The Island of Stability

Fiction: A heated debate between Persian-Americans on Iran's future.

This is an excerpt from the middle of the chamber drama novella The Island of Stability by Omid Iranikhah. Omid has been kind enough to allow us to run a segment of his work with no paywall, and we encourage you to buy his book if you find it of interest.

In the novella, Persian-American couple Cyrus and Shireen Ghorbani are at the Palisades Palisades home of wealthy Maziar Afshari and his white wife, Lisa, to discuss a bullying incident between the couples’ respective sons. Shireen, raised in Iran, is not confident in her English, and Lisa speaks no Farsi.

Maziar has just Googled Cyrus and learned he was honored with an award by the Persian American Action Committee, PAAC, which Maziar detests.

The conversation turns to Iran.

---

Maziar took another sip of his tea, then set the cup down.

“I have another story for you, Koorosh-jaan. This one is about a twenty-two-year-old girl named Mahsa Amini. In September of last year, Mahsa went to Tehran with her family to visit her brother. While on the expressway, this girl was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. About two hours after her arrest, her brother was told she had a heart attack and a seizure—”

Cyrus cut him off, “I already…know about this.”

“Even I know this,” Lisa remarked.

Maziar leaned toward Cyrus, “Do you believe this girl was murdered?”

“Of course.”

“Then why are you with PAAC?”

Cyrus’ brow furrowed as Maziar stared him down.

“Who said I was with PAAC?”

“What’s PAAC?” Lisa asked.

“Are you not?”

“No.”

“Then why are there pictures of you at a PAAC event?”

“Did you look me up?”

“What were you doing with PAAC?”

“They gave me some achievement award a few years ago.”

“That’s it?”

Cyrus laughed.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Did you just invite us over to interrogate me?”

“I have no idea what my husband is—”

“That’s not why we invited you.”

“Then what is this?”

“Just questions from a concerned citizen.”

“Clearly you’re trying to say something with these questions.”

“Can someone please explain to me what’s going on here?”

“Our guest here just happens to be associated with a lobbyist group that launders billions of dollars for the Islamic Republic—”

“Okay, first of all, that is not true—”

“—and whitewashes their crimes against the Iranian people.”

“None of that is true, but I’m actually kinda glad you brought it up, because—”

“Why are you even arguing with him?” Shireen whispered to Cyrus in Farsi.

“Because he needs to hear this.”

“You married this guy?”

“Look, I’ve only been to a couple of their events and I don’t agree with everything they say, but some of those people, I consider my friends.”

“What do you think about your husband’s friends, Shireen?”

“He know what I think of them, but right now we are not talking about—”

“The way they’ve been treated with these absolutely baseless accusations is frankly disgusting.”

“Nothing baseless about it, pessar-jaan.”

“Their children get death threats. Did you know that?”

“And they care so much about the lives of other people’s children?”

“How ‘bout you give me one shred of evidence instead of just regurgitating talking points?”

“So, it’s just a coincidence that every single policy suggestion they produce is exactly what the mullahs want?”

“But that’s not laundering money.”

“I know you are a smart man, but smart people can be naïve.”

“Still waiting on that evidence.”

“The Iran Deal.”

“Just saying ‘the Iran Deal’ isn’t proof that these people are laundering money for the Iranian government!”

“But read between the lines!”

“Speculation is not evidence!”

“Hala listen to me for one second.”

“Go ahead. Befarmaaeed.”

“As a lobby group with influence, PAAC helped to negotiate the Iran Deal, did they not?”

Shireen spoke up in Farsi, “We did not come here to talk about politics. We came here because of my son.”

“But this has now become something bigger than your son,” Maziar replied in Farsi.

“Since we’re on the subject of learning tonight, this can be a teachable moment for Maziar.”

“Whatever you say. Now, back to what I was asking, in the long-run, who do you think benefited most from the Iran Deal?”

“Again, I’m not debating the pros and cons of the Iran Deal because that’s another—”

“But you can answer my question.”

“As far as the Iran Deal goes, it was, in hindsight, a misguided attempt to nudge the Islamic Republic towards reform.”

“You say ‘in hindsight’ as if it wasn’t so obviously a bad deal even then.”

“Well, at the time, they felt it was important to maintain a diplomatic relationship between Iran and the U.S.”

“Important only to the mullahs and the people in their pockets, which I’m sorry to say, your friends are.”

Cyrus opened his mouth to retort when Lisa interrupted, “Hold on. Everybody take a deep breath. Let’s actually take a deep breath. Come on.”

