: take them off the United Nations, you know, Committee for
12:43
Speaker 1: Women's Rights. That's a joke. They gotta go. That's completely bogus.
12:47
Speaker 1: They should be d prioritized on a global level. You know,
12:50
Speaker 1: people have been arguing FIFA should they be allowed to
12:53
Speaker 1: play soccer? You know, like there's a lot of ways
12:56
Speaker 1: to embarrass and shun them. Iranians are very prideful, they
12:59
Speaker 1: love to be so to basically really really really stick
13:02
Speaker 1: it to them. I think everyone's got to turn their
13:04
Speaker 1: backs and stop doing business with them. They've had a
13:07
Speaker 1: hard two years with COVID. They're barely I don't think
13:10
Speaker 1: they have a heavy balance sheet, and without the support
13:13
Speaker 1: of Germany and Europe and China. I don't know how
13:16
Speaker 1: they're going to do business. So if everyone shuts down
13:18
Speaker 1: doing business with them, I think you have to starve
13:21
Speaker 1: them out. And I do want to say too, I
13:23
Speaker 1: did see where one person that was protesting in the
13:28
Speaker 1: street actually did get sentenced to death. So yeah, it's
13:31
Speaker 1: not far fetched that you know they wouldn't do that.
13:34
Speaker 1: These are the same people that won't let us in
13:37
Speaker 1: to tell us what nuclear weapons they have or have not. Okay,
13:41
Speaker 1: if nothing's happening, let's let Amnesty International and Justice for
13:45
Speaker 1: Iran in to report. Let's let's let them in. Let's
13:49
Speaker 1: put them in Navigne, let's have them. There are numerous
13:53
Speaker 1: reports girls are coming out of prison and begging their
13:56
Speaker 1: parents for abortion pills. Why why, why are people going
14:00
Speaker 1: with suitcases to run with abortion pills? Right now? There
14:03
Speaker 1: are people constantly hitting us up for fundraising. Raise money
14:06
Speaker 1: for starlinks, raise money for abortion pills, raise money for shields,
14:10
Speaker 1: raise money for helmets, Like I'm a venture capitalist. This
14:14
Speaker 1: is insane. It's taken over my life for the past
14:16
Speaker 1: eight weeks. Well, what is an ideal life for a
14:20
Speaker 1: woman in Iran? Looked like to you an ideal life
14:24
Speaker 1: for woman in Iran looks like her education is her priority,
14:29
Speaker 1: her family is her priority. You know, you're living in
14:34
Speaker 1: a country where sixty percent of the populations under the
14:36
Speaker 1: age of thirty. They are Instagram tells us that Massa,
14:40
Speaker 1: I mean, he is the one of the largest hashtags
14:43
Speaker 1: they've ever had in the history of Instagram. They are
14:45
Speaker 1: Internet first, they are super plugged in. But what's also
14:50
Speaker 1: true is that you cannot saying you cannot dance, you
14:53
Speaker 1: cannot hold hands with your boyfriend, you cannot be gay,
14:57
Speaker 1: you cannot you know, you need your father's permission to
15:01
Speaker 1: get a passport, to travel, to get a visa. Right,
15:04
Speaker 1: your father and your brother, for all intense purposes, are
15:07
Speaker 1: your conservators. That's what it looks like. And this is
15:12
Speaker 1: this is, I guess, somewhat common throughout Islamic countries. What's
15:16
Speaker 1: not what is not common is that when people protest
15:20
Speaker 1: those regimes, to be beating them in broad daylight and
15:24
Speaker 1: killing them in broad daylight to create propaganda that we
15:28
Speaker 1: will kill you, We will murder you and your families.
15:32
Speaker 1: If you protest this, you have no vote, you have
15:36
Speaker 1: no agency, You can't design your own life and it's
15:39
Speaker 1: it's difficult to do that to a group of women
15:41
Speaker 1: who are so highly educated. Uran has a super duper
15:45
Speaker 1: high level of women who have been educated in the
15:49
Speaker 1: arts and stem and sciences. So it's like when you
15:52
Speaker 1: have a group of people who are educated, but they
15:54
Speaker 1: have no opportunity. This is why you're having this rage.
