 Everybody, and thank you for joining us by zoom or by Facebook live. This is a code pink webinar to talk about the upcoming delegation citizen diplomacy piece delegation to Iran being led by code pink. And I'm Ariel gold. I'm the code pink national co director and I'm here with lay lasand who is organizing our future trips to Iran and two of the previous delegates, one of the previous co leaders of our piece delegations to Iran and we're going to talk about what it's like to travel to Iran and answer any questions of people looking to sign up. So Leila, I wanted to start by just asking you to introduce yourself a little bit. And then we will go directly to john, who only has a short amount of time to ask him what it was like to travel with us last fall to travel to Iran and I see we have a number of people joining in by zoom. And I want to encourage them if you have questions to type those questions in the box and we will answer them. So Leila, if you can just say a few words about your experience and what it's, you know, what you're hoping for as you plan this next code pink trip to Iran. Thank you for having me. Yes, my name is Leila Leila sand. I'm an Iranian American work on the area of peace and reconciliation between the United States and different countries within the Middle East most specifically Iran I have worked on the area of peace and diplomacy or track to diplomacy. And citizen diplomacy is known also as track to diplomacy. For more than a decade I started with fellowship of reconciliation and mostly focused on the interfaith dialogue and negotiations and women communications or many different areas of communications and basically resolving conflicts through a relationship and through dialogue. So we know that what we call it citizen diplomacy. It starts it's has a very young history that started in the early 80s and mostly is focused on countries that often United States doesn't have a relationship with. There is no communication politically between the track one diplomacy politicians with one another so that is the time we the people who mostly suffer from lack of communication and lack of diplomacy between the two countries. And we want to start to work around that and we want to create the peace. So I think it's very important because we two people from Iran and from the United States, we don't know each other and anything we know is through filters of our governments and mostly they introduce us to one another as the enemy. And we always have fear from one another so what is the best way to go and see and meet the enemy and see, you know their country. It is really unfortunate that many Iranian cannot come to the United States as citizen diplomats but if we have this opportunity we should use it. I have sent more than 15 delegations and more than like 300 Americans to Iran and every and each one of them came back safe and sound. So, I'm here to the end of this call and we'll be happy to answer any questions. So, I see that we have close to 30 people that are here by zoom and I see that we have some questions already about the process of attending a visa but I want to begin because john only has a limited amount of time with us. You know with a really open question to you john were you afraid to travel to Iran. And what was it like for you to make that decision and to in fact travel to Iran. Thanks. Can you hear me, Ariel. I can. Absolutely. Yeah. I was not afraid to travel to Iran but pretty much everybody around me was my family friends people said why do you want to go to Iran the usual thing that you kind of hear when you say you're going to Iran. But I personally was not concerned, although, as you know, last year between April and when we went in October, and continuing on to today, tensions were very high and there were a lot of obstacles, you know that look like they could prevent us from going. So that was a concern but I wasn't really afraid I you know I knew people who'd been from code pink and, and they told me it was great and I figured it would be. So no, you know, once, once we were on the ground as you know because you were right there beside me and the others. We had a great trip. I think maybe a lot of my family and friends who were really concerned, and even those who advise me not to go, were perhaps surprised when they heard for me, even while I was in Iran I was, you know, facetiming or whatever with them and, and speaking to them from Iran and they were just delighted to see that you know we had a good time and we had no problems at all. Great. So the first question that we have is, last year there was approximately a two month delay between when the visas were approved and when they were finally issued and whether we anticipate this kind of thing so I want to pose that as well to Amber, who traveled twice last year with code pink to Iran and was a co leader of the second delegation. And I know Amber very well personally because we're dear friends and live in the same town. And I know that she is somebody who likes things to be done. Nice and early. And that's not the way things work with visas to Iran so if you could tell us just what that process was like for you because I'll answer very quickly. Yes, it can be up to the last minute. Yeah, so today is actually the one year anniversary from when I first went to Iran today I landed in Tehran this time last year, and last year our date changed to a date we originally had not anticipated. And I literally got my visa three days before we were supposed to go. So little stress inducing but that's again how things happen you don't really know the information gets sent sent to the Pakistani embassy in Washington DC if you're