We should of course not forget that the main culprit in all of this is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which forces people like Kambiz to flee their dictatorial regime. But once these people are here, we should show them that we are democrats and not barbarians. We should not let them live like drifters for eleven years and let them end up in flames on a sunny day in the city centre of Amsterdam.

No matter what the thoughts of the self-immolator are, we can say that public self-immolation is a symbolic performance against a regime; I am using the word regime in a broad sense here, i.e., ‘as a prevailing system or pattern’.

Every sentence in Brown Skin White Masks is an indictment of one of the greatest injustices of our times – the dehumanization and humiliation of Muslims and Arabs in order to justify imperialist wars waged by the US and its allies.

What is dictatorship? What are its different forms and the techniques they employ that help them all too often survive the most severe winters of popular discontent?

The most important thing the Green Movement is in need of is an efficient intellectual resource that analyzes the situation and provides several solutions for the problems. This is more necessary now that the movement leaders are captivated. The movement is now facing a dilemma and its future depends on the days that lie ahead. It is now in a difficult phase and much consciousness is required.

Injustice is the only thing that makes sense to the Iranian regime. It is the only thing with which they can satisfy their sick brain; it is the only thing that makes them feel powerful and alive when they are looking in the mirror. And when they do so, they can only see their own image and not that of people suffocating in the great prison that Iran has become.

The death of the reformist era in Iran is giving birth to a new revolutionary consciousness, a mindset that benefits fundamentally from the reformist era’s emphasis on the civil rights that play such an important emancipatory function in the United States. There cannot be a return to the original reformist attitude any longer.

Plain clothes hid their faces behind masks, whereas last year the protesters hid their faces – but now the regime’s forces are doing it because of fear of detection by people!

We are children of the virtual area, after all we move behind the boundaries set, and we make everyone hear our voice loud and clear. Our manifesto, declaration, and koktel-molotov are Facebook and Twitter. This generation cannot be defeated.

These days, I can truthfully use the word ‘stress’ to describe my state of mind. Let me inhale deeply, then breathe out calmly and tell you why: I am stressed about the 25th of Bahman, the day on which a protest march will be held in Tehran in solidarity with the people of Egypt.

If there is one sensible comparison that can be made, it is between the protesters in Egypt today and the Iranian Green Movement of 2009 – in their democratic motives, peaceful procedure and inventive use of social media.

What happened in Iran’s streets last year, namely the Green Movement, is far more progressive and has deeper roots than what happens in Arab countries now. I believe that Iran’s movement is somehow the godfather of recent events. Moreover, the Green Movement, whether in the form of street rallies or in people’s homes living in the virtual area, is a polygonal movement including people of different types and social stratum.

It is my hope that Western Iranians will try hard to understand their fellows in Iran, but also that Iranians in Iran and the many who are coming to the West today try hard to understand their Western friends, in particular the multiplicity of their identities.

What is a revolution about? What caused the Tunisian revolution? Why is this spirit contagious? Why is it instilling fear in the hearts of the dictators in the region? Do we (the non-Tunisians, non-Egyptians) have a duty to care about what’s happening in those countries?

The main goal of the absurd accusations of the Iranian regime is to stop Iranians in Europe from getting involved in the democratization of their country.

It has been a long time that I don’t like Tehran anymore. Sometimes I feel tempted to go to one of those villages around Tehran where there is even no gas for heating, and start my life there. Maybe I ask someone to make a korsi for me and I get a stack of firewood in the yard, and during long autumns and winters I sit under the korsi.

As we are only a couple of days past the previous decade, let us look at the political currents which shaped its politics, and which, if looked into properly, could tell us a thing or two about what is up with us in the decade(s) to come.

Of course, we have to be outraged and keep talking about the cruelty of the Iranian regime. But as a writer with a passion for Iran, I want to share with my readers my belief that there is always room for optimism, which is exactly what can help people in Iran who are daily struggling for their future. Why always put so much emphasis on only the bad things that are happening?

What Wikileaks is doing compensates to an unprecedented degree (in terms of injecting political transparency into the system) for the lameness of the mass media, but the mass media coverage of the release is bringing much of the opacity right back into that transparency, muddling the picture yet again by cherry-picking and focusing only on those documents that fit their narrative about Iran and the Middle East.

Kiosk, Abjeez, Mohsen Namjoo and the complete soundtrack of ‘No one knows about Persian cats’ are the musical future of Iran that we can already discover today. This is the music of a green Iran, this is the music of a generation that is saying salam to the entire world and embraces the entire world in their music, without denying – contrary to the Iranian LA musical kitsch – their Persian origins.