Calla Walsh, Once Celebrated by NPR, Makes a Video Lauding the Islamic Republic of Iran

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You have no doubt heard that the Administration wants to cut funding to NPR. If you were thinking of reasons to support that move, look no further than Calla Walsh of Somerville, Massachusetts. She was celebrated a few years ago by NPR as a Model Good Citizen. Now she has visited the theocratic despotism in Tehran, and finding the place much to her liking, made a video to celebrate the Islamic Republic. More on this appalling creature can be found here: “‘It’s the Greatest Honor of My Life’: Israel-Hating American Woman Gushes Over Visit to Iran, Calls US ‘Genocidal’ After NPR Named Her ‘a Good Citizen,’” by Chuck Ross, Washington Free Beacon, July 18, 2025:

An anti-Israel activist whom NPR touted in recent years in a segment on “how to be a good citizen”—citing her campaign work on behalf of Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.)—filmed a pro-Iran propaganda video from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility this week.

Calla Walsh, a 20-year-old socialist from Massachusetts, traveled to Tehran as part of a delegation hosted by World Service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, part of a propaganda junket to portray Iran as resilient in the aftermath of the U.S. military bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities and IRGC outposts last month. Clad in a hijab, Walsh said it was “the greatest honor of my life” to visit Iran, which she said was “under genocidal siege” by the United States, and the “Zionist entity.”

“It is a great honor to be surrounded by the indigenously produced drones and missiles and military equipment that are actively resisting this genocide and this imperialism,” said Walsh.

Walsh’s propaganda tour caps off a meteoric rise in radical activism, a path spurred on by news organizations like NPR, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe, all of which have portrayed Walsh as an enthusiastic activist paving the way for young Democrats….

Walsh’s visit to Iran is perhaps her most radical step yet, and is certain to draw the attention of U.S. authorities. Walsh claimed she was detained by customs agents after returning to the United States—which she referred to as “the Great Satan”—from Cuba in May.

Fourteen others attended the propaganda trip with Walsh including American journalist YouTube personality Rezwana Akhtar Matin and Jennifer Koonings, a former nurse who generated headlines for staging a hunger strike over Gaza.

Koonings, who has hailed Hamas fighters as “brave selfless men,” donated $50 to the campaign of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, according to campaign finance records.

“The U.S. empire is the most criminal evil entity on the planet,” Koonings said in her propaganda video.

Calla Walsh will go far. I see her spending a year or two in nonstop campus protests, even though she won’t be enrolled in any college, leading chants of “Globalize the Intifada” at the top of her lungs. She’ll wangle a summer job as a journalism intern at Al Jazeera. She’ll turn 25 in 2029, and the very next year, now age-eligible, she’ll run for Congress. Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Linda Sarsour will make appearances on her behalf. Senator — formerly Mayor — Zohran Mamdani will make a television ad for her campaign. So will Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, girding her loins for a presidential race in 2032. There will be fundraising concerts by Roger Waters and Kanye West. Calla will win, of course, on a third-party ticket — the “Democratic Socialist Party.” There will be no stopping her. A movie will be made about her life and good works, too, just as soon as she is elected. I can see it now: My Name Is Calla Walsh. Sound familiar?