coming from the United States. So we had to mail our passport there and then have it sent back if you're not in DC. More recently though when I went in October, I think we got our visas me or at least I got my visa maybe a week before week we can have I don't know it was a little bit sooner but you really can't anticipate. So limited number of days as Americans that we are allowed in the country and information has to be sent to the Pakistani embassy since there is no Iranian embassy since we don't have those diplomatic relations so if you're adventuresome and you trust the process and you're okay with things being last minute or even if you're not that's what you're going to have to deal with if you want to go to Iran. So Leila, I want to throw it to you to say because you were actually the one who obtained our visas each time last year and you'll be the one who obtains them this time. What that process is like to give people sort of a feel for it but before I do that. I want to let people know who are thinking about signing up for the trip that you can go to code pink slash Iran. And you will see the link to sign up it's a $200 deposit, and you have to also fill out an application for your visa and we recommend you do that immediately. And I want to let folks know that we have tips for fundraising. If you're looking to fundraise for your trip, and then we also have a scholarship for young activists of color. And we encourage folks to donate to that scholarship and we encourage young activists of color to apply for that so Leila if you could talk a little bit about what that visa process will look like for folks who are thinking of signing up. You're on mute Leila on mute. Yes, I'm here. My dog was here I'm making noise so I had to mute myself. Visa process. Any time that we come to that air in time of applying for the visa and go through the process I feel that I'm working for NASA, because it's very difficult. It's a very complicated process, not for you guys for people who want to apply. I think we tried our best to make this the easiest for you. So you can go online as Ariel mentioned, and fill out your application and from then on, we will go through the process and we definitely will communicate and we try our best to communicate clearly with you, and as the information we need. The difficulty that I mentioned is from our end because most of the time, as I mentioned I have worked on this, and this area for 10 years and I'm working with Iranian to issue the visa for individuals here in the United States or around the world. It's very easy to get a visa for people from other countries, but unfortunately, probably that is the reason we want to go to Iran to break this barrier. Unfortunately for Americans obtaining visa is very difficult and again is because of lack of trust. And many times happened that Iran that American want to go there, and they try to make it easy for us. For example, let me just say this, this way, I have an experience. It was a couple of years ago, we had a group of Iranian scholars to come and visit the United States. At their entrance, they had fingerprinting in the airport in the US. So, when the next time we want to send a delegation to Iran, and why we never had that experience suddenly they brought, you know, stuff to do the fingerprinting of an American delegation and I was surprised I said, what is going on, we never had this process and they said, why we sent our delegation there and American did it, you know, for our group. So it's a lot of that is tit for tat. So we should keep this in mind is not only us, you know, only lack of trust but a lot of that also they want to do something because the US government has done something to them. But also, I want to say, there are a complicated process for American because they have to go through the whole background and all the information you provide and you all know better than me that why is that because of lack of relationship between the two government or two country in the past 40 years. It is very unfortunate, but it's not in our control is not in our hand neither me nor anyone from code pink or even our host in Iran, because people who issue the visa is not any of us. Whatever we do is just providing the material they need for issuing the visa for the individuals here. And we do our best. So each one of you get your visa at least we want to have that at least a month earlier than the trip. As Amber mentioned, it happened most of the time it happened in the last minute in three days a week before the trip. Sometimes, unfortunately, I have to be really true about that that sometimes happened that the visa actually we got it just on the day for the people who wanted to travel and there were other there were other times that it was a week earlier. So I, I, and I think the code pink cannot promise anything on what day exactly the visa will issue. And the one thing that it always made me hopeful and comfortable only was because people who take this trip are really peace loving people. And they go through like john mentioned, just convincing their families and everyone is so worried in a base, you know, in the first place that why are all of these places you want to go to Iran. So because they are really committed to their mission of peace building. So what makes me to be hopeful is that people understand this and they know in this conditions in these situations. No one really, none of us, at least we don't have the power to make the change that we want in regarding of the visa offers that we want in the last minutes or in through the process. But the process is we get all your information, we send them. So the material is basically