Voice of Iran : Freedom is for sale in Iran.

The Iranian government has been trying its best to force the Iranian people to comply with its prejudiced, fascist, elitist and misogynistic rules. But this is not purely out of religious compassion, or extreme desire to get every possible Muslim into the Garden of Eden.

No! We are not just being forced into their version of heaven.

As a matter of fact, if you are rich enough, it can be much easier for you to evade heaven, by paying the hefty bills of outrageously expensive restaurants and cafes, gyms, or any other type of private venues, typically owned (ironically, but unsurprisingly) by those who have the strongersr ties with the power structure.

In one of the large restaurants, in the northern parts of Tehran, where they have more than 300 square meters of commercial area, more expensive than maybe Beverly hills even, or Malibu, or the expensive beach front stores in the south of France, you can hardly find one woman wearing the mandatory Hejab, and you might not even find one single sign there, that might prove to anyone that this place is in fact inside the very city, where Mahsa Amini got punched in the head so hard, that she bled internally and died, just because her scarf had slided back a little. Or where a medal winning boxing athlete got shot at close range, twice, in a park, for protesting a uniformed man insulting his wife because her hair was showing.

It is here, in this same city that the richest part of Iranian society can sit, and have the most expensive meals, and coffee, and pastry and “Mocktails”, in complete freedom, oblivious to such incidents.

The restaurant staff sometimes quietly inform their frequent guests that “We will be closing for 5 days after tomorrow, because we will be ‘plombed’ (legal term for being sealed off with ‘plomb’, which is the french word for "lead" ), but not to worry, this is only so we can claim that we are not left unattended by the Islamic State. We will be back after a short break.”

Freedom, in short, is indeed for sale, here in Iran. You pay, and then you can feel safer about having no Hejab, or wearing short pants if you are a man, or maybe have a secret injection of Vodka into your non-alcoholic beer. You can feel much safer in the more expensive sports resorts, in the larger and more modern shopping malls, than in the average park or any old sidewalk.

This, rises up to any level, with music concerts, plays, shows, seminars, anything really. “Pay for freedom” has always been a thing, but this season it is really the main theme. And it seems, we ought to get used to it.

It seems, if the government fails to establish that "we the Islamic Republic are an enterprise for Heaven", then why not at least make money off it as an enterprise on earth? Why not send some of our goons to go ahead and be as aggressive and violent as can be, with anyone and for any old reason, so we can then make the people pay, to sit for an hour at a terrace, and enjoy a mojito in peace? It was always possible of course, for those who had a passport, that is. Obviously women also need permission from their male guardians, and men must have finished their military service, but then it was, indeed, already possible to pay, and go to turkey, or Cyprus, or Thailand, or Armenia, for a beer, and who knows, maybe some sun, some Vitamin D, or maybe more sinister, or sexier activities.

But at some point the Supreme Leader said that he didn’t like the idea of people going to the south of Turkey for entertainment with such ease, so they cancelled all the direct flights from Tehran to Antalya or Bodrum. But the solution to that was just a bit more money, and a touch and go, in Ankara. All that was required was for the plane to stop for 10 minutes, in some other airport, somewhere in tlTurkey, that was not "the south". This tradition, established during the time of Ahmadinejad, still exists. If you don’t believe me, just check the flights on Google. Try and find a ticket from Tehran to Bodrum. There's no such thing.

But now, since there has been blood, and since the economic divide between the rich and the poor has widened, there’s a more general policy of “Pay for freedom”. And when I say Divide, I am not talking about the kind of divide you people see in Europe. No! Don’t even start and go “Oh we have that too!”. You don’t.

Have YOU Seen the 4X4 porsches in Tehran? Did you know, each of those is worth 3 of yours (and I mean the exact same car, purchased in any European country) ? Did you know that some cars are taken on flights to the UAE and back, just for an oil change? That basically means, if you have a Maserati, here in Iran, you could have bought 3 in Germany with the same amount of money, and each oil change could buy you a small car in France.

And well, once you had such a car, where would you park it? In front of one of these cafes of course, where the “Parking Manager” who has managed to keep a few spots, maybe because he has a little friendship with the traffic police officer here in this street, will remove the plastic orange cones for you.

Freedom can only be sold, if it is contained. Freedom cannot be sold, if everyone has it. And it is indeed, the everyday risks that people take, to be confronted with violence, and fines, and being punished, one way or another, for claiming their rights.

Here in Iran, these days, women must literally steal their freedoms back from those who took them, just as artists, writers, thinkers, creative people are stealing theirs, here and there, one word, and one drawing and one poem at a time. Our women steal their freedoms back, one step at a time, with each stroll they take, with deep fear and with humbling courage.

This summer, we are not going to sit back and watch, for only the rich to be free. More will come, and we will push life back into the corpse of this culture of death.

Some of us are not planning to die for freedom. Some of us are actually planning to be alive for it.