American-Israeli journalist and digital influencer Emily Schrader at a protest in Los Angeles calling for regime change in Iran.
THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW
Based in Tel Aviv, American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader uses her global social media platform to support the women and girls risking their lives to protest on the streets of Iran, and to put pressure on the international community to respond. On a brief visit to Auckland, she told Joanna Wane why there needs to be regime change, not reform.
My window into Iran is primarily through social media, so it’s a digital window rather than a physical one. On Twitter and Instagram combined, I have about 70,000 followers there now of different ages, genders and religious backgrounds. So I’ve built this cyber community in Iran that’s allowed me to hear a lot of stories first-hand about what’s happening — often faster than people without those connections — and a unique perspective on their hopes and desires.
I can’t express in any language how much I admire the women and girls of Iran in this whole wave of protests. It takes an unbelievable amount of courage and, in a very sad way, hopelessness on their part. It’s one of the first questions I asked: “Why? Because there’s so much risk for you, physically.” And they told me, “We have nothing to lose. As a woman, I have no future if this regime stays.”
Girls, some as young as 13 or 14, are being arrested, raped, tortured, shot at. It’s appalling and it breaks my heart. There are more testimonies of sexual assault than I can count. And the regime uses this as a tool to shut down dissent and to discourage women, in particular, from protesting. Because this was a revolution — or attempted revolution — led initially by women and the killing of Mahsa Amini [the 22-year-old who died in custody last September after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police].
This is not, at least from my understanding, a campaign against Islam. It’s about opposition to this regime and their level of oppression. You’re hearing that from all sectors of society in Iran. They don’t want reforms, they want regime change, but there’s been a real lack of leadership from European and US leaders in supporting, at least verbally, their demands. That lack of moral backbone is really, I think, one of the most discouraging things for the people on the ground.
First, there needs to be recognition of the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] as a terrorist organisation. That would require a crackdown on sanctions. Obviously, the people of Iran suffer as well under sanctions but I have spoken to many, many people, and the majority of Iranians support them. There’s still this mentality that somehow [the West] can go back to negotiations and prevent a nuclear Iran. But you can’t negotiate with a regime that’s a mafia. It’s madness and completely unrealistic.
I’m not saying these things just because I want them to change the regime. I mean, as an Israeli and I guess also as an American, that would be the best-case scenario. But it’s because I have yet to meet an Iranian who doesn’t want that.
Of course, it’s a difficult position to be in as an Iranian outside of Iran. Many who fled after the revolution in 1979 still have family there, so when it comes to speaking out strongly, they’re very reluctant to do so because there’s a huge price to pay.
That’s why I feel it’s almost my responsibility to speak out, because others can’t. And I want to show that the people of Israel, of all faiths and all backgrounds, are standing in solidarity with the people of Iran.
I’m very much interested in international relations and have always been vocal not only about the violation of women’s rights in Iran but human rights abuses by China and the democracy protests in Hong Kong. I also condemn Israel where I believe Israel is wrong. Obviously, I’m very disturbed by what’s happening there now [last week, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the West Bank in retribution for the killing of two Israeli brothers by a Palestinian gunman]. Both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides have this issue of extremism and it’s something Israel needs to have absolutely zero tolerance for.
To make the coalition, Benjamin Netanyahu [who was returned as Israeli Prime Minister in the late 2022 elections] has had to work with people who have racist and disgusting views that do not represent the majority of the population or the sentiment on the ground in Israel. It emboldens extremists when you have extremist voices in the government.
And that’s exactly what’s happened.
In all my time tracking and following online conversations related to political issues, the three groups that are most hated in the rhetoric on social media are LGBTQ, Jews and women. Obviously it’s great that people can have a platform and an outlet where they can express their opinions, engage with other people and be exposed to different ideas. But it’s a double-edged sword. The online climate in general, I mean, it’s the toilet bowl of humanity. And there is definitely a misogynistic element to that.
The European Union did a report on female politicians and how [attacks on social media] are actually an effort to control the narrative by silencing women, discouraging them from engaging online and from taking strong positions, especially about controversial issues. And that’s exactly right.
I’ve received a lot of threats, including death threats, rape threats, threats against my family. I’m pretty cautious about revealing where I live and where I am in real time, and have been for many years. Most of the threats aren’t credible, but when it comes to Iran, more recently, it’s been a bit more of an issue. The regime is very active, even targeting foreigners, dissidents and journalists in other countries, especially European countries and the UAE [United Arab Emirates]. So when I’ve been there, and I have in recent months, I haven’t told anyone and have been very cautious about who I meet with.
My family is mixed — half Christian, half Jewish — and religion wasn’t a huge part of my upbringing. I’m still very secular but when I moved to Israel, to do a master’s degree in political communication at Tel Aviv University, things really shifted for me.
I was born in Seattle then moved with my family to Los Angeles, but it was a strange childhood because in high school I was a [competitive] figure skater and lived in Colorado Springs away from my parents for a lot of the time, training 8-10 hours a day. Figure skating puts very high pressure on young girls and, although I was on the lower tier of the US team for a bit, I wasn’t an Olympian. So I’m a failed child prodigy.
More than anything, I would define that time as giving me a lot of independence. Almost to a fault, I’m very independent in how I think and how I approach issues and how I tackle problems, which is both a good and a bad thing. I learned individualism and self-discipline from competing in an individual sport but it’s also good to be a team player, so that’s something I’ve learned how to do.
The former England rugby star has been married to King Charles’ niece since 2011.