15:58
Speaker 1: If you look at all the content, like what is
16:00
Speaker 1: the soundtrack to it? It's every hip hop group, you know,
16:03
Speaker 1: it's every artist you know. You would think these kids
16:06
Speaker 1: grew up here the way they live on Instagram. What
16:09
Speaker 1: is I know you're writing a book? Also, yes, what
16:12
Speaker 1: is your book about? It's a memoir. It's been in
16:15
Speaker 1: the works for some time, you know. I have a
16:19
Speaker 1: weird a. My life has been an interesting sort of road.
16:23
Speaker 1: I left home when I was sixteen. I'm queer, I'm
16:27
Speaker 1: a little bit of an outsider and a lot of
16:29
Speaker 1: groups and and I'm a culture I guess student of culture.
16:34
Speaker 1: So it's really a memoir. And I would say it's
16:35
Speaker 1: a little bit of lessons and my journey over the
16:37
Speaker 1: past three years, especially because my good friend Charlemagne told
16:41
Speaker 1: me three years ago I should go to therapy, and
16:43
Speaker 1: so it's a little bit of an awakening and it's
16:45
Speaker 1: a little bit of a discovery and it's a little
16:47
Speaker 1: bit of a sharing of what it feels like to
16:50
Speaker 1: sort of spend really the past three years dealing with
16:54
Speaker 1: generational trauma and a lot of the noises that we're
16:59
Speaker 1: going on in my head and how to distill that,
17:01
Speaker 1: make that lessons go forward for people. It's been really
17:05
Speaker 1: beneficial for you, which part therapy? Yeah, therapy has changed
17:10
Speaker 1: my life. It is. It's so funny. I sometimes love
17:16
Speaker 1: my therapist so much, Like I just don't even know
17:18
Speaker 1: what I would do without those person's, Like I have
17:20
Speaker 1: night terrors of like what if something ever happens to
17:22
Speaker 1: this person. It's given me an amazing place to have
17:26
Speaker 1: a sounding board to. I think when you're I think,
17:30
Speaker 1: when you're kind of a traumatized human being and you've
17:32
Speaker 1: been through whether it's physical or sexual, generational abuse, when
17:39
Speaker 1: you're queer, when you don't you know, like I was
17:42
Speaker 1: Persian up until eight weeks ago, because I was afraid
17:44
Speaker 1: to tell people I was Iranian, right, because you think
17:47
Speaker 1: of the hostage crisis, you think of the Ayatollahs, you
17:50
Speaker 1: think of terrorism, and so I think therapy for me
17:54
Speaker 1: has been a place to find out how to be
17:58
Speaker 1: a better listener, a stronger I think more boundaries. We've
18:04
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this. I think the boundaries has
18:06
Speaker 1: been heavy for me, and I think it's given me
18:09
Speaker 1: a place to process what's happened and think about how
18:13
Speaker 1: do I want to design my life? Go for it.
18:15
Speaker 1: I know you guys talk about mental health a lot,
18:17
Speaker 1: so I appreciate that. It was a huge It was
18:21
Speaker 1: a huge favor to me a few years ago when
18:23
Speaker 1: you and I had that conversation. I always tell you,
18:25
Speaker 1: it's a profound It's been a profound difference in my life.
18:28
Speaker 1: You know, my therapist always tell me you have to
18:30
Speaker 1: allow yourself to feel joy. How do you allow yourself
18:33
Speaker 1: to feel joy at a time like this when you
18:35
Speaker 1: know what's going on and all ran I have a
18:38
Speaker 1: four and a half year old that is the funniest,
18:41
Speaker 1: most hilarious guy on the planet, and he just sees
18:46
Speaker 1: the world through lens of possibility, and I think he
18:50
Speaker 1: sees me for who I really am and can be.
18:53
Speaker 1: And my wife and my son, and my family's growing,
18:58
Speaker 1: and you know, I think my family is my main
19:02
Speaker 1: battery on my back. I mean, that's for me my
19:06
Speaker 1: number one crew in my life and the people I
19:08
Speaker 1: want to be with all the time, or my family.
19:11
Speaker 1: How about you say, yeah, I know where we relate
19:14
Speaker 1: to this. Yeah, absolutely the same. I mean that's where
19:16
Speaker 1: I find my joy. Yeah, my joy is that. I
19:19
Speaker 1: actually had a great conversation with my therapist about that.
