It Could Happen Here - What Bombing Means for Freedom In Iran

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

James talks to Gordyaen Benyamin Jermayi about the situation of minority groups in Iran, the issues with the monarchist opposition, and how the Iranian regime has used US and Israeli bombing as an excuse for more violence against its own people.  Links: https://hengaw.net/en https://www.iranhr.net/en/ https://www.instagram.com/kurdistanipeopleiiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969

when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions. Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree?

Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For I Heart podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. But in 2014, the youngest escaped. Listen to The turning river road on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone, and welcome to the podcast. It's me, James, today. And I'm joined by Gautin Jermai from Hengor, the human rights organization, also a journalist who's worked for the Kurdish Peace Institute, who we've had on the show before, who I've also worked with and the founder of the Kurdistan People's Page on Instagram. Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much for inviting me. I'm so glad to be here today with you. Yeah, of course. And what we're going to talk about today is Rojhelat or Eastern Kurdistan, right? And how this figures into, I guess, what's happening currently in Iran, what has been happening in Iran.

And like, I think it's really important to give a little more explanation and background on particularly like the different ethnic groups in Iran than people generally get when they consume legacy media here. Yeah, so if I want to talk about this, like we need to talk about the history of at least 120, 150 years. So it's really a lot, but today's structure of what we know as Iran is made up of several different ethnic groups from Persians, Turks, I mean, Azerbaijani Turks, Turkans, Kurds, Baluchis, Ahwazi Arabs, and so many others. But I would say the dominant population, the dominant ethnic group and the dominant culture and language is definitely Persians. And if I want to be more clear, this dominant ethnic group has been exploding and colonizing

and destroying all the lands and the communities and societies from non-Persian regions, including Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Azerbaijan, Ahvaz, and many other regions in this geographical region called Iran. And this mainly started during the former monarchy, the Pahlavis, and it was intensified after the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. And as usual, the Kurdish people were the first to stand against this newly established regime in 1979. A few months after the so-called revolution, the Kurds were demanding

their rights, specifically the right to self-determination and also federalism, which was responded by heavy attacks and under the Jihad order of Ayatollah Khomeini, which led to the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians and the destruction of several hundred villages and mass executions of Kurdish people across the what we know as Eastern Kurdistan or Rojhelat. And following that, the oppression continued and also it was done against other ethnic groups, specifically Baluchis and also the Ahwazi Arabs and also the Azerbaijani Turks. But in Kurdistan and Baluchistan, it has always been more intense and more brutal. And then in late 1980s and early 1990s, they killed two of the Kurdish leaders, Dr. Abdurrahman Qasemlu and Dr.

Sharaf Kandi in Europe during some negotiations. And that ended up in Kurds being in a worse situation. And then until around early 2000s, I think around 2004 or 2003, the PKK established its wing in Rojhelat known as the Free KurdI or Komala that were already in the fight with the Iranian state since 1946 and so on. This oppression has been just intensifying by mass execution of Kurdish people, mass execution of the political prisoners and activists and imprisonment of the different people in the Kurdish society, from language teachers to environmental activists to children, women, anyone. And this whole question that I've been mentioning about, like, that's happening in East Kurdistan, it has also resulted in a humanitarian phenomenon called Qulbari.

Qulbars are a group of people that are extremely underprivileged. They have no access to anything. So they are somehow forced to go into some sort of work that they have to carry goods between the borders of East Kurdistan and South Kurdistan or North Kurdistan, specifically between Iraq, Iran and Turkey. And every year we have numbers in our organizations, you can check. We have a specific statistics section for these cold warres. Every year hundreds of them get killed. Just for example, since the beginning of 2025, 22 of them have been killed and injured. And among these people there are children, women, old people. So this is also another form of oppression that this regime has been using against our people,

because this is actually one of the biggest forms of oppression, if I want to talk about it, there are over 150,000 coal bars in East Kurdistan that are somehow forced into this type of work because they have no other means of income and the government, the Iranian government actually like limits all the, if I want to call it, economic developments in East Kurdistan. This has been going on for decades. And then we come to 2019. Again, there was another, so I want to call it uprising or master tests across Iran when the regime killed over 1,500 people.

I mean, before that, there were also protests almost every year, but that was like one of the biggest one. It was in November, 2019. And the, they cut down the internet for 12 days. I remember I was at the university at that time and then, um, they killed 1,500 people, specifically so many people in, in Kurdistan, they even throw the kills people into like lakes and rivers. And then after like months and days, days people found the bodies in the nature.

