If your understanding of Rumi (Hazrat Mowlana Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi Rumi) is only based on the English “translation” by Colman Barks, I am sorry for you. Just as his full name seemed innapropriate for Barks to include, most of his writing also was completely and deliberately ignored. This white dude who did not speak Farsi then attempted to translate what seemed appropriate for his white audience —who were looking to feel spiritual without any obligation or accountability. Bark essentially wrote his own poems inspired by the words of other actual native speaking translators, without giving them proper credit. This “translation book” in my opinion is one of the biggest attempts at cultural appropriation, theft and plagiarism. It is unfortunate that so many of my white friends who are interested in pursuing a more spiritual life are relying on the words of this sham artist.

The poem I am going to share with you from the book of Masnavi, is incredibly important and relevant today but I have not seen it shared anywhere, and I think it might be because of the fears of being viewed as antisemitic. I recorded a short video to explain this a bit. This story is in the first book of Masnavi and comes right after the incredible and more widely known story of another evil jewish king and his sociopath advisor who devises a plan for destroying christians. There are many good accounts of that story including this really nice translation and reciting by daughter of Iran:

Right after this story, we get another bonus story from Mowlana that most people skip over. What is so interesting about this story, which was written around 800 years before state of Israel was created, is how accurately it describes Israel and it’s leaders.

Important note: Rumi views all religions as being sacred and pure at their core and believes that they are all coming from the same source, and that it is people, haunted by their ego that manipulate religion and using to cause pain and suffering. This and other similar poems with religious characters at their core should not be taken out of context. Always take the time to read multiple translations if you can not speak Farsi, and also take the time to sit with his poetry and absorb it with your heart so you can go beyond the surface interpretation. Here I have a literal translation as close to the original as I can be:

You can see the story starts by describing the king as a dog, not because a dog may be viewed as an insult but because the person who serves their ego is like a dog who blindly follows orders, no matter how powerful they are. Because they follow these orders and since they are in power, they create a horrific situation for everyone, much like what we are seeing in Israel today. In case it is still not clear to you, that Jew dog king of our time that Rumi is talking about is Bibi.

Needless to say — if Rumi was alive today — he would likely be kidnapped, tortured and unalived by IDF.

A person who views themselves as special or more worthy because of their religious beliefs is not serving God, they are serving their ego. This can happen to any religion, but here we have ourselves a very accurate and incredibly relevant story written over 800 years ago that describes what is happening and what will happen to Israel. If you are interested in hearing the rest of the story please feel free to comment and let me know.

There was a small and cozy open patch in the forest. The ground was covered with a thick and soft layer of moss and grass, its intricate and delicate symmetrical patterns similar to a Persian rug. The sun beams were visible, shining through the trees and beautifully lighting up the entire space. This spot somehow seemed brighter than the surrounding space. Then there were more of those bright red mushrooms with white speckles scattered throughout the patch, popping against the various shades of green that made up the ground cover. Right in front of the patch, a few honeysuckle shrubs had intertwined and formed a natural gate, about five feet tall — there were still some red berries scattered on them. A few waxwings moved up and down on the shrubs, performing their gymnastics between the delicate branches and reaching for a berry once in a while. They kept an eye on Aras as he approached, but did not seem to be bothered by his presence. Aras stood there right in front of the gate for a few minutes, not able to take another step. The space inside looked like a cozy and inviting home, but something held him back. He really wanted to go in, but his feet were frozen, and he did not know how to proceed.

Then he started hearing the whisper of a familiar voice.

Anastasia: It is ok, Aras. You are home. Please take your shoes off.

Aras dropped his basket of mushrooms on the ground and took off his shoes, setting them beside his basket at the edge of the path. Then he proceeded to enter the space — bowing under the arch that had formed the entrance — with the same respect that one must use when entering a sacred temple.

Aras: Anastasia, is that you? I recognize your voice.

Anastasia: Come in. Come sit down on this little patch next to me. I am here.

Aras proceeded to move toward the soft mossy ground in the center of the space, marked by a circle of handsome club mushrooms shining beautifully with their golden color in the pool of sunshine. The circle was large enough for a couple of humans to sit in comfortably. In the center of the circle there was a unique flat rock, only slightly larger than a floor tile, firmly placed in the ground with a perfectly flat, level, and smooth top. Aras sat down on the left side of the rock.

He could hear a lot of sounds from all around him. The little squirrel had a few more playful friends now, and they were yelling and jumping from branch to branch, circling the space in a counterclockwise direction. There were some more birds now, hustling in the shrubs as if they were trying to find a seat to settle down, and on the branches of a shrubby maple across from where Aras was sitting, two ravens were fighting loudly over who got to sit on which branch. A few feet back there was a large ant hill, with a big riot of ants gathered at the top. Many busy insects were scattered around the field. There were still some late-season flowers scattered throughout the field, giving the bumble bees some hope that their queen would make it through the winter, and they were busy jumping from one flower to another.

Anastasia: Do not mind all the noise, Aras. They are very excited to see you.

Aras: To see me? Why would they care about me at all? I can see they are all busy, doing the things they are supposed to do, getting ready for winter with the utmost certainty. The kind of determination and certainty that I rarely find in any human being. Where were you all these years, Anastasia? I think I have made so many big mistakes. Hearing your voice was the only moment in my life where I could be certain about who I am and what I was supposed to do. But why did you leave me alone all these seasons?

Suddenly everything became very quiet. It was as if no sound at all could penetrate the circle Aras was sitting inside. It was so quiet that even thinking with words seemed like trying to start an old, clunky, and loud tractor. Aras had no choice but to stop thinking and listen. A loud thought came to his head: how long will this stillness last? Will it ever end? But then the thought ran away like a screaming squirrel. It was so quiet that Aras could hear and feel his heartbeat slowing down, running slower and slower, as if not to disturb the space. Aras felt a sense of shame for complaining and dropped suddenly into Sajdah, putting his forehead and nose on the ground, his palms firmly pressing into the soft moss, his knees and toes making good contact with the earth. He was facing north. In that position, he closed his eyes and asked in a whisper: please forgive me — I am listening.

Some time passed. The patch of sun moved away, and the space became darker as a thick cloud cover hovered above. Aras sat there in Sajdah for several hours. Wave after wave of emotion passed through him: regret, grief, fear, anger, excitement, happiness, sadness. Everything seemed to transform into tears, and he could feel that the moss beneath him was grateful for the tears that continued to flow from his nose and onto it. He sat in that quiet and dark place for what seemed like a lifetime, begging for forgiveness.

Then the sky opened up again, and sunshine found a new patch between the trees to illuminate the sacred spot. Aras felt a warm touch on his back.

Anastasia: I have always been here, Aras. You just have not been able to hear me. Look at what you have done to your body. You have not been kind to it, and you have overwhelmed all of your senses with falsehood. I can only reach you when you are clean and receptive. Your spirit, just like your body and your clothes, collects dirt, and the dirtier it gets, the harder it is for it to hear me.

Aras: Please, Anastasia, could you teach me a way to keep my spirit clean? I heard there is medicine that indigenous people use for cleansing their body and spirit. Is there something that I could find to take so I can hear your voice more often?

Anastasia: Be very careful what you ask for, Aras. Do not ever seek medicine from the indigenous people of this land for the pain and sickness that you have brought here with you. The ancestors of these lands have developed powerful ways of cleansing their body and spirit that works for them, because they have evolved in this space and have deep roots and relationships with the water and the earth here. You will hear many people claiming that they can offer this type of experience as a service — often misguided settlers who, in an attempt to compensate for their own lack of connection, try to misappropriate and commodify indigenous culture. Even if they are not asking for money, they are trying to build a power structure that will only drown your spirit in more muck.

If an indigenous person ever invites you to participate in a ceremony spontaneously, somewhere you did not expect or plan for it, then you should certainly do your best to participate and try as hard as you can to pay attention and learn to follow protocols so you can contribute positively to the ceremony. But never seek relationships with indigenous people of this land hoping that they would help you clean your dirty spirit.

Aras: This life is so confusing and difficult. Everything seems like a mirage, and the more I try to hold something dear to me, the faster I lose it. Please, Anastasia, help me find a way to keep my spirit clean so I can hear your warm voice when things get cold and difficult. Help me live the rest of my life with certainty, just like all these creatures around us are doing. The squirrel knows when it needs to pick a mushroom and dry it, and it knows when to pick a nut and bury it. Even if some other animal ends up benefiting from its effort in saving food, it continues to do what a squirrel does. And look at those waxwings with their flock of likeness — they all seem so happy eating the berries together. I don’t see one standing on a pedestal lecturing the others about the manners of eating berries, and they sure all find creative ways to reach them. They just know what to do when they see the ripe berries, and they seem ecstatic to be enjoying them as a community. They stick together, move around, and face life all together. They remind me of how, when I was a kid, my extended family would gather around a big pile of lettuce and some homemade sekanjebin. Everyone would grab some lettuce, dip it in the sekanjebin, and eat it with joy. Everyone seemed happy and content in that moment, even when there was a war going on. We would hang out like that for hours.