19:21
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not ready to explain it yet, but
19:23
Speaker 1: when he the way, the way it was explaining to
19:26
Speaker 1: me about how you experience joy through the lens of
19:28
Speaker 1: your your family was it was profound only because, like
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, I think we spent a lot of time
19:34
Speaker 1: trying to protect ours so much, but you have to
19:37
Speaker 1: let them go out into the world. You have to
19:38
Speaker 1: let them go experience things. So we try to have
19:40
Speaker 1: this sense of control. But he said something to me,
19:43
Speaker 1: I don't once you're sink saying, I'll get ready to
19:45
Speaker 1: share it. But yeah, I can't wait to hear it.
19:48
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, so, how can people help if
19:49
Speaker 1: they want to help in your cause? How can they help? Follow?
19:52
Speaker 1: Donate if possible? Yea, even push things forward. So if
19:55
Speaker 1: you go to the link in my bio, there's a
19:58
Speaker 1: link to our length tree. It's just mos MJ made it.
20:03
Speaker 1: Simple for you. Yeah, you're lucky to get that one.
20:05
Speaker 1: You must have been on day early. I was early
20:08
Speaker 1: and friends of so they were, they've been sweet to me. Um.
20:13
Speaker 1: So there's two things. One is, we took out a
20:16
Speaker 1: heavily ambitious billboard project between LA and New York. We
20:20
Speaker 1: took overtime Square, we took we took one hundred and
20:22
Speaker 1: sixty six billboards across New York, LA and DC to
20:27
Speaker 1: really drive awareness. But you know what's crazy, these billboards
20:30
Speaker 1: turned out to be a memorial for people. People have
20:33
Speaker 1: been going to these things, crying, picnicking, vigils, protests, communion.
20:40
Speaker 1: I've never I mean, I'm telling you, I have never
20:44
Speaker 1: in my life seen this stuff. So that's one way
20:46
Speaker 1: you can help. Or because we're about to take the
20:48
Speaker 1: campaign into Europe in Toronto. Um, the second way you
20:52
Speaker 1: can help is just we created this dope document. It's
20:55
Speaker 1: literally just it's every day. We just add the headlines.
20:58
Speaker 1: We make it easy for you. We know this is
21:00
Speaker 1: a complicated thing to understand because language culture. Somehow in
21:05
Speaker 1: your head you're like, I don't know if these people
21:07
Speaker 1: are even like me. Maybe they want to live like this,
21:09
Speaker 1: Maybe they're cool with this situation. So we are basically
21:13
Speaker 1: spoonfeeding press and talent. Because if you care about women's rights,
21:18
Speaker 1: if you care about juvenile rights, like you have to
21:21
Speaker 1: care about this situation. I think, I think this is
21:24
Speaker 1: a cancer. And so talking about it, asking your senators,
21:28
Speaker 1: your congressmen, your city officials, like what's your position? Where
21:31
Speaker 1: do you stand on it? The more you post, the
21:34
Speaker 1: more you reshare other people's post, the more you talk
21:38
Speaker 1: about it, you know. Tracy Ellis Ross was like, Hey,
21:41
Speaker 1: I'm doing a bunch of interviews and I'd like to
21:43
Speaker 1: bring up a couple of points. What can I say?
21:46
Speaker 1: Hit me up, you know, give me two things I
21:49
Speaker 1: can say. You know, these are the kinds of ally
21:51
Speaker 1: ships and friendships that like resonates so deep for me
21:56
Speaker 1: on a personal level, to just get the word out.
22:00
Speaker 1: I was thinking, and I don't know if this is relevant.
22:01
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm asking you. I read this book
22:03
Speaker 1: that really touched me a while ago, called the Girl
22:05
Speaker 1: who Escaped from Isis, And did you read this or
22:08
Speaker 1: you know I've heard her story, I believe right, And
22:11
Speaker 1: so I was thinking about it because people always have
22:13
Speaker 1: this misperception in hearing and reading her story about how her.
22:18
Speaker 1: You know, she was kidnapped, her family was separated, and
22:21
Speaker 1: then even when she was able to make it back,
22:24
Speaker 1: how she was shunned just because she was repeatedly raped
22:27
Speaker 1: by um. Well this is why the this is why
22:30
Speaker 1: when women and young women especially are arrested in these protests,
22:35
Speaker 1: they are then taken to prison. They are then forced
22:38
Speaker 1: into what they call see the right, which is essentially
22:42
Speaker 1: a work around. The Islamic Republic has a guide book
22:45
Speaker 1: on virgins go to Heaven. I hearned it right, Yeah,
22:49
Speaker 1: so they don't go to heaven. They rapem so they
22:51
Speaker 1: don't go to the report time reading on Justice for Iran,
22:55
Speaker 1: which is an amazing nonprofit. That's when spirit heading this
22:57
Speaker 1: over the past few decades is that the girls are
23:00
Speaker 1: reporting and a person came forward saying I was one
23:04
Speaker 1: of the person that they chose to be like the raper. Wow,
23:08
Speaker 1: he said, they cried more during the raping than they
23:11
Speaker 1: did right before their executions. I mean that is some
23:15
Speaker 1: women are killing themselves and scratching out the scratching out
23:18
Speaker 1: their faces, scratching out their eyeballs, because once you are
23:23
Speaker 1: de virginized through this lens of rape within that culture,
23:27
Speaker 1: you can't marry Nope, So then where do you go?
