The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Those so called liberals and progressives who constantly treat Israel as the villain in the travails of the Middle East should go to see this film. Most people find the title perplexing, but it is actually very apposite, referring as it does to a species of fig that spreads by wrapping itself around another tree, and eventually strangling it. This clearly represents the manner in which, when the Shah was overthrown, the theocratic regime which took power strangled the possibly democratic future which could have been Iran's, creating an essentially fascist state, based upon Islamic fundamentalism.

Although the story line focuses on the corruption, and eventual disintegration of a single family, the wider picture is of the rebellion by young people, especially women, against the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs, and the subsequent violent crushing of dissent by the forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an organisation which, to its shame, the UK government has so far failed to proscribe.

It shows how mother of the family at first welcomes her husband's promotion as a step towards a better life, and he expects greater things, but, when it is made clear to him that he will be expected to recommend death sentences be carried out on innocent people, both begin to have doubts. Nevertheless, trapped in a fascist state, they make accommodations with their consciences, until the disappearance of his officially issued gun places him in a perilous position.

The Iranian regime is essentially fascist, where anyone who dares to challenge the power of the theocracy is routinely executed, where women are treated as second class citizens, those who are not heterosexual risk a similar fate, and, under Iranian law, apostasy from Islam is also punishable by death, while atheists and agnostics are officially unrecognised by the government.

Although Iran is not an Arab nation, the clerics who rule are obsessed with achieving with the destruction of Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East, and an ally of the UK, and the USA.

Those in the West who believe every lie uttered by the terrorists of Hamas, sponsored by Iran, include many who are themselves female, or gay, are incapable of comprehending that, in a nation dominated by the Ayatollahs, they would themselves be in grave danger of either total subservience, or death. The bearded bigots who run Iran preach a version of Islam which permits no compromise, and which ensures that democratic values will not be tolerated.

The reality of Iran, as shown in the film, puts into proportion the pathetic, nonsensical whining of many in Western nations, such as those who complain that their favoured pronouns have been ignored, and makes clear that the Iranian people are being denied a bright future by what are, at bottom, mediaevalists.

As a result of their performance three of the actresses, who portray the mother, her eldest daughter, and an innocent friend shot by the republican guard, have been forced to flee Iran since the release of the film.

The media, in particular the BBC, continues to ignore these facts in favour of one sided, anti Israeli, reporting on the situation in the Middle East.