The Ben Maynard Program

EP. 128 Growing Up Under Iran’s Regime And Finding Freedom In America

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Most Americans only meet Iran through a headline, a chant, or a talking head. Then Sormeh walks into our studio and calmly says what almost never makes the news: the Iranian people are not the Iranian regime, and many Iranians don’t hate Americans at all. She grew up in Tehran, lived the fear and the censorship, and still has family there, so this isn’t theory or politics for sport. It’s personal.

We talk about what it feels like to be a kid forced to chant “Death to America,” what you can’t say at school, and why families learn to split life into “inside the house” and “outside the house.” Sormeh explains the pressure of internet shutdowns in Iran, why VPNs become normal, and how even a simple phone call to check on relatives can be risky when you assume someone is listening. We also get into the parts that are hard for Americans to picture: bans around music and dancing, fear of hospitals after protests, and the way the IRGC’s control shows up in everyday choices.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger questions: why the world ignores certain human rights abuses, what hope looks like for people living under the Islamic Republic, and why many Iranians fear a “ceasefire” if it leaves the same regime in place. We also discuss the Iranian diaspora’s rallies, why you often see American flags there, and what kind of leadership and free elections people are calling for, including mention of Reza Pahlavi.

If you care about media literacy, human rights, Iranian protests, or the real story behind US-Iran tension, this conversation adds the missing human element. Subscribe to the Ben Maynard Program, share this with someone who only knows Iran from TV, and leave a review or a comment with what challenged you most.#tellyourstory #familymatters #realstories #humanrights #iran #womenofiran #standwithiran #freeiran #middleeast

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram 
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

Housekeeping And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_07

Hey there. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. You can see we're crowded in the studio today. Um, but before we get into why, a little housekeeping to take care of first. As you guys know, this program is available wherever you get your podcasts, wherever they are, just search the Ben Maynor program. Boom, it's right there. Go with it, download it, okay, and uh share it. Share it with all your people. Uh, you guys can even subscribe to it. That way, when there's a new episode that publishes or drops, then you get notification. All right. Um, and you can leave me a five-star rating because I deserve it. And I'm really gonna deserve it after today. So uh next, um, if you can't resist all this right here, maybe a little bit of that across the table, and definitely, definitely some of this right here in the middle. And you're watching on YouTube, then thank you very much. But you got to subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell again. That gets you notifications when a new episode publishes. Uh, but then you got to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment, and then you got to tell a thousand of your family and friends about the Ben Maynard program. All right, because I come on, I'm worth it. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or where I'm a little more active on the TikTok. That is at the Ben Maynard program. So there are plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And uh with that, let's get right into it, okay? In studio, I have my nephew, Darren Kleinpel, married, married to my niece and former guest on the podcast a long time ago, Gianna. And uh, and then I have my other niece, because I have more than one niece. I also have more than one nephew, too. But my niece Sorme, Sormea Dragna, didn't used to be. And we're I'm what what was your what's your maiden name?

SPEAKER_02

I don't have middle name. I have two last names.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay. What was your what was your two last names?

SPEAKER_02

Shokraya Dragna.

SPEAKER_07

Okay. All right, all right. Well, that's a mouthful too. Um, anyway, so my niece, she's also here today. And uh I think what we're gonna discuss today is really important for all you guys out there to kind of grasp a hold of. Um, one thing that you you you all know is I don't get terribly political on this um on this program. Yes, from time to time I do. We're I don't think we're gonna get really political, but if you pay attention at all to what's going on in the world, you know that our country, the United States, is at war, conflict, whatever you want to call it, with the country of Iran. And for pretty specific reasons, if you don't believe in those reasons or you don't believe as to why it's happening, Sorme here is going to try to help clear some of that up for you, all right? So uh, one, thank you very much, Sorme, for taking time out of your day to join us in the studio and talk about this.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_07

Absolutely, it's my pleasure, Darren. Thank you very much for coming in and helping out with this. Absolutely. Because, truth be told, everyone, this was Darren's idea. Two weeks ago, two weeks ago, Darren sends me a text and he says, Hey, why don't you get Sorme on uh on the podcast? I think that'd be a great episode. And I thought about for a minute and I replied and I said, I think that'd be a great episode too. Good job. And I want to make sure Darren gets full credit, of course, for this idea. And if he's gonna if he's gonna help produce the podcast, well, he's gonna have to help join in, you know, he's gonna join in and and in the in the uh discussion. So here's how it works. All right, sorme born and raised in Iran, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I was born and raised in Iran in Tehran, capital.

SPEAKER_07

Tehran, okay. And um you left Iran, you left Tehran in uh in what year?

SPEAKER_02

2012.

SPEAKER_07

And came to the United States.

SPEAKER_02

Just straight to the United States.

SPEAKER_07

Okay. Was it um I mean for was there any particular reason other than you know?

SPEAKER_02

American dream like anybody else.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02

It's like whatever you see in the movie and then like TV. And I just had American dreams. A lot of my family were we all are out all over the world. Okay, not only US.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

I always want to come get out of Iran. Okay, all the you know, pressure, all this uh stuff was going on, and then so for everybody else outside of the United States have a dream to come here. I was one of them.

SPEAKER_07

Right. Okay, and so you came to the United States in in 2012. Let me do something here really quick, because I oh well, actually, I'm gonna do this first. You guys can't see it at home, but you'll see pretty soon. Haha, there we go. And then I'm gonna do this so we don't have to squint. Yeah, now we look really good. Um, so so you come to the United States in 2012, um, certainly with some of your family, of course. Yeah, and you want to be a citizen of the United States, right? You want to be you want to be American, correct? Okay. So you said you came to the United States to to live the American dream, be a part of that, have a piece of that American dream, which is certainly very it's it's wonderful. Um, so you come to the United States, you want to live out the American dream, you want to be a citizen, but yeah, it's not easy to be a US citizen.

SPEAKER_02

It takes 2012. I came for one year. I just have uh I just can stay in US. I couldn't work, I didn't have a work permit.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So uh my social security number came by saying no work permit. So I had to just you know use whatever money I had, and uh I went to work a lot of uh volunteering because I want to learn English, I want to be out, I don't want to stay at home.

SPEAKER_07

Wait, you mean English isn't your primary language? No way, come on.

SPEAKER_02

And then hey, I'm sorry, everybody, if I said something wrong. English is my second language.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, she normally speaks foreign, right?

unknown

No, I speak three languages.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, awesome. Okay, so so you couldn't work right away, but but you it took you up until 2019 to actually become naturalized, right?

