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From Nationwide Uprisings to Drone Wars, Iran’s Regime Is Sinking

Mehdi Hosseini
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From Nationwide Uprisings to Drone Wars, Iran’s Regime Is Sinking

The protests in Iran continue with undiminished force. Despite hundreds of arrests and ups and downs, rallies are taking place daily across the country. According to activists and the regime’s opposition, at least 400 people including 23 children have been killed during the protests, according to activists.

Most of the demonstrators who have been arrested have not yet been entitled to lawyers. Not even their families are informed about the whereabouts of those arrested.

During the anti-government protests, demonstrators are increasingly painting graffiti on the city’s walls, which are slogans against the regime. In several districts of the capital Tehran and other cities, inscriptions such as ‘Death to the dictator’ could be read on the walls in the past few days.

In addition, the people attacked many of the regime’s headquarters with Molotov cocktails which are used for their repression. This all started when a young girl named Jina Mahsa Amini died due to police violence. Since then, thousands of people in Iran have been protesting the regime’s medieval values ​​and laws.

The protests have since spread internationally. In all major countries around the world, people are taking to the streets to draw attention to human rights violations in Iran.

But this is not the only issue about the Iranian regime that has raised global attention in the past few weeks. Caught in the middle of its internal crisis, the regime has decided to support the Russian army with kamikaze drones which are now used against Ukraine’s cities and its defenseless citizens.

There had been reports as early as mid-July that Iran was preparing a mass delivery of drones to Russia. US President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, publicly stated that their information shows that the Iranian regime is preparing to quickly deploy several hundred unmanned aerial vehicles.

This is not something that we should be surprised about due to the regime’s nature of support for global terrorism. Because in international relations this regime does not belong to the peace camp. Its interference over the past four decades has brought misery and war to many countries in the Middle East.

According to media reports, Iran also wants to export missiles to Russia soon. Experts see the first use of Iranian combat drones outside the Middle East as a radicalization of Iranian politics.

Tehran’s opponents in the region know the danger. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have used Iranian drones to attack Saudi oil facilities and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in recent years. US troops in Syria were also attacked with Iranian drones.

And as usual, the regime in Tehran denies all its malign activities, it is also denying supplying such weapons to Russia. But the debris from the drones shot down in Ukraine is difficult to deny. And footage on social media confirms the suspicion that Tehran is not telling the truth and the comments of the spokesman of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday are an outright lie and the EU doesn’t believe in Iran either.

According to media reports, the Ukrainian military said that soldiers of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards were stationed on the Russian side of the front in eastern and southern Ukraine as instructors or drone pilots.

They are so-called kamikaze drones of the Iranian regime called Shahed-136. These weapon systems can carry explosive charges weighing up to 60 kilograms at a range of up to 2,500 kilometers. They work via GPS and can fly unmanned to any programmed target if it does not move.

Most of these drones are produced in Iran, but recently also in Tajikistan. On May 17, the regime opened a drone factory in this country.

The situation is politically particularly sensitive as the regime itself is currently grappling with domestic unrest. EU officials also conclude that if the Ukrainian information is correct and that Iran’s regime is supplying arms to Russia, sanctions will be unavoidable.

On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, according to Politico, EU ambassadors agreed on new sanctions against Iran over their arms sales to Russia.

As early as April, just under seven weeks after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the British ‘Guardian’ reported that the Iranian regime was smuggling ammunition and weapons to Russia, including mobile anti-tank weapons, anti-tank missiles, and Brazilian rocket launchers.

Iran: Security, a Gamble in Which Khamenei Lost

Pooya Stone
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Iran: Security, a Gamble in Which Khamenei Lost

Iran’s regime’s major authorities try to make gestures that the dust of the recent protests had settled, especially after its supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his latest speech gave a warning to the Iranian people, against continuing the protests.

Following Khamenei’s warning, they prematurely started to congratulate each other on defeating the people and quelling the protests.

