Bani Khoshnoudi: disillusion in Iran following the bombing
Colonialist politics not religion are at the centre of the Iranian conflict. The belief by some in US rhetoric about liberating the people from the regime is over, there is hope and also desperation, and the Shah’s son has lost all credibility.
Graham Douglas
Bani Khoshnoudi the Iranian film-director who spoke to the Prisma last year about her film The Vanishing Point, now discusses the current situation in Iran after the US and Israeli bombings and the massacres of demonstrators by the regime in January. As other Iranians have reported, those people who hoped that the US and Israel or the would-be Shah would somehow rescue them from the terror of the theocratic regime, have finally recognized the delusion. Despite the extreme assertions by both Islamic and Christian fundamentalists in all three countries: Iran, the US and Israel, she believes that the deeper foundations of the present conflict are about economic and colonialist power. The US-Israeli aggression has failed, geo-politically Iran is now more powerful than before the war. She views the Iranian diaspora in the US as simply an over-privileged and under-educated group living in a bubble detached from the political realities of contemporary Iran.
Stories about Mossad agents being those gunned down by the regime are simply propaganda for naïve readers.
You said that western media put too much emphasis on religion in this war, but what about Hegseth and his Christian crusade – has this changed the perception of the US in Iran?
I do not think that religion is at the origin of the ideology behind this war. It is a war of conquering and colonizing of more resources for the West— not much different from the past, but in the past, there were more submissive elements within the local powers (or outright control through colonization) making the feat easier maybe. Religious ideology has always been part of wars of conquest, providing the pretext for those who do its dirty work (missionaries, for example) so that one civilization tries to impose itself on other cultures, to transform them. The Church’s projects of colonization in Africa or what is now known as Latin America, are probably the best-known examples of this method, but Islamic wars and even the conquering of Spain or India by the Muslims were also religious wars. Those wars were also imperialistic and destructive, although nobody wants to remember them now.
But what is happening now cannot be reduced to religion. All of these powers are committing crimes while often justifying their actions in religious terms (especially Israel whose very existence is one based on a religious-identity tied to territory), but the bottom line is a late-stage capitalist struggle over resources and land. Israel wants both, while the United States thinks it should govern the world, but even this cannot be thought as being profitable to the American “people”, when it has only proven harmful to ordinary citizens, while benefitting the ruling class of filthy rich.
Even now, I have the impression that some Iranians still want to believe in the US as a force for good – is this just a privileged group who were educated in US universities?
Most of the American Iranian diaspora is extremely out of touch with life in Iran, the daily struggle there and its beauty. They have wrapped themselves in a strange place between delusional nostalgia and extremely uneducated and uncultivated fetish culture, which feeds itself on lies, revisionism, racism, and a lot of money. Corrupt to the core. Iranians may have degrees from US universities, but many are still rather uneducated in colonial issues. Other leftist university graduates have also quickly jumped into camps when it comes to analysing the situation - the grotesque power struggle, the extreme violence from the West, by the Iranian government on its own people, and on a psychological level, the propaganda wars.
People have lost sight of any critical perspective because they want to feel a part of something. It is as if their very identity relies on it: for the monarchist Iranians in the diaspora, this means being part of a group that thinks they are reconquering a country that managed to oust its corrupt king, a leader who lost control to the masses when populism won in 1979. For the leftist camp who suddenly have forgotten the regime’s crimes, this is a time to “be” more Iranian than whatever Western identity has been offered to them through their multiple years and degrees gained during their life in the West. It is ultimately a reactionary force that provides meaning in an otherwise alienated life of exile that has caught up with them. These people claim to be concerned with internationalism, but in reality, are quickly justifying fascism in order to hang on to nationalist structures, no matter how oppressive. For monarchists, the US will be the good, and for the leftist camp, it represents pure evil (the Great Satan as Khomeini has named it). In the middle, there are many more of us on the Left who do not adhere to either side nor conceive of the situation in these terms.
The global order has become one of a society of enmity, as Achille Mbembe has so precisely described in his writing, where drives, emotions and desire are at the forefront of political activism. Unfortunately, those in power are manipulating and using this, exploiting social media, making the horizon darker than it should be. We should recognize the fascistic tendencies throughout.
Your friend reported that Mossad was not involved in provoking street protests.
There is no doubt that Mossad is active inside Iran, like any other country in the world, but the story very quickly told by the regime, in order to justify its mass killing and arrests, and that seeped out so conveniently through people who suddenly had access to internet while most others didn’t, is a typical story that we have heard about dissidents for the last 30 years! According to the regime-- since the 1980s— people who oppose it are tied to Mossad… it is such an easy label, as everyone hates Zionism and of course the murderous Mossad. Yet, repeating this narrative, just because Mike Pompeo, Trump or Ayatollah Khamenei says it, is a very naïve and careless move.
Friends were on the streets in Iran on January 9. The scope of the killing was not yet felt, and streets had been taken over by the people. They say it really felt like things had flipped, and slogans were diverse. Butthe regime was preparing its response. They killed, and then wanted people to see the body bags, while repeating that protesters were terrorists tied to Mossad. When we see all those body bags, their parents screaming over them, when we see the faces of the executed today (at least 1 or 2 a day for the last month), how can we call these young people Mossad agents? I do not understand this need to justify the regime’s killing in the name of anti-imperialism. It is almost like some people have a Stockholm Syndrome with these murderers. For me, being anti-war is also being anti-fascist. If you cannot see that, then you cannot pretend to defend anyone against aggression.
Has the would-be Shah finally lost any influence among Iranians?
I think there are some who convinced themselves that he is the “only choice” as he and his gang of bullies have tried to claim, but some are now regretting that. Despite this, he shamelessly refuses to recognize his mistakes (or those his father made). A revisionism taking place at the speed of light.
This interview was first published in The Prisma and can be read there with images and links:
https://theprisma.co.uk/2026/05/25/bani-khoshnoudi-disillusion-in-iran-following-the-bombing/