SPEAKER_02

And then as the second year I get my green card. When you get your green card, it takes five years after the day that you get your green card, then you can apply for your citizenship.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Then I I apply for my citizenship. That one is not like tomorrow they call you and say, Okay, you are you a citizen. You have to wait again. Yeah, wait in 2019 before COVID.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

My day my file come up, and they call me say you have to come for all the you know, and you're just like, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02

You're just ready, just okay.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, so yeah. I I remember you and I we met ever so briefly. She's married to my nephew, okay. She married to my nephew Matt, and I met Sormei uh briefly in 2017. Uh you guys have been dating for about a year or so at that time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we started in 2015.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, 15. Okay, so this is like two years. Matt and I went on a trip to Costa Rica. That was such a great trip. But but I remember like every day you were living in Virginia, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, live in Virginia.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, and and Matt, Matt was living in Lake Havasu. And uh, for those of you outside the United States, that's uh in Arizona, but he would he would FaceTime you every day, and that's how I kind of got to meet you a little bit, and then we got to meet face to face about a year later. Yeah, yeah, and it was great. And you had told me at that time that I'm working on my citizenship, I'm waiting to you know get the call and and that kind of thing. And it was yeah, it was something.

SPEAKER_02

I remember after it happened, you were just like this Yeah, because when I applied, I applied when I was in Virginia, and then bit in this time when I was already applied and moved to Arizona, I was worried that everything is messed up. I had to call my lawyer, let him know that is he gonna come with me to the court, is not coming. But uh luckily I didn't need to go to court. Yeah, my case was not that type of case that I had to go to court.

SPEAKER_03

That's good.

SPEAKER_02

But he said if he need if he needs me and he has to be with me, he would fly to Arizona. But it was a really stressful time.

The Question Americans Avoid Asking

SPEAKER_07

Oh, I can bet. I mean, I bet it I bet it was. I can I can only imagine. So that was our introduction, and now I'm gonna toss it over to that good-looking guy over there, Darren, and he wants he's gonna bring in his introduction to Sorme, and then we're gonna really dive into this.

SPEAKER_00

All right. So Mr. No Filters here. So when I first met when I first met Sorme, um, I think we were in a van of some sort with the whole family coming in there, and she is telling us, and I find out that she's from Iran. And so I just straight up looked at her and I said, I'm gonna ask you a question. Don't want to offend you, and to everybody's gasp in the van, I just asked her, I said, Why do you guys hate Americans so much? Because that's all we see, right? Death to America, we hate America. Yeah. So I just asked her, Why do you guys hate us so much? And her response shocked me because it was like, we don't hate Americans, we love Americans, which kind of took me back. But then she started to explain the difference between what we see, and I don't want to jump too far ahead, but the regime forward media, death to America, we hate Americans, yeah, and what the I think you called yourself Persian at that time, right? What the Iranian people, yeah, normal people, not the people. The normal, the normal, healthy people, right? Their views, even though they were a majority, were not the views that we see. And we had a good conversation that day that I wouldn't have had had I had my filter on when I met you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that kind of sparked this because what she's bringing is regardless of people's political affiliation, you know, these days, this kind of surpasses that because this is a real person that lived it and lived what most of us, I think, don't know goes on behind behind the scenes. And that's why I thought it was a great idea to get you here today. So that was my introduction.

SPEAKER_07

Don't know, and we'll probably never see, too.

SPEAKER_00

For sure.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, that was that was something. And yeah, Mr. No Filter Darren. So, so you know, when Darren, Darren asked me, says, Hey, I think Storm May would be great to get on the podcast with everything that's going on in her home country. Storm May still has family there, and we're gonna discuss that too. Um, there's a lot of stuff that goes that that's that's going around in the media. Of course, our country is at war with them um for pretty specific reasons. Um, but if you're busy watching um the way I like to call them, the lame stream media, then you're gonna get a completely different perspective than what I think and what we believe you're gonna get right here today. You're gonna get it almost straight from the horse's mouth, okay, as to what's happening, what the people of Iran are thinking and feeling versus what we're being told and versus what the regime wants us to be told or wants us to know. Okay. So um Darren, I know you did some you did some great homework, so I'm gonna let you fire away first.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, let's see. Well, I guess what would you want to share with people like me when we first met to kind of enlighten us to what a majority of you people think about us versus what we're hearing that that we wouldn't know. Like the life there and the fears that you have that we don't experience, you know, those type things.

Propaganda In School And Fear

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um, the first thing I want to tell you if somebody doesn't know anything about us, don't listen to the so media. Like media is just always wanna manipulate everything and everything because they want to make money, they're not worried about me, you they don't want you to know anything. Like right now, it's 50 days Iran goes without internet. We don't know anything about our family, about our friends, like in and out. Sometimes some some really short video comes up, like somebody has Starlink, but they have to be really brave to stand that video out because you never know after that what is gonna happen to them, unfortunately. But the first thing I want everybody to know don't ever trust media, social media or TV, news, none of them are right. Okay, because not the everybody were there, they just show whatever they want to show you, not a real thing. Yeah, I know, like we about the first question that you asked me about the debt to America. Yeah, like I remember when I was a kid, just imagine this regime. We all like first grade, when you start the school, and everything in the morning, everybody of us has to line up and say debt to America. Like, imagine this country, this their mentality. Yeah, who's gonna start the day, the kids, with debt to America and the debt to Israel? And I was always scared to say that because my family was there, right?

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody wants to start their morning with a positive energy, especially for kids.

SPEAKER_00

Wow, and our classrooms don't even want to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Yeah, although when we were going to school, we did.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, but now in the last 20, 25 years, the Pledge of Allegiance has been taken out. So we don't even our our kids can't even don't even learn to pledge allegiance to this country, where when you took the oath for your citizenship, you did pledge allegiance. You not only you pledge allegiance, but you also pledge to leave behind you you're you're you're you're giving up your citizenship rights to the country you come from to take on the citizenship rights of this country and you swear allegiance to America. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, like that's terrible. Uh what you teach to the kids in the school. Right. Right. We didn't want to say that. We were worried about our family.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

When we're in first grade or second grade, why you have to say something like that? Like all fears, if you're not saying, they look at you, they take you out of the line, and then give you a hard time. Why you didn't say that? But just so you see that part that news just wanna tell you, but you didn't see the fear of somebody like me that I don't want to stay dead to America. What about my family?

SPEAKER_07

You're talking about school-age kids.

SPEAKER_02

What about my like friends that are there, dead to America? I mean, they all have to die. Like when you're first grade, you don't understand anything.

SPEAKER_07

I don't even understand what that means.

SPEAKER_02

This is what means like everybody has to die, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

This is the country I was growing up. I mean, I was born and raised in eight years war between Iran and Iraq. So I understand the people right now, what are they going through? We we grew up in a bomb like all the time. But that that time they give you some, like they tell you go to the shelter, we have shelter, but right now you don't know what's happening. They don't want you to know. There is no shelter in there.

SPEAKER_07

No bomb shelters?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_02

People they sit in their car, and then boom, all of a sudden, a lot of wow. I mean, uh, when you don't know, you don't know. Maybe that one of this regime, like guys, said uh their house was like two houses behind you or next to you. You don't know, and they just because they're targeting the uh Islamic regime people, not the innocent people, but when they bomb it there, then your house is two houses like hundred feet away. So a lot of things are gonna happen to you, too. Yeah, but we don't know because they they're not let you know that there is something, yeah. It's just terrible.

