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website | instagram | linktree | NEW! order the glade | order the bruising of qilwa | order the white guy dies first | tip jar Welcome to the Tuesday Telegrams, a semimonthly newsletter from award-winning author Naseem Jamnia. You're currently reading a writing-related Telegram, where I update you on projects, offer behind-the-scenes looks, delve into craft, and other publishing and writing topics. I usually try to keep my writing Telegrams and my personal Telegrams separate, meaning, I try to keep my rants to the space where they're welcome. For better or for worse, though, art is political, and my art is based in my politicized body and mind, and there is no way I can release a newsletter of any variety after the US has bombed my homeland and focus "just" on writing. So this Telegram will be somewhat short (if you've been a Telegrammer for a while, you're allowed to laugh), and in the vein of my personal Telegrams. (If you dig this sort of thing and are just getting my writing Telegrams, you can switch to receiving both in the footer of this email.) Just as a heads up, I am using fairly measured language for this; that is mainly because of a lack of thorough research to lay out more than the little that's been broadly said, because that will require more time and energy than I have right now. I hope to work on something more thorough in the coming weeks. (NOT INTERESTED IN THESE THOUGHTS? That's cool. I am going to be giving away books, though, to people who donate money to help Palestinians or Iranians or another group in need, so maybe skip on to that part!) In 2020, 362 days before the January 6 insurrection, Qasem Soleimani was killed in a targeted US drone strike. The commanding general of one of the five branches of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Soleimani was a capable military strategist, a supporter of Assad's oppressive regime in Syria, and allegedly a tangible pro-Hamas and anti-Israel supporter. Iranians within the country and in the diaspora may have mixed (though, from the circles I'm in, clearly negative) feelings on Soleimani—the state propaganda machine worked to paint him as a noble warrior, preying on Iranian cultural pride—but he was also certainly a key part of the state repression machine that keeps Iranians in line with an oppressive theocratic regime. When Trump issued the strike that killed him in the final year of his first term, I remember believing that the US was on the brink of war with Iran. It surprised me that Iran did not retaliate in full force, though their hands may have been tied due to their mistaken targeting of Ukraine International Flight 752, which killed all 176 passengers on board. If you know nothing about Iran—historically, regionally, diplomatically, internationally, politically—know this: Iran occupies a place in the Western psyche that is driven by over 2500 years of empire. The Ancient Greeks used the word "barbarian" to describe their Persian enemies. Alexander sacked Persepolis and erased Iranian cultural connection to this ancient history for a thousand years, which would later pave the preservation of the Persian language via oral storytelling and myths after the Muslim Arab Conquest of Iran. Persian culture—poetry, arts, and music—transformed and merged with Islamic culture. Islamic culture and sciences showered Asia with advancements that made European powers weep with envy and launch a crusade that brought resources and ideas those Europeans would soon call their own. Europeans began positioning themselves as the Occident, the free and rational world, and West Asia as the Orient, an exotic land of temptation and sin. This was part of what allowed Europe to move from crusade to colonization, sweeping around the world to collect resources for their own gain, creating new modes of oppression justified by racial "science." And, finally, the British directly traced their empire to the Romans, and the Romans did to the Persians. (If you've read The Bruising of Qilwa, you will know I was grappling with these ideas as I worked on that story. These will be ideas I'll grapple with, I think, for much of my career. For more readings on this topic, see: Edward Said's Orientalism; Ania Loomba's Colonialism/Postcolonialism; Deepa Kumar's Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire.) And if you know nothing culturally about Iran, then know this as well: Iranians are incredibly proud people, and many of us—at least, in the diaspora—are deeply committed to that empire. If you see someone called the "Crown Prince" of Iran, here's what you need to know: in 1921, 10 years after the Constitutional Revolution established a parliament, the Persian Cossack Brigade, headed by Reza Khan, led a coup that established the Pahlavi Dynasty, which ruled for two generations until their deposition by the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This so-called Crown Prince is the grandson of Reza Khan. Iranian obsession with monarchy is partially a mode of (however misguided) resistance against the theocracy, partially an indictment of historic and modern intervention by Western powers—Russia and the British (and French cultural influence) for the former, and US for the latter—and partially successful propaganda on behalf of the Pahlavis, who threw a big ol' bash in 1971 linking their lineage to the historic Achaemenid (or First Persian) Empire. (If you're interested in reading more about these historic contexts, you can read an old newsletter about it here.) This is a lot of context to say something that is, at its essence, simple. The US was always going to find a way to increase tensions with Iran until something broke. "Weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq was always going to turn into "nuclear weapons" in Iran. The "Axis of Evil" named Iran decades ago. Anyone who thumbs their nose at US interests becomes an enemy of the state, and the theocratic regime in Iran has long thumbed its nose at those. When activists say all struggles are interlinked, they mean so quite literally. Scholars have long made connections between settler colonialism in Palestine and that on Turtle Island. Globalization has created world orders that reinforce the hegemonies of yesterday to entrench them as the hegemonies of today. Israel has been an arm of the US military since its inception. The IOF was used in or trained US-backed, despotic militias in Latin America. Police all around the US have been trained by the IOF. Israeli interests are US interests. Neocolonialism and US empire does not look like the empires we knew post-WWII, but they are direct decedents. I am trying hard not to be irritated at Iranians who only now are paying attention to Israel's atrocities. Many diasporic Iranians love Trump because they thought he'd get the US out of West Asia; they are ignorant fools at best, and, at worse, imperial Persian supremacists. Many will throw our Palestinian siblings under the bus because of Yasser Arafat's support of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, as if that is a justifiable reason for genocide. We cannot—cannot—lose sight of the bigger picture here. While eyes are turning to Iran, do not forget Israel's increased atrocities against Palestinians. Do not forget Israel bombing Lebanon. Don't forget the Iranian people, but don't remember us in favor of forgetting the other targets of white colonial supremacy at home and abroad. I'm ending this Telegram with a call-to-action rather than a usual Solidarity Corner. Those heeding the call can ping me to get some free books. None of us are free until all of us are free. Upcoming EventsBefore I forget, something that is more writerly: the Summer Reading Shindig at Thistle & Nightshade was moved to this Saturday, June 28! Bring your kiddos from 10a-1p and hang with me and other local authors. We'll have games, arts and crafts, and more. Bring your own chairs/blankets! Calls to ActionBelow are some places you can donate and other actions you can take. If you end up donating money, scroll below to claim a book.
Donate any amount to one of these organizations (or other mutual aid organizations or similar; I'm not picky if you've done your homework), message me a receipt, and then choose from the following options:
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