Bahman Ghobadi Quotes

In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion - not even for Shiites, who are forced by Iran's theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules.

Look at all the misery in the Middle East, for example. All these countries have Islam in common, and far too few dare to criticize Islam as an ideology, and what it's doing to these countries. I know I might get punched in the face for saying these things, but my conviction is that less religion in the world would be better.

This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime, who degrades Islam? Who imposes stoning, forced marriage of underage girls and flogging for not wearing the veil? Do such practices represent Iran's ancient history and culture, its ethnic and religious diversity? Its centuries of sensual and subversive poetry?

What survived as orthodox Christianity did so by suppressing and forcibly eliminating a lot of other material.

It is a crime now in my country to talk about the government's crimes.

When a person goes to a country and finds their newspapers filled with nothing but good news, he can bet there are good men in jail.

Terrorists have hijacked our religion.

Censorship is definitely one of the main issues that you have to live with in China – period!

When I was at university in the Fifties, Latin America was full of dictators. Trujillo was the emblematic figure because, of course, of his cruelty, corruption, extravagance, and theatricalities.

The Russian Bolsheviks sold out most of the hopes of us early communists. The standard of living increased, and education and medicine improved finally after the 1917 Revolution, but the Russians today have as little freedom as we had under the Czar. That is the tragedy of Russia.

He [Rafael Trujillo] had his torture chambers. He had his political assassinations. But he kept law and order, cleaned the place up, made it sanitary, built public works, and he didn’t bother the United States. So that was fine with us.

As long as the [Communist] Party remains the ultimate source of wealth and power, its ability to police itself will determine China’s fate.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation

The surest way to make our youth suspect that there may be something in Communism would be for the government to outlaw it.

In its mad passion for power, the Communist State even sought to strengthen and deepen the very ideas and conceptions which the Revolution had come to destroy. It supported and encouraged all the worst antisocial qualities and systematically destroyed the already awakened conception of the new revolutionary values

There will always be authorities who try to make their own lives more comfortable by suppressing critical comment.

In the Middle East there are two methods of control: mass repression and mass bribery. In Syria they use mass repression; in Saudi Arabia, mass bribery. In Bahrain, a bit of both.

Governments whose authority is ebbing have been increasingly brazen in their attempts to silence critics.

Everywhere we are surrounded by dogs and sorcerers and whores and the Godless and all who love lies and commit them.

In any authoritarian society, the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside, he will come after you. This is equally true of Sovietism, of China and of Iran, and in our time it has happened a lot in Islam. The point is that it's worse when the authoritarianism is supported by something supernatural.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

Christianity in the Middle East is shattered. The ancient faith tradition lies beaten, broken, and dying.

Mosques where sharia law prevails - they exist in France. Refusing to see that means that we do equate Islam with Islamic fundamentalism. We have to denounce and eradicate it.

Criticism of the Middle East should not be directed only at Saudi Arabia. Human rights abuses are happening throughout the Arab world.

When counterterrorist policies are used to suppress peaceful protests and legitimate opposition movements, shut down debate, target human rights defenders, or stigmatize minorities, they fail, and we all lose. Indeed, such responses may cause further resentment and instability and contribute to radicalization.