One of the nicest things about growing up in Iran (like many parts of the Global South) was that you were raised with fundamental distrust & no hope in the state. This has its downsides too but there is no need to explain to anyone why cops are pigs or politicians are corrupt!

You learn how to take care of yourself and your community in ways that are, our of necessity, located outside of the official & the governmental. The belief in the performance of violent, colonial democracy is the most damaging thing to a radical politics & its impossibility.

The downsides of this are dissertation worthy but I’m not a political theorist and Iranian studies scholars and political theorists seem more interested in debunking Shariati and Islamic marxism! (shade intended).

we live with and are prepared for disappointment and depression. Not sure what it means materially but it means something. I often think about Airena Haiduk’s words “if you don’t have hope, you have something else.” Not sure what that other thing is but worth seeking.

*Irena*