(Original was at https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/11w0mii/iranian_woman_beats_talibans_tyranny_using_monero/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/11w0mii/iranian_woman_beats_talibans_tyranny_using_monero/] but appears to have been deleted by reddit. Note from OP u/True-Description1674: The original title mentions “taliban” by mistake, the questions and answers from the woman are 100% real, they are referring to the way the Iranian government treats its citizens.) Hello everyone I bring you an anonymous interview from an Iranian woman who wants to tell us a little about her perspective on cryptos and how they have helped her in the midst of the growing tyranny in her country. ### 1- Tell me about your socioeconomic context and how cryptos have helped you? I have not yet got the chance to spend my crypto, and to be honest, I have been only saving to build myself a new PC. The main reason is, in fact, living in Iran, with the insane rate of inflation, it is nearly impossible for someone like to be able to afford that, independently. Besides the food inflation (standing at the sixth place in the world), electronic devices and PC parts are also priced based on the price of dollar. Meanwhile, we make money in rials–one of the most worthless currencies in the world, right now and as it gets more and more worthless every day, free-falling, and with a salary raise rate, that is not enough at all or close to the rate of inflation. On the other side, dollar only goes up (and unlike the famous saying goes, “what goes up must come down”, it has never fallen back to its previous value). So, you save and save and one day you wake up to see the prices have doubled or tripled. I think, just knowing that I own an amount of crypto has at the least helped me feel more financially secured, which is a relief. Knowing that sooner or later, I will reach my very basic goal, even though I live in a third-world in the middle east. ### 2- How did you find out about cryptocurrencies? I had heard about cryptos and tokens, maybe five or six years ago as something I could earn by doing tasks like watching ads—a way to make money during school Summer break, but that was it. I was a teen, fully caught up with art, with little to no interest in a technology, that I could not touch. So of course, I did not bother to dig any more about cryptos, until later, in 2020, when the NFT market started to blow up and I tried to read about it in more depth. In the beginning, it was quite complicated to understand all these terms, everything was totally new and from another whole planet for me. At this point, crypto was finally becoming more entangled with my profession at least, attracting me towards it, especially because I found the original notion and concept behind NFTs, pretty praiseworthy. I absolutely respected and admired the coming change, until that also got corrupted in my opinion, and people started paying absurd amounts of money for shallow pieces like the famous apes, which makes no sense to me at all! So, here I stepped back and out of NFTs, while I was still learning about cryptos, indirectly and through the conversations, me and my partner had. He specifically taught me a lot about Monero—his favorite coin, and gradually, since last year, I got to know more people through him, who helped me so much with educating myself on cryptocurrencies and more importantly, the vitality of privacy! ### 3- How did you get your first cryptocurrency? I got my first cryptocurrency through work. After an online collaboration I had as a freelance artist and was paid in Monero. ### 4- How does it make you feel to be financially independent in a context like yours? In one word: stronger. I feel more confident and the earning makes me feel that my work is actually being appreciated. Receiving Iranian rial in return for the work you do can sometimes feel like being a slave, especially when I look at the majority of our society, the working class people and white-collar employees, that are employed by the government/state. Wake up at dawn, run, bumping to people in the subway to get on that first train and arrive at your workplace on time, where you have to do something you do not even enjoy for minimum 7 hours, and only make 250 dollars a month, that covers your food, bills and maybe your rent. Going on a vacation will be a whim, and of course saving in rials is not even a rational thing to do. So, all of this makes me feel lucky and privileged, wishing that everybody soon migrates from this worthless currency to a much more valuable one–a safe and private money, that does have some respect for your human dignity. The simplest incentive is that you would at least be able to “keep up” with the inflation, save yourself from getting unjustly poorer as the titanic is sinking, granting you some peace of mind. ### 5- What are the advantages and disadvantages of cryptos? The most beautiful thing about cryptos in my opinion, the same as what the Internet did, is how the unnecessary gaps and walls made by the governments got closed. No matter the geographical distance or what goes on politically between your country and mine, we can still interact with each other. In crypto (especially with Monero), there is no PayPal-like games played, to freeze my account, block my transactions for using the word ‘Persian’ or ‘Cuban’ in the note! On the other hand, I don’t see any disadvantages really, or at least not yet! Except for the fact that the idea behind cryptos could be abused and high jacked by the governments as we can see now, through the establishment of CBDCs for instance. Believe it or not, Islamic Republic is trying to create a CBDC and the thought of it alone is like a nightmare. In such a Nineteen Eighty-Four like dictatorship, with people that are unfortunately not really educated on this matter, that is the one of the hugest threats to