Lost Freedoms After The Revolution

SPEAKER_07

So, okay, let me let me let me ask you this now. Because you were born in 1981, and the um the IRGC, they took over power in 1979 when they overthrew the Shah, um, who not necessarily everybody in the country of Iran liked, but there were certainly under the rule of uh under rule of the Shah, which I think had been in existence from the late 40s, I believe, 47 or something like that, right? In that in that area. There were a lot of freedoms in Iran. A lot of freedoms. Uh uh, if you look at photos from the from the 70s, there was a lot of uh, I mean, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference if you had a photo on the beach there in Iran, you'd have you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between Iran and Southern California at the beach.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And the people are really like westernized because everything came from Europe.

SPEAKER_07

Right, right. Europe was so close, but so when you were growing up, obviously you were born after that time, and you were growing up in a much different time where you had to wear a burqa and and your face was covered, and you had to wear your hair a certain way. And if your hair was out of line, forget about it. You're child, you probably got punished, an adult, you're gonna get killed. But did those was there a history or anything that you learned in school about that time before the Ayatollahs took over?

SPEAKER_02

No, they're all the story that they tell you is the history that they want to write it. Okay, they never tell you the truth, they always say they were bad, they were bad people, like they are evil. But like the problem in Iran, like by the especially by the time that I was born and then raised, in the house was they tell you something outside the house, it's telling you something else. Okay, at that time there was no internet, you didn't know anything.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Right now, whatever you want, you go Google it, ChatGBT is my best friend.

SPEAKER_07

You just wait, I thought I was your best friend. Oh man, I'm losing out to a computer.

SPEAKER_02

So, like you you know a lot of things, yeah. But that time there was none of this available. So at the house, they told us, no, this regime is bad because most of my family were like they like Shaw, they were with them. My grandfather was in the army with the Shah. So a lot of them with they love Shah and they didn't like them, but they couldn't. But when they tell you that they don't like it, but they tell us when you go out, don't say don't say that. Wow. We couldn't say that. If we say that, we all be in trouble. But isn't it the basic uh freedom to like want to go say, Well, I don't like this, and just you want to say I don't like it. I mean, I like my family like Shaw, okay, who cares? Like it.

SPEAKER_07

That's what we're used to here in America is being able to express ourselves, whether you know it's it's for or against something or a put uh particular political party or something, but but we we couldn't in the house, they tell you something else, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And uh this is the why, like this is the regime wants. They just like everybody just be a liar. Nobody knows whether they're really what they want to until the like internet came and the people just go and read, they research. Okay, like when I research a lot of things, a lot of things that I believe is change, you know?

SPEAKER_07

So okay, so when you started to explore the internet and do some reading, it changed your mind. Did it change your mind, or you just saw things that and read things that you had different than what you had been taught?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, everything was before and then also I learned okay, why do I believe that? No, I don't believe it.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Like, what because they just want to put it in your brain, you know, brainwash you. Okay, really easy. Like, for example, like for your religious, you you cannot have any other religious than Muslim. You have to be Muslim. In the school, they just teach you, but the way they tell you, just like they say God is really kind and really good, but then that same God, oh, if somebody can see your hair, you go to hell, they're gonna hang your hair, and then your mom is gonna go. And how old are you? You're in second, third grade.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Like my mom, God wanna take my mom from me? Why? Like a lot of things that they keep telling you because they just want to brainwash you, be like them. But so I mean, I aware and say, no, I don't want that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well, a big advantage to you, I would say it sounds like is that at least you had home telling you better truths than what they were trying to force you at school.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, but like man, I I wasn't my mom and I have 20 years uh different. Like my mom was I mean, my mom would grow up when there was uh shopping.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But even my mom didn't know a lot more than I. I mean, she she can't tell me, yeah, no, it's not right. But she couldn't tell me a lot because she was scared that I go to school and say something, and we all gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, because you're just because you're just grade school kid, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You cannot trust a first a first grader to keep somebody a secret, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02

Right, do that. So that was that was hard, like all the time where we but then like everybody wanna like you guys can watch like all this show, like MTV, a movie. We couldn't watch any of this.

SPEAKER_05

What's MTV?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm not I'm not gonna argue though that that's necessarily a bad thing. If I could go back and remove that from my kids' lives, I would exactly you know, yeah. Let's let's let's edit that from the video.

SPEAKER_07

We could we could get rid of some of that reality television.

SPEAKER_00

We don't get to rot our kids with social media over there. We couldn't have a freedom to do it if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_02

Like, I remember I went to school and I it was a cassette that time. I had some cassette and wanted, you know, exchange it with our friend, and then in school, all of a sudden they said they're gonna come to your class, they wanna check everybody's back to see what we were shaking. I would just run to the bathroom, put all the cassette in the bathroom because I still take it from me.

SPEAKER_07

What was gonna happen to you? Yeah, gotcha. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

It's the basic freedom. Wow, how can how can I tell somebody in the US you don't understand what I went through with you? It's just like yeah, yeah, yeah. You cannot have a cassette in the backpack. I don't have drug in my backpack, just have to listen to music.

SPEAKER_07

What kind of music was it? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was like, I I remember I have Mariah Carey, I have Salendia just for Titanic King, we want to listen to that, Michael Jackson, or some Iranian singer that they uh live in, you know, uh California and just how did they send it?

SPEAKER_07

But they all like uh come to Iran but not in the right way, you know, just so the the the uh right so the the the regime figures that the music that you might be listening to is is propaganda against the uh against them, right?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know what they think they they said this is haram. Haram means like it's not something good.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, yeah, yeah, okay that it you're going straight to hell, probably, right?

SPEAKER_02

Against the hello, it's haram.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well a lot of the lyrics that our singers here single. Get up on the mic. Get out of a lot of our lyrics would go against what they're trying to do.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and then like man or woman dancing, you should you cannot watch this. That's that's against their law. You cannot watch somebody dancing.

SPEAKER_07

You couldn't watch anybody dancing. No, so that means you couldn't even dance yourself, then right?

SPEAKER_02

No, I mean like out class with a partner, no, no dancing with a with a with a partner, and the public, no.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00

So no uh no discotheques out there in Iran?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, no, this I mean I heard right now. I was like right now, it's like 13 years, 14 years, I'm out like the Iran. But after the internet, I say a lot of things changes, but a lot of things change and the government put more pressure on people. Okay, it's not like like oh, then nobody just open their internet and then log into Facebook or Instagram. Everybody has VPN, they have to buy a VPN and log into that.

SPEAKER_00

So you really have to hide everything you do, everything. Wow.

Everyday Life Under Surveillance

SPEAKER_07

Uh, you had told me that when you place a call to a family member that you really have to be careful of what you say, your conversation, because they're monitoring your phone calls.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

I just might I remember like a week ago, my aunt called me because we were worried, and then she could just call with his cell phone.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so uh they can listen, you know? And then I just say she he just she just wanna say, okay, I'm okay. Don't worry about us, we're good. Say, are you doing okay? She said yes, but she couldn't say no, well or say something. I couldn't ask, hey, are you is it anything happened close to your house? Like, what are you doing? What are you thinking? Nothing. Really? She just said, Well, we're okay, just want to let you know we're good. Or throw up and then hang up. You know, you can't that quick. That quick.