And then we come to 2022 in September when the morality police killed Gina Amini, the Kurdish woman who was apparently not wearing a proper hijab or the Islamic clothes or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. She was killed by the Iranian morality police in Tehran, which led to the, as we know it, I don't know if you can call it a revolution or uprising or just mass protests called Jinnijana Azadi or women's life freedom movement. And this also again, because it was inspired by Kurds, the first victim was a Kurd again. Obviously, it started in Kurdistan and it spread so fast. Just in a few days, the entire Kurdish cities were testing and then it was followed by other

Iranian cities like Tehran, Shiraz, but it was not as intense as in Kurdistan. I think it was three days after her death, the Kurdish parties, KDPI and Komala and some others that are not very well known like PAK and also Pajak or the Free Life Kurdistan Party, they announced a general strike across Kurdistan and they called on people to close down everything and go on a full lockdown to protest the killing of Jinnah Amini, which was responded by, I think, over 100 missiles or something from the IRGC and the Iranian regime. And it killed, I think, 18, if I'm not wrong, but it killed several people in the camps belonging to these parties in today's Iraqi Kurdistan,

or as we call it, South Kurdistan. There were also like family members of the Kurdish politicians and Kurdish Peshmerga that were in those refugee camps that are also supported by the UN. They were killed there and then the protests just got intensified. And I was also there. We were reporting every day about all the things that were happening. Also, the Baluch people joined the protests. And at the same time of those days, a 15-years-old Baluchi girl was raped and killed by an IRGC commander or member in Baluchistan. And people also protested that.

And there was a Friday, which is known as the Bloody Friday of Zahidun. People in Baluchistan, they went to a big mosque in the city of Zahidun and they were doing their Friday prayers as Muslims. And then they started protesting and this was responded by the Iranian regime forces and over 100 people were massacred on that day, which also led to mass execution of more political and just random prisoners in Baluchistan. And then the protests just went on and there was a really heavy repression. So far, I think over maybe between 500 to 600 people were killed. These are like the official ones and also several other of these protesters specifically from Kurdistan were executed. Some of them were executed in public to spread more fear among people, but people were not giving up.

And then it continued until 2023 until I think it was around maybe March. I'm not really remembering the exact date, but it was also in 2023 that they started attacking schools, like girls schools with some sort of gases that nobody actually knows that what type of chemical gases they were using. And unfortunately we have them, like we've reported on them, some school children, like some kids, they were killed by these gases and they were specifically targeting girls schools because they are like separate. They don't they're not together in the Iranian system. Yeah, like integrate. Yeah. And then this went on and people were still protesting, but unfortunately, it somehow stopped. And if I want to analyze that and related to like to talk about the reasons, one of

the main reasons I think also many other political activists and analysts also agree on that that the opposition, but as we know as the Iranian opposition, was not truly united. There was a huge effort specifically from the Kurdish parties like Komala and Abdullah Muhtadi. They tried to create some sort of collaboration with the so-called Iranian opposition, specifically the monarchists like the Pahlavis and some other groups. But unfortunately, these groups, I mean, it was in the middle of an uprising, like a movement that hasn't been happening since maybe 40 years. Instead of working together for a common goal, like the Iranian opposition groups, specifically the Pahlavi's

and also the other ones, like, if I want to say like the, the Masih Ali Nujat and, like, all the people that work with her. Instead of working towards a common goal, they started discriminating against minorities. They started ignoring and denying and also censoring the minorities, the same minorities that were the most active against the regime, that had the biggest number of sacrifices in the protests and also in prisons. They just started spreading their own typical national, I mean, I would even call them ultra-nationalistic sentiments. And for example, if I want to give like one of the biggest things that we always talk about these people who are currently against the regime, they have some red lines and their main red line has always been the so-called Iranian territorial integrity. So like these type of these type of sentiments and discussions, it somehow created a lot of mistrust between the Kurdish groups, the Baluchi groups, also with Ahwazi Arabs and Azerbaijani Turks and

all these groups. They couldn't trust each other because the dominant group, the Persians or the Iranians or those who identify as Iranians, they ignored us. They ignored our suffering. They ignored our identity. They were just repeating what the regime has been saying since over 40 years, but in a different form. So this somehow created a lot of mistrust and also the people inside. Like I was there when that was happening and I was working nonstop every day of recording, writing, texting, being on interviews.

