Rouzbeh Parsi’s critics include, among others, the Moderates’ Youth Association and Green Youth.
– For several years, he has pursued a line that favors the Iranian regime, says Green youth spokeswoman Aida Badeli.
Allegations denied by Rouzbeh Parsi.
– Iran is one of the countries that executes the most people in the world, there is torture in the prisons and it is a judicial system that is largely a parody. And that is something we agree on, he says.
“Revolutions difficult to implement”
In his role as an analyst, he has questioned the effects of far-reaching economic sanctions against the country, which he says tend to hit the citizens instead of the elite.
He has also written in Expressen that “…as so often in history, change is achieved through hard-to-digest negotiations and continuity with the old regime, rather than dreams of a reset political map”, which critics interpreted as him standing behind the Iranian regime.
– They point out that my criticism does not coincide with their positions. Revolutions are difficult to implement, and there are hopes for a revolution, but analyzing whether it can be implemented is another matter.
UI condemns
On Sunday, People and Defense chose to cancel his participation since other member organizations threatened not to appear at the conference in January.
The decision has been condemned by the Foreign Policy Institute, which believes that the criticism of Parsi is an organized campaign aimed at making him suspicious.
But the decision to port Parsi was defended by People and Defence’s board chairman Göran Arrius in Aktuellt.
– We are our member organizations and if they do not perceive that they can or want to come, we see that it is a big problem, he says.
– We do not want this situation to have arisen and we are happy to have a further discussion about cancel culture and the types of problems it brings.
But how do you see yourself risking contributing to it through this decision?
– Yes, it is of course a risk, but we think it is very important that our members come to our conference.