Anastasia: I can hear that you are really missing that sense of community — to exist immersed within your people and culture, where for a while you did not have to question your life purpose all the time. But this is an important question, Aras, and sooner or later you would have arrived at this place of doubt, even if you had never left Iran. You said it yourself clearly: the more you try to hold something close to you, the faster it seems to disappear.

Tell me, Aras — if you want, I can set this room to be the most comfortable place you could ever imagine. I can ask the animals to serve you the most nutritious and delicious food, I can make the temperature always to your liking, and whatever your wildest desires may be, they could be fulfilled without hesitation. I can even visit you in the flesh whenever such a desire arises in you. The only catch is that you have to leave your previous world, along with all of your connections, and that you will never be able to go back. Would you accept this?

Aras: I believe that you can do this, and I love you, Anastasia. But I cannot accept simply looking away as all the people who helped make me who I am today continue to suffer. What about my mom, my brother, and my sister? And my little niece Rosa, who I pray for every day — that she would never be sitting close to a window when the bombs drop, and that she would never have to experience the desperation of adults who are trying to find a new, safe place to just be. I cannot look away and drown myself in pleasures when I know other people whom I love are suffering. When everyone else is suffering, I would rather be burning in hell than trapped in heaven.

Anastasia: That is why I need to talk to you. You will be able to learn how to cleanse your spirit. You already know this, Aras, as your ancestors have already prepared you for this journey. I will help you remember.

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book — Listening to Anastasia — out in a month. If a scene like this stayed with you, there's a lot more where it came from.

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Listening to Anastasia, out in August. The book unfolds as a series of conversations between Aras — an Iranian in diaspora, watching war unfold on his homeland from far away — and Anastasia, a mysterious voice of ancestral memory and quiet clarity.

On the morning of the twenty-eighth of February 2026, while the negotiators were still seated at their table, the United States and Israel launched a full-scale attack on Iran. They chose to do it in the middle of negotiations — while diplomats were still talking, while a way out of conflict was still on the table — and even the United Nations would call it an opportunity for peace deliberately squandered. The Iranians had held their positions but had been reluctant to fight; to the last hour they kept reaching for any diplomatic door still ajar. The western empire answered that reaching with missiles.

That same first day they killed the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, in a joint strike on Tehran, while their bombs fell across two dozen provinces on homes and hospitals and roads and the ordinary machinery of civilian life. And in the southern city of Minab they struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school — The Good Tree — a girls’ elementary school, at a quarter to eleven in the morning, when the classrooms were full and the children were bent over their notebooks. The first missile brought the roof down on girls between the ages of seven and twelve. When the principal moved the survivors into the prayer room and called their parents to come quickly, and when the medics and the neighbours came running to dig through the rubble for the children, a second missile fell on the very people who had come to save them. The videos of it reached the world within the hour. In the end a hundred and sixty-eight pure souls were gone, most of them small girls. This was a deliberate and intentional hit, a signal from the West to provoke fear and anger in the spirit of Iranians, saying that we are coming to destroy your good trees from the root — to fight us is to sacrifice your children. But Iran did not bow down, and it did not fight with anger either. Ayatollah Khamenei had warned that this day would come and had instructed the military not to mourn his death until they had gained significant control over their region. For years he had guided the military in how to stay calm and respond with carefully measured and calibrated attacks on infrastructure, even though the enemy would be vicious and its attacks bloody. Ayatollah Khamenei wanted Iran’s response to minimize human casualties and maximize the material cost to the West. He knew each human being had the potential to wake up and rise up against this tyranny, and that a soul was too precious to be claimed. He warned that in this bloody war many would be martyred, but that with every martyr the truth would be exposed and they would grow stronger. The Iranian military began targeting Western military bases all across the region and gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz, as they had been instructed by the martyred Ayatollah Khamenei. US and Israeli attacks in the first few weeks were extremely bloody, as they specifically targeted civilian areas and used munitions designed to maximize human casualties. By the end of those first few weeks, there was scarcely a family left in Iran that had not lost someone, or that did not love someone who had.

Since late 2025 Aras had been noticing strange behaviours in Iranians, especially those in the diaspora. Many seemed to be slipping into a kind of hysteria, blind to reason. By this point in his life Aras had come to stand against Western intervention in Iran’s affairs. He had grown more conscious of his own internalized oppression, his own westoxification — aware that, as an Iranian who had walked away from the sun and toward the West, he had already surrendered much of his insight and his connection to his homeland. He knew there were no external political groups, least of all in Western governments, that would speak the truth about Iran or hold the well-being of its people on their agenda.

On his most recent trip he had seen for himself how the younger generation inside Iran could fall for Western propaganda and act against their own people. When he returned to Canada, after witnessing the bloody riots that broke out across Iran, he began speaking up against the imperialism and the plain manufacturing of consent for a bloody war. But he had little following, and his voice — like the voices of so many other diaspora Iranians who spoke against the planned operations — was shadow-banned and could not travel far.

His assessment did reach his closest friends, and to his surprise many of them, people he had counted as dear, began sending him angry messages and ending their relationships with him. When he said he would not join a protest promoting the son of the Shah, he was expelled from the local Iranian group he had loved. To be cast out by people he had shared so many tables with broke his heart, and he could not understand it.

Anastasia, he asked, why are my people caught in such hysteria? How can they believe that a descendant of a Shah — a man whose father ran torture operations to control an entire population, a man who, with his supporters, makes Islamophobic and racist remarks about the peoples of Iran and pledges to “cleanse” the country of Islam — how can they believe he is the best hope for the nation? We have so many gifted people inside Iran. Why would we settle for a patriarchy ruled by a monarch who wants to spread fascism? What is happening to my people? Are they losing their minds?

Aras, Anastasia said, what do you think happens if someone throws a stone at a flock of birds resting quietly in a tree?

It depends on the birds. At first they scatter in every direction, and as they fly they try to join up with other flocks.

Exactly. People under attack also run in every direction, and some will cling to falsehood if it gives them a feeling of safety. But eventually they find their true path, and on that path they inevitably find one another. Do not be afraid that some of your fellow Iranians are angry with you, or that they dismiss what you see because it is inconvenient to the cure they imagine for their pain. Look at this picture with sympathy, and with faith.

Iranians have been, and still are, under extreme psychological stress from every form of external attack. This is no accident. They have been targeted for decades — not only by sanctions, but by espionage, terrorism, engineered corruption, poison, and every tool and technology the empire has managed to gather. The empire does not want the Iranian nation to thrive, or even to survive, because Iranians are fundamentally free and will not bow to its colonial ambitions.

Today the empire’s frontier of expansion is defended by those perceived as most dangerous and most powerful, and many submit to them for that reason alone. The United States is a poor imitation of Iran. Even the word state comes from an old Persian root, used thousands of years ago to describe the healthy boundaries between nations. But where that concept was born of inclusion and relationship, the Western empire is built on control and domination — and every resource it captures is spent to serve a small circle of greedy and spiritually barren men who cannot form a healthy relationship with anything. They count as an enemy anyone who will not serve them, and they believe this world, with all its living complexity, can be seized by the intellect alone. They live in a dark place, and they cast that darkness onto everything around them. Nothing frightens them more than a nation flourishing on this earth outside their control.

That fear has hardened into weapons and technologies meant to destroy the Iranian people and their culture. They will not succeed. They cannot destroy Iran, because Iran is not only a country. Iran is an ancient idea — that there is justice in how we treat one another, that the Creator will show us the way to a peaceful and prosperous life, that different cultures and languages can come together and form relationships that serve them all.

Turn on almost any Western news channel this week and you will see the same shot. A vast crowd fills the streets of Tehran. The camera scans past the mothers, the children, the quiet weeping — and settles on the one man with his fist in the air, screaming for revenge. The reporter holds the microphone there a beat too long. The headline is already written.

I want to tell you what that shot is designed to leave out.

When you send a reporter out with a story already decided — the angry mob, the regime of hate — they will always find the face that fits it. In a grieving crowd of millions, you can find anything you go looking for. That is not journalism. That is casting. We watched the same trick used to sell this war in the first place, when the loudest pro-war voices in the diaspora were amplified until aggression sounded like liberation.

