Abtin Parsa, a statement of self-criticism & self-punishment

via Indymedia Netherlands

I hope it is not too late, but now is the time to face some issues, and take responsibility and criticize myself. Although these issues have not yet been made public, I intend to take the initiative myself and address these issues publicly. Patriarchy is a culture, we cannot change this culture only by removing people, but trying to change people (if these people are open to change) can bring about cultural change. I hope that I will be an example so that other people who are in a similar situation to me, instead of denying everything, admit their mistakes and change.

From the beginning, I have to say that I don't intend to blame the victims but I intend to take responsibility and understand my behaviors, which considered problematic. For those who aren't informed, I have been accused for rape and sexual harassment; These accusations have been made by some persons (women) who are active in the anarchist space of greece. Out of respect for the privacy of these individuals, I do not intend to go into too much detail, as I am aware that what I say may offend them further, and I don't want that. It is a patriarchal culture that always strongly denies these accusations, but I, as an anti-sexist, do not intend to. It is the behavior of the state that oppresses the victims, and I, as an anarchist, do not intend this. I want to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them again. Today I accept this very difficult responsibility and publish the accusations against myself. I want the victims and comrades to know that I remember my mistakes, and I have realized them. And I apologize to the victims.

On April 2020, I was informed by some comrades that a French woman has been claimed that she was raped by me. In the beginning I denied such a accusation, and tried to find out more information. Even I tried to meet this with this French woman again, but unfortunately it never happened, so I never heard rape accusation from this French woman by myself (I have meet this French women, and in that time she just accused me for sexist behavior). About the rape accusation all I knew was the information that I got it from comrades around of me. A few weeks after the accusation was made, I was forced to leave Greece due to the cancellation of my political asylum by the Greek regime. Fleeing me from Greece caused me to be completely get out from the anarchist space of Greece, and not being able to know enough about what was going on. I arrived in the Netherlands in July 2020, and a few months after arriving in the Netherlands, I began my political activity in the Dutch anarchist space. Although I was aware of a rape charge, I hid it from my comrades and did not tell them anything. That was a mistake, and I am ready to take responsibility for such a mistake.

As I am in danger of being extradited to Greece in the Netherlands, this has led to the publication of information about my case in the international anarchist spaces. Following the news of my extradition case in the international anarchist spaces, some people informed comrades in the Netherlands about the rape accusation on me. After Dutch comrades were informed about such a accusation, the dutch comrades invited me to a meeting on this accusation, and in this meeting I claimed that I am completely unaware of this accusation, which was not true because I was aware of this accusation. To be honest, I did not know much about the details because of what I explained at the beginning, but I knew about the accusation and I hid it. That was a mistake, I wasn't enough honest with my comrades, and I am ready to take responsibility for that. Over the past few months, many political groups and individuals have defended and supported my political activities and my extradition case. These groups and individuals had no knowledge of the truth of this accusation against me, these groups and individuals are not to blame. Therefore, no one should blame these groups and individuals. All the responsibility is with me and all is my fault.

Last month, some comrades and individuals from the Netherlands traveled to Greece to spend their summer holidays in Greece. During this trip, these comrades and individuals realized the truth of the existence of accusation against me, and heard even more accusations against me, including sexual harassment.
Intentionally I never intended to rape or sexually harass someone, for me in the sexual stuffs, always no means no. But sometimes we hurt others without understanding it, so at the moment it doesn't matter what was my intention since these victims felt it as rape and sexual harassment. I believe them and I want to be in solidarity with them as well.

As taking responsibility and having self-punishment for the accusations and my mistakes, I completely leave the political movement, and during this period of time I'll work on myself and will try to change more towards a better person; I hope the movement will give me a chance in future to be able to come back.

As a very young person, I have been changed a lot over these years, and I am still learning and changing more. I came from middle east, where the patriarchal culture dominate everything, and there is no real education about patriarchy or sexism. The differences between cultures in west and Middle East are probably a part of the reasons that I have done many mistakes in my political life in west. The life and especially the political life of a person who comes to the West at age of 18 after spending a year and a half in prison can be very, very full of mistakes. I want the movement to see the problems more rooted and cultural, than one person being targeted and blamed for everything. It is a fact that in addition to many mistakes in my political life, I have brought many achievements and struggles to the movement. I believe we shouldn't ignore all these struggles and achievements just because of the mistakes.

