Ambassadors and diplomats from 75 countries and over 400 attendees gathered on the night of March 25 to hear Jewish Iranian refugee Roya Hakakian speak with Jason Isaacson, the American Jewish Committee’s chief policy and political affairs officer.
The talk was part of the AJC’s 34th Annual Ambassadors’ Seder led by Rabbi Corey Helfand of Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase.
“When you stand up for the dignity and safety of Jewish communities, when you confront antisemitism clearly and without hesitation, when you refuse to normalize extremism, you are not doing something for the Jews. You are strengthening your own nations. You are defending the values that you represent,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch in his address at the Seder. “You are proving that democracy is not just an idea, but it’s a commitment. Because history has shown us time and time again that when Jews are targeted, it never, it never stops with the Jews.”
The talk, led by Isaacson, followed the Seder. Asked if the war between the United States, Israel and Iran is necessary, Hakakian responded, “I believe so.”
“From my perspective, the war was essential to be carried out because of what occurred in Iran,” she said.
Hakakian is a poet, writer and political analyst who came to the United States in the 1980s from Tehran. Her memoir, “Journey From the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran,” details the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution.
“It always surprises me when people are surprised that I described that I’m a Jew from Iran,” she told the audience.
As the topic of conversation coincided with the current war, Hakakian shared stories of how people view Iran today verses her reality.
“If you think that hijab today, the mandatory dress code is bad today, you should be reminded — we should all be reminded — that in 1984 when it became mandatory, it wasn’t the sort of new scarf that women throw on their heads, and your toes are pedicured and you can wear somewhat of a short sleeve. None of these things existed,” Hakakian explained. “The regime determined that women could only dress in full colors, brown, black, gray and navy blue, and that none of your hair could show.”
She added, “From the moment that they made this mandatory to the moment that — like 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom — when women took to the streets and started burning their head scarves … that the regime had forced this thing on women, and we were all, as a nation, participating in a deception, and the deception was, ‘you’re forcing this on us, and we will accept it.’”
Hakakian spoke about her most recent book, “A Beginner’s Guide to America for the Immigrant and the Curious,” explaining she made sure to include that many immigrants from countries of authoritarian regimes who come to America lie to their social workers and other people.
“What surprises me is why social workers, and other people who are helping in Immigrant Services, [are] surprised that immigrants from those countries lie, and lying is a survival strategy,” she said. “You cannot survive in a place like Iran without buying it. So it’s these things that really handicap what a human soul [is] supposed to do and achieve.”
Isaacson concluded by asking, “When people look at Iran from the outside, it’s often through headlines [and] fear, based on what you’ve lived and what we’re seeing now. What is the single most important thing you wish the U.S. decision-makers and opinion chambers, the people in this room, understood about the Iranian regime and the Iranian nation?”
“I think what we get wrong in the West, in America, is the narrative that they have been selling since 1970,” Hakakian said. “The narrative that they have sold quite successfully is that they are victims of U.S. imperialism, that everything that has gone on in Iran stems from misadventures and the evils that the United States or Israel have done, whether in Iran or in the region.”
Hakakian explained that these narratives give less credit to threats of Iran developing nuclear arms.
“At the end of the day, as long as they remain with their narrative and those narratives continue to be circulating, they are winning a different kind of war, and that war, in many ways, is more dangerous than even the one that we’re witnessing,” added Hakakian.
