BURSTAn Iranian Canadian activist in Chilliwack is hoping to highlight the human rights crisis in Iran through a social media video campaign.
Ghazaleh Nozamani has not had contact with her friends and family in weeks, as anti-government protests, ensuing violence and death, and a government-led internet blackout continue.
“I am in the same situation as millions of Iranians who are currently disconnected from their loved ones,” she told The Progress. “We are all living under immense mental and emotional torture.”
Iran has been largely disconnected from the world since Jan. 8, leaving Iranian Canadians in anguish as reports of violence and death emerge.
Their leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has now acknowledged that thousands have died, while blaming the United States.
Nozamani has started a video campaign, and is asking people to record just a five-second statement of their support for the people of Iran, and send them to her via direct message on Facebook. She plans to stitch them together to create a longer video for people to share.
She recorded hers on Jan. 16, saying “I stand with the Iranian people, and I am their voice.”
“Many Iranian activists are reaching out to people in their new communities and workplaces to seek support in raising awareness about the human rights crisis currently unfolding in Iran,” she explained in the post.
In an interview, she said underlined the importance of the world not looking away, as chaos also unfolds in American cities like Minneapolis.
“Media attention often shifts to what feels closest, loudest, or most visible at the moment,” she said. “But human suffering should never be ranked or competed over. The situation in Iran is not less urgent simply because it is happening beyond U.S. borders. Right now, millions of Iranians are completely cut off from their loved ones. Families have no information, no reassurance, no way to know if their children, parents, or siblings are alive.”
She said the isolation caused by the internet blackout amounts to “psychological torture, and it is happening on a massive scale.”
Nozamani came to Canada in 2017, and has been a vocal labour and political activist in Chilliwack. She created a non-profit organization called Love Without Borders, which supports refugees. She is also a Red Seal journey person.
She said she is not afraid of speaking out against oppression.
“I live with risk every day, but my loved ones’ blood is not more valuable than anyone else’s,” she said. “I have always said that I am not afraid of oppression, I survived it.”
And the need to speak up is more urgent than ever, she adds.
“Every minute, more than one human life is lost due to the violence and operations of this system.”
Seeing oppression seep into North American life can open old wounds for newcomers and refugees, she said.
“For many of us who have lived under oppressive regimes, seeing even echoes of those tactics here is deeply unsettling,” Nozamani said.”It brings back memories we hoped we had left behind, fear, uncertainty, and the sense that power can be used without accountability.”
But, she added, that North American countries have “strong institutions, laws, and avenues for accountability that many of our home countries never had.”
She advises that the world should not ignore warning signs that an oppressive regime is building.
“History shows that oppression rarely arrives all at once; it often begins with normalization, people looking away because they believe it cannot happen here,” she added. “Protecting civil liberties is not just about today, it’s about ensuring that no one, anywhere, ever has to live in fear again.”
There is no indication that the internet blackout, which has affected a country of 92 million people, will be ended any time soon. Some people have been able to circumvent the blackout, getting messages out via VPNs.
In the 2021 census, there were a reported 280,805 Iranian Canadians.