23:30
Speaker 1: Who has you? How do you what's your upward mobility
23:33
Speaker 1: once you've lost your greatest asset, which somehow is your virginity.
23:37
Speaker 1: That's why, right, It's just like that's literally like what
23:44
Speaker 1: you know this people that keeps screaming because you see
23:46
Speaker 1: these videos of people being I know, my feet is
23:48
Speaker 1: like a horrific like I'm sure people just muted me
23:51
Speaker 1: completely at this point. People are just screaming like you
23:57
Speaker 1: like you don't know God, you're not God loving person.
24:00
Speaker 1: And because they are just I mean, I'm talking like
24:02
Speaker 1: thirty forty people on top of one human being, and
24:06
Speaker 1: like you're talking about a student just like in school,
24:10
Speaker 1: because what he's chanting zan Zendi Ozodi like women, life, freedom,
24:16
Speaker 1: I mean, that's fucking bullshit. Excuse my language, but that's
24:21
Speaker 1: just it was heartbreaking and that's why. But it was
24:23
Speaker 1: important I felt like for me to read because, like
24:25
Speaker 1: you said, it is important to educate yourself through people
24:28
Speaker 1: who know more than you about what's going on. This
24:31
Speaker 1: was in a rat though, and I always hear Iran
24:32
Speaker 1: in Iraq, so is it the same in both? Like
24:35
Speaker 1: when it comes to what's happening in Iran right now.
24:38
Speaker 1: Iran is a very different country on the sense that
24:41
Speaker 1: it is Shiite, it is not Sunni. And the most
24:44
Speaker 1: important thing I think about Iran to know is, up
24:47
Speaker 1: until nineteen seventy nine, it was a second you know,
24:50
Speaker 1: it was a country wasn't perfect. There are many flaws.
24:53
Speaker 1: The Shaw was not by at all a perfect king
24:56
Speaker 1: and perfect leader. That's a whole other episode of people
25:00
Speaker 1: more educated than me can give you all the reasons
25:02
Speaker 1: why he wasn't perfect. But he did create opportunities of
25:07
Speaker 1: education and freedom for women. He was a supporter of
25:10
Speaker 1: women and their mobility within society. Forgot. My mom came
25:15
Speaker 1: here to go to get an education, you know, under
25:17
Speaker 1: the Shaw, and was blessed by her whole family. I
25:20
Speaker 1: mean my family's you know, just like a middle normal
25:24
Speaker 1: family from Iran. My mom came here, got an education,
25:27
Speaker 1: her sister got an education. This was a normal thing,
25:30
Speaker 1: This was a very she came here. She's an entrepreneur.
25:33
Speaker 1: And that the craziest thing about Iran that I will
25:35
Speaker 1: tell you is that it's a matriarchal society. There is
25:40
Speaker 1: I It is a society where the person doing the
25:43
Speaker 1: bossing and bullying in the household is my mother, It's
25:48
Speaker 1: not my father, you know. And that's that's how it
25:51
Speaker 1: is in ninety nine percent of Iranian households. It's the
25:55
Speaker 1: woman who drives. Yes, is a knows and how it's
25:58
Speaker 1: gonna be. And and it's worse to catch hell from
26:01
Speaker 1: her than it is from him. Yeah, how how can
26:04
Speaker 1: we help, like the amplify more people from Iran's voices?
