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--- ---
layout: post layout: post
title: "Iran Sanctions: A Story of Discrimination and Isolation" title: "Iran Sanctions: A Story of Discrimination and Isolation"
date: 2015-03-28 17:13:46 date: 2019-07-27 17:13:46
permalink: sanctions-discrimination-isolation-iran permalink: sanctions-discrimination-isolation-iran
categories: life, iran categories: life, iran
author: Mahdi author: Mahdi
--- ---
Let me take you through a story, a story on what it feels like to be isolated from the world, not by choice, but rather, by force. This is a story of discrimination, of monopoly, of people shrugging to these issues and of utterances that affect lives of milions. Let me take you through a story, a story on what it feels like to be isolated from the world, not by choice, but rather, by force. This is a story of discrimination, of monopoly, of people shrugging to these issues and of utterances that affect lives of millions.
Living in Iran, or any sanctioned country for that matter, you learn to read "anyone, anywhere" with an appendix of "except you". You soon learn "worldwide shipping" excludes you, that's when you start wondering, are you not living in "the world"? Where is this "world" they talk about? Living in Iran, or any sanctioned country for that matter, you learn to read "anyone, anywhere" with an appendix of "except you". You soon learn "worldwide shipping" excludes you, that's when you start wondering, are you not living in "the world"? Where is this "world" they talk about?
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Here is an example of a beautiful, hopeful message from Khan Academy:
{% include caption.html text='"We’re a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."' %} {% include caption.html text='"We’re a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."' %}
No one probably realizes that this is not true, but yes, Khan Academy is not available to Iranians, Cubans, Syrians, people of Crimea, and some others. That's because [they run on Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/customers/khan-academy/), an infrastructure provider that completely blocks all sanctioned countries from accessing any application hosted on it. Who else hosts their service there? Take a look at [342 notable customers](https://cloud.google.com/customers/) of Google Cloud, but remember, there are thousands more customers to Google Cloud and similar American infrastructure providers. No one probably realizes that this is not true, but yes, Khan Academy is not available to Iranians, Cubans, Syrians, people of Crimea, and some others. That's because [they run on Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/customers/khan-academy/), an infrastructure provider that completely blocks all sanctioned countries from accessing any application hosted on it. Who else hosts their service there? Take a look at [342 notable customers](https://cloud.google.com/customers/) of Google Cloud, but remember, there are thousands more customers of Google Cloud and similar American infrastructure providers.
But the story doesn't end here, of course. Let's go through the effects of sanctions on everyday lives of people, who have nothing to do with the politics of the country they are living in, and who are being discriminated only because they were born in geographical coordinates that lie in a certain boundary defined by people they don't even know. But the story doesn't end here, of course. Let's go through the effects of sanctions on everyday lives of people, who have nothing to do with the politics of the country they are living in, and who are being discriminated only because they were born in geographical coordinates that lie in a certain boundary defined by people they don't even know.
@ -34,9 +34,9 @@ These websites include GitHub, Slack, Kaggle, Docker, GitLab, Amazon AWS, Twitte
The websites that blocked our access mostly did it without prior notice, they just disabled our accounts, took our data from us, and did not let us even backup or export our data afterwards, in other words, lost messages, lost files and credentials. The websites that blocked our access mostly did it without prior notice, they just disabled our accounts, took our data from us, and did not let us even backup or export our data afterwards, in other words, lost messages, lost files and credentials.
This is, in part, caused by the global monopoly of American companies such as Google, GitHub and alike. This means if The United States decides to pressure a specific target, the target population is likely to be left with not much of an alternative or option, since a great proportion of the land is covered by American companies. This is, in part, is caused by the global monopoly of American companies such as Google, GitHub and alike in their respective fields. This means if The United States decides to pressure a specific target, the target population is likely to be left without much of an alternative or option, since a great proportion of the land is covered by American companies.
This is a clear discrimination based on nationality and a breach of [Internet Freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_freedom). These websites do not block us because we acted in a wrong way, or even, at cases, because we live in Iran, but because we were _born_ in Iran. Now, you may say this is because of the law and they have no choice. That's true in some cases and we'll talk about it [later](#of-rolling-eyes-and-shrugs) in the post, though sometimes the implementation of these laws seem to go further than what the laws actually require. This is a clear discrimination based on nationality and a breach of [Internet Freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_freedom). These websites do not block us because we acted in a wrong way, or even, at cases, because we live in Iran, but because we were _born_ in Iran. Now, you may say this is because of the law and they have no choice. That's true in some cases and we'll talk about it [later](#of-rolling-eyes-and-shrugs) in the post, though sometimes the implementation of these laws seem to go further than what the laws actually require. The companies seem to go the _easy_ way by blocking access as much as they can.