So let me tell you what actually happened, in plain words. On the first day of this war, a joint US-Israeli strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several members of his family. In the same campaign, their bombs fell on schools, homes, and civilian infrastructure — including a girls’ elementary school where 168 children were killed. There is almost no one in Iran today who has not lost something, or who does not love someone who has. When millions pour into the streets under that weight, of course the grief is raw. To then hunt for the angriest face and broadcast it as proof of a savage people — that is not reporting the mourning. That is insulting it.

I will be honest about something that is hard to admit. As a teenager in Iran, I hated Khamenei. But if you had asked me why, I could not have told you. I had never listened to a single one of his speeches. I had never read a word he wrote. I blamed him for everything wrong in my life because I was soaked in gharbzadegi — westoxification — the quiet conviction that everything of ours was backward and everything of theirs was freedom. My hatred was inherited, not earned.

Years later I finally did the thing I had never done: I listened. I read. And what I found was not the cartoon I had been handed. I found a man who took his responsibility with deadly seriousness, who spoke with consistency and clarity across decades, who was fluent in several languages and never needed a speechwriter to hide behind. He was the reason Iran did not build a nuclear weapon — he ruled it out and turned the country toward defending itself, bracing for exactly the attack that eventually came. His real crime, in the eyes of the powers that killed him, was refusing to let Iran become one more obedient client state. He stood for our dignity and our independence, and he would not sell them.

You do not have to take my word for any of this. That is the whole point.

I know how deep this event will run, because I have seen how my people mourn. In my village, one of the most important days of the year is the ceremony for Imam Hussein — a man martyred more than 1,300 years ago, more than a thousand kilometers from where we live. No one is forced to come. Yet almost the entire village turns out, believers and secular alike, because it is ours. We hand cups of hot cinnamon tea to the mourners as they pass carrying the Nakhl, the one that belongs to our village and no other. People bring their children, and their children will bring theirs. That is how long grief like this lasts with us. Not a news cycle. Generations.

That is what the West failed to understand when it decided a man could be erased with a missile. You can kill a body. You cannot kill what a people decides to carry. For centuries to come, people will gather in his memory, and his influence will reach further in death than it ever could in life.

And let me say the part the cameras will not: there was no justification for this killing. Assassinating a head of state, and killing schoolchildren in the process, is not defense and it is not justice. It is a crime, and a violation of the most basic laws that are supposed to bind nations. The United States and Israel acted as aggressors here, and aggression on this scale — paid for in the blood of children — demands accountability. To look away from that is to accept that some lives are simply allowed to be taken.

So here is my only request of you. Do not take your opinion of this man from me, and do not take it from the reporter who went hunting for the angriest face in the crowd. Take it from him. His speeches and writings are published in English at khamenei.ir. Read them yourself. Sit with his actual words instead of someone else’s summary of them. Then decide what you think.

That is all I am asking: judge him yourself. It is the one thing the people who wanted him gone would rather you never do.

Rest in peace Martyr Imam Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei. I am sorry.

In a rare moment of clarity, the US is reaching out to Iran with a memorandum of understanding that encompasses total regional peace — including Lebanon — alongside the removal of sanctions on Iran. This is a significant diplomatic achievement, though it faces many obstacles before it can be fully implemented.

First and foremost, this development renders the Greater Israel project irrelevant. The Zionist dream of establishing an ethnically supremacist colony in the Middle East and maintaining total military dominance in the region would effectively fail — and that, unambiguously, is a victory for humanity.

Furthermore, this opens the door for economic relations with Iran to flourish. Given its exceptional geopolitical positioning, Iran could rapidly emerge as a thriving economic hub.

Under this new reality, Iranians who are genuinely committed to advancing justice, prosperity, and minority rights within Iran would be able to do so without the fear of being perceived as enablers of external colonial forces. This would allow for gradual and organic improvement to Iranian governance — a government that, in my view, is already far ahead of the morally bankrupt West when it comes to diplomacy and human rights. This truth will only become self-evident to many once Iranians are free to participate in the global exchange of goods and culture, unimpeded by externally imposed barriers.

Now is the time for vigilance. Warmongering Zionists, power-hungry monarchists, and other imperialist actors are in public meltdown over the possibility that the cycle of bloodshed, fear-mongering, and Western-sponsored terrorism may finally be coming to an end. This desperation may drive some of these actors — Israel in particular — to execute false flag operations. Stay alert and stay informed.

Dealing with the West is like dealing with a family member suffering from a serious and dangerous addiction. A ceasefire period is like the moment they have just come out of detox — they now need to face the horrible things they have done and find a way to get their life back together. At any moment they might relapse back into darkness. They need our gentle love and support, even though it is not possible for us to force them to stay clean. They need soft, gentle reminders that a different and much more beautiful life is possible.

Right now, the ten points that Iranians have established as the foundation of a ceasefire are a good place to start, but the US needs to find a way to appear as though it is walking away with something. There is an opportunity here for them to demand something that would actually make the lives of the American people much better. I will give you one example of what a creative and wise negotiation team could come up with, if they are serious about peace and normalizing relations with Iran:

A Creative Proposal: Medical Tourism as a Path to Normalization

In their counter-proposal, the US could demand that for a period of ten years, Iran provide free medical services to American citizens who visit Iran. At first glance, this may seem like an outrageous idea — but it is both very feasible and something the Iranian government would likely accept. Iran already has one of the strongest medical systems in the world, and most doctors and nurses there speak English well. Even though many medical buildings and research centers were targeted during the war, the damage can be repaired.

Iran would accept this condition because it would calculate that establishing the country as a medical tourism destination would help normalize economic relationships, build trust, and ultimately boost its economy far more than almost any other arrangement could. For American people who are helplessly waiting in queues for tests and surgeries they cannot afford, this represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore their health while visiting a country they were told their whole lives was off-limits. Iran has much healing to offer the world, and it won’t take long before stories emerge and word spreads about the quality of its medical care and tourism.

All of this, of course, would be a nightmare for the small group of people who want to drag this world into darkness simply to maintain their power and control. Domination is their drug, and they seek it at any cost. We must be careful and vigilant during this sensitive time — watching for their tantrums, lies, and deceptions, knowing their actions are driven by a desperate need for their next fix.

America is sick, and its medicine and cure are literally waiting in the country it has been bombing. I hope people wake up and see what becomes possible when we start treating others with respect and dignity.

We are supposed to tend to life
We got distracted and wasted a lot of our life learning this diseased language
But all is not lost brother, we as gardeners and healers know what to do when we recognize disease
We will cut it all up and collect it in one corner
It will be the corner with poems in English language
Oh bother, please tell my sister I know it is hard to focus on your art when you are trying to distract your six year old daughter Rosa from the sound of bombs so that she can grow up to be the beautiful Rosa you always imagined
Tell her that I know it is hard but please finish that beautiful book cover she started
I have so many poems in English
I want to set this fucking language on fire before I come back home
And when I come back home we will speak in Farsi and won’t mix in English words into our language, because I left all my English words in that pile of deseased wood and burnted it all up

It is perhaps our destiny to experience separation, betrayal and human suffering in our current time, but how we respond to it is in our own hands. Do we accept all this injustice as status quo or stand against it even though it seems hopeless. Even though all those who you thought would stand with you, would betray you.

Eid mubarak and happy Nowrus. I do not think coinciding of the two occasions is a mere coincidence. There are no coincidences, only divine mystery. I hope that it represents a year of reunification. Coming together of everyone with all their diverse backgrounds and beliefs. I pray that no more children have to suffer or die so that greedy and sick can expand their grip on humanity to control and dominate.

The free Iran that I imagine does not need to be destroyed and built from ground up. Iran is already very beautiful and sacred and what it needs is time to heal. I imagine an Iran where everyone no matter their religious background or beliefs, no matter their sexual orientation or expression, no matter their dialect or tradition, feel safe and at home. Not for a second I believe that attacks and aggressions by Israel and US would get us any closer to this beautiful vision. Not for a second I would believe any stories that would justify killing of children as necessary collateral damage. Not a single soul has to be sacrificed for this vision to come true.

My heart hurts but I will persevere. I keep looking for the glimpse of light coming from your burning heart, and one day soon we shall find each other again.

