Time magazine called it “the most widely witnessed death in human history”: the moment when a bullet hit Neda Soltan in the chest and she gasped for air in a crowded Tehran, Iran street. Soltan was protesting the Iranian 2009 election results when she was shot and killed by a member of the Basij, an arm of the Revolutionary Guards. She died on the street like an animal for daring to speak her mind.
That may feel like a million years ago, especially since the people’s Green Revolution was so efficiently squashed by the totalitarian regime, but nothing has changed for the better since Soltan drew her last breath.
This past Saturday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven arrived in Tehran for a two-day visit with the Iranian leadership, bringing a large delegation of representatives from major Swedish corporations. According to the Swedish government’s own website, the delegation was there to focus on bilateral cooperation, trade and regional development, particularly Syria. According to Lofven, this is an important step in “increased Swedish presence in global growth-markets.”
After the closing of the Iranian nuclear deal with the United States and the subsequent sanction relief, Iran is now actively seeking foreign investments to boost what is a crumbling Iranian economy. Meeting with the Swedish prime minister and prominent Swedish business leaders are a means to that end.
Before taking off for Tehran, the Swedish delegation said a renewed friendship between the two countries could help bring forth democracy and increased freedom for Iranian citizens, but there is little proof this would actually be achievable. Despite the world’s eye being transfixed on Iran during and after the Vienna negotiations, the regime has not let up on its constant harassment and oppression of its own people, but rather strengthened its stronghold to counteract the relative openness shown toward the West during the shaping of the deal.
I recently went on two longer trips to Iran, partially to cover the 2016 parliamentary elections. What I witnessed was not only constant surveillance, limited access to the outside world and a propaganda machine unmatched since the Soviet era, but also a people longing for freedom and desperate for hope.
To make financial and political ties to a regime like that of the Islamic Republic does not bring about democracy, but rather brings funds and clout for that regime to continue to abuse its people. That would be unconscionable for a country such as Sweden, claiming to be a “humanitarian superpower.”
Iran is a world leader in executions, killing one of its citizens each day in 2016. The regime has a habit of jailing and torturing dissidents for such small “crimes” as “subversive internet activity,” including but not limited to hijab-free selfies and cartoons depicting criticism of politicians and religious leaders. The country is also a world leader when it comes to financing terror, bankrolling groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas and openly boasts about plans to destroy its great enemies: Israel and the U.S.
Free elections have not existed in Iran since the revolution in 1979, and the “moderate” forces that Lofven claims to be working with, such as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, have resulted in executions and arrests reaching an all-time high in the past five years.
Neda Soltan was not really politically active, not the way most of last week’s protestors would claim to be. She left university because she was harassed due to her choice of clothes and divorced after pressure from her husband’s family to conform. As she left her marriage, she found herself out of work, having been deemed “difficult” by society.
Her protest did not fit in any ideological box, but was a reaction to the injustice in her life and the reality of oppression forced her to act on instinct. Hers was a true cry for freedom, the self-proclaimed “feminist government” of Sweden should protect and defend through words and action women like Soltan — not the regime that took her life.
Having seen it for myself, I love Iran, and I love its people. It is because of that love that I urge the Swedish government and Swedish businesses to not do business with the totalitarian Iranian regime that systematically oppresses its people. Being a humanitarian superpower comes with a responsibility to do the right thing, even when it is not politically or financially expedient, and to consistently be a voice for those who have none of their own.
Soltan died because she had the audacity to ask for freedom. It is my hope that Sweden now honors her memory by refusing to do business with her killers. Anything else would be hypocrisy by the Swedish “feminist government.” Anything else would be accessory to murder and abuse.
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein (@truthandfiction) is a political adviser and journalist.
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