The people actually lost their hope because there was no united opposition. There was no united structure to say that, yeah, we are advocating for you. I mean, in the first few months, it was really great. For example, here in Germany, they had a very big demonstration and over 80,000 people from all across Europe, they traveled to Berlin for that demonstration. It was great. And all the groups from Iranians, Turks, Arabs, Baluchis, like everybody was there. But unfortunately, following that, the people like specifically Rizal Pahlavi, the so-called

Crown Prince of Iran, who is another, like his story is like very also like crazy. He and his group and his circle and also people like Masih Ali Najat and I would say all the celebrities because they are not truly they are not politicians. They have no political study. They haven't done any specific political work. There are just celebrities like Nazanin Boulniadi. She played in some movies. Yes, she's a really great actress, but not a good politician. Like these things that celebrities who truly don't understand or they don't want to

understand what people inside Kurdistan, Iran and Baluchistan want, they pretended to be our voices and they never listened to us. And then this just made a lot of distrust and a lot of also hate between the people. Yeah. So that's why I can say that it just failed after that. And unfortunately, many, many of the people who were arrested during that time, they are still in jail and just a few days ago, five of them were sentenced to death. And we made a report about them.

So that, yeah. So like every day they get sentenced to death and we made a report about them. So that, yeah. So like every day they get sentenced to death. And I personally know many of these people who were injured and they are now here in Germany. They were brought here, but by some humanitarian visas. Some of them are my friends. So like, it's just failed. So what happened at Chappaquiddick?

Well, it really depends on how you look at it. So I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. I think it's a very interesting question. failed. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.

And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News, it's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, Blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death

and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well women said something like no 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory.

Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said it would have been harder to fake it than to do it Listen to American history hotline on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts From my heart podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road.

I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. Why did I think that way? Why did I allow myself to get so sucked in by this man and thinking to the point that if I died for him, that would be the greatest honor? But in 2014, the youngest of the girls escaped and sparked an international manhunt.

For all those years, you know, he was the predator and I was the prey. And then he became the prey. Listen to The Turning River Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebene and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all,

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At the same time, I also have to mention that one of the reasons that it also failed, it was the regime's extensive repression. They militarized the entire cities, specifically in Kurdistan and Baluchistan. For example, in Kurdistan, they already have over 2000 military bases and checkpoints all over the Kurdistan region. And during that time, they had tanks and military vehicles in the entrances, like in the gates of every city and also town. They were checking out people. Like I personally during these two years, I really didn't go out

much. Maybe once a week or once in a 10 days just to, I don't know, to go and eat something out. You know, like I was always home because I couldn't go out and because my work was important. And then they were just controlling people. They were arresting people. And even like from the stories that I have worked on before, these injured people, they also they were hiding in small villages and even in the mountains. But the regime forces were everywhere looking for these people and these activists. So it was like a holy military lockdown in the region. And there are many crazy stories. I don't know if you have time

enough enough time to talk about like some different and specific things that happened. And it was really scary at that time. Yeah, I would like to share that with us. Because I think one thing people don't understand is that the Iranian regime has a colossal capacity for violence against its own citizens. I think if we talk about like some specific instances, and then maybe we can talk about recently, there has been a bombing campaign against some nuclear facilities and some IRGC commanders. And like, I think if you start with your anecdotes about what happened during this last uprising, that will help people understand why like the consequence of

this bombing campaign are not good for people who want to have freedom in Iran, right? Those people inside the country, at least. So yeah, tell us, tell us some things about that capacity for repression. Yeah. So like the bombing happened and we saw, we all saw how crazy and how insane, like it was like movies. I couldn't believe my eyes when it happened.

It was really crazy. And yeah, that was like the war between two brutal states, Israel and Iran, who both have no respect for dignity of humans. Nothing, absolutely. Yeah. The first thing that happened, it was that, yeah, they targeted. I think so far, as far as I remember from our statistics, over 350 or around that were the IRGC commanders or the officials from the nuclear program.

And like really the judges who have sentenced thousands of people to death. Like the targeted people were mainly these type of people and also there were also some civilians, I think maybe around 80 or 90 civilians, whom some of them were actually like family members of these IRGC members and also some children. Yeah. And also there was a lot of destruction specifically in Tehran. Many buildings including the prison.

