SITREP Pod: Free Jamshid Sharmahd, German citizen and US resident held hostage in Iran | Pod Hostage Diplomacy

SITREP Pod: Free Jamshid Sharmahd, German citizen and US resident held hostage in Iran

SPEAKERS

Gazelle Sharmahd, Daren Nair

Daren Nair  00:05

Welcome to Pod Hostage Diplomacy. We work to free hostages and the unjustly detained around the world. Together with their families, we share their stories and let you know how you can help bring them home.

Elizabeth Whelan  00:18

Now when it comes to using the family to get... for Russia to get what they want, if that's the case, they've picked the wrong family, because I'm not going to carry water for the Russian authorities.

Daren Nair  00:28

These are some of the most courageous and resilient people among us.

Mariam Claren  00:32

I never thought that my mother, Nahid Taghavi, will ever have a link to negotiations in Vienna about the JCPOA. That's so crazy.

Daren Nair  00:43

People who have never given up hope.

Paula Reed  00:46

Trevor told his girlfriend to tell me to... to be strong. So, I'm trying to be strong for Trevor. 

Joey Reed  00:50

You know, if Trevor can cope with what he's dealing with... We can sure cope with the stress.

Paula Reed  00:53

Exactly. 

Daren Nair  00:55

People who will never stop working to reunite the families. 

Joey Reed  01:00

We'd like to meet with the President. We believe that, you know, he has... he's surrounded by lots of experienced and educated advisors. But I don't believe that any of them have ever had a child taken hostage by a foreign country, especially not a superpower like Russia.

Daren Nair  01:15

And we'll be right there by their side until their loved one comes back home.

Richard Ratcliffe  01:20

Because if enough people care, then the right people will care enough.

Daren Nair  01:24

I'm Daren Nair, and I've been campaigning with many of these families for years. When I first started campaigning with these families, I noticed they struggle to get the media attention they needed. So, I decided to create this podcast, which is a safe space for the families to speak as long as they need to about their loved ones, and what needs to be done to bring them home.

Mariam Claren  01:45

Nobody can prepare you for what our family is going through. Even if someone had told me one year before, in one year, this is going to happen, prepare yourself, that's impossible.

Daren Nair  01:59

Thank you for listening, and welcome to Pod Hostage Diplomacy. German citizen and US resident, Jamshid Sharmahd, has lived in California with his family for over 17 years. In July 2020, Jamshid was kidnapped in Dubai by agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and taken to Iran, where he is still being held today. His life is in imminent danger for the following reasons. Number one, he has been put through multiple sham trials, including one very recently, and he is currently at risk of being sentenced to death and being executed by the Iranian regime. Secondly, he suffers from diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's disease. The Iranian authorities are not giving Jamshid the medical care he needs. The EU Parliament adopted a resolution in July 2021 that urges Iran to immediately drop all charges against all arbitrarily detained EU nationals, including German national, Jamshid Sharmahd. Amnesty International has stated he is being arbitrarily detained and has called for his immediate release. We had the honour of interviewing Jamshid's daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, in January last year. You can listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts or on our website, www.podhostagediplomacy.com. We always tell the families that we'll be campaigning by their side until their loved ones come back home, and we mean it. So, we'll keep you up to date on their cases through breaking news, pods and sit rep pods like this one. Today, we are joined once again by Gazelle Sharmahd, who is speaking to us from California. Gazelle, we're sorry for what you, your dad and your family are going through. Thank you for joining us once again.

Gazelle Sharmahd  01:59

Thank you so much, Daren, for having me here.

Daren Nair  03:37

You're welcome. For our listeners who haven't had the chance to listen to our previous episode, can you please give them a summary of what happened to your father?

