They notice that the Iranian embassy listens to messages on Instagram, hears strange voices on phone calls and is filmed at demonstrations. Iranian Dutch who speak out against the regime say they are being watched by the Iranian authorities. The NOS spoke to some about their experiences since the large-scale demonstrations began in Iran a month and a half ago.

Parisa* (name changed) lives in the Netherlands and has been talking about the situation in the country for weeks. Like many other Iranian women in the Netherlands, she posts on Instagram about the protests that began after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini.

Parisa has noticed on several occasions that her stories (messages that can only be seen briefly) were viewed from an account at the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands. She is not alone in this. “I know of dozens of Iranian Dutch people who have had their social media accounts viewed by the embassy.”

consequences for safety

When she realized that the embassy in The Hague could see her messages, she was shocked. “It is precisely when you speak out against police brutality that you get the stamp of ‘activist’ from Tehran and get on the radar. Even if you are a normal citizen in the Netherlands.” This can have consequences for passport renewal, but also for the security of family members who are still in Iran.

Parisa no longer dares to call with the “normal” phone line. “I hear beeps from phone conversations, especially when I call Iranian relatives. That’s why I no longer dare to contact them, we don’t dare to talk about it.”

According to Parisa, many Iranian Dutch people now communicate via a VPN connection or via well-encrypted chat apps. “I also pay close attention to strange emails. You are constantly afraid that spyware will get onto your cell phone and the services will be read.”

Male voice on the line

Maryam* also believes that she is being bugged. During a call, she hears echoes on the line or parts of the call are cut off. “I called a friend the other day and she noticed it too. You’re doing some really weird shit with your phone, she said.”

Another woman contacted by the NOS says that during a phone conversation with a female family member, she heard a male voice throughout the call. She also spoke out against the Iranian regime.

The Iranian Dutch suspect that they are also being monitored offline. This is happening, for example, at demonstrations like the one in Amsterdam earlier this month. About a thousand people attended. Images from the NOS show a woman wriggling through the crowd with her back to the stage. She holds her phone high above her head.

“She caught my eye out of the corner of my eye. I noticed her turning towards the stage with her phone in hand,” says Samira*. “I instinctively got the wrong feeling. I tried to hide behind protest signs with others, but she already saw us.” A volunteer at the demonstration, who asked to remain anonymous, confirms that the woman filmed faces.

According to Christopher Houtkamp of the Clingendael Institute, it is quite possible that activist Iranians are being monitored in the Netherlands. He deals with life in the diaspora and the long arm of foreign regimes in the Netherlands. “Such methods are certainly not unknown. Regimes of all sizes use this method. We know it from China and Rwanda, for example, but also from Sierra Leone and Iran.”

According to Houtkamp, ​​this is not necessarily about gathering information, but above all about intimidation. Social media is used for this, but also “offline” by filming people at demonstrations. “I’m not surprised that demonstrators feel spied on. Intimidating political opponents is an important goal of diaspora politics,” he explains.

destabilization of the regime

This applies in particular to Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, many Iranians have fled the country because of their political views. “Most of the people who have come here are opponents of the current regime,” explains Houtkamp. “Iran benefits more than many other regimes from monitoring these movements. The opposition in the West is significant, it can actually destabilize the regime in Tehran.”

Houtkamp cannot say whether there was actually espionage among the interviewees. In 2019, the AIVD confirmed that two Iranian Dutch nationals were almost certainly liquidated by the regime in 2015 and 2017, but little is known about other forms of the threat.

“Compared to other regimes that practice diaspora politics, Iran is on the highest spectrum of violence,” says Houtkamp. “But very concrete examples are not publicly available, the regime will never say anything about them,” said the researcher. “But Iran definitely has the resources and motivation to spy here.”

“Dizzyingly Scary”

Those the NOS spoke to described the actions as intimidating and frightening. They know they cannot return to Iran for the time being. They also fear for the safety of family members still living in the country, and they distrust other Dutch Iranians.

“We are afraid that the diaspora will be crushed and our families will be interrogated,” Parisa said. She calls the fact that she was probably tapped on the phone “dizzying”. “But I also feel anger. We are concerned about what is happening in Iran, where do you get the courage to keep an eye on us?”

Maryam: “I feel safe now because they won’t really do anything about a bunch of protesters in the Netherlands any time soon, they don’t have time for that. But the diaspora is standing up for friends and family in Iran and they’re clearly trying to do that to nip the seed.”

Samira, who demonstrated in Amsterdam: “I felt unsafe. I was always afraid that I would be wanted here and that something would be done to me. It took two days before I was able to sleep again.” Still, she doesn’t think about quitting. “The Iranian regime works with fear, they want to intimidate you. But I can’t sit still.”