# Drugs, Medicine, and Medical Devices # Drugs, Medicine, and Medical Devices
@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Inaccessibility of vital medications and their raw ingredients combined with Ira
I'm pretty sure most of the people reading this blog post, unless they are Iranians, will not find this section familiar. It's [fortunately] not a common experience across the planet, but let me tell you about living a life of zero predictability. I'm pretty sure most of the people reading this blog post, unless they are Iranians, will not find this section familiar. It's [fortunately] not a common experience across the planet, but let me tell you about living a life of zero predictability.
Imagine this: You sell your car today, and you start a hunt for a new car to buy as a replacement. For the sake of the example, you are looking for a second-hand car. Imagine this: You sell your car today, and you start a hunt for a new car to buy as a replacement. For the sake of the example, you are looking for a second-hand car.
I will use a dummy currency unit here to simplify the example. You sold your car for 1000 units, and during the week you are looking for a new car, you start to see the car you just sold and every other car on the market, is gaining price exponentially, after a week, the same car that you sold is priced at 1800 units of currency and it's growing. It's like putting a car on neutral in a downward slope and seeing it go up the hill! Now you are left with 1000 units of currency, and you are only able to buy the same car if you put in your extra 800 savings, otherwise you are going to ride a car with significantly less quality. (More on [Iran's inflation](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-economy-imf-idUSKCN1S509Q) as a result of tighter sanctions) I will use a dummy currency unit here to simplify the example. You sold your car for 1000 units, and during the week you are looking for a new car, you start to see the car you just sold and every other car on the market, is gaining price exponentially. After a week, the same car that you sold is priced at 1800 units of currency and it's growing. It's like putting a car on neutral in a downward slope and seeing it go up the hill! Now you are left with 1000 units of currency, and you are only able to buy the same car if you put in your extra 800 savings, otherwise you are going to ride a car with significantly less quality or no car at all. More on [Iran's inflation](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-economy-imf-idUSKCN1S509Q) as a result of tighter sanctions.
I am pretty sure no matter how much I try to help you visualize this, you can not comprehend what it means to live in such a situation. I always use the metaphor of being a circus actor trying to balance on a moving cylinder to describe what it means to survive the fluctuations of our currency, which in turn affects all your expenses, but not your income. I am pretty sure no matter how much I try to help you visualize this, you can not comprehend what it means to live in such a situation. I always use the metaphor of being a circus actor trying to balance on a moving cylinder to describe what it means to survive the fluctuations of our currency, which in turn affects all your expenses, but not your income.
@ -93,12 +93,14 @@ You have probably heard of [Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs](https://en.wikipedia.or
At the bottom, there are physiological needs, like health, food, water, sleep, shelter and sex. Only once these needs are fulfilled properly, you get motivated to even think about the next level. That means, if your physiological needs are not properly safisfied, you will not even think about safety, love and belonging, self-esteem or self-actualization. At the bottom, there are physiological needs, like health, food, water, sleep, shelter and sex. Only once these needs are fulfilled properly, you get motivated to even think about the next level. That means, if your physiological needs are not properly safisfied, you will not even think about safety, love and belonging, self-esteem or self-actualization.
Now, what all these physiological needs have in common is that they are fulfilled when there is a stable economic backbone in the country you live in. Once the economic backbone is broken, you begin losing access to these physiological needs. Slowly, but surely, you lose your motivation to seek self-actualization, for self-esteem, for love and belonging and for safety and you hunt for your physiological needs. Once this happens for a whole population in a country, you are left with people with only one goal in their lives: to survive, _by any means_. Now, what all these physiological needs have in common is that they are fulfilled when there is a stable economic backbone in the country you live in. Once the economic backbone is broken, you begin losing access to these physiological needs. Slowly, but surely, you lose your motivation for self-actualization, for self-esteem, for love and belonging and for safety and you hunt for your physiological needs. Once this happens for a whole population in a country, you are left with people with only one goal in their lives: to survive _by any means_.
With no motivation for building strong friendships and relationships, no motivation for security and safety, for feeling of accomplishment and for creative acts, the population transitions towards becoming one unsafe, cold, threatening, untrustable environment with no sense of joy or creativity. With no motivation for building strong friendships and relationships, no motivation for security and safety, for feeling of accomplishment and for creative acts, the population transitions towards becoming one unsafe, cold, threatening, untrustable environment with no sense of joy or creativity.