Gazelle Sharmahd  03:52

Yes, of course. To make the long, long story short, my dad was born in Iran, raised in Germany, and we moved to California in 20... 2002, so 20 years ago, and he is a software engineer by trade. He is also a political activist and journalist and created a website for the people of Iran to amplify their voices. And he also created a radio station where he had a radio show once a week, talking about everything on the website, and news in Iran. As we know now, as most of the people know who have followed the revolution, people in exile, who give the people in Iran a voice, especially bigger platform, are at risk of being targeted by the regime to silence their voices. And exactly this is what happened to my dad. Since he created the website, the website was first under cyber attack. And when they couldn't take the website down, they started to attack the person behind the website, which is my dad. This started with threats and phone calls. And in 2009, they tried to assassinate him on US soil. They sent an agent of the Islamic regime to murder my dad here. And when this plot was foiled by the local authorities and FBI, they tried to lure him out of the country and which was successful, unfortunately. In 2020, when he was on a business trip and had a flight overlay in Dubai. He was kidnapped by the agents of the regime taken to Iran. And that's where they've kept him ever since, at an unknown location, under torture, up until now, so two and a half years now, he's been there. And as you said already, his life is at risk, because they want to execute him.

Daren Nair  05:40

I'm so sorry for what's happened to your dad, Gazelle. Can you give us an idea of what's happened to him since we last spoke, because, if our listeners remember our previous episode, the monologue is very similar. You're pretty much in the same position. The only difference is, you're more likely... your dad's more likely to be sentenced to death. So, can you just give us an update on what's happened in the last 12 months?

Gazelle Sharmahd  06:07

Yes, in February 2020... 22, actually, his show trial started. That was at the same time as the JCPOA talks when they became hot. They also started to put more pressure on dual nationals in Iran, including my dad. So, in February, his first show trial started. And, you know, these showtrials, they show my dad's passport on a big projector in the... in the courtroom, so called courtroom, they are not real courtrooms, to put pressure on Western governments to say, "hey, we have your citizen here. Be careful how you're acting with us. Be careful what you say when we want to deal with you." So, he had seven show trials in 2022, and they were rapidly going towards their goal of giving him the death sentence. In September, however, when the next trial was planned, all of us know the revolution happened, because... because of the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, and briefly, for the last... for the... for those four months, the rapidly progressing show trials stopped. But the moment the world became more aware and more engaged, especially countries like the US and Germany became... changed politics and became, let's say, stronger towards the Islamic regime, they started to pick up the hostage cases again. They took more hostages. And my dad's case, which was on hold for this... for that moment, became a big problem again. So, they, in January this year, 2023, they announced that he's going to have his last show trial, that they will, because they... he's charged with corruption on earth, the charge that they're giving all of the people who are demonstrating right now, too, they will give him the death sentence. And the trial happened on January 10. It was behind closed doors. We could not see. We had no access. We did not know what exactly happened in that trial. But the regime lawyer that, who is our only person or source of information from the regime, told us that within 10 days, they will give him... they will announce the death sentence. And that's what we've been waiting for right now. Every day, we're watching the news. And we're... we're hoping that there will not be a sentence. And so far, it hasn't happened. But it doesn't mean that it will not happen. So, this threat is right now there that they will give my dad the death sentence. And the moment this happens, we have seen in other cases, in cases, the family is not informed because... before the person is executed. That means the moment they give the death sentence, any moment your loved one can be murdered, and you wouldn't even know. They tell you afterwards that it happened. So, I'm hoping, right now, that the day will not come where he is given the death sentence. And that's what we're trying to do, the last couple of weeks, very strongly, being in the media and advocating for him and making sure that they will at least hesitate or... or don't do this step.

Daren Nair  09:15

So, Gazelle, late last year, there was a fire in Evin Prison, which is where many of the foreign nationals held hostage in Iran are currently being detained. Is your dad in Evin prison as well?