26:09
Speaker 1: So listen, this is one of the things that we
26:11
Speaker 1: have done with this document. We have put together a
26:14
Speaker 1: panel of people who are domain experts. I'm talking thirty
26:19
Speaker 1: forty years on this topic. We've also put together a
26:21
Speaker 1: panel of people who are i would say, more culture driven,
26:25
Speaker 1: more gen z driven. My friends started an amazing Instagram
26:29
Speaker 1: called samonis m sam a n I s M. He
26:33
Speaker 1: creates these insane videos, all tracked to whether it's rage
26:37
Speaker 1: against the machine or Kendrick Lamar. So it's like he's
26:40
Speaker 1: trying to make the content very Western, but he's showing
26:42
Speaker 1: the footage. Our friends started an account called frem Iran.
26:46
Speaker 1: It's beautiful, it's artistics. She's a master's from Yale, So
26:51
Speaker 1: you look at this content, you think it's refinery twenty nine,
26:54
Speaker 1: there's these two young women that started an account called
26:56
Speaker 1: Middle East Matters. They're domain experts of everything in the
26:59
Speaker 1: Middle East. I think of them as like our young
27:01
Speaker 1: vice media. So giving voice to some of these folks
27:04
Speaker 1: and having them come and talk about what's going on here,
27:08
Speaker 1: I think is super important. I think, you know you
27:11
Speaker 1: can make donations to our Getting a go fund Me
27:13
Speaker 1: was almost impossible. I always have to give a shout
27:16
Speaker 1: out to go fund me. They went above and beyond
27:18
Speaker 1: because with sanctions it's almost impossible to help this country
27:21
Speaker 1: or raise money for this country. We can't give money
27:24
Speaker 1: to Iran, but we can raise money to help raise
27:27
Speaker 1: awareness for Iran. So that's one way you can help.
27:31
Speaker 1: But I think giving exposure too, because again we're not Iraq,
27:36
Speaker 1: We're not Afghanistan. We are we are adjacent, but we
27:40
Speaker 1: are something very different because we have nuclear capabilities, because
27:44
Speaker 1: we have eighty nine million people, sixty percent of them
27:48
Speaker 1: of under the age of thirty. But we are the
27:51
Speaker 1: highest users of Instagram within the Middle East. Literally, you
27:54
Speaker 1: can ask Instagram this. We are hybrid communicators. But I
27:59
Speaker 1: believe if we don't get this Islamic Republic out of power,
28:03
Speaker 1: it's not just a how how many more days of
28:05
Speaker 1: footage are you gonna watch? This is going to embolden
28:08
Speaker 1: these people. And they've already like they already sent drones
28:11
Speaker 1: to Russia. Right, They're just they don't care. They think
28:15
Speaker 1: they can do whatever they want. Dangerous. I'm like, I
28:22
Speaker 1: know I'm coming in all heavy. I'm like, I did
28:26
Speaker 1: I have one more questions that you did say? You
28:28
Speaker 1: have your memoir coming out. I'm working on it. Okay,
28:31
Speaker 1: it is coming out. We don't know when. We don't
28:33
Speaker 1: know when you'll you'll be the first to know. And
28:36
Speaker 1: so for you being queer in your family and culturally,
28:40
Speaker 1: how was that like as far as how they did
28:41
Speaker 1: they accept that right away? Was it a conversation? I
28:46
Speaker 1: mean I was emancipated at sixteen because we did not
28:51
Speaker 1: have language. My parents have I would say deep levels
28:59
Speaker 1: of trauma, you know, like people who are exiled from
29:02
Speaker 1: their country. They don't fit in UM, they don't know,
29:06
Speaker 1: they don't understand how to assimilate. They did not UM. No,
29:11
Speaker 1: they were not good about they were terrible about it.
29:13
Speaker 1: They know that they were terrible about it. They feel
29:15
Speaker 1: badly about it. I have been through therapy and through
29:22
Speaker 1: lots of other things, have done a ton of sort
29:24
Speaker 1: of thought leadership and thinking about it. I think finding
29:27
Speaker 1: empathy for people who've done you a little dirty creates
29:30
Speaker 1: a lot of grace. And so we're actually pretty tight
29:34
Speaker 1: right now. I've been tight for the past. We've been
29:38
Speaker 1: tight for the past nine or somewhat years, ten years. Yeah,
29:42
Speaker 1: that was part of the reason you were emancipated. It
29:45
Speaker 1: was the reason I was emancipated. Yeah, I mean by
29:47
Speaker 1: my parents were like, you cannot be gay, you cannot
29:50
Speaker 1: be queer. This is not cool with us. We're not
29:53
Speaker 1: we won't support you financially. And that's what they were taught.