Yeah, I saw they hit the prison. The center of the Iranian broadcast and all these places were targeted and many officials were killed, also civilians. But the Iranian regime's response to that was not fully against Israel, who was bombing Iranian IRGC bases. In the first days, they started attacking civilians. They started arresting every, I don't know, some random people. And so far, I think last time we checked hundreds of people across, specifically in Kurdistan, they were arrested. And some others were already like in these days,

they got executed because they were accused of espionage for Israel or working for Israel. Yeah. Just a few weeks ago, I think five or four or maybe three. I don't recall the numbers right now, but some Kurdish political prisoners who were accused of working for Israel were executed in my hometown, Ormia, in East Kurdistan. And then so many others were also arrested. And then I think some others were also tortured. At least I remember one case which we worked on it. There was one case that was tortured to death because he was accused of working for Israel

and things like that. Jesus. This was like one of the responses that the Iranian regime started doing. And one of the things that this regime did in the first days, it was that they took lots of military vehicles and like, I don't know, equipment inside schools. For example, in the city of Sardasht, it's a really amazing, beautiful Kurdish city on top of some mountains. It's beautiful. There is a high school in the city center, exactly in the city center, and they took lots of military equipment and stuff inside the school and they threatened the school manager, if you don't give us the key

right now, we will arrest you, we will do this and that. And they also did that in the city of Kermanshah. They also did that in the, I remember because I worked on the report, it was in the neighborhood called Dizelabad. And they took some military equipment next to a hospital, which was also bombed, and the hospital was damaged and some people were injured. That was one of the things that the regime did. And at the same time, I don't know if you know about this, but in Iran, the military service is compulsory, like Israel, like many, like Switzerland, like many countries. But in Iran, it's torture. It's some sort of repression against young men. Right. So across Kurdistan, for example,

in a military base in my hometown in Urmia, it's called Al Mahdi, it's a very big military base. I know that some soldiers who are like civilians, but they are forced into it. They're like teenagers, I don't know, 19, 20 or 21, like really young guys. Yeah, very young. That really don't want to be there, but they were saying that their commanders threatened, if you leave the military base, we will arrest you, we will torture you, and we will execute you for like, for betraying, for like, I don't know, for betraying your country or things like that, or working for Israel. This was one of the concerns that many families had before. In those days, because I talked with some people, like our neighbor's son was also in the military base.

He's like 19. Yeah, they were putting lots of pressure on civilians while ignoring that what Israel is doing every day. They were bombing all the military bases, I don't know places and like they were even bombing places that nobody even knew that they existed. But their focus was like the regime's focus was on civilians who were just scared, who were just trying to protect their families. Yeah. And this was like what they started doing. And, yeah, I mean, it's still going on and they are arresting people all the time. And as usual, the majority of the focus and repression is again happening in Kurdistan against Kurdish people.

Yeah, I think it's very important people understand that Iran is not like an ethno-state. Well, it is an ethno-state, but that is not ethnically monolithic. Like the territory of Iran and the Persian ethno-state do not necessarily line up. I think people will also be very confused about like, when we hear quote unquote Iranian opposition in this country, right? It's often like, I think there's this knee-jerk, oh, that's good, right?

These are people who are opposed to this regime, which is brutally cracking down on people. But often then, as you say, it's associated with like monarchists for the most part. Yeah. And then we have these various like anything in Kurdistan, right? Like it's an alphabet soup, but like there is like, there are 75 different like, initial groups of initials. Can you explain who some of these actors are? Right? We have on we have the Iranian monarchists, we have the KDPI, we have all these different groups, Pajak, like you say, the KCK group.

Can you explain who some of these people are for people so they understand? Yeah, if I want to of the Kurdistan Republic. And also then there is the Komala party, which is also like a socialist communist leftist party, which also has several branches, but they're all basically the same. And also there are other parties like PAK, the Freedom Party of Kurdistan. And also we have Pajak, the Free Life Kurdistan Party, or I don't know if it's the same in English. Yeah, the Kurdistan Free Life Party.