They wanted to show that they were facing just a few emotional and excited youths, influenced by computer games, that are burning some trash cans on the street and wanted the regime’s supporters to believe that there is no need to mind about the regime’s security and soon the protests would finish.

In a ridiculous claim, Khamenei’s mouthpiece Hossein Shariatmadari, the chief editor of the Kayhan daily, said, “To see the reality, just put your smartphone aside, go outside and enjoy walking down the street in the real world with the security that the Islamic Republic has created for you in one of the most insecure areas of the world and see that there is nothing special outside.”

But the people by continuing the protests at a new level of confronting the regime’s forces have broken Khamenei’s bullying.

As a result, and in fear, many of the low-ranked officials utter that these protests are completely different from the past that took place in 2009, 2018, and 2020. They are difficult to quell, will persist, and are getting organized by groups of fearless defiant youths. Even now some of them realized that what they are facing now is a revolution, facing many losses on the regime’s side something that did not happen in the past.

They are warning the sovereignty that its security is bound to a narrow string and in close time, this string will tear up if they do consider the people’s demands as soon as possible. And the last thing that is preventing some people from participating in the protests is their fear about the costs of the protests, but such factors are not perdurable and will lose their effect very soon.

The state-run daily Bahar in their October 9 publication, wrote, “A very important point that should be noted is that the extent of dissatisfaction and anger should not be limited to the number of people who participate in the protests.”

It added, “These are a very small percentage of the total number of people who are angry. Many do not consider the protest to be effective for several reasons, so they do not participate. Or the next important factor that prevents some of the people to participate in the protests is their ‘fear of the costs of the protests.’

Bahar concluded, “These factors are now playing a role, but they are not predictable, and someday maybe they will lose their effect and much bigger protests will be created.”

In another article, the same daily criticized the government, writing in irony that, “A hard winter was supposed to come for Europe. But hard autumn has arrived for us sooner.”

It further added, “Surveys, ethnographies, and analyses showed that the accumulated anger and patience of the people was bound to a strand of hair. And we saw that with the tearing up of this strand of hair how the stability was broken, and a crisis was created. I appreciate the word of anyone who says that the situation is fine, and nothing happened.”

The Bahar daily also stated, “Society is strangely polarized. The number of opponents is high. Even if it is not visible on the streets and this is dangerous for the structure.”

Such remarks are not just limited to some outlets. As the uprising is entering its fourth week, warnings and concerns are expressed by many others.

Emad Afrough Ostad, a former MP, warned the regime, saying, “The official power thinks that if they pay attention to these protests and these words, it will be considered a kind of retreat. Which retreat? A system that does not pay attention to change, does not pay attention to social and civil power and their demands, is doomed to failure. No problem will be solved with the internet outage.”

Mohammad Sarafraz, the former head of the regime’s Radio and Television, wrote in a tweet, “They have created an enemy called cyberspace and you are blaming it for their mistakes and inefficiencies.”

The Jamaran website stated, “Young people feel humiliated. The solution to these issues is not violence and cutting off the Internet. Provide conditions for peaceful protests and demonstrations.

“The incident that happened with the death of Mrs. Mahsa Amini was a spark because of the accumulation of discomforts, difficulties, and demands that people, especially young people, and women, had. What has caused chaos in this city is the way of governance in the last one or two decades, during which the people have been neglected.”

Plight of Teenage Activists in Iran Is Worse Than Reported by Human Rights Groups

Sia Rajabi
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Plight of Teenage Activists in Iran Is Worse Than Reported by Human Rights Groups

On Thursday, Amnesty International issued a report on Iran’s ongoing protests, which indicated that at least 23 minors have been killed in the clerical regime’s crackdown on nationwide dissent. The report noted that this comprises 16 percent of the 144 fatalities the human rights organization has confirmed so far. But Amnesty also acknowledged that a lack of reliable access to information from Iran makes it all but certain that the real death toll, among both adults and children, is significantly higher.

