When I talk about secularism, I’m talking about theories today. To give you for example, one example: Those who consider themselves followers of Mosaddeq today are adamantly against federalism.
AKBAR GANJIWe have two kinds of oppression. Oppression that is universal – everyone in Iran is subject to it. But everyone has also their own, unique way of experiencing this oppression.
More Akbar Ganji Quotes
-
-
Religion is separate from the institution of the state.
AKBAR GANJI -
We can certainly be on the same side and the same front with the workers and with the oppressed people of Iran. We can certainly be on the same front with them.
AKBAR GANJI -
Of course, everyone knows that I’m also opposed to the Iranian regime and I have said that we must change the regime. But it is us, the Iranians, that must change the regime.
AKBAR GANJI -
They are the kind of dishonest and populist slogans that we are not willing to use.
AKBAR GANJI -
I did join the Revolutionary Guard, but I was simply a simple Revolutionary Guard, never a commander.
AKBAR GANJI -
Three of our provinces have seen mass uprisings. The three provinces are Khuzestan, Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan.
AKBAR GANJI -
I am against revolution and am proud of it. Democracy cannot be created through revolutions.
AKBAR GANJI -
When I’m speaking, I’m speaking only for myself. At the same time, I know that these ideas have wide support among the Iranian population.
AKBAR GANJI -
Religion is the private affair of an individual…be present in the public domain, but state has to be clearly separated from religion.
AKBAR GANJI -
The solutions to the problems of the distraught lower strata of society are problems that can only be solved in the context of an overall political, cultural, economic development.
AKBAR GANJI -
We have two kinds of oppression. Oppression that is universal – everyone in Iran is subject to it. But everyone has also their own, unique way of experiencing this oppression.
AKBAR GANJI -
They lie on railroads, they tie themselves to the gates.
AKBAR GANJI -
I, too, am against the dismantlement of Iran.
AKBAR GANJI -
The ecological movement is concerned about this, and this is in here, where everything is public.
AKBAR GANJI -
But I know one thing for sure: That we, the Iranian people, are much more in line of danger than the West.
AKBAR GANJI -
Today, as a result of a miraculous set of circumstances,
AKBAR GANJI -
If you look at the discourse before the revolution, whether it is the left communist, whether it is the right secularist.
AKBAR GANJI -
We recognized that the justice we expected and hoped for was not about to be achieved.
AKBAR GANJI -
We must struggle for creating a democratic system that is dedicated to democracy and human rights.
AKBAR GANJI -
You cannot bring democracy to a country by attacking it.
AKBAR GANJI -
We’ve had 60 years of intellectual development in Iran. How can we have the same system?
AKBAR GANJI -
When women push their headscarf back an inch or two, this is interpreted to be a political act.
AKBAR GANJI -
Recently, we witnessed massive demonstration by Iranian woman in the 7th of Tir square, and it was brutally suppressed.
AKBAR GANJI -
We believe in equal rights for all people in all nations. If Israel, the United States, Russia, Pakistan, other countries, China, have the right to have a nuclear program and nuclear bomb, Iran, too, must have that same right.
AKBAR GANJI -
I went to the front, but I never participated in the war itself.
AKBAR GANJI -
There is no possibility of a public demonstration [in Iran] of such defiance, but these defiant acts are certainly going on.
AKBAR GANJI