Here is a quote from someone trying to justify the US/Israel war on Iran. I have heard many variations of this comment. While I do not believe it is coming from a cynical place, I find this level of ignorance and lack of education disheartening. Let’s take a look at it and I’ll address the fundamental issue with this question from my perspective:

All I know for sure is that the Iranian people themselves seem pretty stoked that Trump and Israel intervened. Unless I'm missing something or seeing stuff that is inaccurate. I'm sure you're aware of what it was like to live in Iran in the 60s and 70s? They look like they were all a bunch of Freedom loving Young hippies. And then when the guy they just killed took over women would get stoned to death for not wearing a hijab.

To understand how fundamentally wrong and misinformed this position is, we have to look at history of western imperialism and their attempt to colonize Iran. Since 18th century the british have been trying all of their nasty tactics to colonize Iran (back then Persia), and while they left their influence, they were never able to achieve this. Iran has never been colonized by the west.

While western countries were not able to gain control of Iran using military forces, they did have some success in westification, by suppressing Iranian cultural traditions, framing them as backward and antiquated, and promoting “modern” western culture. Dress codes where an important part and measure of this “progress” for the western empire. Western colonialist do not like to see cultural diversity that is not under their full control, and only enjoy cultural displays in performative settings, in a way that first and foremost acknowledge their superiority.

Prior to british influence, different regions in Iran wore different style of clothing. Women often wore headscarves, shawls, and sometimes veils or headgear, with noble women wearing more ornate clothing. Mens clothing often included long tunics, wide-legged trousers, vests, and long robes.

As the british influence grew over the tyrannical Pahlavi regime in Iran, in 1936 Reza Shah Pahlavi issued a ban known as Kashf-e hijab (کشف حجاب) to force Iranian women to abandon any types of veil and also banned many types of traditional clothing for both men and women, and instead promoted dress codes approved by the west. There was of course a huge backlash and cost to this implementation, many people committed suicide or chose not to leave the house, and Reza Shah had to reverse this rule after five years, but continued promoting western culture and clothing in Iran until his fall.

It is important to note that traditional clothing in Iran was not enforced by Islam, but rather because so many Iranians practiced Islam the traditional clothing changed its meaning and instead of being a symbol of resistance against empirical forces, started to be looked at as religious attire. This alone is one of the most devastating cultural blows that the British together with Pahlavi did to Iranians.

I really don’t care how much pot you smoke and how many grams of psilocybin mushrooms you do, but if you think that your government is entitled to go and bomb schools in a foreign country and kill a bunch of innocent people, while they are claiming to be freeing the people of those country, so that they would look more like you, then you are a lost cause to humanity. Ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse when children are being murdered every day.

For as long as we live under the shadow of imperialism and colonialism, none of us are free. When Iranian people are truly free they will not look like hippies; I will assure you they have their own very unique and beautiful taste in fashion, and do not need your hand me down trash. Iranians, especially Iranian women, have an extremely good taste in fashion.

If life gives me a chance, I may write about why some Iranians, are cheering for the US/Israel attack on Iran, and why this minority voice is being so amplified by the west. How could it be that people would side with their own enemy? This is a complex issue and I will try to unwrap it in my next post.

Day 5 of the war: The most important information you need to know about the war is that so far Israel and US have hit over 20, that is TWENTY schools in Iran. The number of casualties is increasing by day. They also have hit some important cultural sites including the UNESCO world heritage site of Golestan Palace. I remember vividly when in 2009 Anastasia and I visited this palace on our first trip to Iran together – we were in awe! I couldn't find any of our own photos we took from inside the palace, the other photo is Anastasia next to one of Mahmoud Farshchian master pieces during that visit. Based on the behaviours of Israel and US so far and the casualties, these are their primary targets in Iran:

1. Children
2. Cultural sites
3. Infrastructure sites

They are not even focusing on precision targeting of military bases as they had repeatedly claimed they would. This is because Israel wants Iran to be able to fire back so that they can justify and continue destruction of life and culture.

I received an indirect message about my immediate family that they made it to the north safely. Much of my extended family is now positioned in the north part of Iran, south of Caspian sea and many of them will head to our mountain village soon which is located at 3000m elevation. The village is a safe place for them until winter but the conditions are too harsh for them and likely they would not stay there for winter since there are no reliable sources of heating and temperatures can get as low as -30. I still have at least a dozen of people in my extended family who have chosen to stay in Tehran and they are experiencing bombing every day now.

Looking at the political game they have started, it is now clear that there are no paths to winning for US and Israel. All paths at this point lead to collapse of US empire. The only question is how can we minimize human casualties and suffering. Iran will suffer the most casualties in this war but they will not back down. Looking at the history of similar wars, unless this is stopped from within US, we should prepare ourselves for at least a decade of war, a serious contraction of economy globally but especially in the west, and severe degradation of rule based international order.

Canada needs to take a very strong stance against this war and start spilling the truth. The only hope we have is more and more American civilians waking up to the reality and recognize that once again they are being dragged into an endless and pointless war; except this time they have really jumped into a bottomless hole. Once the west is free from imperialism and colonialism then Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and the rest of the world will also be free.

The bombs that are falling every minute right now, they are not helping anything, they are only causing human suffering and achieving no objectives.

Aras: I hear what you are saying, but I also hear from many well-educated people that religion is a private matter and should be left out of public spaces and government. Should I keep my practice secret and never speak about it publicly? After all, it is about my relationship with God — isn’t that an entirely private conversation?

Anastasia: Tell me, what do you know about the forest? Is it merely a collection of individual and independent life forms?

Aras: Well, thinking about it now, my perspective on the forest has changed a great deal over the years. Throughout all my years of schooling, whenever we studied any natural phenomenon, we began by reducing it to its individual parts. That is how we analyze large things — by cutting them into pieces and studying each component on its own. I was taught that plants in a forest compete with their neighbors for resources, and that how successful they are in that competition determines how well they will do.

However, once we began living in the forest, my relationship with it started to shift. I began viewing the forest as a whole — as a conscious being. It was a deep feeling of awe and respect for something far greater than I could ever fully grasp, similar to the feeling one has when standing in front of the ocean. I didn’t know how to articulate this until I started reading the work of Dr. Suzanne Simard who, despite being ridiculed and bullied by many of her colleagues, persevered in her research to focus on the relationships between trees rather than their individual processes. She discovered astonishing results — for example, that trees live like families, that mother trees care for their young, and that plants of entirely different species communicate with each other to share information about threats such as wildfires, or to exchange resources. Much of this communication happens through mycorrhizal networks built by many species of fungi that connect to the roots of plants and form relationships with them. Suzanne mentioned in one of her talks that she believes we are only scratching the surface, and that much more research is needed to better understand the interconnectedness of all life in the forest. Increasingly, I find myself thinking of the forest as a giant organism composed of many interdependent and essential parts — much like my own human body.

Do you think of your own human body as a unit of human being? Do you think you are a good representative of what humanity is?

Of course. I have everything a human being is supposed to have. Even if you asked a five-year-old to draw a human, they would sketch a stick figure with a head, body, arms, and legs, and draw something resembling a facial expression. I have all of those things, so I should at least be a fair sample for the biological male. Perhaps for a complete biological sample we would simply need to add a female. Even all Abrahamic religions hold that Adam and Eve were the original ancestors of all human beings and that God created them first. So I suppose a representative sample of humanity would consist of a male and a female human body — wouldn’t it?

Anastasia: If that is true — if a pair of humans or even one family constitutes a representative unit of humanity — shouldn’t families gravitate toward living as far from others as possible in order to maximize their available resources? Why is it that throughout all of history, regardless of political systems or governance, people have always gravitated toward one another?

Aras: That is a good point. Our modern life in cities provides many conveniences, but that alone does not explain why people are drawn to each other. I learned, for example, that my own homeland of Iran has throughout history been composed of a large number of interdependent tribes. People would gather in villages or form nomadic tribes, and most people felt far more at ease being inside a tribe than wandering alone in nature, trying to build a life for just their own family.

Anastasia: And these nomadic tribes — did they wander aimlessly, or did they move toward known locations?

Aras: For nomads in Iran we have two common words — Yeylagh and Gheshlagh — which refer to seasonal camps for summer and winter. In the absence of external threats, these people preferred to return to familiar locations each year and live a comfortable, flourishing life alongside their livestock for each season. I have always been fascinated by these nomadic people. I visited them many times in the mountains during the summer and stayed with them as a guest while going on multi-day mountaineering treks with my father. They remind me very much of how a beehive operates. Everyone has a role and is busy fulfilling their duties. They typically specialize in dairy and meat products and trade with farming villages as they pass through. Whenever I spent time with them, I felt a very strong sense of connection and interdependence — even more so than among people living in settled villages. There is an awareness and a sense of belonging to the group that makes them extraordinarily humble people. And I suppose that makes a great deal of sense, because they must dismantle and rebuild their homes multiple times each year, coordinating and working together to cope with a constantly changing environment. You really have to surrender yourself and feel that you belong to the tribe in order to thrive in such conditions.

