Published: 7 November 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Nazanin Boniadi says Iran conflates Palestinian suffering and desire for freedom with the idea of resistance that is essentially terrorism.
When actor and activist Nazanin Boniadi was named the recipient of the 2023 Sydney Peace Prize in June, the selection committee hoped to swing momentum towards the movement she was building to support women’s rights and democracy in Iran.
But then – to paraphrase a character from the television series, Homeland, in which Boniadi played a CIA agent who was ultimately killed by terrorists – the world changed right under her nose.
Hamas attacked Israel, and nobody was talking any more about “Women, Life, Freedom”, the battle cry of the pro-democracy movement in Iran. Who were the aggressors in the Gaza conflict? Who were the victims?
“It’s a huge risk,” Boniadi said of the threat to global order, on the eve of accepting her prize last Friday at Sydney’s Town Hall.
“What we can’t turn a blind eye to is that the vast majority of Hamas funding comes from the Islamic Republic, as well as their training. And they fund Hezbollah as their proxies.
Boniadi is particularly concerned by the way Islamic Republic officials have appealed to progressives in the Western world by framing the attack as Palestinian resistance.
“We have to be unequivocal when we talk about what that was: that wasn’t resistance,” Boniadi said.
“And what it unfortunately does is conflate Palestinian suffering and their rightful plight – wanting peace and justice and equality and a safe place to live – with this idea of resistance that is essentially terrorism.
“We should be able to hold two truths in our minds at the same time. One, Hamas is absolutely a terrorist organisation and what happened to innocent Israeli people is horrendous. Two, that innocent Palestinian civilians deserve to be treated with dignity and to have peace.”
Photo: Palestinians look for casualties in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza (Reuters)