Gazelle Sharmahd  09:27

That's one of the things that is a problem with the Islamic regime. They don't tell us anything about my dad. So, for the last two and a half years, nobody had access to my dad, not a single person. They don't tell us if he's in Evin; they don't tell us if he's not in Evin. We don't get straight information out of them. His lawyers can't get access to him. The German Consulate can't get access to him. The family can't see him. Nobody has seen him for two and a half years. So, when that massacre in Evin Prison... Prison was announced, we didn't even know, because people were killed there. We didn't even know if he was one of them. And we had no way of communicating with him, because in the last year they broke off pretty much all communication. My mom was the only one who was allowed to talk to him over the phone, two times in one year. So, that's how much they keep him in isolation. That's how much he's cut out from the world, and we have no... no way of seeing if he's alive, if he's okay. And after the fire in Evin Prison, we talked to the authorities there, and we asked them, "can we get a sign that he is still alive?" The only thing that we received from him was a voice message saying that he is still alive. So, we assume that he is still alive, but we have no way of checking it, because they're keeping him away from other prisoners. They're keeping him in complete isolation. He has no access to daylight. He has no access to fresh air. As you mentioned, he doesn't get his medication. He has heart problems; he can barely walk; his teeth fell out, and we don't know if that was a kind of torture where they knocked out his teeth, or if he is malnourished, where his teeth are falling out. We just get bits of information here and there. And we have to try to imagine and see what... what is really going over... over there. And since the last show trial was... was behind closed doors, we didn't even see a picture of him to verify that he's still alive and to verify that he's still okay.

Daren Nair  11:27

What do you know about your dad's current health condition?

Gazelle Sharmahd  11:31

My dad, when he left in 2020, on his business trip, he had advanced-stage Parkinson's, which means he had to take his medication every three hours on the... on the point, to make sure that he can breathe, that he can walk, that he doesn't have pain. And we know that they don't give them the medication, the right dose. They don't give them that at the right time, and delay in medication for Parkinson's patients itself is a form of torture, because they get these body aches and they can't breathe, they can't walk. And as I said, his... his teeth have fallen out. He has lost 20 kilogrammes of weight during this time. He is in complete... isolated place where he cannot tell if it's day or night. He has no access to human being; he has no access to information. The only people that are around him are the people that want to harm him, the people that interrogate him, the people that give him papers to sign for forced confessions. So, that is the environment that we figured out my dad is in. And I can't even imagine being isolated for a week. We all... we all had a sense of that during the pandemic, when we were at... in our own homes. But imagining that you're isolated like this, for it's now more than 900 days that he's in complete isolation, that is a form of torture, and all of these tortures, mechanism... mechanisms that they have right now are leading to his... his bodily and physical and mental breakdown. No human being was meant to be alone so long. No human being can endure that for so long. And my dad is almost 68, now. So, I don't know even if he does not get the death sentence and is not executed, how long he can survive the conditions under which he's been held.

Daren Nair  13:24

The reason I asked that is because I remember in previous episodes, you mentioned that his teeth have all fall... fallen out. So when, you mentioned your mother was able to speak to your dad twice last year, when was the last time you got a health update on your dad? Was it towards the end of last year? Was it... when was it?

Gazelle Sharmahd  13:46

The last phone call was, I believe in August last year, and she was able to talk to him. But you have to also make sure people understand this is not a phone call, like a prisoner picks up the phone and calls. There are 10 or 15 guards sitting around them, that he is not allowed to tell us the truth about his condition. So, we have to read between the lines, listen to the energy in his voice, try to figure out what he's trying to tell us through codes. So, his voice in the last phone call was very, very weak. and he showed all signs of PTSD that you get from prolonged isolation. He didn't know how long he was there. He couldn't tell what day it is and how... how... how long ago he spoke with us last. He didn't know how old my daughter was. He thought she was much older than she is right now. And he was confused. He couldn't find words in any language, not in German, not in English, not in Farsi, so... so you lose the ability to think clearly. He cannot say that, but through just talking to him, through these chit chats that we're allowed, that is how we have to figure out what is really going on with him.