people’s freedom and lives. However, in a society where the people are educated and well-informed about cryptocurrencies, there would be nothing to worry about. Everyone must come to this conclusion, once and forever, that the system is not to be trusted, the majority of politicians, if not all of them, anywhere in the world are corrupt in one way or another, and they only rarely work in people’s favors. We need to separate our ways by not giving in so easily, not making ourselves dependent on them, letting them stab us in the back every once in while. ### 6- Do you consider cryptocurrencies to be some kind of anti-state mechanism? Absolutely. I believe cryptocurrencies, not the ones from the central banks of course, are an anti-state mechanism, or else the Islamic Republic wouldn’t have arrested those who were mining crypto, and the US wouldn’t have been looking forward to creating CBDC. ### 7- What is it like to have economic freedom as a woman in Iran? It was a couple years ago, that I started to notice things that I did not really paid attention to, when I was younger. I heard/read stories from women, I saw how much more fragile it makes you, when you cannot financially support yourself and stand on your own feet and be at least, partially independent. As a woman, I can see that we do need to have savings, no matter the country you live in. But it definitely becomes much more of a serious matter, if you are a woman in a country like Iran with absolutely anti-women laws, written in accordance to the 1400-year-old sharia. Women and girls in Iran are treated as second class citizens, and I am confident, that 99 percent of the laws are against women! I quote what the UN expert, Javaid Rehman has said in an article [https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/03/iran-women-and-girls-treated-second-class-citizens-reforms-urgently-needed] published on The United Nations Human Rights office’s website; “Blatant discrimination exists in Iranian law and practice that must change. In several areas of their lives, including in marriage, divorce, employment, and culture, Iranian women are either restricted or need permission from their husbands or paternal guardians, depriving them of their autonomy and human dignity. These constructs are completely unacceptable and must be reformed now.” That is the reason why economic freedom does matter even more in this part of the world. In our culture, our grandmothers used to save in gold and hid them in pillows and mattresses, some could even buy themselves properties under their own names! And they were just simple house-wives with no income from the outside, except what the husbands provided them with. [link] www [dot] ohchr [dot] org/en/press-releases/2021/03/iran-women-and-girls-treated-second-class-citizens-reforms-urgently-needed
8- Has learning about cryptocurrencies made you see injustices in the
current financial system that you hadn’t noticed before? The Islamic Republic regime, as I mentioned earlier, detected and arrested those that were mining either at home or on farms, made mining illegal, unless you have obtained the government’s official authorization for mining. What they did after, was confiscating the farms and mining crypto for themselves. But that did not surprise me much, as it is the Islamic Republic after all. But a year ago, I witnessed something, I did not really expect–an eye-opener for me to see the actual amount of authority banks have over our money and hate banks even more. The government had sent an amount of money as a welfare to the families that stand under the poverty line, and then, froze the money for a month, which translates to “do not use it, until I say so” with a pat on the back.I want to bank my own money! Another factor that makes cryptocurrencies and this technology a threat to the government, being an anti-state mechanism, is its potential and ability to crush the banks. ### 9- What you think about privacy? In the past three months, I felt living in a literal “dystopia” with all of my entity, more than ever.There is an app, called Snapp (the Iranian Uber), with an online food delivery service as well, has been exposing and giving out costumers’ information to the government for them to find and arrest those that have been actively participating in the protests. It’s so depressing to see how they have successfully taken away our “safety” by taking away our privacy first, fooling us with their lies. It’s nothing surprising from such a crime-obsessed regime, but what’s scarier is to see it happen in other countries, too. We have already thrown ourselves into their trap, but it is never too late. Privacy is vital and we need to protect it at all costs, protecting privacy is protecting ourselves.For years and years they seeded an unnecessary fear in our hearts from a group of people in the society, the poor, those that turn to stealing and other crimes, while the real dangerous monsters are outside, free and in power! Then, utilized the same fear to take away our crucial right to privacy. Not mentioning the fact that those individuals, thieves, murderers, and so on, are all the products of the system’s corruption in one way or another. So, what do you think?
Highlights
- Iranian woman wants to tell us a little about her perspective on cryptos and how they have helped her in the midst of the growing tyranny in her country.
- She had heard about cryptos about five or six years ago as something she could earn by doing tasks like watching ads.
- She got her first cryptocurrency through work and was paid in Monero.
- She says she feels more confident and the earning makes her feel that her work is actually being appreciated.
- The simple incentive is that you have some respect for your human dignity, “a safe and private money, that does some of the most valuable one–a safe one– does some more.
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