29:56
Speaker 1: So I think that's what they were taught. I think
29:59
Speaker 1: they want to it in America. But I also think
30:02
Speaker 1: that they did not expect me to be so stubborn
30:05
Speaker 1: that I would take a trash bag, fill it with tuna,
30:07
Speaker 1: fish and socks and a couple pairs of parents pants
30:11
Speaker 1: and march out the door and never come back. I
30:13
Speaker 1: don't I think they thought I would like change my
30:16
Speaker 1: mind or something, or suppress it. Yeah, But I think
30:19
Speaker 1: from the very beginning I was a bit of a
30:22
Speaker 1: revolutionary personality. All the things I read about the things
30:26
Speaker 1: I cared about. The music I listened to engendered and
30:30
Speaker 1: emboldened my sense of being moj and so you know,
30:37
Speaker 1: we've preyed on it. We've I think what's also helped
30:40
Speaker 1: as my wife she's Iranian, and my son, I think this,
30:46
Speaker 1: you know what's so funny. I think they were afraid
30:48
Speaker 1: that me being gay meant I wasn't Iranian, that I
30:51
Speaker 1: was like somehow dissing their culture. And then I think
30:54
Speaker 1: when they realized as I was older, that I was
30:57
Speaker 1: heavy Iranian, that they were like, oh, like, you still
31:01
Speaker 1: love us. It's like some sort of weird trauma bond.
31:04
Speaker 1: I don't know, my therapist, this is what I spend
31:06
Speaker 1: all this money on. This is what I spent I
31:09
Speaker 1: spend more money on this than I do vacation. How's
31:12
Speaker 1: that you should try to get them to go too.
31:14
Speaker 1: I have tried. I have begged, but they're live the
31:16
Speaker 1: generation of like, how could you possibly tell about bigness
31:19
Speaker 1: that they could tell other people that's right? And I'm like, no,
31:22
Speaker 1: it's confidential. It's legally confidential, Like it's like telling your lawyer.
31:25
Speaker 1: They're like, I don't tell a lawyer anything either. You're like,
31:29
Speaker 1: how can they help you. I know what you said.
31:30
Speaker 1: It's true about grace still because it's like one of
31:32
Speaker 1: the biggest things I learned, you know, in regards to
31:34
Speaker 1: my father's it's like, you know, you realize your parents
31:37
Speaker 1: were people before they were your parents, and when you
31:40
Speaker 1: find out their stories, it allows you to give them
31:44
Speaker 1: a lot more grace. I think that, um, I never
31:48
Speaker 1: trust a person that can't forgive, You cannot forget. Like,
31:52
Speaker 1: my relationship with them is very boundaried, so I'm like,
31:55
Speaker 1: this is what we do, this is what we can
31:57
Speaker 1: talk about. They don't like it because I'm very like boundaried,
32:02
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of love present, especially now. I've
32:07
Speaker 1: never seen them so broken as I have in the
32:09
Speaker 1: past eight weeks. It's almost like they're reliving this trauma
32:12
Speaker 1: of exile. I think it's I always tell people, I'm like,
32:14
Speaker 1: imagine you go on a trip somewhere for a few weeks,
32:19
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the middle of that trip,
32:21
Speaker 1: you're told you can't go back to your home, and
32:24
Speaker 1: your home the streets have changed names, your schools have
32:27
Speaker 1: changed names, all your stories that you love are closed.
32:32
Speaker 1: And I think it's a lot to be exiled from
32:34
Speaker 1: a place that you grew up in. I think that's deep,
32:37
Speaker 1: and then it's demonized. I mean, look at the Ayatola,
32:40
Speaker 1: Like yo, I look at that dude, and I'm like,
32:42
Speaker 1: he it's hard to believe that that's you know, your country.
32:47
Speaker 1: It's hard to believe. And look, I think a lot
32:50
Speaker 1: of people felt that way about Donald Trump in this
32:53
Speaker 1: country and what you've seen here, whether you like him
32:57
Speaker 1: or not, you can't argue that this country has gone
33:00
Speaker 1: in the direction of divisiveness and a lot more hate
33:04
Speaker 1: present than before. And whether that's true or not, I
33:07
Speaker 1: think that's just how people feel, right. That's why I'm
33:10
Speaker 1: not looking for I do not want him back on
33:11
Speaker 1: the campaign trail. Really, no, that's the last thing I want.