Daren Nair  14:57

Again, I'm sorry that your dad's going through this. Has your public campaign to free your father gained a lot more traction since we last spoke one year ago?

Gazelle Sharmahd  15:06

Absolutely, it has. It was very, very hard for us to... to get to the public and tell my dad's case and say, "get some attention to hostage cases, to kidnapping cases." I mean, my dad is not just a person who was arrested in a different country, he was kidnapped. This is a breaking of international law, all human rights have been taken from him. So, we thought it would be so much easier to get these cases into the public, but it wasn't. But since last year, and especially since the last four months since the revolution started, all eyes have been on Iran, and it is so much easier to, when the spotlight is on Iran, to talk about these cases and to get media attention. And it is also so much more safer for the prisoners over there when the spotlight is on Iran, because when everybody looks away, these things were still happening. This is nothing new that happened in the last four months, what we see in the streets of Iran, what we see in the show trials, what we see how they're executing people, how they're arbitrarily detaining. Hostage diplomacy, as you know has been going on for years. The Islamic regime terrorised its people for four decades. So, all of this is nothing new to us, but now we have actually the stage. We have politicians that look, we have citizens that are engaged and are looking and are interested and care about... care about this. So, it's... it has gained a lot more media attention, which is... which is great, because that saves lives.

Daren Nair  16:40

Well, that's a positive, I guess, then. At least the events in Iran are resulting in you getting a lot more media attention, and the same applies to all the other foreign nationals held hostage in Iran. Now, your father is a German citizen, and a US resident, has he and have you been getting the support you need from the German and US governments?

Gazelle Sharmahd  17:02

I wish that was the case. But after two and a half years of watching how my dad is slowly dying, and nothing has been done to stop that, I can tell you that both governments have failed me. They have failed my dad, they have failed the prisoners there, they have failed our people in protecting them. I mean, the job of our governments is to protect us from outside forces, from terrorism, from arbitrary detention, from torture, from show trials, from injustice. And none of this has happened. The German government has told us several times, over and over again, that they... they know my dad is a German citizen, they will do everything in their power to save him. And these are great words. These are comforting words, which I believed, in which I trusted. But looking back at the two and a half years, what has changed? My dad is slowly dying in prison. And if he doesn't die in prison, he will be hanged and murdered by their corrupt judiciary system. So no, they have not done everything that is possible, because we know much more is possible. We know you can save hostages. And we know that they have power and different channels in which they can put pressure on the Islamic regime to protect their citizens. And that has not happened, neither from the US nor Germany.

Daren Nair  18:22

So, what can the German government do better?

Gazelle Sharmahd  18:24

What the German government has started right now is, I think, the right approach. You cannot... you cannot be soft and have these diplomatic talks with terrorists. We saw this. This hasn't worked for us. More and more people are detained during this time while they had this soft approach with the Islamic regime. Right now, during the revolution, so many more German and European citizens have been arrested in Iran. And we can see by that it doesn't get better; it will get worse. If you don't put a stop to that, it will get worse. And I'm not a policymaker, and I cannot say what exactly has to be done. But I can tell you that the right thing has not been done in the last four decades, because if these governments, our Western governments, that say they are for democracy, really didn't want a terrorist regime in this world, I think they would have the combined power to take them down, through their channels, by whatever it is that they do in the background. And since that has not happened, since the regime became more stronger and stronger, we can assume that they have been supported by our governments, by our governments that are against terrorism. And they... they have been kept in power, through negotiations, through whatever they're doing, through business deals, through all of these things, through JCPOA talks, through all of these wrong strategies. The Islamic regime has been kept in power, continued to terrorise its own people, continued to terrorise our people outside of their borders, kidnap people, assassinate people, and all of this has been going on and on and on without them stopping. So, what can they do better? A lot of things. The... what they're doing right now, for example, in Europe is naming, naming them as they are. They're putting the IRGC on the terrorist list. This is one step. It's not enough, but it's one step in the right direction. They have to stop pretending that the Islamic regime is a sovereign state and has to be respected. The Islamic regime is like ISIS, is like Hamas. They're the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. And that's how you have to deal with them, and not like a sovereign state where you have to respect their borders, respect their policies, respect all of the human rights violations that are going on, because they call themselves a republic. They are not a republic. This is a foreign invasion in Iran. And we have to deal with it like that.