SPEAKER_06

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, anything, see, they're she say they have like listening, and then what if they come to their house and something happened? We don't want anything to happen to them.

SPEAKER_00

There's a freedom we're not used to here in this country.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and then when when the people hear this respect, this freedom that you guys have, and I just want to tell them, but you don't because you don't know. I'm so sorry I say that, but American people are so spooked. No, don't don't don't be afraid of that. You don't know about the problem it's in the Middle East or the other country. You and you and then some people they don't even want to know because they go and and against that they they were supporting them. Right. And when you tell them why you do that, they don't even know why they do that. Like when they ask, oh, I think I don't know, I think we have to do that. Like, who is behind all of this that they pay them to just go and well, and we've we follow them. I don't know.

SPEAKER_07

We've seen that recently in in in No Kings protests and all that type of stuff, and it's so silly. I guess the people with the No Kings protest, in case you didn't know, you won. All right, you won. You don't even need to protest anymore because uh we don't have a king, so you guys won. But but most of the time you can ask somebody at these and they have no idea why they're why they're protesting. And and to what you said, that which is becomes very frustrating for you, is that a lot of Americans have no idea exactly just how free we are in this country. And they want to say that, oh, you know, they they they want to hate on our president. Um, he's this, he's that, he's taken away my freedom. And and my question is like, well, what freedom has he what freedom has he taken away that you don't already have? You know, because because if he took away your freedom, you wouldn't be standing on this street corner with this sign, you wouldn't be blocking traffic like the shorts and a tank top, like half of your body is out, you know, you could not be like this in Iran.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say, if that if it was a protest in Iran, they would have been dead long ago. I know, right?

SPEAKER_02

Like and then I remember I watched something, uh they said they were just going and I talked to some people. Do you do you you prefer you live in Iran right now with this all this stuff? You or you prefer to live in the United States? And a lot, some of them like some got kids, you know, in the new generation. Yeah, oh no, um, oh we don't know anything about uh the models, but I think we prefer to live here because we don't like Donald Trump. Just because you hate Donald Trump, you want to get rid of your freedom and live in Iran with a bomb and with all this restriction, but because you don't even know what we're going through there. Yeah, what do you know about there?

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Nothing just some propaganda, just some stuff that all right now the regime pay for a bunch of influencers because I pay you that much money, and just go and say we are really good.

Iranian People Versus The Regime

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, give it, I want to bring some positivity, excuse me, to the conversation in that, like I said, we only know what we're allowed to, not allowed to see, what we do see on our social and the news.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What are some things about the I'll say the good Iranian people that you can share with the viewers that we, like I said, otherwise wouldn't know. Kind of like when you and I had that conversation in the van, you know, about your culture, the people, your values, things of that nature that align with us that you can share with the people that we don't get to see.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's like one of them the way that you think we hate American. But Iranian people, the real Iranian people, they don't hate America, they don't hate Israel. I mean, we all are human. Right now, war is between the government for the power, right? The money. It's not between the people. And I mean, to be honest, nobody wants war, but um there is no other way for Iranian people to have freedom. And Iranian people, they they deserve the freedom because they are all educated, they're all hardworking, they all they know everything. Why they have to just be in the box without anything because the regime wants to make money, because Iran is a really rich country, it could be even wealthier, yes, absolutely. Like, why we cannot make our country great with all this like right now in Iran, all the uh educated people all are like really high educated, they all are in jail.

SPEAKER_06

All politicians, yeah, they are all in jail because you cannot say anything.

SPEAKER_02

Like, look at this, just execute one of our wrestlers that has gold medal.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, a gold medal wrestler for uh the country of Iran, and uh basically he just spoke out against the uh against the political regime, right? Against the Malays.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, we don't hate America, we don't hate anybody. Our government hates people. The people in Iran, like I really would love one day, like I take Matt, my husband, yeah, to Iran to just see exact the truly Iranian people. Like he didn't have any idea about Iran or Iranian people to he date me.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_02

So when he came to he just dove right in. I'm gonna find all about my family is just like, whoa, like like people are lovely, people are so friendly, they want, they do everything for you. You know, it's not like I remember when anybody comes from UF or any non-Iranian come to Iran, we do everything for them. Yeah because we want to show them like we are so friendly, we are hospitality. Iran has a lot of beauty that nobody sees because they don't let you see.

SPEAKER_07

The IRGC won't let people see.

SPEAKER_01

No.

SPEAKER_07

And if they did, I'm I'm I'm curious as to whether our mainstream media would even allow us to see it.

SPEAKER_02

No, they probably don't want to see anything. I feel like the people who support this regime, yeah, and they don't want them to go, they just make money from them. That's all I can say, because you cannot like evil, you cannot like people who kill the innocent people. Well, how could you love that? How could you say, oh, they're really good?

Protests, Crackdowns, And Internet Blackouts

SPEAKER_07

How can you stand for something? It was what just a f just a few short weeks ago, shortly before this war had broken out, the the people, the people of Iran were out on the streets protesting for change, protesting for change, and what happened in the in the in the course of two days?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and it was one of the biggest uh like I think it was after Tepat. Tipat, there was uh they killed a lot of people there because there are people protesting against the government, and uh Iran, like 8th and 9th of January, they killed over 42,000 innocent people.

SPEAKER_07

It on the uh between the 8th and 9th, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Wow two days.

SPEAKER_07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Why? Because they just can't say, well, we have to change because people cannot afford anything. Our economies crash. Yeah, a lot of people are hungry, you know. People don't have any future. Everybody are educated, everybody went to school, everybody are fully educated, but there is no job. What can they do? They just do nothing, they go work, like we have something like Uber is Snap. They go work there, like with the bachelor, with the PhD. Why? Yeah, this is not a future for me. They just came for their basic, basic freedom, and this is happening.

SPEAKER_07

Darren, how how is that possible? That you gotta be really busy to execute 40,000 plus people in two days. Yeah, that's that's that's a busy work. That's a chore, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02

And then right now, they bring the people from Iraq and Lebanon and Hamas to do that, to help them, right? Like yesterday I saw that some uh people came from Hashadus Shabi, one of this uh terrorist groups.

SPEAKER_07

That's a terrorist group, okay.

SPEAKER_02

To Iran and to where? To the same city that in that eight years war, that same people fighting, and they they die for our country to save our country. They die, they killed with the same people, kill them, and they went to the war, and now they come to they come to the same city to kill the people. So this is so sad. These people, they all fighting. Yeah, you know how many people die, how many soldiers die in the war between Iran and Iraq? No, no, a lot, yeah, lots, a lot of people die. It was an eight years war, yeah, and the major city was this city, same Khorasha. No, the same people come, they bring the same people to my country, yeah, the same city to kill that people.

SPEAKER_07

You know, um, do you think that that the military in Iran supports the IRGC, or do you think that these that these soldiers are basically forced in the military and they're doing a job to save their own lives?