your visa application, the $200 you will send to code pink and that is for us to make sure you're coming and reserve your seat. And then your visa application, a page of your passport, the first page of your passport. And that's it for Americans that are a little more detailed they need like who was your employer employee probably 10 years ago, even if you are retired. You need to let them know that, you know, who was the people whom you work for before. And one other thing I want to mention about the $200. If for any reason, we have to cancel the trip, either for the they didn't issue the visa for you, or for some reason, you know, we decided for code pink decided, you know, there is some stuff that we cannot continue that and we have to Like the coronavirus, which somebody asked about, which is our control. Exactly. It's not on our control. We know we follow the news. We know in Iran is dealing with this problem currently. And we know they are doing their best to control it, but no one knows if they couldn't control till they want to go if we decided it's not safe for our delegate to go because of the virus. So, then we have to cancel the trip and we return your $200. We are not going to keep that. So be comfortable if you are worried about the virus or you are worried that, you know, we, you don't get the visa and you will lose your 200 no you will return it, you will, you will get it back we will return it to you. So, and we were getting a lot of questions about that about the coronavirus and so on things that are out of our control, but I want to switch a little bit and ask, you know, kind of this question of why visit Iran. And so I want to ask both john and amber. What was the most interesting, most important part of your visit to Iran. Why would you recommend this to the next people to go on this delegation, and I'll start with you john. Thanks. Okay. Um, Well, there are many reasons I mean I think obviously if you're somebody who's considering going in the first place, clearly you have an interest in Iran, and you have an interest in forging a better relationship between the US or other countries and Iran. And because there's so much isolation and there's so little contacts direct contact, especially from the US side. You have an opportunity by going with code pink, as we did, you have an opportunity to play a direct and immediate role in in being a human face being an American face or a face of whatever country you're from. You're impacting people in the country, seeing for yourself experiencing not just reading reports not just reading the news not just watching TV or whatever, experiencing it for yourself. And you have the opportunity to make that human connection which there's no substitute for that so just being there is one fascinating and incredible. And to it just, you have a you have a chance to have an immediate impact whatever you do when you're there, people are going to respond to they're going to say oh this is for example if you are American or wherever you're from though. Okay, here's my experience with john the American and this is, this is what we know. This is what I learned from that person and what you learned from them so you having a chance to have that, and there's no substitute for that so. I mean, there are many things that were valuable about that trip that we went on in October but just that human connection with everybody from the moment you wake up into the moment you go to sleep you're constantly encountering other people and there's you can't put a price tag on that. It was, it was great, I would, I would go back in the heartbeat. So Amber, you did go back in a heartbeat, but before I ask the same question on to you. I wanted to briefly acknowledge the two questions that have been asked. One is, will disabilities be accommodated. And I want to say that we do our very best, but it does depend on the disability and I want to ask you to contact. Send an email to Laila L a code pink.org. If you forget that email, you can send it to info at code pink.org. I also see somebody asking about the dates of the trip and the costs. The dates are approximately and the very details of this could change but approximately. May 25 through June four and the costs are approximately $3200 and that would include your airfare. And the reason I say approximately is that would depend on the airfare so it could go could go slightly down or slightly up. Again, you can contact Laila at code pink.org or info at code pink.org. And now Amber, I want to turn it over to you and say, what compelled you to go and then quickly sign up to to go again what was so fascinating about Iran. Sure, I think it's kind of to piggyback on what john said the fact that we, as Americans, we know very little about Iran. We, we have no diplomatic relations with Iran. There's a lot of war mongering and misinformation in our media, and a lot of people unless they're focusing back to a certain point in history, you know they don't really understand the relationship with between the United States and Iran. For Americans, you know, we, a lot of people refer back to the Iran hostage crisis, you know in the 70s and they don't understand the history of what led up to that how in 1953. In the US, the CIA led a coup of Iran's democratically elected government of Mosadeck and put the shot into power who was brutal but you know, helped with US interest and goes back to oil and all that kind of stuff but a lot of Americans do not understand that they don't understand the ramifications of where we are now. So I thought it was important to go and learn for myself I like to go places that our government may have a certain perception of