Anastasia: You see, Aras, it is not them who are struggling to survive. It is you who is struggling — as a small family — inside a society and culture that constantly agitates and interrupts relationships and encourages people to live as isolated individuals. The person who has surrendered themselves to the tribe carries a very strong sense of identity that extends far beyond their individual self. Remember how, when they would come to your village to purchase goods, they would never introduce themselves by name — only by the tribe they belonged to. The way they live, despite all of its physical demands, is a far more natural form of being human than what most people in the West experience in their individual lives.

In the hyper-individualistic lifestyle of the modern city dweller, people may enjoy physical comfort and an abundance of personal choices — an illusion of greater freedom — yet they fail to feel fulfilled no matter how many products and experiences they consume. There is always a lingering sense of longing, a dreaded feeling of not quite being home, a quiet and restless dissatisfaction. The person who has surrendered themselves to the tribe is unfamiliar with these feelings, because they are part of a small and unbreakable unit of humanity. Our natural inclination to gravitate toward each other is not merely for economic convenience — it is our attempt to complete ourselves as human beings. We are not meant to build individual and independent lives in isolation. The most fulfilling thing we can accomplish as human beings is to build thriving local communities that live in harmony with the land and nature around them — communities that primarily give to and receive from the land they call home, and occasionally trade with other communities nearby.

Aras: Aren’t we getting a bit off topic? What about my original question — about religion being a private matter?

Anastasia: We first needed to establish that the idea of an individual being a representative unit of humanity is flawed — and that the more natural unit is the tribe. With that in place, we can now think about different levels of privacy and other needs. A tribe is also entitled to a certain degree of privacy, while also being able to exist in the larger public domain of human exchange. For many tribes, religious practice is a fundamental part of their culture and provides the cohesion and structure they need to function as a whole. You saw this yourself as you were learning about the Doukhobors — how their daily and weekly rituals preserved the cohesion of their communities and enabled them to work in harmony with the land around them, producing all the food they needed and more to share and trade with others.

Now, if we establish that a community is the smallest natural unit of human being, and we return to the example of the forest you described, we can begin to see why religion can play an important and positive role in both private and public life. But first, let’s go back to the forest. I want you to observe carefully. It is March 21st and spring has just begun. You are walking through a mixed deciduous and coniferous forest. What do you sense?

Aras: Oh — the energy of spring. The sound of songbirds, the smell of wild ginger pushing up to get a head start on the forest floor, the sound of a creek flowing in the distance. False Solomon’s seal, lilies, and other early spring flowers are sending their thick shoots up through the mat of leaves. Even a raven guarding her nest makes strange sounds as I approach her tree. Oh, how I love the energy of spring — everything in the forest seems full of life. There is an incredible sense of hope in the air, a feeling that anything is possible if you believe.

Anastasia: It sounds as though a great deal is happening all at once. Would you call the forest in this state chaotic?

Aras: Not at all. Yes, a lot is going on — and my mind can only take in a small fraction of what is actually happening — and yet it feels profoundly harmonious and integrated. There is a strong sense of grounding and interconnectedness that fills the whole space. A sense that nothing is out of place — not even me. I feel like I belong there in that moment. I feel welcome.

Anastasia: You see, Aras, this is what happens when all life is allowed to express its natural form fully. The Creator has instilled within us the wisdom to create cohesion and structure around us — to resonate in harmony, to seek connection and relationship — while also expressing our own individuality. In the absence of internalized or external oppression, all life finds its own natural boundaries and settles into what is private and what is shared within its own domain. One of the ways that beauty is created in the world is through the balance of personal expression and collective harmony. It is all around you in nature, and the blueprint for a thriving and happy society is right in front of us.

Aras: I see your point. So across all these varying levels of existence — the individual, the community or tribe, and a collection of tribes — religion can play a positive role in organizing human relationships and activities.

I can also see how our present societies, shaped by imperial ideologies and capitalist values, have placed extreme emphasis on individuality, and how this has created systems that disrupt our ability to build meaningful relationships with each other and with the land. I would consider all of those barriers a form of external oppression — for example, the fact that most people must keep paying taxes, and so must keep working jobs that are often tedious and even meaningless to them, simply to satisfy all of those external pressures. But what do you mean by internalized oppression? Do some people voluntarily work within this flawed system?

Anastasia: Yes, Aras — you yourself have been suffering for decades from severe forms of internalized oppression, and that is what has made it so difficult for me to reach you.

Aras: I have? Please explain what you mean. I consider myself an independent thinker. I don’t let other people tell me what to do or what to think. People often get frustrated with how stubborn I am, and how resistant I am to being controlled. How could I also be a victim of this internalized oppression you speak of?

Part of my book “Listening to Anastasia” which will be released in spring of 2026

Aras: But Anastasia, why have I been recently feeling such an urge to practice my religion? For most of my life I hated Islam and anything that resembled it. I had associated it with all the oppression and injustice that my fellow Iranians and I experienced. Most of my academic friends believe the world would be a much better place if everyone forgot about religion, became secular, and simply followed the rule of law. They believe religion is the root of many conflicts in the world. And most of my friends who consider themselves spiritual — who believe that God exists — prefer to focus on their own personal relationship with God and avoid religious practices because of their association with oppression.

When I was younger, I was so upset about the fact that my religion had been assigned to me at birth. I always thought to myself: if I ever became religious, I would study a whole range of religions and choose the one that best aligned with my own values. But here I am, waking up at 4:30am, fasting for Ramadan, praying to God in Arabic on my prayer mat that is covered in Islamic sacred geometry, and doing Zikr. I don’t even know how it happened. Did I choose Islam, or did Islam choose me? And how do I know I am on the right path — doing what God wants me to do — when there are so many options and so many ways?

Anastasia: Do you remember picking flowers for your mom as a kid?

Aras: Yes, I do! I knew her favorite flowers and had a secret place I used to climb to in order to reach them. They were a unique flower — a collection of soft, fluffy balls in several different colors, long-lasting, with no fragrance, but they looked amazing and outlasted any other flower I could find.

Anastasia: Did your brother and sister collect the same flowers for your mom?

Aras: No, I don’t think they knew her favorite. My brother used to bring home these feather-like flowers that created a soft display together, but they didn’t look nearly as beautiful as the ones I brought. And my sister loved to bring home flowers with a good scent — but those weren’t mom’s favorite either. I was the only one who knew what she truly loved.

Anastasia: You see, Aras, your mom is very wise. She wanted a balanced bouquet of flowers at home, so she hinted to each of you what she liked most — so that together, you would bring it to her. This way she had the soft, feathery backdrop your brother provided, the beautiful colors your flowers added, and the lovely scent and delicate touch your sister contributed. For her to receive the perfect bouquet — exactly as she had envisioned — each of you needed to believe you were bringing her favorite flowers. If any one of you had doubted your choice and started copying the others, the end result would not have been what she was hoping for.

Think of practicing religion like picking beautiful wildflowers, or reading poetry, or creating a work of art. If your true intention is to arrive with a gift that expresses your love, it will be received with love. You need to listen to and trust your inner voice. Do not be overwhelmed by the diversity of approaches your brothers and sisters may take in offering their gifts. And never try to convince them that your way, or your gifts, are more worthy. Everyone needs to be free to develop their own personal relationship with God.

For some people — people like you — practicing religion gives you the discipline and the strength to pull yourself together and show up at the door with a smile and a beautiful bouquet. And when you feel such a strong desire to practice your religion, it is because the Creator is calling your spirit home. As you draw closer and closer to God, you want to be prepared for your visit.

Part of my book “Listening to Anastasia” which will be released in spring of 2026

I went to the mosque, next to Mevlana mausoleum, for the morning prayer and sat down next to someone that looked like an Iranian. We didn’t speak until after the session. During the prayer I could hear the sound of him crying a few times. I felt that he was grieving. After the prayer I said hi and told him I have not seen too many Iranians here, let’s go have some tea and chat. We went to a small tea shop across from the mosque where other people had took me and bought me tea over the last few days. It had a calm environment and from the glass window you could see the men’s entrance to the mosque.

Right away he shared that his father passed away a few months ago and he is not doing so well since then. He could not bear all the pressure that’s on his shoulder at work and finally decided to take a few days off and without telling anyone came to visit Mevlana, hoping that he feel better. His father loved Mevlana and often recited Shams poems.

