Host of nightly show The Program
We Iranians need a national conversation — an ongoing, daily dialogue to see the dark and bright sides of the challenges our country faces and, hopefully, find practical solutions.
Without such dialogue, our most urgent issues will be buried under layers of silence and denial. They may stay hidden for a while, but like melting snow, they will eventually overwhelm us.
Some crises are even more dangerous, neglected for so long that they become frozen in place for generations.
Breaking silence
Many important conversations could start with simple questions that come to mind in traffic, at a red light, or around the family table: What happened? Why did it pan out this way? Will there be war? Will things get better? When?
But most of these questions never leave our heads.
On social media, it’s no better. Instead of real dialogue, we see arguments, insults and unanswered monologues.
A society that cannot speak to itself will never know where its pain lies. And without knowing the pain, there will be no cure.
Case in point: food
Take the crisis of child malnutrition.
According to Shargh newspaper, only 2% of Iranian children consume dairy products daily, while over 50% have none at all. In families with temporary jobs, more than 93% either never eat meat or do so less than once a week.
We are depriving an entire generation not only of nutrition, but of growth, learning, health and a secure future.
Who talked about this? Which platform shouted these figures? Which officials were held accountable? No one.
This is how crises slip in quietly through the back door and settle in the heart of our lives.
It’s on them—but us too
Real, effective dialogue is suppressed in Iran. It has no place even in the structure of power. Accountability has been replaced by threats, reform by denial and conversation by the monologue of ideology.
Yet this pattern is not unique to the government; parts of the opposition suffer the same malaise: seeking followers instead of collaboration and building heroes instead of listening to diverse voices.
But there are too many Iranian voices have gone unheard.
We have disagreements, we have shared pain and we lack a genuine conversation that acknowledges us, shares experiences and heals divides.
A society whose media, schools, parliament and even family dinner tables lack conversation risks collective isolation: a social crisis in which silence becomes the norm.
What should we talk about?
We can only speak of the future when we first hear the voice of the present, when we speak our pains openly, without shame or fear.
Not to complain, but to build. To see that we are not alone. To learn how, even in darkness, a light can be lit.
That is the question I’ll be asking on my show. If there’s only one subject we must talk about, what should it be? What is the deepest wound Iranians face today?
We will host regular live National Dialogue specials with participation hopefully from Iranians around the world. You can watch the first episode here.