Lisa guided Cyrus and Maziar to take a deep breath, as if she were teaching a yoga class.

“So, I’m not gonna pretend I understood…really…any of that. But, this is obviously something the two of you disagree on.”

“If your husband actually listened to me, he’d see we don’t even disagree that much—”

“B’ap!” Lisa put up her hand. “From what I gather, the two of you fundamentally want the same thing. Am I right? You both want a free Iran.”

Cyrus and Maziar glanced at each other, then half-heartedly nodded like a pair of children being scolded.

“Good. And what’s the theme tonight? We…listen and…”

“Learn,” Cyrus and Maziar said at the same time.

“That’s right, listen and learn. So, here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m going to give the two of you, let’s say two minutes to state your case without any interruption. Who wants to go first?”

Cyrus looked at Maziar, “Wanna flip a coin, or—”

“No, I’ll go first because I don’t need two minutes. These people claim to represent the Iranian-American community, and yet I don’t know a single Iranian-American who has ever believed that making deals with these terrorist leaders will eventually lead to democracy in Iran. So, either your friends are just totally ignorant, or, they are being paid to be mouthpieces for said terrorist leaders.”

“Those are the only possibilities?”

“B’ap!” Lisa’s hand once again went up. “Are you finished, Mazi?”

Maziar simply leaned back and crossed his arms.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Go ahead, Cyrus.”

Cyrus took a breath, “I believe PAAC is—at worst—a very out-of-touch liberal think tank that still holds onto the idea of reform as the ultimate solution. They’re wrong, but claiming they’re money launderers without any evidence is—”

“So you’re just arguing about my word choice?!”

“Let him speak, babe. You’ve already had your turn.”

“These are people’s lives you’re affecting with the things you say!”

“They go to the White House and make excuses for everything those monsters are doing to your own people every day and you care about my choice of words?!”

“There are a million smarter, less conspicuous ways to launder money than doing it through a lobby group in DC!”

“Okay, I don’t literally mean they’re laundering money.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“Whenever we try to do anything to sanction the mullahs for their human rights violations, these people stand in the way.”

“Iran’s economy is directly tied to the personal wealth of the folks running the regime—”

“Bingo! So why are you arguing with me?!”

“—so, there’s no way to sanction them without also economically punishing the Iranian people.”

“Those sanctions are the reason the people of Iran are finally standing up!”

This made Shireen sit up, “Do you think they need your sanctions to do that?”

“I say this with all due respect to brave young women like yourself: They desperately needed to be pushed.”

Shireen’s eyes went wide, “Pushed?”

“By crippling their economy and cutting off access to potentially life-saving medicine?”

“Yes! When people are poor and frustrated, what do they do? They take to the streets and they burn down the establishment!”

Shireen was fuming. But, she said nothing.

Cyrus, however, ran into the fire, “It’s easy to say that from the comfort of your mansion in the Pacific Palisades, but these are human beings; they’re not weapons.”

“Borro, baba, human beings! They tried to do the same thing with us just a couple years ago. First, with their virus that destabilized our economy—”

“Are you being serious?”

“—and then with getting kids to start a revolution here and overthrow our government.”

“What are you even talking about? What revolution?”

“The…what was his name? The guy. ‘I can’t breathe’ guy.”

“George Floyd?”

“Yes, Floyd.”

“What does Iran have to do with George Floyd?”

“It was a conspiracy.”

“You think George Floyd’s murder was a conspiracy by the Iranian government?”

Lisa tittered, “He doesn’t actually believe it’s a conspiracy.”

“Not just Iran,” Maziar clarified. “China and Russia too. If, thank God, the police didn’t step in and put an end to it, it would’ve been a revolution. The things I saw in those few weeks beh khodaah reminded me exactly of what was going on in Iran in the seventies.”

“So, you believe COVID and Black Lives Matter were orchestrated by foreign governments.”

“No he does not. That was not what he said—”

“Let me answer him,” said Maziar. “I don’t believe they were orchestrated in the sense that they created these things. But what they did do was they...used things like social media and their partnerships with American corporations to…add fuel to the fire.”

“How so?”

“What I saw in the summer of twenty-twenty were young people—disillusioned by a pandemic that took their jobs—looking for an excuse to take their anger out on the system. So, when Floyd died, our enemies saw an opportunity: divide and conquer.”

“Hold on, babe, I personally don’t think they were influenced by anyone. That movement was a long time coming in this country.”

“Give me a break—”

“No, look. My mother marched in the sixties during the Civil Rights Movement, and a lot of those problems are the same problems African-Americans face today.”