He asked me if I am happy about moving to Canada.

Even though I was fed up hearing this stale question, I felt that I am there to support him and give him hope, so I decided to engage and give him my honest answer.

I said No. It was the biggest mistake of my life to leave Iran. I was young and full of emotions and I was not able to put up with a little bit of pressure. Over these years, many good things happened also, but what is clear to me now is that I will be paying for that poor decision for the rest of my life.

I paused a bit. Normally at this point people would ask me why don’t you go back to Iran. But he just looked at me as if asking me to continue, as if he understands my pain.

I said it’s been over twenty years now nice I moved to Canada. The more time passes, the more homesick I feel. The more time goes by, the more I learn about racism and problems of colonial governance. The more time goes by, the more I feel like a slave, trapped inside a prison.

I found refuge in the Canadian nature. Even though I had spent many years of my life learning about useless things like technology and computers, I finally decided to put them all aside and run a small farm business with my wife.

Canadian society has a weak social foundation. People there live as if life is being employee of a large corporation. Most people hate their jobs and even though they have the resources to change, they continue the same job without passion and waste away their lives. It is very difficult to find lovers and mystics there and most people seek power and benefits in their social interactions. Even though I do not speak much Turkish yet, I feel more at home here than in Canada. Turkish people get us because their culture is so similar to us.

Canadian government has a lot of control over people and most people are too afraid to stand against the government. Certain groups who dare to occasionally protest are labeled as extremist. There is a lot of political division and people do not trust each other.

Certain government organizations are given way too much power and perform scary operations. I am really worried that we would spend the last decades of our lives growing a water buffalo herd at our farm and one day the government will show up with some lame excuse, that somehow we are threatening the larger cattle industry, and they would kill all of our animals and destroy our life’s work. A few months ago they did that to an ostrich farm and destroyed their best breeding stock some of which were over 30 years old. It was a pointless killing and even though a group of people tried very hard to stop the government, they could not do anything and eventually police took over the farm and kicked everyone out. It took them several hours to shoot all the ostriches which were around 400. They had no respect that it took the farmers a lifetime of hard work to get to where they were with their breeding stock.

But I really like the Canadian nature. Even though the government has damaged much of it, you can still find pristine and clean nature in Canada. Lower population and limited resources for extraction has put a bit of limit on their ability to exploit the natural resourced and so they have not been able to destroy everything yet.

There is a pristine river adjacent to our farm, it’s water is so clean that we can drink straight out of it. I often go there to swim. Even in Canada most large rivers are now very polluted and their water is no longer suitable for drinking.

The Canadian forests are very vast and mysterious. My wife and I lived in the forest for four years and every day we would go exploring and find new inspirations. There are many wild mushrooms growing in the forest and we collect and eat over 40 different kinds of mushrooms. In Canada you can not easily find mosques but the pristine nature, especially the forests, are sacred spaces and I often go there to pray.

After I said that, he looked at me as if he had something to say. He sighed and said: Look Aras, I have something important to tell you, but please do not cause any problems for me. I already have enough problems. Have you heard about the Hyrcanian forest fires recently?

I said yes, I heard there was a huge forest fire near Chalous town and destroyed a significant portion of Hyrcanian forest. It is such a shame. It must have been man made. Do you think Israel had something to do with it?

“I know that it was Israel’s work, and it’s just the beginning” he said and then started looking around the cafe. There were a few others there talking in Turkish and they all seemed deeply engaged in their own conversations. He bent forward toward me and lowered his voice, almost whispering:

Look, I work as an electronics and IoT engineer for Sepah. A few weeks ago, just before the fires, Sepah caught one of the Mossad agents in the act as he was trying to hide a device in the forest. At first glance the device look like a simple cylindrical water bottle that has a wide lid and it had a camo design. Under the lid there was a circuit board that is able to read humidity and temperature and connect to other similar devices nearby using a mesh network. They would fill the water bottle with gas and there is a small pump and a sparking system similar to electric lighters embedded so it can start a fire. They have been spreading these devices in the forests months before end of summer and when the conditions are favorable for a forest fire, all the devices in the same region activate and start a fire.

They gave this device to my team for reverse engineering, but we were not able to find a solution in time.

I could see the feeling of guilt in his eyes.

He continued: this agent was an important one and supposedly had been doing this for a long time. In order to get more information from him, they drugged him up. In that state, he volunteered a lot of information. Said that Iran is not even important to them and their main purpose to set Hyrcanian forests on fire was to test these devices in a realistic setting to prove to their American counterparts that they can deliver their end of an important deal.

I said, what deal? What are you talking about?

He said, since last year, they have started manufacturing and distribution of these devices in Canada. They plan to continue widely spreading these devices in Canadian forests until July 2026. Summer of 2026 is going to be very dry but they can employ weather modification to make it even dryer, just like they did this past summer in Iran. In August of 2026 the conditions for fire will be optimum and these devices will automatically activate and start widespread and uncontrollable forest fires all across Canada. You get it?

I said, Hyrcanian forests compared to most Canadian forests are much more humid and dominated with deciduous trees. They do not easily set on fire. But the Canadian forests, especially in recent years have been very susceptible to forest fires especially since forestry has planted trees that burn fast and with very high heat. Such a fire would spread even to old growth forests and it will be a huge ecological loss. The government won’t be able to fight with widespread fires at the same time and will quickly drain it’s resources. Even though there will be international help, many of the Canadian cities will burn to ground. Because of the great financial and loss of life, people will start responding with fear and there will be widespread mass immigration out of Canada. The economy will come to a halt as cities and provinces will go bankrupt. The government will cease operation and the American forces who have entered Canada with the excuse of helping with the fires will remain there and take control of resources. Without even starting a war with Canada, they would be able to take over this way.

We were quiet for a few seconds. I was in shock and didn’t know what to say. My mind was desperately looking for any way to prevent this tragedy. I said:

They must have put some mechanism to test these devices. If you find the right signal, you should be able to trigger them under rainy conditions so they are neutralized.

He said yes. We are working on it. God permit, soon we will find a way. We have made a sniffer device that can detect approximate location of these devices but finding the exact location is still too difficult. Ground crew in Iran are currently searching and every day they find some more of these devices.

I noticed him shifting a bit and I saw in his eye that he was worried and afraid. He stood up and said, dear Aras I have to go back to Iran today. Blessings for your visit.

Have a safe trip brother. Godspeed.

here are my original journal entry in Farsi:

Video above taken last week shows a couple of minutes of us walking around the busiest parts of city of Shiraz. We were there for hours and we did not come across any protests. But on the same day many foreign funded farsi speaking TV channels and social media accounts were spreading false news about widespread riots in Shiraz. The same thing happened when we visited the grand Bazar in Tehran which I will try to share in another post. As you can see there is a strong police presence but they are not after ordinary people — they are looking for Mossad agents.

Why? Because the agents who have infiltrated many layers of Iranian society are extremely dangerous and constantly looking for opportunities to create chaos. They are the ones who hid inside a small group of protesters and suddenly cut power to traffic lights, set vehicles or gas stations on fire, destroy peoples shops and livelihoods, or kill police officers and protesters just to increase the death count.

I do not care how righteous you think your cause is and how bad your opponents are; Nobody deserves to be killed so that you can have things the way you want. These agents and foreign propaganda are rubbing the Iranian society from every chance they have at raising their voice. Protests, even revolutions, need to happen peacefully and not with violence. We as Iranian people should know this better than anyone else.

May God protect our people from enemies outside and inside Iran.

As of September 2025, the United States carries a staggering $37.4 trillion in debr: that is $283,098 per household. Meanwhile, the U.S. government spent over $1.1 trillion on interest payments alone in 2024, surpassing military spending for the first time in history. This is the economic foundation upon which Western "leadership" claims to stand.

The country that lectures the world about fiscal discipline and democratic values is drowning in debt while those it labels as "authoritarian regimes" maintain sustainable economic policies.

The Illusion That Died in Transit

Twenty years ago, when I made the journey from Iran to Canada, I carried the same delusion that millions of immigrants have harbored: that the West represented a moral upgrade, a society built on justice rather than expedience. Canada marketed itself as a progressive beacon: secular, rational, committed to human rights and international law.

What I found instead was a hollow theater of democratic rituals masking a profound moral vacuum. The same institutions that welcomed me with promises of freedom and justice now stand silent as hospitals are bombed, as children are starved, as international law is shredded by a state that considers itself above accountability.