Daren Nair  20:58

So, I'm assuming your father hasn't received any consular visits from the German Embassy.

Gazelle Sharmahd  21:03

No, unfortunately, not. As I said, nobody has visited my dad, not his lawyers, not the German Embassy, not the Swiss Embassy, and nobody has access to him. Because the Islamic regime says, "we do not acknowledge dual citizenship," which is funny because my dad is not even a dual citizen, He does not have Iranian citizenship anymore. He doesn't have an Iranian passport. He went to Germany when he was nine, er, seven years old. He lived there all his life. He has his citizenship there. When he was 50, he moved to the US. He's been living here for 20 years. And if it wasn't for an assassination attempt on him that ruined his visa status and everything, he would be a citizen of the US as well right now. His family... we're all citizens of the US. So, he is... if he is a dual national, he would be German and US national, not Iranian. But this is already the first problem that they say. They just say, "if you're born in Iran, you are forever an Iranian and we can treat you like our own citizen, and we can kidnap you, and we can assassinate you and we can do whatever we want with you."

Daren Nair  22:09

What can the US government do better?

Gazelle Sharmahd  22:11

The US government has been annoyingly silent in my dad's case, and also, since the revolution started. Under Levinson law, my dad is a US national and the State Department has the obligation to stand up. And we have a department for hostage affairs that deals with US Nationals and hostage cases, and my dad is a hostage case. One other development that we have seen in this time is that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, released their statement a couple of weeks ago, declaring my dad arbitrarily detained. And that is a very important development in his case. And still the US does not acknowledge that they have a responsibility. Neither the US nor the Germans take part and take their responsibility for their citizen and what has happened. We have to understand that this is not an isolated case or a tragedy that happened to one person. This is a business deal. These are business strategies by the regime, kidnapping people assassinating people, holding them hostage to put pressure on Western governments. This has to be addressed. Hostage diplomacy has to be addressed. It has to be spoken out, and that has not happened. All we're speaking about is JCPOA deals and other forms of business. So, the human point, that a human life is more important than these deals, this has to be addressed by the governments. That has to be brought out, discussed and made clear, and that has not happened.

Daren Nair  23:41

So, I understand NGOs have spoken out, like Amnesty International. They have called for your dad's release. What can they do better?