I'm driving from my friend's house back to mine, it's roughly 10pm and streets are a little crowded. I'm going through streets of Azadi District, when I see two children who are probably between 15 and 17, punching each other in the face and kicking each other's stomach over a large trash container at the side of the street. They are fighting, as if for their lives, with a ferocity you can hardly imagine to find in a child of their age. These children do not look anything like your children, their hands are black from their fingertips to their elbows from collecting trash all day long; their clothes are not new, they do not change their clothes or take showers daily, and their backs are arched for hauling a large bag of trash for a whole day over their shoulder and back. They are fighting to win a trash container. This is what happens when you put pressure on the economy of a country. This is what the media is not telling you about the effects of sanctions. This is what needs to stop about these sanctions. This is what needs action from every person knowledgable to do something to stop it. Abuse, rape and misuse of children and adults alike is a significant, visible effect of sanctions that's often overlooked. I'm driving from my friend's house back to mine, it's roughly 10pm and streets are a little crowded. I'm going through streets of Azadi District, when I see two children who are probably between 15 and 17, punching each other in the face and kicking each other's stomach over a large trash container at the side of the street. They are fighting, as if for their lives, with a ferocity you can hardly imagine to find in a child of their age. These children do not look anything like your children, their hands are black from their fingertips to their elbows from collecting trash all day long; their clothes are not new, they do not change their clothes or take showers daily, and their backs are arched for hauling a large bag of trash for a whole day over their shoulder and back. They are fighting to win a trash container. This is what happens when you put pressure on the economy of a country. This is what the media is not telling you about the effects of sanctions. This is what needs to stop about these sanctions. This is what needs action from every person knowledgable to do something to stop it. Abuse, rape and misuse of children and adults alike is a significant, visible effect of sanctions that's often overlooked.
It's sad that I can not find any content regarding this matter in the media by searching. I think more content on these topics is necessary to help people be aware of the unethical and inhumane effects of sanctions on lives of innocent people.
![A teenager collecting trash in Iran](/img/discrimination/trash-collecting.jpg) ![A teenager collecting trash in Iran](/img/discrimination/trash-collecting.jpg)
{% include caption.html text='A teenage collecting trash in the streets of Tehran.' %} {% include caption.html text='A teenage collecting trash in the streets of Tehran.' %}
@ -110,10 +112,10 @@ Often when similar stories of this kind are shared, I am ready to see comments o
Now, of course, it's the law and the companies have to comply; of course, it's not a good thing that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons. What these responses get wrong is that there is no involvement by us, the people, in the decisions and policies of our country. Solely because I live my daily life in a geographical location that resides in the boundaries of a place on Earth known as "Iran" doesn't mean I agree with the politics of this country, or that I want them to build nuclear weapons and wage war against others. Now, of course, it's the law and the companies have to comply; of course, it's not a good thing that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons. What these responses get wrong is that there is no involvement by us, the people, in the decisions and policies of our country. Solely because I live my daily life in a geographical location that resides in the boundaries of a place on Earth known as "Iran" doesn't mean I agree with the politics of this country, or that I want them to build nuclear weapons and wage war against others.
What these replies get wrong is that in democratic countries, laws can change based on what people demand. Instead of shrugging these humanitarian issues off, please hear us out, and help echo our voice. You may not realize, but we, the people of Iran, do not have a say in what politics our government follows, or what it does, or how it interacts with other countries, but you do have a say in yours. The only thing we can do is to spread the word. You probably don't realize that writing this piece itself is not a completely safe act in Iran. What these replies get wrong is that in democratic countries, laws can change based on what people demand. Instead of shrugging these humanitarian issues off, please hear us out, and help echo our voice. You may not realize, but we, the people of Iran, do not have a say in what what politics our government follows or how it interacts with other countries, but you do have a say in yours. The only thing we can do is to spread the word. You probably don't realize that writing this piece itself is not a completely safe act in Iran.
What we feel when we see these responses is: "They are terrorists so let them be", but we are not. What we feel when we see these responses is: "They are terrorists so let them be", but we are not.
It seems like the Iranian people are now the common enemy of all sides of a global conflict. The ever-increasing pressure we feel is not from a single source, but rather, from all sides. We have internet censorship from the inside and restricted access from the outside. We have economic pressure from the inside, with a direct influence from the outside, and the same applies to every part of this conflict. It seems like the Iranian people are now the common enemy of all sides of a global conflict. The ever-increasing pressure we feel is not from a single source, but rather, from all sides. We have internet censorship from the inside and restricted access from the outside. We have economic pressure from the inside, with a direct influence from the outside, and the same applies to every part of this conflict.
I would love to hear from you what you think about this, and I really hope I have been able to put out this topic from a different perspective. [Racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism) is defined as "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed towards other people because they are of a different race of ethnicity". Sanctions, likewise, are a clear case of prejudice, discrimination and antagonism directed towards people because they are born in a certain country, or reside in a certain part of the planet.