that may or may not be true and witness it for myself so I can come back and tell other Americans how it really is. So yeah the first time I went this time last year the thing like john that stuck out to me were the people Iranians were very lovely very friendly hospitable. Everyone we met you know, when they found out we're Americans they love Americans they want to take their pictures with us they wanted to exchange contact information. They're very open, you know to talk with us about things even politics, you know, things about their government things about our government people were very forthcoming with us. So, you know, being able to come back and dispel those myths was really important to me. Another thing the first time we went and the second time I went one of my favorite places we went to is the Tehran Museum of Peace. The first time we went one of our delegates created this beautiful book her name's Barbara of all of the names of the passengers who died on Iran Air Flight 655, which was shot down by the United States Navy on July 3 1988. She created this lovely book with all of their names written in Farsi, also included poetry since the Iranians love poetry. We all, you know had personal messages of apology and presented this to the director of the, the Peace Museum. It was very, very moving. We were very touched because the United States had never formally apologized for doing that. At that time, the first George Bush was vice president and he said I don't care what the facts are America, we are never apologizing so we apologize on behalf of our country. And at the end the director said, I hope when you come back in the future. You come back in friendship and not to have to apologize for your government. We returned in October, and it was in friendship I felt and it was another lovely visit and you were there to RAL and you can talk about the peace museum if you want to. It was very lovely. I think we have a couple of quick questions before I totally want to talk about the peace museum. But Leila I'm going to pose this to you. Somebody is asking, they're saying that they lived in Palestine for a number of years, and would they be denied entry to Israel, Palestine. And I guess I can answer that one and say that you can get multiple passports, you are able to get a second passport and that would solve that question and that's what I would recommend for that. But then they also asked where they worry about any danger from the US government and they might also be meaning any danger from the Iranian government and I want to, you know, be very clear that I think many of us attending this call have seen things that have some of the news that has come out of Iran over the past months, including the massacre of protesters and a number of crackdowns and so Leila I want to pose that to you as a question of general safety for our delegation, keeping in mind that Iran as a government is moving to the right and we have seen some terrifying things in the past months. You are you're absolutely right. First of all, I think Ariel, you said that well about the passport so people in the United States can get multiple passports or at least two passports definitely. And if they ask why in the passport agency, you will tell them the truth that you want to travel to Israel, Palestine and to Iran. And there are many countries in the Middle East they cannot travel to Israel, Palestine with the same passport that travel to other countries within the Middle East, like Lebanon, Iran, or other places. So this is on this but also, if you are in danger from the either American government or Iranian. I don't think so. I'm an Iranian American. I traveled to Iran many times in my return here. Nothing has happened to me. And I know many of my friends, Americans who travel to Iran and came back to America nothing happened to them. It's probably very basic question that why did you travel there. And you can say the reason and nothing has happened, but the danger from Iranian government. I personally I would say no, because nothing has happened in the past more than 10 years that I've been involved in this field. And also I want to explain, not based on experience but also based on what I think about the situation. Iranian government are very, you know, harsh and right wing as Ariel mentioned or going toward more right. They are their own people. They are not good government to their own people. And for many reasons we can talk about it for hours and hours that what caused that why is the reason or what has happened or all of those things and we can discuss this later but they are not harmed besides hostage crisis, but they never have had harm any foreigner in their own land in inside Iran. And if they issue you a visa that means you are free to go there and you are safe when you get there. Hopefully when you decide to go to the trip I can share with you a couple of documentaries or a couple of experience of other people that people even got sick in Iran and they were been taken care of by the Iranian hospitals and doctors without even paying a, you know, penny for that. So we have a wonderful humane experiences and stories that we can share with you. But also I don't think, another reason that I think it makes a good sense is Iranians don't, Iranian government don't want to get engaged in a war with any other nations or any other countries. And they know well if they harm any Americans or any person from other nations for no reason they can be in danger themselves. So that could be another reason. But as I said again, yes in demonstrations or in uprisings or whatever we want to name it in last November that many people also lost their