My interview with Daily Mirror Newspaper

The picture you see on the left side is not from Iran. This young lady is one of the thousands of Iranians in the U.S. and around the world who hold candle vigils to show solidarity and support with the Iranian people. I want to say thank you to everyone who are supporting us wherever they are in this world. Last week I was contacted by a journalist Victoria Kennedy in the United Kingdom who wanted to do an interview about the recent events in Iran. She found me through my blog.

Special thanks to USI NEWS Editor and Confederation of Iranian Students in Washington, DC who have helped and supported me in getting the word out.

Here is the article written by Victoria Kennedy and published in Daily Mirror Newspaper in United Kingdom.

Amazing blog of 19-year-old from Tehran

In many ways, Nazanin is like any other 19-year-old girl.
She pores over fashion websites and spends hours blogging. Yet unlike Western teens, she writes about bloodshed, fear and oppression.

Like Neda Agha Soltani - the 27-year-old shot dead at an anti-government protest in Tehran last weekend - Nazanin lives under President Ahmadinejad's hardline regime.
And as the violence continues to mount, the engineering student bravely emailed the Daily Mirror.

Here, in her own words, is her extraordinary account of what life is like for a young woman in Iran's capital.
'The situation here is very bad. It's around 12 days that all the sms lines are closed and the internet connection is very low.

They cut cellphone lines every evening so people cannot be in touch between being at home and protesting. They have blocked Facebook and YouTube and other sites where we got news. We could arrange meetings and protest locations on those sites. The city is full of police and security guards which threaten to attack and kill people.

There's no difference if you are protester or a normal person. They shoot towards you to make people scared. When you go out it's not clear if you'll come back alive.

They have killed many people, around 150 or more, but they don't let the news spread. They have also beaten and injured lots of people with knife and baton and use tear gas. They have also captured many of the young people and sent them to jail and no one is aware of their situation. They even don't answer if he or she is alive or dead.

Every night you can hear people go on the roofs and say "God is great" and "Down to dictator" and many other slogans against this dictator regime.

But no one hear our voices. We can hears shooting every night and they kill innocent people to scare the people and say 'if u say anything against us u deserves death'. Basijis [the regime's unofficial enforcers] and military and the rejim's supporters are supporting with guns but we don't have anything. We should fight with them with anything. Neda is just one of these people who had died on Saturday. She was an innocent girl coming back home with her music teacher.

She came out from the car to see the protesters and maybe support them. But she got shooted by one of those Basijis.

Her fiance said she was not Mousavi's supporter but she was supporter for freedom and always talked about freedom and said it's not important to lose her life in the freedom way and everyone should try for his obvious right even being killed in this way.

We are all women like Neda now. We could all be shot for no reason. She is in all our hearts.
But we keep our fight and every night the voices become louder. We just want our right and I think we need an outside help bcs they are more powerful but we don't calm down.
The government started the game in a wrong way with people.

Many of us are not Mousavi''s supporters but we don't want this rejim bcs we couldn't talk about change before and all of us need change.
We are tired of this dictator rejim.'

ON EDUCATION

I don't have the right to choose the major I like to study. The government decides for me based on the score I get from the overall exam for the university admission entrance.
Since there are more applicants than actual spots in the colleges, the government will determine what you will study and therefore will decide what you will become.
Everybody studies hard to get into university and then get accepted to the major of their interest.

For the young people of Iran the university is basically the only place where you have a chance to change your future. But the sad reality is that there is everything at school except a good education.

Students call it "hotel" instead of college. Most of the students only study right before the exam so they can just pass the class. You could only find a handful of students in our college who are serious about study.

Since there is no recreation in Iran, the classrooms are an escape from suppressive life. The college is the only place you can hang out without worrying about getting arrested.

ON DRUGS

In Iran, since young people have nothing to dream about it, or can't get a basic job, drugs become their refuge; at least a temporary refuge. Drugs make them numb so they can escape shattered realities of life.

ON SUICIDE

In the past eight years about 200 students have killed themselves. I guess young people can't dream about their future.

ON FASHION

Many teenagers around the world constantly check out the latest fashion and shop at Gap or H& M, but we are not allowed to wear the colours we choose, or the kind of outfits we want.
Me and my friends check the online stores and are aware of all the latest fashion, yet we can't even wear bright colours such as yellow or red.

There is a something called, "Gashte Ershad" the government security officers who stop, arrest, and punish people for not wearing the right outfits according to the government.
According to rules in Iran, every woman from the age of nine needs to cover her hair and her body.

I remember before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the president, he said he wouldn't care what people would wear. As soon as he became the president he didn't fulfil his promise and young people kept getting arrested for the kind of clothes they were wearing. The religious author-ities decide what people can wear.

If a young person gets arrested for the second time for violating the dress code, she or he could face up to a month in jail or pay $1000.00 in fines.

ON LOVE & SEX

In my country Iran there is no such thing as a co-ed school, therefore we don't know how to interact with the opposite sex until we go to college. As you know socialising with the opposite sex is forbidden in public places. There is always a chance you could get arrested.
In our freshman year in college for the first time we experience sitting in a classroom with the opposite sex. Being a teenager is hard enough, then there isthe added element of dealing with the opposite sex. How to act, how to laugh, how to be with the opposite sex???

For guys, having a connection with a female is mostly about a sexual relationship. For the females too, since the friendship between opposite sex has not developed for 18 years, the sexualdesires are the only connection that is developed. So it becomes hard to focus on your goals without being distracted.

Imagine a girl who is raised in a suppressed society where there is nofreedom of expression, media, or religionas a result we really don't get to experience a normal social evolution.
My friends still don't understand the difference between a friendship and a relationship.

ON FREEDOM

In Iran if someone discusses politics, criticises the government, or demandsher or his rights they will end up in jail.

The only place I can communicate my thoughts freely with my friends andconnect to the outside world is through the internet. But the government can get into my yahoo messenger chat and arrest me for some made up excuse.

I hope to experience freedom in my country. Please understand that we the young Iranians love life, love people and we have the same dreams as any other young person in this world.

Link to the article:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/06/24/a-cry-of-freedom-115875-21466815/