I am not making this issue personal and I don't intend to victimize myself, I just want to be open with my comrades who read this statement, I want to deeply express my situation; comrades, the difficult life that I had/have is consequences of struggling. If the Iranian state putted me in jail in the age of 16 for one year and half, it was because of struggling. If I had to escape Iran and leave alone my mother who is dealing with blood cancer, it was because of struggling. If the Iranian state harassed my family and still my 60 years old father is getting stop by Iranian cops; And if my sisters were horrified when in 2017 the Iranian state accused me in the national TV for terrorism, it was because of struggling. If the Greek state kept me for 8 months in the Greek Island of Somos like a prisoner, it was because of struggling. If the Greek cops tortured me and under tortures my body was broken in July 2018. And if the greek anti-terrorist cops raided my house in November 2019 and took away all my asylum papers, it was because of struggling. If the Greek state created a hard police control on all my movements, even on my personal life, it was because of struggling. If the Greek anti-terrorist cops arrested me on March 2020 for terrorism and they psychologically tortured me for hours, it was because of struggling. (According to greek newspapers) if the Greek state canceled my political asylum, it was because of struggling. If today I am not with my partner that loved her with all my existence, it is because of struggling. The Greek state took away everything from me. If right now I am under danger of extradition to Greece, it is because of struggling. If I was arrested by Dutch state, and probably will led me to face 5 years of prison in the netherlands, it is because of struggling. I can say more, more. I just want my comrades to realize that how much is difficult for me to leave the political struggling, it is probably the hardest self-punishment for myself. So I did not take it easy for myself, but let a strict militant discipline punish me.

Although the experiences are different, but I have been the victim of rape too, ones when I was 8 years old, and 3 times when I was a teenager. As queer and non-binary person, I have been a victim of patriarchal culture as well. I raised this issue so that my comrades would realize that I can understand how painful it is to be raped or sexually harassed. I can understand how patriarchal culture oppresses minorities the most. Although I do not intend to link racism, being criminalized and discriminated directly to the accusations against myself, but it is a fact that I, as a non-white immigrant, have already been criminalized and discriminated by the states and white society. in fact from the beginning that I entered Europe I was seen as an rapist, harasser, stealer and etc. Non-white immigrants are the most easy target to be accused, blamed and attacked for these cases. From my experience, the anarchist spaces in the west in general are very racist and full of privilege/bourgeoisie people. In white standards in Western political spaces, non-white comrades are greatly discriminated against. We are never enough for these white standards, and we are always on the sidelines. Even in cases of rape or sexual harassment, many white men are quickly acquitted, or their case is secretly investigated with their presence. Because they are white, and they have special powers and privileges in Western political movements. I have to say that when I was accused of rape in 2020, I wasn't invited to assembly, and no one allowed me to talk about what happened except three or four comrades, I was practically voiceless.

Probably the majority of comrades in the Greek political space are aware of my political activities, political positions and attitudes, something that has shaped my activity in the Greek political space over the years. These incidents led to political and violent clashes with some sections of the Greek anarchist space, and in fact created many individuals, political groups and positions against me and my political activity. To be clear, I have no doubt about the honesty of the victims, but I cannot believe that the individuals and political groups with whom I had political and violent clashes did not use these accusations to attack me politically and to advance their political interests. Because of the security of these individuals and groups, and the regime's failure to use my words against them, I do not intend to name these individuals or groups, or what our political differences were for, but I am sure many comrades know. For the comrades who know, I admit my mistakes in dealing with these people and groups, I made many mistakes, but we must not forget that they did not make less mistakes than I did. But I admit my political mistakes, but will they also admit their mistakes? although because of security reasons for all of us, I can't publicly make self-criticism and express myself but I want my comrades and these people/groups to know, that I understood my mistakes and made self-criticism. If I looked at things then as I do today, I would certainly behave differently, especially towards those individuals and groups with whom I had political conflicts. I apologize to these groups / individuals as well as my comrades. However, we all know that mistakes are part of learning. It is true that I made many mistakes and had problematic behaviors, but let us accept that the Greek anarchist space from feet to head is full of mistakes and is seriously problematic. Instead of blaming me for everything and using me like a toilet paper to clean your hands, face your dirty hands. I admit my mistakes, you also admit your mistakes. What is not found in Greek politics or is found very rarely is self-criticism. In fact, this is one of the main reasons for the existence of mistakes and problems of Greek political space.

Due to my political positions and activities, I currently have a lot of political responsibilities, especially the political responsibilities I have towards some groups and comrades in Greece. Since I am leaving the political movement as a self-punishment, I cannot fulfill these responsibilities. I apologize, but they are always in my thoughts and I love them and they'll be always in my heart. We will probably meet again, maybe in prisons or struggles, I still adhere to the political way and the political ideas we had, and I will never regret doing them. Surely that time I will blame myself more then for not being able to fulfill my responsibilities as I should. Maybe if I could do the responsibilities that were given to me, my comrades would not be in such a difficult situation today, and I am also to blame for your hard life, and I accept that responsibility. My irresponsibility, and not being honest enough with my comrades, dealt a heavy blow to the struggle. In some cases, it even sabotaged the struggle. Some of these things may be unforgivable, at least I can not forgive myself. Some comrades and political groups gave me everything, but I was not committed enough. It was selfish and my stupidity, I apologize for such behaviors.

