Sacred Games actor Elnaaz Norouzi’s explosive warning on Mojtaba Khamenei and Iran’s ‘ruined’ future: ‘Who made him the Supreme Leader?’

“The next leader is just being chosen by them. People don’t have the right to say if they don’t want it, when they protest they are shot down, raped, or imprisoned. How exactly are the Iranians suppose to overthrow this regime, with empty hands? When the regime brings foreign militia from Afghanistan, Iraq into the country so that they can kill the Iranians,” added the actor, referring to Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has now been named Iran’s supreme leader. “They have also realized at this point, a lot of people working on the inside of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) also have stopped doing it. They have realized it’s their people. Who chose Ali Khamenei’s son? The same people,” said Elnaaz.

Elnaaz added that her parents are first-hand witnesses of the Iranian regime and how it’s damaged the country over the years. “As an Iranian being born at a time where this regime was full force, my parents have seen how the country was before and how it is now. It’s one of the few countries extremely rich in oil and other resources. It has everything, seeing that country go down even further, our currency has lost 98 percent of its value. An average person in Iran earns 100 dollars a month, and the cost of living is high. That’s why people are on the roads demanding the country back. They have taken it to ruins since the time they have come. They have killed youngsters, they don’t care about humanity or the people,” lamented Elnaaz.

“All they want is to use the money that comes out of Iran to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, and others who indirectly attack Israel, create unrest in the Middle East. They are funding terrorist organizations to do their dirty job. Iranians have to live with that and we don’t want that,” added the actor, who believes the situation will change slowly and surely once Iranians are allowed to vote and choose their leader freely.

“Just like the past 47 years, people who are coming to power that Iranian people have not chosen. The same happened with Ali Khamenei; now there’s another supreme leader coming in that Iran has not chosen. This has been going on for 47 years. They are choosing another leader now. They had chosen a leader that none of the Iranians knew. They killed Khamenei. Now his son is going to be the supreme leader. We have no comments on that. We have no say,” Elnaaz told NDTV.

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“In 2009, there was a huge protest. Millions of people came out on the roads, chanting ‘Where is our vote?’ A lot of people died in that. People realised this is not the person we voted for, but this is the person who has come to office now,” recalled Elnaaz. “Even the leader of a country never has a hundred per cent of the votes. The whole point of life is that there are so many different types of people in this world with different opinions. Freedom of speech means exactly that,” she told Hindustan Times.

Elnaaz feels that as a part of the Iranian diaspora, she at least has the freedom of speech to serve as her people’s voice. “I’m trying to be the voice of the voiceless, because in Iran you don’t have a voice. You’re not allowed to speak against the government. The government will kill you. So what I and many other Iranians outside the country are doing is trying to be the voices of those who don’t have one,” she said.

She recalled how her parents, who were “born into this mess”, always had plans to leave Iran and relocate to a safer place. “During my childhood, they realised it when the revolution took place in 1979. Many other Iranians were born into this mess. As long as I remember, my parents were talking about leaving Iran as life was already getting terrible there,” recalled the actor.

However, she added that leaving one’s country is not the ideal solution, particularly because the 90 million living there can’t abandon their homeland like the fortunate 5 million, including her family, could by moving to first-world countries. However, living there has allowed them to realize what they need back home for their country.

“I wish that child marriage stops. There are many young girls whose parents marry them off to older men. I wish for women to be able to go into football stadiums and watch a match. I wish for women to be able to become judges. I wish for women to have the same rights as men when it comes to inheritance,” said Elnaaz.

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The Sacred Games and Tehran actor hopes to return to Iran only once it’s free from oppression. “In a free Iran I will return home. I will return to my country and see my family. But then I will come back to my other country, which is India, where I live, where I’m very happy and where I feel very safe, and continue my work here,” she added.