The Puppet Show Exposed

The U.S. government's interest payments on debt now exceed military spending, yet somehow finds unlimited resources to enable military actions that violate every principle it claims to uphold. When a state can casually announce bombing operations in foreign countries and then attend parties with heads of state, what we're witnessing isn't diplomacy — it's a grotesque demonstration of how thoroughly corrupted the Western power structure has become.

The message is clear: international law, human rights, and moral principles are luxuries reserved for when they're convenient. When they're not, they simply disappear.

The Economic Reality Behind the Moral Facade

The U.S. debt increases by $5.72 billion per day while countries like Iran, despite decades of sanctions, maintain external debt at just 0.3% of GDP. Russia, supposedly crippled by Western sanctions, operates with external debt of only 13.4% of GDP.

The Global Awakening

The good news is that most people in the world are not as naive and ignorant as I was 20 years ago. The rest of the world isn't blind to these contradictions. They see a debtor nation of unprecedented scale lecturing others about fiscal responsibility. They see a country that adds $2.09 trillion to its debt annually while imposing economic sanctions on others for political non-compliance.

Most critically, they see the absolute moral bankruptcy of a system that enables and finances actions that would be condemned as war crimes if committed by any other nation. The double standards aren't hidden anymore — they're performed openly, as if the sheer audacity of the hypocrisy is itself a demonstration of power.

The Historical Parallel

Consider this thought experiment: imagine any other nation conducting the same military operations, with the same casualty rates, with the same disregard for international law. Imagine Russia bombing hospitals in Ukraine, or China conducting operations in Taiwan, or Iran striking targets across the Middle East — and then having their leaders welcomed at state dinners in Washington.

The global community would rightfully condemn such actions. But when the favored client state does it, suddenly the same actions become "self-defense" and "fighting terrorism."

The Economic Arithmetic of Empire

China's debt-to-GDP ratio has increased by 77.4 percentage points from 2014 to 2024, yet still remains lower than the U.S. ratio. China used this debt to build infrastructure, develop technology, and lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. America's debt finances military adventures: i.e. terrorism, instigating conflicts around the world while at home they provide tax cuts for the wealthy, and interest payments on previous debt.

The contrast couldn't be starker: one debt profile funds development and growth, the other funds decline and destruction.

The Reckoning Ahead

This moral and economic bankruptcy cannot continue indefinitely. A house of cards built on debt, sustained by the willingness of others to accept increasingly worthless currency, and propped up by the threat of military action against those who refuse to participate.

The rest of the world is building alternatives. They're conducting trade in other currencies, developing independent financial systems, and forming alliances that bypass Western institutions entirely. They're not waiting for the West to recover its moral compass — they're moving forward without it. And where does Canada stand in all of this? Despite being bullied by US, Canada continues to echo US policies and is afraid of expanding its own relationships outside of what the US permits.

The Personal Cost of Collective Delusion

For those of us who immigrated believing in Western promises, the disillusionment is profound. We came seeking justice and found a system that celebrates its own corruption. We came seeking moral leadership and found a civilization in advanced decay, sustained only by its willingness to use violence to maintain an unsustainable position. We are caught inside a brutal pyramid scheme run by rough terrorist groups who control the media and the narrative.

But perhaps this clarity is a gift. It strips away the illusions and forces us to see what this system actually is: not a beacon of freedom and democracy, but the final phase of an empire that has lost its way so completely that it can no longer distinguish between its stated values and its actual behavior.

The choice facing the world is clear: continue participating in this moral bankruptcy, or build something better. More and more nations are choosing the latter. The question is whether those of us living within these systems will find the courage to acknowledge what we've become.

Perhaps it is a good reminder to consider how those inside and outside Israel who support the ongoing genocide in Gaza and deny Palestinians their most basic human rights arrived at their position now. They were not forced at gunpoint; they seem to voluntarily fall into the dark well of Zionism. It would help us better grasp this if we first look at the strategies for propaganda which Israel started working on leading up to the Nakba in 1948. Israel's territorial ambitions as well as their propaganda campaign started from the 1880s to 1900s. The campaign, which is still ongoing today, involves:

Media framing: Controlling how events are presented and emphasizing security threats while minimizing civilian harm. Framing native Palestinians as an obstacle and problem faced by global colonial expansion projects.

Historical narratives: It is so difficult and sad to wrap our heads around how the trauma from one genocide was fuel to start another one, emphasizing victimhood of Zionists and existential threats that Palestinians posed to justify harsh measures. Even though Palestinians had nothing to do with the suffering that they had faced.

Language manipulation: We still hear in CBC, CNN and other western media the use of terms like "operations," "targeted strikes," or "necessary security measures" instead of "attacks," "murder of innocent civilians," "oppression," "starvation campaign," "genocide" etc. that would more accurately describe their actions.

Selective information: Highlighting resistance actions as terrorism while downplaying their own brutal attacks. Even today our complicit government and media refers to Israel as an ally.

They also pursue psychological manipulation, especially inside Israel to brainwash the masses to make sure they continue to support their own government:

Dehumanization: Portraying Palestinians as less than human or inherently threatening

Moral disengagement: Justifying harmful acts as necessary for survival or defense

In-group loyalty: "Us vs. them" mentality that prioritizes group solidarity over universal ethics

Gradual escalation: Small steps that slowly normalize increasingly extreme actions

Authority compliance: Targeting and manipulating leaders and institutions people trust, inside and outside Israel

As if these were not enough, they also rely on social pressures:

Peer pressure: Social costs of dissenting from majority views

Economic incentives: Jobs, funding, and opportunities tied to supporting certain policies

Education systems: Teaching versions of history and perspectives that support their current policies

Religious/ideological justification: Using sacred texts or ideologies to legitimize actions

These show up in all of Israel's internal and external affairs. In their diplomatic relationships developing alliances, especially with other colonial nations; their lobbying efforts to influence foreign governments and public opinion; and the cultural exports via movies, games, technology and other cultural products that could help shape public perception.

These strategies work because the human mind, especially under stress, is susceptible to cognitive dissonance. We create our own biased versions of reality to cope with the current situation we are in. The concerning aspect is how ordinary people can gradually accept increasingly harmful policies through these combined pressures, often without recognizing the full scope of consequences for affected populations. Like a frog that is being cooked inside a pot, we are presented every day with more horrific images and consequences of this genocide and are expected to just hold on a little longer and accept the excuses of apologists.

This situation is horrific and difficult and it reminds me of the history of other colonial state projects such as Canada, which I would like to write more about one day. However, I am always searching for a glimpse of hope, for a little reminder that what we do and say matters. I am not looking for a silver lining or to help colonizers feel less guilty about their actions. But what I see here as a possibility to overcome this evil is that all these propaganda campaigns and manipulation of our political, social and economic structures, to retrofit them so they can serve as the foundation of colonial expansion and control—all of these are based on manipulating our social connections. Therefore the best way we can fight these crises is by participating in and relying on our social connections no matter how small and insignificant they may seem.

We need to speak up using a vibrant display of our cultures and utilize any method that we can use to express and speak the truth. No matter your background or upbringing, once you peel off the propaganda layers, behind there you will find the others. We human beings all want the same things. We need to speak the truth and live by it every day. Write something, make some art, write a poem, read an inspiring book out loud and put it on social media, do what you think is right and say what you think is right even if you think nobody cares. Even if it has already been said a hundred billion times before, when it is your turn and if it is the truth, you should also say it. By default we are all holding up this genocide machine. You need to say enough is enough.

If you have been following any spiritual practice at all, now is the time to test it. Does your practice enable you to connect to those human beings who are suffering and feel their pain? Do you cry every day? Do you feel sad and angry? Do you feel exhausted and overwhelmed? These are all appropriate responses of a healthy human being with a well developed spiritual connection.

What could be an appropriate action to genocide? I used to think it would be enough if we all rise up and bring down the system. However, the systems of oppression surrounding us know and expect this. As soon as your movement receives any real support you start getting targeted. The fabric and the material for the building blocks of a colonial empire are based purely on matter and mind. They are completely ignorant of the power of spirit. To them human behavior can be manipulated to their benefit and no matter how complex there is always some psychological technique that can be used to subdue and control the masses. What they are ignorant of is the power of our spiritual connection, the calling to love and peace that beats in the heart of every conscious human being. With every breath it becomes stronger. It is waiting for you to take action, to do something. You need to take the most radical action now to free yourself from the brutal system that has enslaved you. The sun rises again today asking you to speak the truth. The birds singing, the water flowing, the plants reaching up to the sky. Everything around you is calling you to come back to the spirit. To embody the truth and take radical action now.