lives. Many Iranians. So often they are harmful to their own people, unfortunately, the people who are also we shouldn't forget they are suffering because of sanctions because of threat of wars, and they are dealing with a very, very difficult time and also the government have ultimate pressure on them. So the short answer to your question is no, you shouldn't be worried that you will be harmed by the Iranian government or people there. If they don't want you they don't issue a visa for you. Having traveled there twice, I felt very safe, more safe and I've been to several countries in the Middle East, I felt safer in Iran than I did any other country in the Middle East, and even safer than the United States to be completely honest with you. You know there's a very low crime rate and crime against foreigners is even lower. Exactly. Sorry, I just want to mention this little thing that some people, especially people who are Jew, and they are Jewish, they are always worried that because we hear it from the Western media that Jewish people are not safe over there and so Ariel is Jewish I know that. Yeah, and you are Jewish so there are many people and I actually I am aware and I lead a delegation of rabbis to Iran, and we had an interfaith wonderful interfaith conversation with clergy is in Iran. So don't worry if you are Jewish. So I want to pass it over to john and I'm Jewish as well. But john what was it like for you as as a Jew to be in Iran and we hear a lot about anti semitism in Iran and anti semitism exists everywhere but so I want to ask you your experience. Right, as a Jew. And as you know because we were there together, there were four of us in our delegation of 12 people, four of us were Jews. And as you recall the first thing we did on the first day was go to school. We went to a synagogue, and we were there during Sukkot, and we do people treated us the way they would treat anybody they were fine to. We never felt anything that even remotely resembled anti semitism. People are just very open we. I'm Jewish I'm Muslim hey that was it it was there was nothing that made me feel like I need to hide this or, or people treated us any differently and I think there's kind of a, a misperception that some of the real rhetoric that we see, and some of that the anger which is, you could say it's, it's real, there's anger, political anger against the state of Israel against the government that does not transfer over to whether it's an American Jew or just a Jew from any country, at least not that I experienced what we were there and, as you know, this is a topic religion that it came up on a number of occasions and a number of different settings and it was just something we discussed and it wasn't a problem and it was nothing I felt I had to hide in any way whatsoever. The people as amber said and as you would say, the people were incredible they were incredibly welcoming. And even more so they were so surprised when we told them we were Americans because, as you recall we did not see any other Americans except for a few Iranian American people who are visiting like Leila. But when they saw Americans, they were just, they were, they said thank you for coming. Thank you for coming and visiting. Welcome. So, that's all I really have to add there. And I want to point out that on that delegation and as you said there were 12 of us. There were 12 people who applied for their visas and in that case and this isn't always the case. But in that case, all 12 of us had our visas approved and so I just want to assure people that well there certainly isn't a guarantee. Iran is not the most easy country to travel to. I want to remind folks that it's most likely that you will get your visa. And so I want to encourage folks to go to code pink.org slash Iran and at the top of the page you will see the link for the delegation to go ahead and pay your $200 deposit and fill out and please fill out immediately your visa application. I see we have another question. So it says somebody is asking so far it seems that anti Iranian sentiment is everywhere, especially in the West and here from folks who should know better than be brainwashed by Western media so I want to pose this. I think to Laila in this case and Laila I know that I've heard from you recently, the type of Islamophobia that you experienced when you first immigrated to the US, and how it's important to show Iranians who Americans are, and to come back and as Americans, and tell the stories of who Iranians are. Yes. This actually I think is the most to me is the most important part of your trip. And that is when you are coming back here at home and deliver the message that, you know, who did you meet, what did they say. And also our mission as a citizen diplomats our mission starts when we get back here at home and make the change we want you know show our photos to our community and go and talk to our representative. And if there is any, anything happening by our senators whatever representatives support them in making the peace, and also when you are there that is very important to take your photos you know I always encourage people take your family photos your wedding photos. And because we people we two people of Iran and the United States. The first thing we think about one another we don't see each other as regular or normal people, because already our government dehumanize us already we see an evil from one another but when we see each other in person we know that we share a lot a lot with one another. And I encourage you to take your photos family photos you talk about your stories your school days your whatever that you you will also see a lot of Iranians will share