Yeah, these are the main political parties and actors in East Kurdistan. However, there are also smaller parties like Khabat and also some parties that are affiliated. Like there are like very small groups that are affiliated with, for example, the Iranian Communist Party, which is not also really big. But the main ones right now are KDPI and Komala, who both of them have like a long history of fighting against the regime and also against the monarchists, the Pahlavi regime. They were, I would say, really, really active until like 2023. They played a very, very important role in the revolution in Kurdistan specifically because they were the ones who were announcing strikes and they were working together and organizing things and helping people out to resist.

Obviously, there was no armed struggle at that time or conflict because they said we're not going to fight because if we bring the fights and conflict inside Kurdistan, the regime will destroy the cities with the Siles. Yes. This is exactly what they said at that time because there was a demand from people that, yeah, the Peshmerga forces should come in the cities and fight alongside with us. But they said, no, if we do this, the regime will destroy the cities. These are the main forces in Kurdistan. And yeah, of course they have different ideologies. Peshak is like the PKK's wing. Or if I want to be more official, it's a member of the KCK or KJK as we say. And the KDPI is like, as I said, the history goes back to 1945 and Komala in the early 70s.

And also PAK, I'm not sure when it was founded, but it was also like, it was founded by one of the members of the KDPI, Hosseiniya's Damkhanah, and they're more of a military, I would say well-organized military group that they also played a good role against the ISIS in 2017 and 18, specifically in Kirkuk, in South Kurdistan or Iraqi Kurdistan. And about the Iranian opposition, if I want to say, yes, we have the monarchists, the Reza Pahlavi and his group. They have like a whole long list of parties. Basically they are all the same, but they have different names and they are all Basically, they're all the same, but they have different names and they're all right wing. And they all focus on the territorial integrity of Iran.

But they also pretend that they care also about democracy. But that's that's a lie. And then we have people like Masih Halinejad, who is more of she's an activist. And she's she's internationally known for her activism against the compulsory hijab. But she doesn't have any specific party or organization. She's just an activist and a journalist, obviously. And also there are other several people that work with her like Nazanin Bunyadi, who also works with like Pahlavi's. And also there is another one who also played a big role.

His name is Hamid Ismailioun. He is one of the members of the families of the people who were killed in that plane that was shot by missiles by IRGC in 2020 in Tehran. And again, there were many Kurds inside that Ukrainian plane as well. This person, Hamid Ismailiou, he's one of the members of, like, he lost his entire family in that plane crash or attack. Yeah. He organized many, many great and big demonstrations across Canada, Australia,

I think even in the US and specifically in Germany, the one in Berlin was the biggest. Also, he doesn't have a party, but he also somehow backed down after like what Halavis did, for example, like, or the monarchists did with the whole opposition groups. There are also some leftist groups and individuals, but unfortunately, they're not truly leftists. So I want to give you a name. There is a person called Arash Azizi. He is also well known in the US. I don't know, he wrote some books and he works with really like international media. Just a few days ago, he posted something that said, we the leftists of Iran, we are in love with our homeland and we care about our homeland. And we don't... he just posted something that was really nationalistic, like a typical Persian Iranian sentiment that's been going on.

And it's got lots of criticism from different groups. And then we have the Ahwazi Arabs. They also have some parties, but they're not really strong or active or well organized like the Kurdish ones. The Turks, the Azerbaijani Turks, they also have some groups, but they're also not very active or organized. And many of these groups, they are heavily affiliated with the Azerbaijan government or the Turkish regime and specifically the

MHP party in Turkey, like the ultra nationally Turkish party. Yeah, the HAD, right? Yeah. And then the Balochis, I can say they are more organized because they have this, I don't want to call him a leader, but like the highest level Mullah in Baluchistan, Mullah-delhamid. He is like the most popular Mullah in that region. And he was one of the people that was organizing protests and he was giving lots of speeches like during the Friday prayers in Baluchistan. And a lot of people were, they still like they follow him and they follow his words. But unfortunately, he is also like appointed as the Imam of the Friday prayers, if I want to be more specific in Baluchistan by Khamenei himself, the Iranian supreme leader.

But it's like a little bit hard to understand that where he stands exactly, because on one side he he's appointed by the regime but on the other side he's also like acting as a political leader or advocate in Baluchistan. I think they also have some armed groups but they're mainly Islamists and I would say but they're also not very very well organized. They do attack the IRGC members and these agents who are oppressing people on a daily basis. Sometimes and sometimes they get killed. And also sometimes just a few days ago, there was a fight between these people and like civilians in the village and also the IRGC forces. And I think two women were killed and more than 10 or 11 were injured. Geez.