What is that action? The beauty of this relationship is that your purpose, your call, is a secret that the creator whispered in your spirit. No other person, not your parents or closest friends neither your teachers or mentors have access to this. You are the only one that has access to it. But you have hidden this secret deep inside many layers of trauma. The process of spiritual growth is to peel off these layers, to clean your spirit like a mirror so that once again it could reflect the light and that you could see. Follow the trail to empathy. Feel what it would be like to watch your little sister lose her arms and leg. Feel what it would be like to watch your brother reduced to skin and bones. Feel what it would be like to watch your father bleed to death and to hear your mother scream in pain.

Take a small step toward a radical change now. Find your new self. Find your purpose. You are so much more than a pawn in someone else's game. You are a human being.

One thing that really struck me as “unfair” when I was old enough to think about it, was that my religion was assigned to me at birth – without my input of course. I went to single sex religious schools like most other Iranians growing up in the 90’s, not because me and my family wanted to, but because all public and private schools had to adhere to strict guidelines from the government. Both boys and girls had to wear uniforms to school, and the part I hated the most, and would constantly get in trouble for, was that I had to keep my hair short. Prayer time and religious studies were mandatory. It was as if the school was designed to alienate me from my own religion and culture.

When I was a teenager, the internet arrived in Iran and started becoming popular. Iranians are generally very quick to adopt new technologies. I remember as soon as I got my first computer: I was so fascinated with the chat applications. I could go into a chat room and talk to anyone from anywhere in the world. More often than not, I would be talking to people from America or Europe in English. When I introduce myself as being from Iran, there was always this undertone of being under oppression and wanting to join the “free and modern world”.

At the time, I despised learning Arabic, not just because I was forced to learn it, but because I would see it as the language of oppression. Ironically, I was very interested and excited to learn English. I viewed English as a way I could connect to people in the world.

My emotional young teenage brain did not have the critical thinking capacity to recognize the cultural genocide that was happening and has been happening in Iran ever since the British had French stepped into our land and started their competing colonial projects. Now sitting at the bottom of this pit, this prison I made in my own mind, I weave leftover words into ropes with the hopes of crawling out of this pit; with the hopes of somehow reaching you with my authentic voice. It seems impossible, and even somehow dreadful, to express who I am and what this life means to me, using the English language but that is all you and I have in common for now, so it will have to do.

One of the first and most brutal steps in colonization is to alienate and disconnect youth from their own cultural norms and values. Like many Iranian children I never once really connected to my religion and grew up to view the clerics as backward and even evil. But not just my religion, everything about traditional ways by that time was already being viewed by most “educated” people as backward or superstitious. A strong reductionist and secular mentality was taking form all around me and in this new reality there was no time or reason to pray, to practice traditions and to really participate in our own culture. Cultural events started to look more and more like spectacles, performances, or lectures as opposed to something you would live and breathe. Many of the beautiful traditions from my own village were forgotten as people continued their mass migration from the rural villages into the more modern and civilized cities, especially Tehran which was viewed as the place to be for anyone interested in science, technology and progress. Our culture, our traditional clothing, our songs and prayers, our dances, our medicine, our traditional music, all of it was being swept under a rug — slowly and steadily.

Immigrating to the west was the biggest mistake I made in my life. Not because it ruined me or my life. Life has mysterious ways to give us a chance to shift our path and heal from our mistakes. It was a big mistake in the sense that I was fooled by the western and colonial force, like many other young Iranians, and left my homeland in hopes of finding a more fair and just society: only to find myself stuck in the hands of the most evil and cruel society imaginable.

What kind of society would send resources and crews out to intentionally starve a population of people, to perform a genocide, and livestream it at the same time. This only happens when the ruling class knows it’s members are so entangled and imprisoned that most of them would not be able to even say enough is enough – let alone taking any radical action. If you are one of those people who goes on about your daily life, thinking that this genocide has nothing to do with you and it will somehow just pass, I feel anguish for your pain, for your level of sickness and entrapment. I pray that one day you would achieve true freedom: the power to recognize evil, and to walk away from it, when you encounter it.

Freedom is the power to recognize Evil and to walk away from it

Israel's Long-Term Strategy

Israel knows that to continue its genocide in Gaza and beyond, and to take over all territories in the SWANA region, it doesn't only need America's support—it needs the American empire to collapse and lose its legitimacy and power in the region.

Ironically, while the US has been supporting Israel as an ally and using it as a military base for expanding their colonial power, they also do not want Israel to become too powerful and take over the region. For Israel, the best strategy to bring America to its knees is to drag America into an impossible-to-win ground invasion with Iran.

Once hundreds of thousands of American troops are captured in Iran, America will face huge war backlash and civil unrest. This, on top of an already crumbling capitalist system and amplified by the results of denying climate change, means the American empire is in a perfect storm and heading for collapse.

The Truth About Iranian Sentiment

Contrary to what the media portrays, Iranians actually do not and never have wanted to see the suffering of American people. For example, after 9/11 there were huge candle vigils and gatherings in solidarity with American people, sending condolences and messages of peace from Iran. Similarly, after large-scale environmental catastrophes, people of Iran—and in many cases even current government officials—send messages of compassion and support for the people of America.

The highly publicized and grossly mistranslated "Death to America" chant is not aimed at American people but is meant as a slogan of resistance against American imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism. These are systems of oppression that Iranian people and their government oppose.

Iran's Ancient Wisdom and Current Reality

Over the past 40 years, partially due to Western propaganda and partially due to corruption and mismanagement, Iranian people grew apart from their current government. It is important to note that Iranians, while very peaceful, are a warrior society. If left alone, they would keep their government in check or replace them. When their warrior spirit is awakened, they will put everything on the line to protect their nation.

This is a nation that existed thousands of years before Christ was born. They have seen the rise and fall of many religions, many empires, and many systems of oppression. They now recognize evil when they see it, but their old souls seek peace more than anything else. This is apparent from written Persian poetry—the works of Rudaki, Rumi, Hafiz, Saadi, and others. Iranians have been writing about the journey of the spirit and ways of being peaceful for a very long time. This groundwork inspired many peaceful movements and even gave birth to the Baháʼí religion, a radical pacifist movement which opposes all killings of human beings for any purpose, similar to the fundamental beliefs of the Doukhobors.

The Existential Threat and Unity Response

Iranians are now facing an existential threat. If they continue opposing and fighting their own government, the country would be taken over by the West, a puppet would be installed, and just like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and everywhere else America went to "install peace with bombs," they will lose everything: their families, their safety, their resources, their historical monuments, and their own lives.

The 12-day direct war with the West was a wake-up call. Iranians everywhere are starting to see the true face of the West, and their intentions are clearer than ever. Because of this, what was a very unpopular government only a year ago is now receiving support from people inside and outside of Iran.

The West hopes to capitalize on the ethnic and religious diversity of Iranian people and, like they have done many times in the past, use divide-and-conquer tactics and propaganda to pit people against each other and the government. But with every step they take toward Iran, Iranian people get closer to each other. We are soon going to witness a huge wave of Iranian diaspora who will move back to Iran to either support their families or help protect their land against Western aggression.

The West has grossly miscalculated the connection of Iranian people to their land and to each other, and is in denial of the reality of this situation.

A Vision for Awakening

Like most Iranians, this is what I am witnessing, but not what I hope to happen. I pray and hope that American people will wake up and rise up and free themselves from the brutal slavery they are trapped in. American people need to take control of their government, and once that happens, Iran and every other country in the world will be America's best allies.

We will then all focus on helping each other rebuild and heal our degraded environment. While there will still be suffering from environmental disasters, we would live peacefully with each other. Netanyahu, Trump, and other warmongering psychopaths need to be captured and held accountable for all their crimes. They should be kept in mental health facilities and psychoanalyzed daily so that we can learn as much as possible about where our societies failed us to give rise to such evil, and where our education and society have failed us. We can use these lessons to help shape our future.

The Call for Consciousness

This is what I wish for. Do we get this level of awakening in the West? Will people realize this is not only an existential threat for Iranian people or a genocide of Palestinian people? Will they wake up and realize every time a child is killed in Palestine, it is their own brother and sister that they are murdering?

I pray for this level of awareness and empathy to rise. The disconnection from our shared humanity—from the divine spark that connects all life—is what allows such atrocities to continue. Until we reconnect with our spiritual essence and see the sacred in all beings, we will remain trapped in cycles of violence and oppression.

The path forward requires both analytical understanding and spiritual awakening. We must see clearly what is happening while never losing sight of our fundamental interconnectedness.