SPEAKER_02

Maybe some of them. Okay. Not all of them.

SPEAKER_06

Okay. Yeah. Not all of them.

SPEAKER_02

Some are they all they're they're people.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, really? Really.

SPEAKER_02

So because I mean why they didn't do anything, the military has the gun. Like people in Iran don't have anything, anything. Anytime they go out, are empty. They are them, they go out, and then one of the things.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, they're pro they're protesting in the streets with signs, they're not protesting in the street with rakes and shovels, and although they could, but but that's about the only way they're going to be able to overthrow the government themselves, or with rakes and shovels, because they don't have any guns.

SPEAKER_02

No gun. And they come with the like a huge gun, like AR-15.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or all it's not like with the small yeah, no, there's no little 22 pistols or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02

And then how could you kill that much people? Like in the five weeks, as less people died than it's two days.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Because because the the citizens, the public, are not being targeted because now the RGC is busy trying to shut down the keep the the straight of war moves uh closed and and worried about uh sending missiles over to Israel and all the other allies in that in the Middle East. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I don't know. I remember when was uh World Cup for the soccer in Qatar. Iranian people went with the real Iranian flag. They didn't want to go with the IOGC flag with the Islamic Republic flag. They didn't let them go inside the stadium.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

I remember somebody wear the shirt out on their her shirt, their shirt that was uh, you know, at a I think it was uh our picture of our king, Rizal Pahbi, and it's like with the flag, they threw them out of the stadium.

SPEAKER_07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Now they are bombing up top.

SPEAKER_07

Now because because it's it's small and the microphone is broug blocking most of it, you're wearing a you're wearing a pin right here.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_07

Uh is is that the original flag of Iran? Yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

And it's the original.

SPEAKER_07

So that's the original flag of Iran. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. And and just so if you can't see, and and obviously if you're listening uh to this and not watching, you definitely can't see, but but Sormey is also sporting, I love it. She's sporting her make Iran great again hat.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

The myga hat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I mean, I'm so thankful that whatever President Trump do that, because he just wanted to save the people. And all the Iranian, like all this um like rally that Iranian people do here or in other countries, especially in Europe, we all have American flags. If there is a rally, there is no American flag, they're not the real Iranian people, they are the ones with the regime.

SPEAKER_00

And those are the ones we see, because I don't remember ever seeing American flags when I'm watching TV or something like that.

SPEAKER_02

They all are have like Palestinian flags, free Palestine.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And um, no, we have uh everybody has American flag. When we put it as an American flag and our real flag, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Which is, you know, it's just odd that you know the media shows the the protests here in our country, uh, people that are you know uh not supportive of our president and the the efforts and the war that's going on. And they think that they're oh, this is anti-war, anti-war, and they think they're doing a good thing, or they're just uh never Trumpers and hate our president. But but you the types of people that you see out at the protests are all walks of life. Um and certainly they're not, I wouldn't consider them to be conservative like the three of us here are. And they're because of the picture that our um media paints, and even uh to me, to be honest, even our leftist Democrat Party paints, is that go out and support the the political regime in charge and be anti-war, anti-Trump. And you've got people, like I said, of all walks of life, people with green hair, blue hair, um, you've got gay, lesbian, transgender people, and they'll they'll hold up signs, you know, gays for Iran. They're gay, yeah. We saw a lot of gays for Palestine and all this kind of stuff. And it's like, now let me ask you a question, Mr. Gay for Palestine or Mrs. Gay for Palestine. Do you understand that you would not you were so free in this country here to hold that up, that sign up, to wear that shirt, whatever it is. But do you realize if you stood even in favor of the government saying gaze for Palestine, gaze for Iran, whatever it might be, you're gonna get thrown off a building or you're gonna get hung publicly from a crane, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, they don't get it. You you don't understand until you leave in Iran, yeah.

Hope, Regime Change, And Leadership

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Or until you see a podcast with somebody real who lived there and can explain it without left or right bias coming through. You know, this is just how it is, how it was, how it still is. Um, what is the uh I think I probably know the answer, but what's the feeling of like hope in all of this from the people there? I mean, it looks like this is it, like this is an opportunity. And do you think it'll be enough to get you guys to be able to, not you guys, but to get them to take back their government? Is that gonna be possible through all this?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I mean, what something is interesting that I say nobody wants war, but people in Iran prefer to throw the bomb on them than they stay and this regime stay with them. Because if everything done right now, and say, Okay, ceasefire, and this regime stay, people they're done. Let's take in North Korea.

SPEAKER_07

So they're not gonna feel hope.

SPEAKER_02

No, just stay, right? You know, their fear is war is ended and this regime still be there.

SPEAKER_00

So, like the founding of our country, people would rather fight dying for their freedom than knowing they're probably gonna die under an evil regime and not ultimately do anything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right? Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Let's say uh all of us biggest concern that everything is done and they'll stay there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And so they don't they don't want us to quit yet.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Not without not without any result.

SPEAKER_07

With getting this, yeah, getting business done.

SPEAKER_02

Everything, all this building, I told you, people in Iran, they all are educated, they all know how to build it again better than what was before. But if this regime stay, Iran is I said Iran is gonna be the second North Korea. People are gonna be in a lots of lots of things.

SPEAKER_00

You almost wonder if now they'll come back with a vengeance. Yeah. Now finding more people that spoke up against this and make sure they dig a little deeper to eliminate the resistance.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, like right in this war that everything's happening, like 10 days ago they hang again three other young people. I mean, who do that? Like right now, the bomb in the people's head, everybody is nervous, and they hang three other kid uh kids because they were they were one of them like 18.

SPEAKER_07

Wow. Wow. And what was the reason?

SPEAKER_02

They did they speak up because yeah, they they were in that uh protest for 8th and 9th of January.

SPEAKER_00

Okay just for fun. When you say Iranian protests, from what I've seen on that end, those are nothing like our protests, right? You're not in the faces of cops throwing bottles and Maltov cocktails and getting in front of cars. You're just they were dancing in the streets in protest, right?

SPEAKER_02

But when they start to hit them and then kill them, so they you you have to defend your create with nothing, they they defend themselves with nothing against the big guns, right? But yeah, yeah, I know, but yeah, I really don't. I I think they were the bravest people ever. Iranian people, Iranian woman, it's so hard to be a woman and live in Iran. It's the hardest thing, right? You don't have any rights. You're talking about you can't drive a car. Women don't have to drive it. That one was for Saudi Arabia, but right now they were really like this their new uh king is really yeah, they do everything. Yeah, they were way ahead of us. They ruined my country now, they are ahead of us.