“You are crazy if you think nothing has changed for them after all these years.”

“I’m saying it’s completely understandable that all that frustration led to some of the things we saw. Now, do I think rioting was how Dr. King would’ve wanted them to go about it? No, but—”

“Do you know the Iranian government named a street ‘Shaeed George Floyd?’ Know what Shaeed means?”

“What does it mean?”

“It means martyr. Martyr George fucking Floyd!”

“That’s nice.”

“No! Imagine if over here they named a church ‘Saint George Floyd.’ You wouldn’t call just anyone ‘Shaeed,’ let alone that guy!”

“Well, it was probably an act of solidarity between two countries that—”

“Bull-shit, solidarity! They knew exactly what they were doing with a gesture like that!”

“But you think maybe they did that to take attention away from police brutality in Iran?” Cyrus asked.

Maziar clapped his hands, “Baareekalaah! Exactly that!”

“Lemme ask you this: Why do you think Iranians have resorted to looting and rioting?”

“Because they tried diplomacy and reform. It didn’t work. They tried voting for a reformist president. It didn’t work. They tried peacefully protesting for their basic rights. It didn’t work. So, what else should they do?”

“Do you think it’s okay for them to burn down businesses in their own communities?”

“They don’t own anything anymore. Everything those businesses make eventually goes into the pockets of the regime.”

“In other words, those businesses are an extension of their government, and so destroying them is an effective act of protest against the government.”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Cyrus thought he had Maziar right where he wanted him. “So now, try to see that from the point-of-view of a Black person living in this country.”

“These are two very different things, my friend. Facing the consequences of your own stupid decisions is not the same thing as living under a dictatorship.”

“But we’re talking about hundreds of years of deeply ingrained systematic oppression.”

“No, we’re talking about entitlement. Real oppression is what you get when entitled people get their way. Look at Iran. All that whining about, ‘Boo-hoo, so much wealth disparity and discrimination under the Shah, even though our economy is the best it had ever been and women have more rights than ever,’ where did that get us?”

“I wouldn’t say the revolutionaries got their way, exactly.”

“Of course they didn’t. They blamed the poor Shah for all their own problems and now everyone else is suffering along with them.”

“It seems to me like you’re framing the Iranian Revolution as a thoroughly left-wing movement.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“Initially, yeah more or less, but what you’re leaving out is the part where it eventually got hijacked by the religious right-wing.”

“Well, you know why? Because, for as long as I can remember, these regimes have known exactly how to manipulate the left.”

“Can you clarify?”

“I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you the role that that Western imperialism played in making Iran what it is now.”

“I am aware.”

“There are people in Iran—most of them your age—who…they are not very religious. In fact, they would even prefer a more secular government because it would align more with their leftist, liberal ideals. But these same people will fight to their death to keep things the way they are. Why do you think?”

“A leftist and a liberal are two different things.”

“That was not what I asked.”

“Because they’re scared of change?”

“Not change, because remember, these were the same kinds of people who helped overthrow the Shah, khodaah beeyaamorzesh. So, how was an extremely conservative Muslim cleric able to get a bunch of democrats, communists and Marxists on his side? By uniting everyone under one common enemy: the West. He made them believe our Shah was a puppet of the West. Realistically, if he was, the West would have done everything in their power to protect him. But these people, who were so blinded by their anger over everything the West robbed them of, allowed themselves to believe it.”

“Don’t you think the Shah throwing them in jail and having them tortured also might’ve had something to do with that?”

“He did that because he was a forward-thinking man. He knew what would become of his country if he’d let them run free.”

“Well, it sure made them angrier.”

“It’s not the only thing he—”

“He should’ve arrested more. Hell, he should’ve had them all killed. The communists, the Marxists, the Mujahideen, the mullahs. All of them. Firing squad.”

Maziar pantomimed firing a machine gun at Cyrus and Shireen, then laughed. Tears formed in Shireen’s eyes and she quickly turned her head away. Cyrus, however, was fascinated by the man in front of him. He felt a rush he hadn’t felt in years.

“You actually believe that?” Cyrus asked with a glint in his eye.

“Hundred percent. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if that happened.”

“If the Shah hadn’t had millions of people executed for their beliefs?”

“Okay, maybe not necessarily executed, but...let me put it this way...you might be too young for this, but do you remember just how...taboo the idea of communism or anything like that used to be here in America?”

“Sure.”

