By Bernard Unti
 |
| iStock |
| Iran. |
Bernard Unti, senior policy adviser for Humane Society International, was recently invited to appear on Voice of America's "Roundtable With You" broadcast into Iran to discuss an official crackdown on dog ownership in that country.
“I am so worried and upset, I can’t take them out. All three dogs look at me, wanting to go outside, and I can’t take them.”
The pain in the woman’s voice was evident, although 6,000 miles separated us. She was calling from Tehran, Iran, and I was in Washington, D.C., a guest on "Roundtable With You," a Farsi-language television broadcast by the Voice of America (VOA) to an estimated nightly audience of 14 million people in Iran.
Hers was the first call during a Friday, September 28 program focusing on the harassment of pet owners in Iran's capital city. News accounts had told of authorities rounding up and confiscating dogs from their owners after religious leaders decided that pets were some kind of Western secular fetish. In a letter to Iran’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, I criticized the policy; the subsequent publicity landed me an appearance on the VOA program.
 |
| Dan Brandenburg/iStock |
| An impounded dog. |
Listening to the interpreter’s translation of the anguished woman’s call, I felt my emotions rise. “I'm sorry for your distress, and I can imagine how difficult this must be,” I said. "But your dogs rely on you to look out for them, and I'm sure you're doing what you think is best. This threat is not going to last forever.”
I had spent the initial half hour of the program talking with the host, Ahmad Baharloo, about the status of animals in Islam and the news reports that had prompted my letter. I challenged the notion that petkeeping was a materialistic, nonreligious affectation of European culture, citing archeological evidence of people being buried with their pets in ancient Iran, along with supporting passages from the Qu'ran.
My emotions continued to run high as more calls came in, some from citizens living under the policy and some from people concerned about animal suffering in other contexts. Tehran was a world away, but in most respects, it was no different from doing a call-in show from Toledo, Ohio. In two decades of animal protection work, I had done this show a hundred times...
And yet not. This show—and my whole experience in the studio that day—left me exhilarated, but distressed. These callers were animal lovers fighting a cruel and repressive religious edict. I couldn't stop thinking about the woman and her dogs, and others like them. Their story haunted me for days. I kept trying to think of additional steps we could take.
As it turned out, what we did may have been enough. Several weeks later, we received reports that Tehran authorities had backed away from the policy. Then the VOA producers called to say that sources in Iran believed that the television program had been the silver bullet.
How could we be sure it was even true? I wondered. At VOA's invitation, I went on the show again. It was another Friday, November 2. The mood was different this time—less urgent, I thought—and I felt doubtful.
Responding to the host's questions, I spoke about the broader picture for animal welfare in the Persian Gulf states. But I was really looking forward to the phone calls, hoping that someone in Tehran would call in to confirm the facts.
Someone did. It was the woman with the three dogs. The first call, again. The roundups and harassment had ended, she said, and all was well. In her voice, in her words, the basic instinct of goodness toward animals and the fundamental desire for justice for them, came through loud and clear. The ethic of kindness knows no boundaries.
She thanked me for speaking out. No, thank you, I thought to myself. Thank you.