Since the current uprising began roughly one month ago, Iranian authorities have made concerted efforts to limit civilian access to the internet and thus impede both organizing efforts and the dissemination of eyewitness accounts, photographs, and videos of the unrest and associated crackdowns. However, these efforts have been countered by dramatic increases in the use of virtual private networks and other technical workarounds for the government-imposed restrictions. Furthermore, information continues to be collected and shared by the leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

The PMOI’s own reports on the present situation indicate that the death toll after one month of continuous unrest is approximately 400, more than twice the figures reported by Amnesty International and other human rights groups. The PMOI’s parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, noted that there are “dozens” of juveniles among the deceased. “Their pictures, with their innocent faces, circulate over social media, reflecting the pain the regime has inflicted on Iranians,” the coalition wrote on its website.

The NCRI also indicated that the death toll among minors had already reached double digits on September 30, a date remembered by growing numbers of Iranian citizens and activists as “Bloody Friday.” On that day, agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, killing as many as 90. Authorities have publicly mischaracterized that incident as clashes between the IRGC and ethnic separatist groups, but videos and eyewitness accounts from the protests confirm that they were part of the same nationwide uprising as has now encompassed more than 170 cities and towns.

The mass shooting on Bloody Friday reflects a comparatively high death toll among the Baluch ethnic minority in other contexts. Amidst a spike in death sentences over the past year, that demographic has accounted for more than 20 percent of all executions despite being no more than five percent of the national population. At the same time, the apparently deliberate killing of juveniles in Zahedan is consistent with the Iranian regime’s status as one of the last countries on Earth to routinely carry out death sentences for persons under the age of 18, in direct defiance of international law.

The comparatively high proportion of deaths among juveniles on Bloody Friday is also indicative of the prominent youth presence in the current protests more generally. This feature has become especially apparent in the first two weeks of October, following the start of the Iranian school year. That milestone saw the expansion of preexisting uprising not only to all 45 major Iranian universities but also to girls’ high schools, where young women have recorded themselves removing their mandatory head coverings, defacing, or denouncing the images of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that are on display in all classrooms, and even chanting the uprising’s slogans to drive away government officials and militants who had been dispatched to counter their activism.

However, it has been reported more recently that the authorities have taken stronger actions to silence student dissent, such as by dispatching security forces to raid schools. This would be alarming under any circumstances but is made more so by the fact that so many teenagers have already been killed by those same security forces, some of them in raids on private homes.

The NCRI highlighted the case of Nima Shafaghdoust, a 16-year-old boy who was wounded during protests in Urmia but escaped to his home, only to be attacked there by security forces and taken away to an undisclosed location where he died. His disappearance for several days was reminiscent of the cases of two 16-year-old girls whose names and faces have become galvanizing symbols of the regime’s abuses, alongside those of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death at the hands of Tehran’s “morality police” sparked the uprising around the time of her funeral on September 17.

Images of Amini, Nika Shakarami, and Sarina Esmailzadeh all appeared on screen when a state media broadcast was interrupted by activists earlier in October to appeal for even greater participation in the nationwide protests. Shakarami and Esmailzadeh each informed loved ones that they were being chased by security forces before disappearing, and turned up dead days later.

Authorities have claimed that both deaths were caused by either accidental falls or suicide, and they have pressured both girls’ families to corroborate their stories, even in cases where they have already directly attributed the deaths to targeted blows to the girls’ heads, almost certainly delivered by security forces. In the case of Shakarami, authorities even reclaimed control over her body after returning it to the family to bury it secretly in hopes of avoiding public expressions of outrage at her funeral, as had occurred with Mahsa Amini.

Tehran presumably hopes to limit international awareness of such killings, but the international community has appeared more invested in the current uprising than others. Nevertheless, groups like the NCRI have still expressed frustration with a lack of concrete support or public statements affirming the rights of Iranians to revolt against the regime responsible for such abuses. “Anything less,” the coalition wrote, “would only enable the regime to continue with its killing spree of innocent people, and more importantly, children, who are yearning to change their future.”