SPEAKER_00

What would you say if you were talking to if you were talking to uh an American woman now for the first time, right? Because obviously women now have no rights in America and everyone else. Of course they do. The world's falling apart in America, yeah. But what would you say to an American woman that you know come up to you and talk to you about how we're we're losing all our rights as though how would you be able to do that? We're so oppressed.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, how would you what would you share to them to I don't I tell you, I tell them, you know what? I don't know what to say. You don't know anything. You're spoiled. You really, you guys don't know anything. I see a lot of them, and I always say, you guys are so spoiled, you don't know. Like the the like a simple thing. If um two couples they divorce, all the rights for the kids is for the men. Man can say, I don't want her like mom see my kids. Okay, whatever dad said. If I want to travel, I'm under 18, my dad has to sign so I can get a passport. I cannot just go get a passport. My dad has to come and say, Okay, I let my daughter leave the country. And when you get married, if your husband doesn't let you go, you cannot leave the country. Like, and then woman here, when you guys are divorced, everything is for the woman. You have to fight a lot to get something, and half of the time.

SPEAKER_07

Damn Mike. Damn Mike, because no, no, no, it's okay. Because I want to make sure everything you say goes out. I want everybody to hear what it is that you're saying. I don't want them to have to turn up the volume when you speak, turn it down when Darren and I speak. Turn it up. No, no, no, no, no. You're listening you're doing great. I I'm I'm I'm loving it. Um, I'm hoping that people are are are are grabbing a hold of what it is that you're saying. And and and maybe it you're painting a clearer picture of you know the happenings in in Iran, and that there's a reason why what's going on is going on. There's a couple of reasons. We all under I I think the educated here in America understand most of the reasons why what's going on is going on right now, why there is a war happening. So um, you know, no, you're doing great though. You're doing fantastic. I'm turning it over to you.

SPEAKER_00

You're putting it back on me. I am putting it on you. Oh, I'm just you're looking at your notes. I'm looking at some notes to come up with some different questions. Um what would you want the people that are watching this to feel after hearing you speak? Like what would what message or or whatever would you want them to get after hearing you talk today?

SPEAKER_02

Um I just would love the people understand what are we going through, not by watching news.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And instead of supporting the regime, support the people. Like, where are these people when Iran doesn't have 50 days without internet? Why nobody come and protest the Iran, Iranian people in the war with no internet? Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, if right now Israel shut down the internet in Hamas, everybody's gonna be in the street in the United States.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02

Oh terrible guy.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

He did that, but why nobody? Where were these people?

SPEAKER_00

Right. But you know what? I only heard this in talking to you. I have not seen, and I and here's the thing. Now that I'm on Instagram and TikTok looking at it, I get more videos, and and and most of the ones I'm getting are from Iranian women, believe it or not. They've got the, you know, you guys have very strong voices when you're allowed to speak.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

Women’s Rights And Family Law

SPEAKER_00

Um, and the same thing, they're so thankful for the US being there and all of the support. Um, but even in that, I've not heard, except for you, that that was even happening over there. So even in me looking and searching for information, I'm still not able to get the full story that you get from talking to people. And that kind of sucks in a world where information should be readily available. And we're in the United States, and I can't find that. So I can't imagine what Iranians are going through looking for even, hey, what the hell's what was that noise going on in my neighborhood right now?

SPEAKER_07

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02

There's no report and nothing. No, there's nothing, they don't let anything come up. What we know is sometimes people like I say they're really brave to send some information out.

SPEAKER_00

We gotta go back to flyer dropping over your neighborhood to let you know what's happening, right?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, old school.

SPEAKER_02

Write the letter.

SPEAKER_07

So for the people of of Iran, obviously they weren't thrilled with the Ayatollah regime. Um, you know, Papa is gone, he's he's dead, yeah. And now it's speculated that his son is old, I think it's his oldest son, the gay one. Yeah, that that he is he is the one that's in power, but nobody, at least nobody here in the United States has actually physically seen him. They've seen cardboard cutouts of it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he's a cardboard.

SPEAKER_07

But you know, speculation is he's he might be dead, that he might he, yeah. But it um do the people of of Iran you know want to see maybe the son of the Shah come back into power or come into power because he was never in power, is obviously his father was, but would they like to see the son of the Shah come come into power?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I can say 80% wants him to come, but he doesn't want to come to the power. He just wanna be a leader for this time of the you know country with all this war and everything. He wants to come and then have a free election and people vote who they want, yeah, yeah. So, but right now, the only person we have is him. We don't have any other free people, but as we have like lefties is everywhere, we have some lefties, like 10 per 10 to 15 percent. Yeah, when they ask him, okay, if you don't like him, do you have anybody else? No, okay, okay. If you don't have it, what they just like a lot of people here, they just hate Trump, they just hate him because of that. They don't want, even with past these days, all this hard time to just get rid of Mullah. So, and then we have like 10% of our you know, Iranian that they were the regime and all their family, friends, and everybody that make money from them.

SPEAKER_07

So they'll continue to support the Malays.

SPEAKER_02

If they want them to be there, then they're gonna lose their money. Yeah, gonna spend all this money.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I remember that on, and I don't want to go too far backwards from our uh progress here, but no, that was one of the things you had mentioned when we first met, and I asked you that question is a lot of these people are they're surviving because of the regime, they're on their payroll, in essence, right? You guys are out here in the countryside struggling. These guys are doing okay as long as they follow these rules, go with the propaganda. And so when we talked about, you know, how can someone be that evil and all that stuff? You know, mark of the beast coming soon, whether you believe it or not, right? Like, yeah, you can't buy nor sell nor survive, and we'll have control, or you can come do as we ask, and we'll take care of your basic needs. Survival is very powerful, you know, and they're they're getting something from it. Yeah. I wonder if you could just guess, and there's no way we'd know this, if you could give those people what what okay, here's Iran. What percentage of the population are we seeing under the regime's umbrella? Would you guess?

SPEAKER_02

10, 15.

SPEAKER_00

Really?

SPEAKER_02

It's not a lot. So 90% of the country is not what we're not what they want, but then some of them they are lefties that they don't know what they want because they don't have any leader. Okay, who's your leader? Just if you don't have it, we have somebody that is well known, the whole world knows him. When he goes and talks, he knows three different languages. He can speak three different languages. When he goes and wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. He can speak what three different languages. Oh, three okay, three three different English and French. Okay, and then when he goes somewhere, you're not saying oh gosh, again he wanna go talk about Iran. Like all the regime people, when they come out, we're just embarrassed because this is not us. Okay, they're they are not voice of Iranian people, they are voice of hominy that is dead, and all IRGC, not voice of people.

SPEAKER_06

The people, no, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, if you don't like him, do you have somebody else? No, so no, and then no, no, we don't want war, we don't have anybody, we don't want him. Okay, then what do you want?

SPEAKER_00

So by default, they want the regime because they won't allow someone else to take the reins or bring someone else in who can do the difference, so they end up just leaving it the same.