them with you. So that is our mission and also it makes it much easier for people after us to for the next generation for people who are much younger than us because for me as Ariel mentioned, when I came to this country I was very surprised. That people ask questions that at first I thought they are joking, but then I found out no it's real. They are really asking those questions. And it was the same when I came to this country. I came here and I was very fearful that what I'm going to see because America was very scary. And people were very scary, but little by little I learned everything I've heard was not true. And everything I've heard it was based on the dehumanization process that our government here in the United States and there in Iran they wanted us to hate one another. So these trips are very important. And so I believe not only you will see the 5000 years of history when you go to Iran. Not only you see the thousands of years you will taste the thousands of years of cuisine. And not only you will see variety of people like you will see dark and light people you will see people with very different accents we will see people from, you know, Arab Iranian, Turkish Iranian, Kurdish Iranian, you will see many different groups of people. And besides all of these beauties, you will see that they are as normal as us here. And they have the same dreams and the same aspirations as we have here, which is the most important reason we encourage you to go to this place. And hopefully in your return, you will do more because you have the first hand experience and you can do more and building the peace and reconciliation between these two nations, basically two governments, because nations already we really don't have that much problem with one another. So we're coming up on 45 minutes time really flies and I want to thank everybody for their questions. There are more questions, somebody asking about their recent elections in Iran and I want to encourage folks to direct those questions to Layla that's leila at code pink dot org if you have specific questions for john or amber, or myself about what it was like to travel to Iran. You can ask leila to connect you and I am sure that john and amber and I know myself are happy to answer any questions. So, before we end this webinar. I want to remind folks that you can apply to go on the delegation at code pink.org slash Iran. We do have partial scholarships available for young activists of color and you can also donate to these scholarship funds and the deadline to apply to participate in the delegation is March 14. So before we end I would like to ask, we'll start with you amber and then you john. Last words on why people should be encouraged to go to Iran, and then Leila will will finish with you. I think you should go to Iran to learn and meet the P learn about the country and meet the people for yourself and as Leila described to come back and be really be citizen ambassadors of what you learned. You can talk to your local press write articles do talks. You know contact your local your politicians you know there's so much that you can do upon returning that can hopefully gear us towards a real piece. Thank you john final thoughts. Sure. Yeah, I would second that there, as I said earlier there's, there's no substitute for going there by yourself or with the group and and seeing for yourself. What Iran is like, and for making those connections with people, and you'll probably find that you'll be, you'll come back with a very different impression of what you might have had beforehand. And it's really valuable for people, not only in Iran to experience contact with Americans or people from other countries who normally wouldn't go. It's great for you to come back and to be able to share those experiences as Amber said, with other people, you just can't, there's no substitute so it's, it's amazing it's fun it's enlightening it's, it'll open your eyes, and go, if you're thinking of going, go, if you can go, go. So I see Mara saying that she hopes she can come though she's recovering from a recent hip surgery and I want to remind folks. I think I typed this in earlier that many such situations can be accommodated. But please contact Leila, that's leila at code pink.org with specific questions and Leila final thoughts as the organizer of code pinks citizen diplomat peace delegations to Iran before we close. I think Amber and john said it well. Thank you very much. And I'm looking forward to a day that we won't need a visa, and we won't really need all of these fears or all of these questions we can just hand in hand, dance and sing with the people of Iran and people of America and everywhere people from everywhere. And I think it is really important to take action these days. It is really important for ourselves and for people over there, 80 million people who are suffering from crippling sanctions, and whom every day wake up with the thinking that maybe today is the day the bombs will, you know, drop on us, and people who have lost their hope, somehow, and we need to meet them in person, we need to hold their hands and remind them they are not alone. And we also to to ourselves that we are not alone in this world and we have each other and we are going to be successful in the path that we have in front of us and that is only peace and reconciliation with others. Thank you so much everyone for joining us a special thanks to Amber and john previous delegates and co leaders of code pink delegations to Iran. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for showing you the beauty and hospitality of Iran and helping lead you to become a citizen diplomat for peace with Iran.