But this, this fights and conflicts and they're always happening in Baluchistan. Yeah. It can be hard, I think, especially if people aren't familiar, right? Like the PAK, just to distinguish from PJAK, have definitely been making a big effort on the internet, I will say, with their Peshmerga, right? Like in the last three weeks since the US entered the Israel's bombing campaign, to appear like this. And they are a very well organized Peshmerga. I think you say they're in Kirkuk. I think maybe they're in Kobani as well.

Like maybe they're in Khabani as well. Maybe they joined into... The Pajaks was specifically in Rojava and they were also fighting against ISIS. Because they are, as I said, they're a member of KCK and they're allies of PKK, so they all are interconnected and they all work together. I think the PAK also works in Rojava, right? I am not sure, but I think members of PAK joined the fight in Rojava as individuals. Because the fight in Rojava was also something that people from all over Kurdistan went there. Yeah, from Northern Kurdistan to... Yeah. And these are very organized groups, but like, there isn't, I guess there is a kind of insurgency,

but as you say, like if these groups just took up arms in the cities, then the IRGC would destroy everyone in those cities, right? I think people sometimes wonder why they don't just start fighting. And then there is fighting to be clear, but like, as you say, the regime punishes civilians, right? Yeah. I mean, this is not the first time that the regime does this every time that Israel does something to the regime, because this is not the first time that

Israel has killed someone in Iran, like some IRGC member or nuclear agent, nuclear scientist or whatever. Every time this happened during past few years, instead of responding to Israel as a state, they responded to the Kurdish people. I think it was just two years, again in 2022, they literally bombed a civilian house in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and they killed an entire family. It was like maybe a six, seven month old baby and her father, they always respond to Kurds when they get attacked or bombed or damaged or whatever by Israel or America. Yeah, it's like a soft target, a target they feel they can safely attack, you know,

versus, like we know now that Iran pre-warned the United States it was going to attack its bases, following this bombing raid, and it was going to attack its bases, you know, following this bombing raid. And then there was more of a performative thing than a, like a serious attempt to, to attack US bases. And they even like this week I saw in Suleimani, like Iran is sending Shaheed drones. Yeah, actually during the past maybe 10 days, this is like last night there was an attack in Suleimani. But this is like I think the fourth or third time that there have been like several drone attacks on different places. So yeah, this is something that the regime has been doing. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you the story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like no 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us

your questions about American history and I find the answers. Including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

-♪ -♪ From iHeart Podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse.

Why did I think that way? Why did I allow myself to get so sucked in by this man and thinking to the point that if I died for him that would be the greatest honor? But in 2014, the youngest of the girls escaped and sparked an international manhunt. For all those years, you know, he was the predator and I was the prey. And then he became the prey. Listen to The Turning River Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories

are set free. I'm Ebene and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all childhood trauma addiction abuse incarceration grief mental health struggles and more and found the shrimp to make it to the other side My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes. He was a drug dealer. Yes He was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on a street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal He was shot in his house unarmed.

Pretty Private isn't just a podcast, it's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. One of the other funny things, I mean, this is not funny exactly, but it's weird. Just yesterday and actually two days ago, I'm not really good with dates and numbers. That's okay. Just two days ago, they conducted like a cyber attack on this TV channel, Iran International, which is also advocating for monarchists. And they exposed some nude photos and private photos and videos of some of the staff that

work there. And they are threatening that we will publish more if you don't stop or whatever. This is also like another strategy that the regime uses when they lose something. When they get attacked, they also like target activists, journalists. Or for example, they threaten their families or they threaten them here inside Europe or in America or Canada or wherever they are. Yeah. them here inside Europe or in America or Canada or wherever they are. This is like, as we call it, it's the transnational repression of the regime and it's been going on forever. And again, if you look at the numbers, most of the attacks have been on Kurdish activists. For example,

during the past 30 years, over, I think, around 600 known political activists have been killed by the regime outside of Iran. And nearly 450 or something of them were Kurdish. Yeah, this is also another thing that the regime has been doing. And in these days, they have intensified. Yeah, yeah, they have a long history of transnational repression and like participating in the repression of other revolutions, right? Like, of course, they were massive backers of the Assad regime in Syria, you know, all around the region. They will find the wrong side to line up on and do that. Again, of course, people will also be familiar.