Iran’s People: “Do Not Call It a Protest, It Is a Revolution”

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran’s People: “Do Not Call It a Protest, It Is a Revolution”

The nationwide uprising in Iran sparked by the September 16th death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman marks a watershed in the history of the Iranian people’s struggle against the totalitarian regime ruling Iran.

The protests entered their 25th day today as people from all walks of life in 177 cities in all 31 provinces have risen such that at no time during the past four decades have the prospects for a revolution been within reach as it is today.

One must be mindful that this regime is distinctive from any other dictatorship worldwide. These include religion and political repression at home and the export of terrorism, or in the regime’s lexicon, ‘the export of its revolution’.

Misogyny is the nexus between these two characteristics, with which the regime suppresses the entire nation.

As such, to topple this theocratic and totalitarian regime, the Iranian people must devise and formulate tactics that are suitable for successfully and effectively confronting the regime.

Scattered and spontaneous protests, even large ones like the protests in 2009 and 2018, would not ultimately lead to the regime’s downfall. And unlike the Shah’s regime, the mullahs will not relinquish power voluntarily. They are determined to fight to the end to preserve their grip on power.

Against this backdrop, a new revolution requires intense planning, organization, coordination, and unity.

This is something that the Resistance Units of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) have been working on over the past six years while risking arrest, torture, and even execution.

Their role is much more prominent and pronounced in the current uprising such that regime officials and media are expressing increasing alarm over their effectiveness in organization and continuation of the protests.

The rebellious youths have relied on the Resistance Units to improve their effectiveness and minimize their vulnerabilities in the regime’s onslaught and organized violence.

The protesters have also learned a great deal from the experiences of the four major uprisings since 2017 and the tactics employed by the Resistance Units, such as torching the regime’s symbols, posters of its leaders, and billboards, as well as targeting the repressive centers.

In an interview with the state-run daily Bahar News on October 7, Mohammad Reza Tajik, a member of the regime’s so-called reformist faction, said, “The current political situation in today’s society has passed the era of fear and entered the era of rage. The current movement is associated with a kind of happiness and zeal for life. Today’s activist is prepared to sacrifice his or her life to achieve freedom.”

Tajik also expressed his fear about the radicalization of the protests, adding, “Today’s activist thinks that he/she can only get his/her point across to the ruling class with rage. Today’s activist thinks that he/she cannot make change their fate and that there is no other path in front of him/her, and that he/she sees the solution only in acts of violence. He/she thinks that only the language of anger is the solution and that other languages are not answered and are not heard.”

Addressing the regime, he said, “Over the years we have planted the seeds of hate and now we are reaping a lot of wrath.”

Indeed, comments by a young Iranian woman in an interview with the Reuters News agency speaks to this fact: “Hey world, hear me: I want a revolution. I want to live freely and I’m ready to die for it. Instead of dying every minute under this regime’s repression, I prefer to die with their (security forces) bullets in protests for freedom.”

The walls of tyranny and religious totalitarianism are finally collapsing. A new revolution is happening on the streets of Iran and no force can stop it.

Deadly and Unconcealable Cracks in Iran Regime’s Rule

Pooya Stone
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Deadly and Unconcealable Cracks in Iran Regime’s Rule

The planned presence of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the ‘joint graduation ceremony for the cadets studying in the academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces’ was considered a failure, as it did not bring him the expected ‘power’ that the regime wanted to present in the middle of the nationwide protests.

During his speeches, the signs of weakness were clearly evident on his face. One of the signs was his complaints about the ruling head’s contradictions, which he could not ignore. Khamenei knows very well that they will intensify in the future.

This could be seen in this part of his speech, “At first, some (cleric) elites made announcements and statements without investigation and probably out of compassion. Some of them blamed the law enforcement agency and some blamed the system. Now that they have seen what the matter is and what happened in the streets because of their words in parallel with the planning of the enemy, they should make up for their work and clearly declare that they are against what happened and the plan of the foreign enemy.”

While many officials remained silent, only Ahmad Janati and Hassan Khomeini responded to the regime’s supreme leader’s desperate request.

