37 wonderful people have given £1,790 to make our taboo-breaking, free-thinking TV magazine a reality. The donation that has pleased us the most so far is the £1 given by an Iranian asylum seeker who couldn’t afford more but we’re also very excited about every other donation up to £500! Thank you!

But here’s our problem. There are only 69 hours left to support Bread and Roses before our fundraising campaign comes to an end and we still need £8,210! Well, we actually only need £7,210 as the lovely Muriel Seltman has sent us a cheque for £1000. (Did I say only £7,210?!)

As you know, the weekly programme will be broadcast via New Channel TV to Iran and the region. People will receive it via “illegal” satellites like the ones pictured on the left being destroyed by tanks courtesy of the Iranian regime.

Bread and Roses – in Persian and English to begin with – will deal with everything from Sharia law, the veil, sex segregation, religious education, theocracy, Islamism, class divisions and racism to secularism, humanism, gender equality, ethics without religion, atheism, ex-Muslims, citizenship rights and universal values…

A programme likes our represents a real “danger” to the regime of Iran, Islamism and brutality in general, and is much needed for people in Iran and elsewhere. Many of the very same issues we will raise are contested right here in Europe and need coverage like ours. Bread and Roses will be available on the internet and via social media for those without satellite dishes.

To be able to begin the programme, though, we need two more cameras and microphones as well as extra lighting as the New Channel studio in London does not have all that we need. We have tried to tape a programme and found it impossible without the added equipment so do help us if you can. Once we raise the money and buy the equipment, we can go ahead immediately as:

We have already cleaned our section of the studio:

Gone shopping for our “stage” at IKEA using our credit cards:

Set up our studio (by the way, the TV in the corner doesn’t work)!

Taken our technical wizard Reza Moradi to the studio to give us a final list of the minimum we need:

Warmed our seats and practised our first programme a few hundred times:

But we can’t do anything more until we get the equipment, so if you can spare some change and can do it within the next 60 plus hours, help us out. You won’t regret it.

We will thank you publicly for your support and also give you some other goodies like posters and lunches as well as raise any issues you want raised if you help. You can find out more about these on our Indiegogo site.

Also please like our Facebook Page.

And feel free to think of other ways to raise funds for us. Sahra Bahar is organising a small concert for her friends and acquaintances to help us raise money for the programme.

Any amount will help. And once you help you can say you were part of an important development in the fight against reaction and for rationalism and free thought.

Thanks.