They were supporting Hezbollah, for instance, in Lebanon. One thing I've heard is that the regime has been really cracking down on Afghan people, mass deportations of Afghan people who have come to Iran, especially in the wake of this bombing campaign. Can we talk about that briefly? Yes, of course. I think that's one of the most horrible things that

happened after the war. So far, we know that just in June, they deported over 30,000 Afghans and it's still going on. Like they mass deported tens of thousands of Afghan refugees every day and just something that was really horrible to me when I read it. There were 6,000 kids that were unregistered and they were separated from their parents and they were sent back to Afghanistan alone. Jesus. Yeah.

And they are hunting down Afghan migrants in different cities across Iran, especially in Tehran, because most of them are there. Yeah. And the thing is that the Afghan, I think there are over 3 million Afghan migrants in Iran or maybe more. Yeah. Nobody knows the exact numbers because the Iranian government never ever publishes the true statistics. Yeah. But there are millions of them in Iran and they are not actually allowed to, they were not allowed actually, like they're getting kicked out right now, but they were not allowed to work in Kurdish cities. They were only allowed to work in Persian speaking cities like Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan and these big industrial cities. So like right now, if you look

at the internet, they are being hunted down by Iranian agents everywhere, and they're being forced to go back to Afghanistan. And one of the things that I wanted to mention that's been going on from a humanitarian perspective, that really, really makes me sad. And also, it reflects a very ugly reality about the Persian or the Iranian society and the amount of racism and fascism that exists among them, not just by the regime, by the people as well. There have been hundreds of videos and footage online. You can also check, just search and you will see that random citizens, young people, they are attacking Afghan people in the city. And I don't know, in subways, in the parks, in public places.

Just yesterday, I saw a very heartbreaking video because like Afghan people, they also like have a different look. You can easily say that they're not Iranians. An Afghan teenager was being attacked by eggs. Jesus. And they were just throwing eggs at him. And then they poured like lots of some powder and then like some juice and like Coca-Cola. I don't know what was that.

They were just throwing everything at him. And on the other video that I saw, they stopped a man. Maybe he was 30 or something. They forced him to kiss the hand of a stray dog. I mean, yeah, that would be like, yeah, he's kissing a dog. But in the Middle East culture, when you force someone to kiss a dog... It's very disrespectful. Yeah. It's really disrespectful.

And like, there are also, I read on the Internet that many Afghans reported that, like, for example, in Tehran, they were renting a house or an apartment or something and they were living in those apartments. And the landlord reported them to the police. It's like what's happening in the US. It's something like ice. But it's Iranian. But more brutal than they the police just came and took them all. And now the landlords are refusing to give back the Pashin money to Afghans. And many of them are being forced out without any food, without any support, anything. And especially the women, I also read about a doctor that fled Taliban and he was in Tehran. And now if he goes back, the Taliban will definitely kill him because he was against Taliban. Yeah. I mean, it's a very horrible humanitarian situation. And the people in Baluchistan, they're also suffering.

But I saw many videos and also some of the activists published lots of footage that they were bringing food, water, I don't know, medicine and things like that on the road to give it to those people who are going back and they were offering, I don't know, whatever they had. And in Afghanistan there is also happening, but it's just so crazy because both the regime and also the anti-regime media are trying to portray Afghans as the problem, just exactly like how the far-right parties in Germany, like IFD, they are portraying refugees and migrants as the main problem. Yeah, it's a global thing. It happens here in the UK. Yeah, it's exactly the same. Yeah, and unfortunately, even the Iranian opposition has not been clear. But again, because there is some sort of solidarity between Kurds, Baluchs and Afghans and also other minorities,

it's the minorities that talk about this. It's the minority groups and organizations who try to raise awareness over this. And unfortunately, I think nobody can stop it because they're doing it anyways. Yeah, and like we shouldn't support an opposition politics. It is just another ethno-native. We see that in Syria right now, right? Yeah. They haven't even changed their name.

We have this revolution. Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people definitely died. Yeah. To build something better. We still have the Syrian Arab Republic. Yeah. Yeah, it's maybe the other whites are being persecuted and they weren't before, but like that shouldn't matter, right? Like if we're trying to build something better. I mean, they are just remnants of ISIS.

