We’re pleased to introduce “Speaking Out of Place,” Professor David Palumbo-Liu’s new podcast, which carries on the spirit of his book of the same title, argues against the notion that we are voiceless and powerless, and that we need politicians and pundits and experts to speak for us.
In this episode, Palumbo-Liu is in conversation with scholar, activist, and poet Dr. Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University. Karim provides indispensable background information reaching back to 1979, explains the long history of gender apartheid in Iran and why today there has been an explosion of mass protests led by young women joined by tens of thousands of others, including rappers, educators, human rights workers, ethnic minorities, artists, children, and others. She also explains the tremendous gaps in Western media coverage and fills in missing information. She ends with a reading from her own poetry, and a plea to link these protests to all protests against authoritarian regimes.