Gazelle Sharmahd  23:52

NGOs are just fantastic tools that we can... we have on our side, because, especially, in the euro... in Europe, we don't have a government body that would help families whose loved ones are kidnapped or arbitrarily detained. So, NGOs have done a great role in supporting us and giving us a stage. Amnesty International is very vocal about my dad. In Germany, the IGFM has... has taken on my dad's case. In the US, the Globe... Global Liberty Alliance has taken on my dad's case, and we're working with these NGOs very closely. Two things that could change, in my opinion. First of all, when we're talking about hostages and arbitrary detained prisoners in the Islamic regime, we have to stop bringing out the propaganda of the regime. I see it over and over again when a person is in a courtroom, the charges are mentioned, like the charges this person killed a Basij person, or my dad is supposed to be a terrorist, these charges are fabricated charges, and we have to state that. I understand that they want to be neutral and bring out both sides. There are no both sides. There's one side of a lying regime that has done nothing but lie for 40 years, and there is the truth on the other side, which the NGOs expose, and which our governments expose, and we have to make sure that they stop bringing out the propaganda of the regime, when they're advocating for our people. That is very, very important because a normal person, when they see propaganda, they might believe it. So, we have to... we have to say, "these are fabricated charges. Nothing of this is true. There is no evidence for none of these cases, and either leave the charges out completely or explain that. That's the first thing that I think they have to change. And the second thing is naming things as they are. So, if a person is a hostage, it's a hostage. It's not something else, and I still see people or NGOs refusing to call the people as they are. This is still a problem, and... internally or something, but we will not stop. We will call them as they are. And the last thing, maybe, I'm putting cases together. It is great to advocate for one person. It's very important to bring that person's story out, bring that person's name out there, their life, their everything that's behind it, that... that humanises it. That is that is great, but also seeing the bigger picture when we have several hostages. And you did that very, very... in a great way, Daren, when, for example, you put all of the US hostages together to show that this is not one isolated case. This is a system that they're using, and connecting us, connecting European hostages, connecting dual nationals, connecting political prisoners, these connections that we have, and make us... our voices louder, and we can be heard. There are, right now, so many lawyers in Iran that are arbitrarily detained. We have lawyers outside. Why not connect them? We have a physicians right now that are being put in prison because they're helping the wounded in the demonstrations. They're put in prison. Why don't we have, like a connected association of physicians that... that advocate? These connections are very, very important. We have environmental groups that are arbitrarily detained and held as hostages. We have dissidents like my dad, political activists, journalists, like my dad, who are detained. Why not get these groups together? Because the bigger groups we form, the louder we are. So, that is another suggestion or strategy that we can use through these NGOs, to have louder voices, louder movements, and involve more people into this.

Daren Nair  27:39

So, I take it not repeating Iranian state propaganda is something journalists and media outlets should do as well. How can they help?

Gazelle Sharmahd  27:48

Media outlets or journalists are lifesavers right now, because when we put the spotlight on one person, when we tell their story, immediately, there is attention on that person. And immediately, their life is a bit... a bit safer than before. In the dark, as I said, anything can happen, and the regime does anything in the dark. The moment a protest stops, that's what we saw in 2019 and before, in the dark, when all the media attention is gone, they started executing people in masses. So, we need the media to keep this active, and I know news is hot at one point, and it's not interesting afterwards. So, we have to find ways to keep this interesting. And we're coming up right now with the Ukraine war is almost a year, it's almost the anniversary. And even there, I see, like the attention going, right? These are important things that we see. The Islamic regime is supporting Russia and is actively killing people in the Ukraine. So, we have to find creative ways to get this in the media and to push. I know so many journalists who wanted to talk about my dad's story, for example, and they couldn't, because their outlets didn't allow them or said, "we have too many stories on Iran." This is sad, because these are very important cases. These are people who are... whose life are at risk, and we have to find a way. We have to find a way if we care about human beings, if we care about our rights, if we care about anything, feminism, the environment, whatever it is, you can find all of this in this Iran revolution. And we have to keep bringing this back until we are where we want to be, which is the freedom of the people of Iran.

Daren Nair  29:29

So Gazelle, what can members of the public do to help bring your father home?