Even the Islamic Association of Students of the Sharif University of Technology confronted him on the night of October 2, when the regime’s special forces and plain clothes officers attacked, surrounded, beat, and injured many of the Sharif University students.

In their statement, they wrote, “The students who sat in for the second day in a row, and exercised their right to protest following a hollow promise by the president of the university to release all the imprisoned Sharif students who were arrested last week, suddenly faced a barrage of security officers and plainclothes officers who, in a tremendous act, besieged the university and attacked students and professors with all kinds of weapons.”

They added, “Behind this blatant violence, it seems that there was a pre-planned scenario to silence the voices of protesting students, and Sharif University was supposed to be a lesson for the rest of the country’s universities and, of course, to satisfy the greed of some extremists.”

The day after Khamenei’s desperate statements, in a statement published by the state-run Setareh-e Sobh daily, cleric Mohammad Ali Ayazi said, “Some of the clerics do not accept the guidance patrol and say that this is not a way to make the society religious. Some things that are done in the name of religion are not acceptable from the point of view of some religious thinkers and researchers.”

The current situation is so against Khamenei, that even the spokesperson of the regime’s ‘Enjoining good and forbidding wrong’ headquarters stated, “We have said several times, this kind of treatment by the guidance patrol or some concerned people, would maybe have worked in the 80s, but now we can no longer force people to submit to the hijab law with violent treatment.”

This desperation among the regime’s forces is the result of the Iranian people’s resistance over the past years, especially through the involvement of Iranian women of all ages.

In a speech by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf in the Expediency Council, it gives a clear picture of the regime’s viewpoint. He stated, “If we want to overcome this cognitive war, we first need to correct these conflicts and these different perceptions and understandings in this part of governance. This is the platform that the enemy uses because of its inefficiency and creates these problems.”

This situation has also affected the effectiveness of repression and is widening the gap between the regime’s forces and the people of Iran.

Iran: At Least 586 Death Penalties in Last Year

Mehdi Hosseini
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Iran: At Least 586 Death Penalties in Last Year

The international community annually celebrates October 10th as a world day against the death penalty. Human Rights organizations, activists, and the United Nations reiterate their calls on several governments to abolish this inhumane punishment.

Instead, the regime in Iran has increased death sentences, reaching over 586 cases in the past 12 months. “Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi as President and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i as Judiciary chief, trying to strike fear into the society through mass death penalties,” observers say.

Notably, Raisi and Eje’i were directly involved in the extrajudicial executions of political prisoners. Raisi himself led thousands of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) members and supporters to the gallows in Tehran during the 1988 massacre.

Details about Death Penalties

The Scale

In a detailed report about the ayatollahs’ heinous crimes from October 10, 2021, to October 10, 2022, the statistics center of the Iran Human Rights Society declared:

The confirmed number of executions is 586 cases, including 565 men and 21 women. Authorities have hanged at least 13 political prisoners, including one in public. The regime also executed eight juvenile offenders.

“More than 20% of those executed are Baloch compatriots,” The Iran HRS declared.

The Charges

The society also provided details about the charges, including:

The regime hanged 236 inmates due to drug-related charges; 285 for murder charges; 21 for rape cases; 15 for armed robbery and clashes with security agents; and 21 for political activities. Authorities also arbitrarily hanged several inmates. For instance, they hanged Hamid Qareh-Lor on September 1, who had exposed the regime’s efforts to execute his brother Ali extrajudicially on August 5.

Where Death Penalties Carried Out?

Damning details about the location of executions revealed that authorities hanged at least 86 inmates in Sistan & Baluchestan province.

Notably, this number doesn’t show the dimension of the regime’s atrocities against the Baluch minority in Iran. Indeed, many Baluch inmates were hanged in exile and banned from last visiting their family members.

The regime also hanged 83 inmates in Alborz province, 76 in Fars, 42 in Isfahan, 28 in Razavi Khorasan, 20 in Qom, 20 in Golestan, etc. The location of several executions is unknown.

