NOURNEWS - “E-Bay has taken Iranophobia and racism towards Iranians to a new level.” Moving cities and taking care of the used and unmovable items is a difficult enough task on its own without being racially profiled for it. Unfortunately, for British-Iranian sellers on eBay, it’s both or neither. “I posted an advert to sell a Persian (styled) carpet on eBay and I was met with this warning message from eBay. It blocked my advert and did not allow me to post an advert to sell my Persian carpet,” says a frustrated British-Iranian resident of Kent, Gillingham. Though the carpet he was trying to sell wasn’t necessarily a produce of Iran, it couldn’t pass through the site’s filters for having the word “Persian” in it. The buy-and-sell website’s Embargoed Goods Policy prohibits the sale and purchase of goods from Iran, recording that “sellers can’t list embargoed goods or pre-embargoed goods from these countries or regions,” going on to provide a list of five countries and regions which Iran is a part of. As soon as he listed his carpet as “Persian,” the site came up with an error message, prompting that “[l]istings for these items are no longer allowed under eBay’s Embargoed Goods Policy,” providing a link to access a page that outlined their policies. This error came as a surprise, especially when the carpet was not an Iranian import, rather only a Persian-styled British product. Photo 1: eBay gives an error message when the word “Persian” is entered in the listing section “My wife and I regularly sell on different sites like eBay and gumtree. Recently for our house move we actually managed to sell plenty of our unwanted furniture,” he added, explaining that it was not his first time using the buy-and-sell website. “The only conclusion one can draw from this is that eBay is racially profiling sellers, and is preventing sales not based on the geographical region but in fact based solely on race, and in this case it has prohibited a “Persian” style rug from being traded.” This was especially frustrating for him as it is normal to see Persian-styled products being bought and sold all around the UK, except in the cases where it came from Iran and might carry the chance to benefit the Iranian economy in any way. “This is all while even IKEA’s stores based in the U.K. sell “Persian Rugs” with no problem whatsoever,” he added. Photo 2: IKEA’s website displays ‘Persian Rugs’ for sale When faced with the idea that the considered profiling might have come from fears of accidentally selling goods from sanctioned countries that might result in problems for the site itself, he said that he thought it was unjustified. “Firstly, I believe any kind of “profiling” of civilians based on ethnicity or region is absolutely discriminatory, and amounts to blatant racism, so justifying such a thing with fear or anything else is irrelevant. It is the same as a police officer in the US saying ‘I am afraid of other police officers so I have no choice but to be racist against black people!’” Discussing the sanctions targeting the Iranian economy, he said that “there has been hundreds of academic research carried out on the effects and unwanted consequences of sanctions, and almost every scientific and academic research has suggested that not only are sanctions ineffective in achieving political goals, but they also create humanitarian crises which only affects civilians…” Adding to that, he mentioned: “One of the most significant and inhumane impact of sanctions on the Iranians living inside iran, including my own mother who has cancer, is lack of humanitarian products and medicines, and being deprived of crucial medical supplies. In addition, the impact of the weakened currency and economic downturn caused by sanctions on ordinary Iranians is so severe that the middle class and poor segments of the society are living in very difficult and dire conditions. “As a donor of Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, I am distraught and saddened when I receive letters and emails from the orphans under my sponsorship who tell me about their siblings’ sufferings because of the worsening economy, inflation and unemployment. We are indeed witnessing a humanitarian crisis within Iran’s impoverished segment of society and this has been caused directly through the criminal actions of the atrocious US administration.” As much as he finds the US administration and the sanctions guilty of humanitarian crises in Iran, he doesn’t have high hopes with the current Iranian administration either. “And that is why the current Iranian government led by Rouhani and Zarif need to stop having false hopes towards US and its western allies, and instead of relying on outside, perhaps they should rely on their own. Perhaps they can enhance domestic production, and implement the already existing “resistant economy” manifesto that has been thoroughly endorsed by experts and approved. “Unfortunately what we are witnessing in Iran, especially from outside, is that the US seems to be running the Iranian government, and yes as surprising as this might sound, it is evident that every objective the US and the West ever wished for regarding Iran has been already implemented during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani and his administration. From a near-collapsing economy, to limited defense capabilities, infiltration in all infrastructures, and most importantly the destruction of Iranian pride, and Iranian resistance through the assassination of General Soleimani. All these were achieved successfully by the US under the nose of the Rouhani administration. You don’t have [to] be a rocket scientist to see this.” When asked if he complained to eBay regarding his concerns, he said he didn’t as the experience that came with being a British-Iranian had taught him about the futility of it. “It is simply not worth our time and energy, and I was not at all optimistic about getting any results through submitting any complaint to eBay, because through experience we know that they will only just refer us back to their “policy” and do nothing about it. Besides, we managed to sell our stuff in other similar sites like gumtree anyway.”
*Huda Z is an independent journalist contributing to multiple online and offline platforms. She tweets at @whothezee.
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