Doctors, Hospitals, And Punishment

SPEAKER_02

I have some and my friends and family, I unfollow all of them because I really don't want to be so you know right now, uh everybody they see who's your real friend, who's not, and you see a lot of people that you're saying, oh my god, are they my family? Are they my friends? And I saw a lot of my family that they were all changes to be better. Like now they say, No, we believe that I I have some family that were all against Trump. Now I see, oh wow, they now they like Trump, they because they see, okay, I mean, you can always improve yourself, yeah. You always can go forward, but when you go backward, it's really bad. Yeah, and now I say, okay, no, this is the only way. Like my one of my cousins, when you guys were not in our wedding, he was uh at my wedding, and he's a doctor in New York. He has like over a million followers on Instagram, it was he started his uh page when COVID happened. Because when COVID happened, homini didn't let any vaccine go to Iran because if this vaccine is for US, they're not people cannot have it, all that crap. So a lot of people die because they couldn't get a vaccine. And my cousin started having this uh change and start helping people. The people keep asking what we have to do, what he started just keep helping people, and then we went through the like almost I think it was three, three and a half years ago, we went to that another uh protest in Iran about that girl Massa Mini that because it's killed him. So we went through that time and uh he started helping people because now when any of these protests happen, and then and even this last one, when they shot the people or people are injured, they cannot go to the hospital because if they when they go to the hospital, all this IRGC around the hospital, they find you, they don't let the doctor put you in a jail, or they kill you, or a lot of things, and he was non-stop on his Instagram and helping people. People couldn't trust any doctor, they're scared to go see the doctor, and then but you have to see you can go see his Instagram right now. He has it all the picture that they send it to him, so for sure cover their name, and you can see they all are their buddy was a lot of gunshot, everything they couldn't, and they call him, send him a message. How can we take care of like our loved my mom, my sister, my daughter, everybody? Because people scared to go to the to the hospital. Wow, all the hospital was the just IRGC. They just monitor who's coming. A lot of right now, two of our doctors they were gonna execute them again and hang it because they help these people. I mean, you are a doctor, you swear to the.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say, do they take a different oath than Iran and do no harm? Right?

SPEAKER_05

Wow, yeah. Have you ever been afraid to go to the uh ER or to go see your doctor here? I'm gonna be honest, I'm afraid every time I need to get my prostate exam.

SPEAKER_00

Other than that, no. This is the different podcast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

This is the freedom that people need, not a lot of things that hear they can.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and you can see why we here in America don't grasp what you're saying. I got shot, but I can't go to the doctor. Like, we even if we didn't have insurance, we could walk into a hospital and I think they have to at least treat us on an emergency basis, right?

SPEAKER_02

You cannot.

SPEAKER_00

We can't fathom what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02

Because they said you are you shouldn't go and you are like want to come, like you you shouldn't. Why you want to come talk against us?

SPEAKER_07

And you're probably and you're hurt be you're you're hurt, you're shot, or whatever it is, because you were uh speaking out against because the regime have money, yeah, and your kids are hungry, your wife are hungry.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, when your family are hungry, you do everything to just find the food to put it in there.

SPEAKER_07

And I think that's where the I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's where the people are in Iran right now. It doesn't matter, they will do whatever it takes to change the regime.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And you know, let's just say, because I I think that uh on average uh the the uh population of Iran is around 90 million people. You know, you're saying that 10 to 15 percent like at max are in favor of the the the mullahs and the the the current regime. But the the rest of those people, not counting obviously military, that that you know, no guns at all, but a lot of but most of those people are willing to lose their lives to stand up. And if they if it comes to it, they'll obviously that they will physically fight to change the way that things are in Iran. Yeah, I mean they're obviously they're gonna have to fight with, you know, I don't know if they have rakes and shovels, but they'll fight with barefisted if they have to to to do what it takes, right? That's that's incredibly um insane to think about, right, Darren? It's I mean uh that thought process for us takes us back like hundreds of years for that. You know, we don't I we're in 2026 to think about a people in a nation that are willing to go through to those lengths to gain their freedom.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we don't have to think about it here. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

The Human Element And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00

And we take everything for granted here, you know, which again why is why I thought this was so important because you know, like you don't see it, you don't hear it unless we're hearing it from you. And even when we hear it, it's like, you know, I can go out and we got people that are in the face of law enforcement, yelling, cussing, and screaming at them, and the cops just stand there. You being wrong place at the wrong time at somebody dancing against the police, bullet in your leg, and oh, by the way, you can't go to the doctor because you shouldn't have been there protesting. Like well, you're probably lucky if you got a bullet in the leg. I know I can't, but I mean it's like I can't process that because we are so spoiled here, you know, blessed, spoiled, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_07

Exactly. They you know, yeah. I mean, in that case, they may just drag you right out in the middle of the road and just uh, you know, you lose your head right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What is UN? I guess a lot of we are the UN.

SPEAKER_06

Oh wait, oh wait, no.

SPEAKER_07

Well, at least we're the money in the UN anyway. You know, we're we're the rest of the nation.

SPEAKER_01

Where are they controlled? Because they don't know, they don't they don't want to know.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. It's uh it's unfortunate that, and and obviously we're gonna get a little bit political here, but this is kind of this isn't just uh a human situation here. This is a political situation here because you've got um you've got the United States that that basically takes the lead at NATO, takes the lead at the the the United Nations. Uh we certainly it's it's the the money from the United States that you know keeps these organizations afloat. And where we come into conflict here in in Iran, the end result, if if the regime is taken out and changed, doesn't just benefit the United States, it benefits the entire world. It really truly does. And yet, we here in the United States can't get who countries who are considered to be our friends and allies to step up and lend a hand and give aid. You know, it's like, wow, it is really confusing. So, like to your question, yeah, where's the UN? Where's NATO? Where are these people?

SPEAKER_00

Well, how do you I mean, yeah, and and how what did what did you say? We're up to like 50,000, 40,000, 40,000.

SPEAKER_07

42,000, I think is what you said. 42,000 that are executed.

SPEAKER_00

How would that fly with any other country in the world? Yeah, like you said, with the with with no reaction. I don't think that it would. You know what I mean? And yet here it is, and it's blind eye. Yeah, you know, I haven't officially seen the record, you know, so that's that's that's definitely uh a downer.

SPEAKER_07

Well, yeah, you get you first off, first off, there's been a what uh a four-year, four plus year war going on between Russia and Ukraine, and we're getting a little off topic, but to bring it up kind of in a similar space, you're losing on average like five to eight thousand soldiers on both sides every week. And they're screaming and hollering about all that stuff that's going on, and oh, you know, keep funneling money to Ukraine to help them fight Russia, and though the United States has sanctions against Russia, you've got other countries that are helping out the Russians to keep that war going on, and and all it is is more people dying. And what has our president said all along? Stop the killing. I just want to see the killing stop. And it doesn't matter if it's Ukraine, Russia, if it's if it's Iran, let's just stop the killing. And in order to stop the killing, there I I think that there's got to be regime change, you know.

SPEAKER_00

So well, and that leads to another topic which we'll cut this off real fast. But you know, we've we've uh appointed ourselves the police of the world. Good, bad, the other. Some people look at some people disagree with it. It just kind of is what it is. But get up on that mic. What would happen? What happens if we are not involved in this? Nothing happens. More deaths happen.

SPEAKER_07

That is exactly it gets it. It only gets worse if we don't step in.