So what can you expect? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's very sad to see, you know, after so much killing and dying. Yeah. I guess to finish up, I think people in the US do not get very good coverage of what's happening in Iran, right? Like it's either, let's you say, dominated by monarchist outlets,

which tend to have good resources, which allow them to kind of get to the top of people's feeds, or they're getting like press TV stuff, right? That just like race straight up regime propaganda. Where can people find good resources to understand what's happening in Iran from the perspective of the majority of people who just want to live a free life and especially women, particularly in Iran, have an extremely difficult and repressive, the regime dominates every aspect of their lives. Where can people find reasonable coverage that acknowledges that?

Honestly, if I want to talk about media like TV channels or just media websites, there is no media like Iranian media that truly reflects what's happening in Iran. There are like many leftists and also right-wing media. For example, if I want to go like very leftist media called Radio Zamaneh, they are not really good. Like then we have Iran International, BBC Persian, Voice of America Persian, Independent Persian. Like there are many, many media that all of these, like I would say the big media, they are heavily dominated and I would say exploited by the ultra nationalist people. And also there are people who are related to IRGC and this organization called NIAC

that is like the regime's lobby group in the US. And these individuals that work there, they truly don't reflect what's happening there. And I mean, it's kind of hard because if people want to understand what's happening, maybe they should read everything they're posting and then analyze it. Hey, this makes sense. And this doesn't. But that's a little bit hard. But also on the other side, I would suggest that people should follow more human rights organizations, which again, some of them, if I want, I don't know if it's okay to say their names. Yeah, some of them and the people, for example, the Brumand organization, they did lots of great work. But recently, again, they showed some sort of racism and

censorship against minorities, especially Kurds. And like Lod and Basaragan. They are like also doing some human rights work in the US and even people like Masih Ali Nejad and all these, I would say, known activists and even here in Germany, they are not truly reflecting what's happening. They're just focused on the Persian perspective and they're like, they talk about minorities time to time, but only when it fits into their agendas, into their ideologies and perspectives. But there are other organizations

which I'm working with, like Hangao Organization for Human Rights, until late 2023, I guess, we were mainly focused on East Kurdistan, but right now we report human rights violations from all over Iran. We try our best and I think I could say that we are one of the best when it comes to all these things. And we don't care about what what people think we just report what's

happening or what happened. And there are other organizations like Iran Human Rights. They're also good. For example, there is another one called Tawana. They are like a very big organization, but unfortunately they advocated for monarchists again, just a few months ago. Unfortunately, they advocated for the monarchists again just a few months ago. So it's kind of hard to see that who is truly on the side of people. And when you look at the human rights organizations, I'm not saying this because I'm Kurdish,

but this is what I see. And I think it's true. The only organizations that truly reflect what's happening without caring about people's backgrounds or ethnicity or whatever. It's our organization Hangau and also like organizations like Kurdistan Human Rights Network. But unfortunately, the majority of the others are not really clear. So for Kurdish issues, I would say definitely Hangau and also on my page Kurdistani people, I also like write a lot of things and also Kurdish Peace Institute and Kurdish Center for Studies. They have lots of other Kurdish journalists and

Experts that write a lot of really good articles about the situation there. And if I want to mention names I would say Rojin Mokriani. She's like a really great researcher. She lives in Ireland. There is another professor called Kamran Matin. He also writes really great analysis on situation and like the things that people even don't think about. They're writing with so many different international law organizations and institutes. Yeah, there are like these individuals and activists. Thank you so much for joining us.

That was really, that really helped, I think, for people to understand things. Tell us about your Kurdistan people page. Where can they find that on Instagram? Yeah, thank you for inviting me and thank you for letting me speak. Yeah, I have this page Kurdistani people. I usually post about all over Kurdistan, the things that matter. Obviously, I can't do it all the time. But yeah, yeah, I post all the things and there are other pages that are also collaborate with like Kurdish activism or everything about Kurdistan. We're just a group of people who work together.

Obviously like our organization, I think it's very, very important for people to follow and support it. Hangao Organization for Human Rights. And also Kurdistan Human Rights Network. That's also like another one that you can follow. Yeah. And also like I talked about some names and individuals and researchers. You can also follow them for more professional analysis about East Kurdistan or Rojhelat. Yeah, great. Well, thank you, Zemmif for joining us.

We really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Ugh, come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Ultra light, ultra powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business,

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Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports.

Thank you for supporting iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown.

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week, we go behind the headlines and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy's on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions.

Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history hotline on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart podcast.