Actor Mandana Karimi has responded to critics accusing her of normalizing Iran oppression by sharing her personal struggles and the cost of speaking out against the ongoing US-Iran conflict. Born in Iran, Mandana has been open about her concern with the war, sharing posts about it on her Instagram account.
In a new video post, Mandana directly replied to critics who accused her of flaunting her new lifestyle and of no longer posting about the war. She explained that she has been learning to live again while continuing to carry Iran in her heart, but that she cannot measure her activism by how much she has suffered publicly.
Mandana emphasized that sometimes fighting means speaking, sometimes fighting means surviving, and sometimes fighting means allowing oneself to heal. She added that just because she is posting about her workouts and friends does not mean she has forgotten her people or Iran.
In the caption, Mandana penned a note, stating that she has paid a price for speaking up, losing opportunities and work, and carrying the weight of a nation's pain publicly. She urged people not to mistake her healing for silence, survival for indifference, or joy for forgetting.
Mandana concluded by saying that she is not normalizing oppression, but rather normalizing life after trauma, survival, and getting up after being broken. She emphasized that the strongest thing she can do for herself and her people is to stay alive, stay visible, stay healthy, and keep moving forward.