SPEAKER_00

So what's what's worse? We should stay out of this. It's none of our business. Okay, maybe as a country I can get that. Yeah. But then wow, 42,000 people executed simply for voicing a fraction of the freedoms that we voice here all the time, murdered. How do you let that just settle and turn a blind eye to that? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02

I feel like everybody's blind eye on Iran.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Why, if this happened in uh Hamas or Palestine, nobody, everybody's right now. But that that is why this is why I want to know why. This people in Iran are not human beings.

SPEAKER_00

Which is why I wanted to bring the human element to this agreement because I think that's what's missing. When I my whole life, when I thought of Iran, it's you know wars and fighting and people and uh who gives a crap, right? And then I meet a real person in there who told me, Wow, there are other real human beings that live there, and they're not these people that wake up every day wanting me dead, they're a real human being. Right. And that changed my view. Yeah. Honest to God, true story, just from that conversation you and I had. If I'd have never had, if I'd had, you know, oh, you don't ask someone a difficult question when you first meet them, like, F it. I'm gonna ask you, why do you get it out of the way? Right. If I would have not done that and had that conversation, I wouldn't have any, I wouldn't have any feelings towards the people of Iran. I'm just being honest because I'm not taught, I'm not showed those feelings. You guys hate us. Screw you, kill each other. I don't care. You want me, you all want me dead anyway. Right. And when I found out, like, wait a minute, that's not true. Now I can relate on a human base, you know, on a human level. And it kind of changes things. And I that's why I thought this was important. I think it is important views are that you see human beings and not that different from us, right? If we switched places back and forth, you here, you're welcomed and loved here. If I go to your neck of the woods, you're saying I would be welcomed and loved there. Yeah, we're not that different, we're just a ways away, and we've got some shitty regimes that get in the way of that. Yeah, but when you move those aside, people are changes things. And that people love it.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. No, that no, this is very important. And um, you know, whatever views this gets, whatever downloads on the audio side of it it gets, it gets. And but I hope that it certainly will shine a light in the right place, and and that people honestly, to be honest, uh honestly, to be honest, yeah. Okay, let's be a little redundant there. Um I'm hoping that more people that have the opposite view of what we've been discussing are going to watch or listen to this, because maybe it will shine a light on this and it will it will make them think differently and see things differently and and and feel things differently, um, and understand this situation differently, you know, because that's what we want. That's I mean, that's what we want. You know we've said it. You you you bring up the human element all the time, and and we're just people. We're just people. We might be from different areas of the world, but ultimately we're just people, and we are taught to love one another. And um from everything that you have shared, Sorme, the people of Iran love the people of America. Yeah, so why can't now the people of America love the people of Iran? You know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but I promise you, people in Palestine, they don't love you.

SPEAKER_07

I I I don't, yes, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02

Any of this, uh any of this uh protest here is no American flag. You come here to have a freedom, there's no American flag. All the real Iranian protests, uh like a rally, it's not a protest because we're not protesting against the US. Yeah, we have a rally, we just want to the people in Iran that nobody can hear their voice, we want to be their voice. Because we know what they are going through. Yeah. Uh so we always have American flag. It means that we respect this country, that they give us the freedom so we can go out. And in none of the Iranian rally in the US, nothing happened. I remember that one of them was in um uh Valentine's Day, and you can see all the video. Even you can ask Marcos because Marcos was there. Yeah, you know, people went and said thank you to all the police officers and they give them cover to be outside to be with us to to keep us safe. The things that our police never do that, right? To keep us safe, so we can have this rally. And I was in some of them. You know, I have it's hard for me to go with because I don't have anybody to take care of my daughter, but uh I went there, one of them was in Irvine. I went there and I I went to every single police officer. I said, We really appreciate your help, we really appreciate that you guys are supporting us to keep us safe because this regime has everywhere some people to kind of come and hurt us.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, well, you to what you're saying, yeah. I mean, you you might get some uh pro-Palestinian uh protesters, rioters, whatever, to come and crash the uh the party, so to speak, you know, because it was it truly was a celebration. But you know, um I don't know. Do you you have anything? You have anything else you want to add to this, uh Darren, in in bringing this all home and closing it up?

SPEAKER_00

Not really. My closing was just bringing the the human element to it, taking all the politics out of it, taking the feelings of you know, history between the countries and the regimes and all that stuff, and just making it a human, um, you know, a human interview here with someone that was that lived there and expose, you know, expose us to things that we would otherwise not be exposed to.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. You know, uh I'll I'll share this real quick um before we before we do um close up shop. Um I thank you for for doing this and actually for for being enthusiastic about wanting to do this. When I asked Sorme, she was like, I mean, she didn't even have to think about it. So, oh yeah, no problem. And I appreciate that. Her fear was that English is her second language, and that maybe you guys, you know, would have a tough time. I think we've done pretty good here. I think Sorme, you know, has done great. Um, hey, look, she could have done the whole thing in Farsi and really just messed us all up, but she didn't. But but you know, this is an emotional thing for you too. This is an emotional subject because though you are a proud American citizen, this is still a country that you came from, and these are still your people, and this you still have family there. And so it is an emotional thing. And I appreciate the fact that uh look, you probably couldn't see it on camera, but I could see here that that that there was some stuff, there were a couple of times here where Sormey was getting a little emotional. I could see it in her face, I could see it in her eyes, and she's tough and she held back. And I and I told her beforehand, if anytime you need us to kind of stop, I'll pause it. You just gotta hit me, and she never did. So it's great. She's very brave for doing it, and I appreciate it so much. Um again, like I just I just thank you for doing this, and I hope and I believe that you've been able to open up maybe some eyes and some ears.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I hope so. I hope so people can see the right side, yeah. No, not the media side.

Subscribe, Share, And Closing

SPEAKER_07

Right. And when she says the right, not the right and left, but the right side and and the media side is terrible. But um, yeah, no, just really thank you so much. And Darren, to you, thank you, because uh um this is a wonderful topic to to hit on and discuss and you know, bring this to whomever might watch or listen to this, you know. I think it's very, very important. I know absolutely, it's my pleasure. And look, you know, I I you know my family and friends basically hate this podcast, but you know what? The one thing that they do attempt is to produce it for me. And so so yeah, Darren gets all the credit for the production on this one for for producing here. But uh, so we'll we'll let you guys go. Listen, thank you so much for your time. This is tremendous. Um, and we'll finish up by just reminding you guys that this program is available wherever you get your podcast. Just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. Download it, share it with all your people, okay? Uh subscribe to it and uh give me a five-star rating. If you give me a five-star rating on this, you're not giving it to me. You're actually giving it to Thor May, okay? And maybe she'll share some of that with Darren. But uh, if you've enjoyed watching this um because you've got a beautiful woman with a couple of average-looking guys, then thanks. Appreciate it. But subscribe to the channel. I need subscribers. I want subscribers, okay? Um, hit the notification bell. That way you'll get notified every time a new episode publishes. Uh, give me a thumbs up and leave a comment. I think this episode, more than maybe most or any of the other episodes, really deserves a lot of comments. So get that done, people. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or on the TikTok at the Ben Maynard program. So we're done, we're out of here. Thank you so much for being here, for your time, everything else. We'll see you next time. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.