Gazelle Sharmahd  29:33

Members of the public, but just regular citizens like me, have the biggest power, and we... sometimes, we don't see that. We think, "I'm just one person, what can I do?" But together, when we all come together, we have a huge power. And when we are all loud, when we all care about something, the people who are in charge cannot ignore our voices. So, every single person counts. Every single person that does a little thing counts. It starts with helping us. When you're following us on social media, I'm on Twitter, @GazelleSharmahd on Twitter. I'm on Instagram, freejamshidsharmahd on Instagram, just following me gives me a bigger stage, liking a post brings that post up, brings the news up, commenting brings it up, sharing it shares the story. And you don't need a lot of followers to do that. You can just be one single person and do that. We have petitions that are very, very important, because it is a collective of voices. And the petition that we have right now is on change.org. If you put in... it is on my Twitter, and it is on my Instagram, and on change.org if you search Sharmahd. There is one petition, we have almost 85,000 signatures on it, right now. It is a letter to the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, asking her to do something in my dad's case, and it is really just one click that you do and you're part of this. I have a link tree on my Instagram where the petition is. And we will... we also have two letters, one to President Biden and one to Annalena Baerbock and Olaf Scholz, the president of... the Bundeskanzler of Germany. And again, it... we made it so easy for you. Just go on there, and with one click, you're sending an email to that person. And the more annoying we are, let's say it like that, the more annoying we are to the politicians, the more they want to do something to stop this annoying. So, if this is something that is important to you, to save... where you want to help to save somebody's life, you don't have to do something big. I mean, the bigger it is, the greater of course. Go to demonstrations, go outside, call your MPs. Mobilise yourself, do podcasts like you're doing right now, we can do so many things. But you can also just do the simple things. In a collective, when we all come together, this voice is super strong, and I've seen this in my dad's case. As I mentioned, he was only allowed to talk to my mother twice in one year. And every time, it was after we had, for example, a video released on social media, it went viral. Journalists picked it up, because so many people liked it. And I immediately saw that, within 24 hours, my dad was allowed to make a phone call. So, you think this is something small; it is not. It makes the world of a difference to a prisoner who is isolated and cannot even talk to his daughter, cannot talk to his family. So, please follow, like. All of these simple things collectively will save people's lives.

Daren Nair  32:41

Now Gazelle, we're almost at the end of our interview, is there anything else you'd like to mention?

Gazelle Sharmahd  32:45

The last thing I want to mention is that the revolution that you're seeing right now in Iran is not just a revolution of the people of Iran. It is... it is to liberate us from the terrorist regime. But it involves everybody. It doesn't matter where you live in the world. If you think you're a US citizen, European citizen, the Islamic regime has spread out its tentacles all over the world. It has come with their lobbyists into our politics. It has their terrorists in our states. They are picking up people when they're travelling, they're trying to assassinate people, silence people, and you can just be a bystander when they're planning another terror attack, and you will be harmed. So, this what is going on, right now, with the Islamic regime, is not something that stays within its borders and only affects Iranian citizens. It affects all of us. Wherever we see injustice in the world, we should automatically care and do something out of a moral reason. But even out of the selfish reason, if we want to keep our democracies, if we want to keep our freedom of speech like my dad did in the US and had radio station. This was... it was his freedom of press, freedom of speech. If we want to keep that and not let people from another side of the world iInfluence us, terrorise us for speaking up, then this is a problem for all of us. You see feminists right now, women fighting there. If you ever fought and marched on the streets for women's rights, this is your cause, too. We have as I said, environmentalists over there. If you care about the environment, people, environmentalists who try to do something and the dirty atmosphere of Iran, they are behind borders as well. Lawyers, as I said, all kinds of people from all... all levels of the... of the community, it affects everyone, and if you care about anything in the world, you will find that cause in the Iran revolution, right now. So, if you want to support us, you can support us through your channels, and this is something that we all have to do together, and we can get to where we want.

Daren Nair  34:55

Thank you for that Gazelle. We'll be campaigning with you until your dad is back home. We hope that time comes very soon. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us again.

Gazelle Sharmahd  35:05

Thank you so much, Daren.

Daren Nair  35:12

Thank you for listening to Pod Hostage Diplomacy. Thank you for giving your time and for showing these families that they're not alone, that there are good caring people out there, willing to stand by their side and help in any way possible. 

Richard Ratcliffe  35:27

Because if enough people care, then the right people will care enough. This is a basic rule of thumb that is true for all campaigning. 

Daren Nair  35:35

If you haven't already, please subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter called "The Hostage Briefing." It's the best way to keep up to date with the cases we're working on as well as new episodes. You can subscribe to this newsletter using the link in the description of this podcast episode that you're currently listening to. Thanks again and take care.