Probably some comrades who have personal connections with me will put doubt on the accusations and blame the victims, which already happened. I ask those comrades to prioritize the political issues than personal connections. This is the culture of liberalism that identify everything in personal connections, we are anarchists/leftists, so we need to sometimes forget the personal connections and just take stand according to the political things. Although many comrades are disagree with me to publish such a statement because they believe it is a political suicide, but I believe the international movement (particularly those who supports me have right to know these things). Authoritarian behaviors is not just creating the state but it can be the inequality of information between the people, so we need to give information to our comrades. I ask the movement (particularly those who supports me) to give space and platform to the victims to be able express themselves freely.

More information could be expressed in this statement but since it is just a self-punishment and self-criticism statement, I decided to not mention them. I am aware that the states, fascists and enemies will use this statement but still I believe that it needed to be published.

Abtin Parsa

11 August 2021

There are 17 Comments

The French "radical" tourists are the worst despicable bunch of fucked up, two-faced hypocrites, regardless if they're Europol or not, they keep mechanically reproducing their old chauvinistic colonial behavior wherever they go, unable to open themselves to other cultures and languages, instead imposing theirs to other cultures. I never saw such shitty behavior coming from ANY other foreign ethnic group. Not even the British.

Also always laughable to see people coming from one of the most sexists and machist cultures on the planet start accusing Greek anarchists of not being up to their high standards. They should stay the fuck home with their national echo-chamber schizophrenia, and fight the patriarchy within their own.

I think there's another aspect to this though too, much of these radical tourists came to Greece to work for refugee NGOs. So yeah, the French radicals are the fucking worst BUT they are also coming to Greece to be even worse. They also typically didn't come to Greece as anarchists. The Greek anarchist movement to say anything about it was super insular in some ways due to language and they just were not prepared for these sorts of liberals to get sucked down (mainly by guilt) into the anarchist movement. There was this sort of irony, the hard line Greek @'s took toward NGOs ended up making these liberals feel guilty and thereby dribbling them down into the anarchist space. A movement unprepared for identity liberalism all of a sudden dealing with the worst of the worst of them.

As for the author of this article, I personally always liked the guy and how he annoyed the hell out of the aforementioned people. With that said I do think on some level he surrounded himself with people who were more than willing to tokenize him. If I were to offer some light criticism, that would be it. Find friends who like you for who you are. Cliche maybe.

Damning verdict at the source page.

There is no apparent "verdict" at the source page, u con person.

Then what would you call this con anon.

U deny there is a verdict, I link to the verdict.

I got no horse in this race and the author of this articles anonymous comments on the other article are quite funny but like, your long comment contains a lot of the same shit logic / assumptions / false equivalence / essentialist narrative that this "assumption of responsibility" (lol) contains.

I read through what you wrote and this again and I have yet to find what this person is actually accused of doing. You are asking for judgement without any information available. How are the readers of this fine website going to judge this man otherwise?

Someone claimed this guy raped them and they're extremely loose and vague with the details. So that means he must've raped someone because reasons? OoOoOoOoO the kafka trap has been set on by a comment on indynews. Glad to see these anarchists are the equivalent to the US justice system and think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

This thing sounds so fishy. Both Greece and the Netherlands wants this dude deported back to Iran due to his political "terrorist" activities that they have arrested & jailed him a bunch of times over it. Then magically someone claims this dude raped them A charge of rape probably is guaranteed deportation than that of a few charges of "terrorism" aka partaking in a riot. The accuser and friends don't elaborate on when and what happened, but instead start drama and appeals to emotion. Come on!

Sounds like this dude met up with some reddit and twitter anarchists/leftist and was immediately fucked over by them.

you're just demonstrating your own proclivities in the face of ignorance. why conjecture when you don't know shit?

maybe abtin got railroaded. maybe he actually did some fucked up shit. maybe both.

what would you do if you did some fucked up shit? probably more worth thinking aout.

Pardon? I was unaware an inclination towards being skeptical of claims is viewed as a negative to some people. Are you pulling the "how do you know? were you there?" It seems like you are.

Rape is a common accusation throughout history, e.g. Assange, Genghis Khan, Trump, Hitler, Attila the Hun, Stalin, Mussolini. Only a few realize that in many cases its reciprocity or payback that instigates it.

it isn't.
we can throw assertions at each other all day. all it does is demonstrate respective biases.
again, more relevant to figure out what you would do if you changed your mind about something you did that other people didn't like.

although you seem to be indicating that you would just say they were lying...

Yes, but I would believe those incidents where entirely random strangers are involved, that IS rape, however many accusations are tainted by toxic emotional relationships and dysfunctional exchange value expectations, and one garanteed way to correct imbalances in human relationships is to consummate outstanding desires,,,

Happens more than you think.

I don't think the first paragraph is the case, it being some sort of conspiracy. I messaged a few people about this after and from what I gather, the guy is definitely not so forthcoming with facts in any case. The accusations are definitely vague and not even known by people closer to the situation. So it's really impossible to know what's the actual story here and what if anything should be trusted. So basically like half of these things that have ever blown up to this level on this site.

One thing is certain, your last sentence is spot on. Apparently these are the exact types he was hanging around. Charity worker anarchists from other countries. Which from my understanding most people there stay very far away from.

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