“It wasn’t like now where every teenager wants to be a communist. It was like the plague. You couldn’t even say it. So, sure, the Shah had SAVAK and they would do their best to...let’s say, silence opposition. But what I think he could have also done was the thing that made America come out on top during their own conflict with the Soviets: making anything even resembling communism absolutely unacceptable, even when it came to their foreign policy.”

“That’s a pretty wide net you’re casting there. Like, what would you consider resembling communism? I want free healthcare. Does that resemble communism?”

“In a perfect democracy, all ideas should be allowed. But what about the ideas that stand against democracy? Against freedom?”

“I’m afraid I still don’t get what you’re trying to say.”

“What I’m saying is, if SAVAK was a brutal secret police force, then what is the FBI? If what the Shah ran in those days was a dictatorship, then what is America?”

“So, you’re saying there can’t be total ideological freedom in a democracy.”

“Yes. America used to understand this better than anyone.”

“Used to?”

“Well, look at the sorts of things we allow now: socialism being taught in schools, disregard for human gender, bending over backwards for radical Islam…”

“How do we bend over backwards for radical Islam?”

“By choosing people like Ilhan Omar to represent us.”

“She’s a radical Muslim just because, what, she wears a headscarf?”

“She does nothing but apologize for terrorists. You think twenty years ago, they would’ve let that bitch anywhere near the White House?”

“Mazi, we don’t call women that anymore.”

“Okay, that ‘B.’”

“But, Mazi, don’t you think it’s a good thing that now we’re letting Muslim Americans have a voice in politics?”

“Muslim, yes, but wearing that ridiculous thing on her head and saying the things she does is a slap in the face to women like Shireen here, who sacrificed so much to run away and be free from that stuff.”

Lisa looked at Shireen, “What do you think, honey?”

“What I think?”

“These guys haven’t let you get a single word in all night. Frankly, I’m more interested in knowing what you think about all this.”

They awaited Shireen’s response as she contemplated.

“I have to use the bathroom.”

“Oh. It’s, uh...once you go inside, it’s down the first hall, second door to your right.”

Shireen stood up and went inside. Maziar watched her leave.

“She’s quiet, but she seems like a smart girl.”

“She is.”

“Not sure what she’s doing with a PAAC-y, but…” he chuckled. “I’m kidding.”

“Ha-ha.”

“But really, I hate to keep badgering you, but these people have mastered the art of...as the kids call it, ‘gaslighting.’”

“I see.”

“You’re clearly a very curious person. And that’s a good thing. All I’m saying is, ask your friends enough questions, and eventually, they will show you who they are. Trust me, you don’t wanna be associated with them for long.”

“You know what I’m wondering?” Lisa asked. “So, like, suppose the current regime or whatever gets overthrown. Then what happens?”

“Well, right now, the focus is on getting them out.”

“I mean, she does raise a good point,” said Cyrus.

“What the mullahs want is for us to disagree about these things so that we get distracted from throwing them out.”

“I totally get that, man, but having a solid plan of leadership is important, otherwise what you end up with is a power vacuum and it’s gonna turn into another Arab Spring.”

Lisa threw her hands up, “Okay, y’know what? Forget I asked!”

“You hang around your PAAC friends too much, because these are the exact kind of divisive, fear-mongering things they say.”

“I don’t think it’s fear-mongering to say, ‘Hey, let’s not be so shortsighted if we don’t wanna end up in the same situation in another forty years.’”

“The people are smarter than that. That won’t happen.”

“You do agree that leadership is crucial though, right?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“So, isn’t it concerning that so far, no one’s been able to agree on a single leader?”

“No one agrees right now because...young people...what they’re useful for is getting angry and raising chaos. For now, we need that in Iran. But when it comes time to decide what happens next…”

“They shouldn’t get a say?”

“Well, we already saw what happens when the young revolutionaries get a say. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place.”

“Didn’t you literally just say they’re smarter than that?”

“Smart, but they still don’t know what they want.”

“And you do?”

“All I know is Prince Reza Pahlavi is as good a choice as any.”

“You want the Shah’s son?”

“It’s not about what I want. It’s about what’s best for the country.”

“You’ve been living here for almost half a century though. So has he.”

“But we’ve never been anything other than Iranian.”

“Still, shouldn’t the people actually living there decide?”

“Not when there’s so much at stake.”

“I think they know what’s at stake.”

“If they did, then they would come together and make a solid decision. But they have shown that they won’t. All they know is what they don’t want, and that’s still a valuable thing, don’t get me wrong.”

“Why do you think going back to a monarchy would be what’s best for the country?”

“No one said anything about monarchy.”

