Since the brutal killing of Masha Amini on the hands of the morality police in Iran , hundreds and thousands of Iranians have marched and protested peacefully for a regime change. The Iranian revolution led by woman has captured the attention of the globe. They have set examples of bravery, resilience in defiance of tyrannies of the Islamic regime.
Thousands have been beaten, arrested and maimed. Over two hundred have been killed including teenagers and children. Hundreds have disappeared without a trace. There are heart wrenching images on social media of young girls covering the blinded eye artfully as they encourage others to continue the fight for freedom. Parents of the killed protesters speak bravely and passionately about the martyr of their young teenagers for freedom.
Due to the brutal and deadly response by the Islamic regime through Basij militia (special force), the defense technique of the people has gone through changes. As an Iranian born Buffalonian and an activist, I follow the report of the revolution through available social media coming directly from Iran which are decimated through various social media in Farcy and English. What appears as stagnation after an intense six months of protest and unrest nationwide in Iran is just another stage of the process to bring about democracy. I do tell this to myself every morning as I wake up searching for news about my beloved people.
After the bloodless change of power in 1979, king Reza Pahlavi forcefully but voluntarily left Iran. He was replaced by the Islamic government, disguised as a Republic. For the next 44 years to follow, people’s dissatisfaction was incubated. For over four centuries, people’s unrest with the government was suffocated by the regimes’ propaganda towards the “big enemy”, the US. People were brutally subjugated by the Anti-western religious theocracy believing that their government is defending religion, which inherently is designed to unite people against a common enemy.
The US was blamed for any and all crises which were caused by mismanagement and corruption of the government. US was blamed for influencing women asking for basic human rights such as autonomy not to wear state mandated uniform. Wearing a scarf was tied to the power of sovereignty of the people and the country! Any interpretation which did not fit into the dictatorship’s definition was labeled as foreign engineered. It carried hefty fines and jail time for the dissenting body. People were afraid to voice their support in defiance of the treatment of those who were systematically persecuted. The persecution was not focused on one group. Under the blanket of “ the enemy of the state and therefore the enemy of the religion” the narratives become stronger and Godly. Putting the religious labeling clogged minds, senses and created fear. The space for dissent, even mildly critical thinking brought jail time, death, and hardship to families. Businesses were usurp, destroyed, or closed. Graveyards of the descendants of the political conscious families were put through bulldozers. By the Islamic governments own report to the UN, there were over eighty-three million prisoners at the beginning of 2020. Based on a released book by one of the oppositions in 2019 “Crimes Against Humanity” there were mass killings of over 30,000 dissenters in 1988- buried in thirty-seven mass graves. After China Iran has the second largest political prisoners. No check and balance of the iron fist run government.
The corruption of the government and its inefficient appointee’s in managing key economic factors has resulted in drastic downfall economically and environmentally. At the time of the 1979 revolution, Iran was a developing country. It still holds 10% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 15% of its gas. It is OPEC’s second largest exporter and the world’s fourth largest oil producer. At the time of 1979 revolution Iranian currency was seven to one American dollar. Today as I am writing this, it is 56,000 times to one American dollar. Today’s Iran is in rank with countries labeled as underdeveloped.
The Islamic government continues to terrorize people locally and internationally. The avalanche of atrocities committed by Khamenei and his clan are not only within the borders of Iran. Islamic regime is the largest world sponsor of terrorism in the world. Islamic government fuels terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon to name a few. It sends assassins to kill not only Iranian dissenters outside Iran but those who openly criticize their interpretation, outside it’s borders. It was just last year that Salmon Rushdie was attacked while giving a talk at Chautauqua Institute in New York.
International criminal court must use its power to issue a warrant for Khamenei and his clan for torcher, maiming, death of families, destroying natural forest and lakes, stealing and removing millions of dollars of people’s money from Iran.
The mandatory dress code and Mahsa’s death which sparked the revolution in September 2022 continues vigorously, today. Non confirmers are denied entrance to public transportation, businesses- private and government. State- owned sector comprise of 60% of the manufacturing and financial enterprises in Iran. The media is owned and controlled by the state.
Was it all for nothing, I anxiously ask myself.
What the uprising has done this time around is the public display of unimaginable taboos: Death or down with Khamenei the dictator. Now discussions of possibilities after Khamenei are not only in people’s thoughts and hearts. They are written on the walls on the streets of Tehran and other cities. The alternatives to the corrupted regime of Islamic government are being analyzed and discussed by patriot politicians living abroad. It is being discussed by the heads of states and politicians of other countries. It is through the uprising that we learned that the The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp(IRGC) is the ideological custodian of the Iran’s 1979 revolution with members among the elite Iranian Americans living in the US.
The Islamic government of Iran will be toppled by the brave people of Iran. As an Iranian American I am hopeful and anxious to see how the people’s longing desire has mobilized the right factors outside of Iran. It is now the Iranians outside of Iran that must help those inside to go through a regime change.
A democratic government in Iran will help to stabilizes the entire Middle East. It is in the interest of the US not to continuously strengthen its military presence by spending millions of our tax dollars overseas combating terrorism caused by the Islamic government of Iran.
So next time, you ask yourself as to why an American without any ties to Iran should care about a country some 6,426 miles away from here , how about because it furthers Human Rights.
Please ask your representatives to push for resolutions which denounces the legitimacy of the dictatorship of Iran.
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