33:15
Speaker 1: Do you think you can win? I mean, yeah, I
33:17
Speaker 1: think you can win. But I don't want him back
33:19
Speaker 1: on the campaign trail because every day we're gonna have
33:21
Speaker 1: to hear about him in the news cycle. Every day,
33:22
Speaker 1: it's gonna be something that's stern the pot. Every day,
33:25
Speaker 1: it's gonna be more divisiveness. Like, I don't want that. Like,
33:28
Speaker 1: I think I think it's unavoidable at this point. You know,
33:32
Speaker 1: I think he's coming I think we need to be
33:34
Speaker 1: prepared like we were for these mid terms. I think
33:37
Speaker 1: we need to continue to support our local officials and
33:41
Speaker 1: keep pushing through Congress and Senate and keeping heavy on
33:45
Speaker 1: our judges to make the right decisions. But yeah, I
33:47
Speaker 1: think a fight for freedom, for inclusion and democracy is
33:51
Speaker 1: a global fight right now. You know, I think everyone
33:54
Speaker 1: needs to put their foot on the gas. So I think,
33:57
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys know like I'm heavy on a
33:59
Speaker 1: run because I've been heavy on trans rights, gay rights,
34:02
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, you know, I don't have to say,
34:05
Speaker 1: but it's just like, fuck, I can't handle where we're
34:09
Speaker 1: going as a global sort of thought leadership around women
34:14
Speaker 1: in general. It just seems wrong. So ask me a
34:19
Speaker 1: fun question. Please don't make me just answer these heavy questions.
34:23
Speaker 1: You were here for them, an education we needed. This.
34:26
Speaker 1: Can I do to help you? Guys? That's my bigger question.
34:28
Speaker 1: You just did. Is there anything else we can do
34:31
Speaker 1: as a group that we can help you just did it? Okay,
34:34
Speaker 1: you can make some copies of those papers. I'm gonna
34:36
Speaker 1: get you copies of this. I'm gonna send it to
34:38
Speaker 1: you or something. I'll send it to you. Give you
34:41
Speaker 1: a PDF I will send it to your friends, and um, yeah,
34:46
Speaker 1: I mean I think people just need to keep paying
34:48
Speaker 1: attention because if you look at these kids, they're mega inspiring.
34:51
Speaker 1: I mean, that's I think that's the one. I mean,
34:54
Speaker 1: you've seen all the rappers, You've seen their videos, You've
34:57
Speaker 1: seen how much they love Drake, you see how much
34:59
Speaker 1: they love Kendri Smart. It's like, I'm really trying hard
35:02
Speaker 1: to get people from the culture to start to speak
35:04
Speaker 1: up for these artists and activists over there who are
35:07
Speaker 1: just living and dying through the lens of the music
35:10
Speaker 1: that we make here, you know, And that's really what
35:14
Speaker 1: that's really been our goal. So yeah, well, thank you
35:17
Speaker 1: for joining us in appreciate you. Yeah. I don't even
35:21
Speaker 1: work here and I'm here, so I mean, I when
35:23
Speaker 1: I came in and saw you, I was I was like,
35:25
Speaker 1: very flattered and happy this to you. What's going on
35:30
Speaker 1: with you? No, No, she taught me from Martin. Right now,
35:35
Speaker 1: she says she got a job. We don't believe it's
35:37
Speaker 1: that's in January, okay, but they will not let me
35:40
Speaker 1: get off this show. I've been trying and it's a
35:42
Speaker 1: lot of work. I'm doing double duty right now. I
35:44
Speaker 1: saw your new show and working here. Are you having funky?
35:50
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go okay, but I'm glad to have
35:53
Speaker 1: been here for this conversation. Thank you for having me.
35:55
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're mister big Time now. You're all doing okay.
35:58
Speaker 1: God is good and you are just killing on all
36:01
Speaker 1: of your business endeavors and making your family happy. My
36:04
Speaker 1: wife is good, I know, and that's beautiful. My wife
36:07
Speaker 1: is good, not my life. My wife is. That's really
36:10
Speaker 1: all that matters. I appreciate you guys so much. I
36:13
Speaker 1: love you guys so much. Without any asking, You're like,
36:16
Speaker 1: please come, I know what a huge audience you have,
36:19
Speaker 1: Please please, please, anything I can do, And for all
36:21
Speaker 1: the listeners you can go to the Lincoln the Bio
36:24
Speaker 1: and we are more than happy to spend the next
36:26
Speaker 1: few days just answering questions at MJ at MO chess right.
36:30
Speaker 1: Love you guys,