“You called him ‘Prince’ Reza Pahlavi.”

“That’s his official title.”

“So he doesn’t claim to be a monarch?”

“All he claims to be is a patriotic Iranian who has always advocated for a secular, representative democracy.”

“But, like...to play devil’s advocate for a moment here, what makes him qualified to run a country? He’s never held office, has he?”

“No.”

“He’s never even held a real job, as far as I know.”

“But he is a leader.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s his destiny.”

Cyrus let him sit with that for a couple seconds.

“I mean…doesn’t that sound like monarchy?”

“Call it whatever you wanna call it. The fact is that under the Shah, Iran was the most free and democratic it had ever been.”

“Sure, but that’s not a high bar—”

“But, listen to me, even he didn’t run it like a traditional monarchy. He was only called ‘Shah’ because that was a title that he inherited.”

“He didn’t necessarily run things like a capital ‘D’ democracy either though.”

“So, you’re saying it was worse than what they have now?”

“I didn’t say that. When did I say that?”

“Then you admit the Shah was a better leader than the Islamic Republic.”

“Yeah, in the sense that I admit getting my nails pulled out is a better form of torture than having my balls electrocuted.”

Lisa grimaced, “Do they really do that over there?”

“They both did, actually.”

“No they didn’t. What do you know? Were you there?”

“I wasn’t in Nazi Germany either but I know—”

“There he goes with the Nazis again! Look, you can’t run a country with that many people and that much oil in it without some kind of iron fist.”

“He was a paranoid, deeply insecure dictator who caused his own downfall by ignoring his advisors and the legitimate grievances his people.”

“Interesting. Which book are you quoting to me right now?”

“He had a lot of good ideas, don’t get me wrong. I just think it’s dangerous to lionize the guy and romanticize that time—”

“Tell me this—”

“—because the implied message there is that if you’re living under a brutal dictatorship, you should just appreciate what you have because it can always get worse.”

“Just answer me this: If Iran was such a terrible place under the Shah, then why did your parents and millions of others only leave once he was gone?”

“Just because it got worse didn’t mean it couldn’t have gotten better.”

“Well, it didn’t.”

“But it could have.”

“I think I understand what Cyrus is saying. Sure, there are dictators who are quote-unquote worse than others, but at the end of the day, a dictator is a dictator.”

“Thank you!”

“Not true. A dictatorship doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. “

“Okay, where are you going with this?” Cyrus chuckled.

“Look at the president of El Salvador right now; the guy Lisa has a crush on.”

“I do not have a crush on him.”

“Technically, a dictator, but if you see what he’s done for his country and how he’s dealt with the cartels—”

“Give him a few years and we’ll see if you still feel that way.”

“Democracy is a great thing. But it is the end; not the means. If you want to rebuild a country, it will be ugly at first because not everyone will be on board. The Shah did what he had to do for his time. So, Prince Reza Pahlavi—or whatever you wanna call him—he will also adapt to the times and run his country accordingly.”

“And you think he’ll be accepted with open arms?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t he be?”

“That’s not what I’ve been hearing.”

“What you’ve been hearing is propaganda, my friend.”

“The people in Iran chanting ‘Down with tyrant, be it a Mullah or a Shah,’ that’s propaganda?”

“What the Shah was trying to build was a nation that could stand on its own, like it did for thousands of years. He wanted to give us back our identity. Whether they know it or not, that is what every single person fighting for a free Iran wants above all else: a reason to proudly call themselves Iranian.”

“How can a nation stand on its own when you relentlessly sanction it?”

“When the mullahs leave, the sanctions will stop.”

“Khaylee delet khosheh. Why don’t you pay a visit to one of the many other sovereign, prosperous nations we helped bring about through our humane sanctions?”

“Oh, so we should just continue giving the regime billions of dollars and hope for the best. Got it.”

“You see, when you argue that the young people at the forefront of this movement in Iran shouldn’t have a say in the future of their country—”

“I never said that. I said they shouldn’t be the only ones to have a say.”

“But that your say should matter more?”

Maziar fidgeted in his seat, “Look, this is not an appropriate conversation to be having right now, I’ve gotta be honest.”

“Why not?”

“Because—I said it before—what we, as Iranians, need right now is unity.”

“But don’t you understand why it can be hard for some people to take the whole ‘unity’ angle seriously when you use language that excludes the political left from the conversation—”

“They excluded themselves by siding with our oppressors. For the sake of democracy, there can be no place for them in our new country.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is...when the time comes, they will be dealt with.”

For once, Cyrus was speechless.