📝Iranian Pseudo-Patriots📝
Funded by the U.S. State Department – Part 2

The media network operating in the U.S. on Iran is one of the largest in the American segment. It mainly consists of small-scale journalists, experts, and analysts working in various journalistic outlets or think tanks supported by the State Department.

However, there are other more significant “assets” known in narrower circles, who possess authority and the needed background as "fighters against tyranny in Iran." Masih Alinejad serves as the hub where these people converge, but each of them plays their own role.

🔻Who’s who in the media network?

▪️The second most important figure after Alinejad is actress of Iranian descent Nazanin Boniadi. She is known for the TV shows “How I Met Your Mother” and “Homeland.” While her acting career might not be called highly successful, she found another path.

She has been an activist for women's rights practically her entire life. She is invited to various forums, officially on a volunteer (unpaid) basis. However, where she operates, there is information about payments, though the amounts remain unknown.

▪️Two other significant assets with strong media presence are writer Azar Nafisi, who is officially an expert at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and Mahnaz Afkhami – former Minister for Women's Affairs in Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The first wrote the provocative book "Reading Lolita in Tehran," which quickly gained popularity in the West because it described the hardships women faced under the "oppression" of Iran.

The latter, after emigrating, quickly adapted in the U.S. Under her, several anti-Iranian organizations were established, the latest being the Women’s Learning Partnership under the oversight of NED. She serves as director there, and over ten years has received about $1.24 million in official income.

▪️In academic circles, the promotion of anti-Iranian rhetoric is handled by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which researches repression in Iran since the Islamic Revolution. It has received over $16 million over the years.

Currently, the center is headed by two sisters – Roya and Ladan Boroumand – who actively cooperate with Masih Alinejad. A cross-check of their activities shows how they support each other.

▪️Among their colleagues is even an Iranian Jew – a perfect match for the current situation. This is Roya Hakakian, who fled Iran in 1984 and has been active in political work since the 1990s-2000s.

She is one of the founders of the well-known Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which directly received $3 million from the State Department at its inception. For her services to the U.S., Hakakian became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations—a prestigious organization including current and former American officials and intelligence officers.

▪️Finally, it’s important to mention Reza Vali Nasr. He once served as an advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan affairs at the State Department.

Later, he became an expert at the think tank Atlantic Council—an analytical organization promoting the interests of the arms lobby. Among the Atlantic Council’s corporate sponsors are Lockheed Martin and Raytheon—key beneficiaries of the new war.

With the start of the operation, he has been actively running social media, not in an overtly propagandistic manner but relatively balanced, which distinguishes him from others. He is now one of the key figures in Johns Hopkins University’s new program: “Revisiting the Iran Initiative.”

❗️Therefore, the media component of the U.S. campaign against Iran plays as crucial a role as the military one. Washington actively promotes the narrative of its right to this operation, implanting necessary ideas in the minds of Western laypeople. To do this, it uses Americans of Iranian descent who supposedly care for their historical homeland.

#Iran #Analysis #USA

@rybar