Arbitrary Killings on Iran’s Streets

Furthermore, the State Security Forces, Revolutionary Guards, Ministry of Intelligence agents, and other armed forces arbitrarily gunned down dozens of citizens in the past year.

According to the MEK, the regime has murdered more than 400 protesters and bystanders during recent nationwide demonstrations. This number is excluded from the annual death penalty.

Authorities also targeted dozens of unarmed porters in the Kurdish area and fuel carriers in Sistan & Baluchestan, leading to many victims. Moreover, interrogators have killed several inmates under torture in the regime’s notorious dungeons.

Read More: Iran’s Narcotic Forces Open Fire and Kill Civilians in South-Eastern Iran

International Condemnations Against Death Penalties in Iran

In his report to the UN Human Rights Council in July 2022, Professor Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, wrote, “the extent of arbitrary deprivation of life in the Islamic Republic of Iran is of serious concern. On the one hand, the national legal framework justifies arbitrary deprivation of life in some areas, such as extensive grounds for the imposition of the death penalty and the use of force by security forces in ways that are incompatible with international law.

“In other areas, violations are a result of practices and acts contrary to the national legal framework itself, such as the use of torture, the lack of timely access to medical care in detention and failure to take appropriate measures to address the general conditions in society that may give rise to direct threats to life or prevent individuals from enjoying their right to life with dignity.”

Iranian Dissidents Call on Civilized World to Hold Tehran Accountable

For decades, Iranian dissidents have called on the international community to hold the regime to account for egregious crimes. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), emphasized the abolition of the death penalty in her ten-point plan for a free Iran.

“On the World Day Against the Death Penalty- Criminal executions are a sign of the mullahs’ desperation in the face of an explosive society, but they will not escape inevitable overthrow,” she insisted on her pledge for an Iran without the death penalty.

Iran: Disadvantage of Internet Shutdown Is More Than Annual Oil Revenue

Sia Rajabi
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Iran: Disadvantage of Internet Shutdown Is More Than Annual Oil Revenue

In a damning report on October 4, the semi-official Tejarat News website revealed that the disadvantage of 11 days of the internet shutdown in Iran is equivalent to the country’s entire oil revenue of 2021. At the same time, authorities have claimed that U.S. sanctions are the primary reason for the country’s dire economy. 

The website wrote, “In mid-September, the internet was cut off in Iran. Netblocks—the global internet’s observatory body—has declared that every hour of internet shutdown in Iran costs $1.5 million in financial disadvantage, 450 billion rials, to the country, meaning 10 trillion rials per day, and 110 trillion rials in the past 11 days.” 

To have a better understanding, it is worth noting that Iran’s total oil revenue in 2021 was around 100 trillion rials. Therefore, an 11-day internet cut-off far exceeded, and destroyed the country’s oil revenue in a year. 

Tejarat News added, “Furthermore, the internet blackout affected the business of many people. According to several reports, at least one million occupations have been created on Instagram alone.” 

The Online Businesses Union secretary Reza Olfat-Nasab provided surprising stats, saying that “The livelihood of ten million citizens is currently dependent on cyberspace.”  

On October 4. the Etemad daily wrote, “Now, the internet shutdown has aimed at this group’s business and livelihood, and they do not know even would resume internet access again or not, would filtering lift or not?” 

Online Businesses Under Systematic Corruption 

In September 2021, Etemad quoted the Statistic Centre of Iran as saying, “The business of 11 million Iranians depends on the social network; 83 percent of online businesses are on Instagram.” 

Indeed, online occupations are the outcome of a sick economy. Contrary to other developed nations, Iran is suffering greatly from a lack of industrial infrastructure. The government’s mismanagement and profiteering policies have eliminated any chance for agricultural, agro-industrial, and industrial growth. 

In this respect, online businesses are highly fragile in Iran, and the government’s oppressive measures, in a bid to counter public grievances, threaten the livelihood of millions of families. Remarkably, the parliament had long debates about censorship of social media in September 2021, which turned out futile, fearing public backlash. 

On December 9, 2013, the Revolutionary Guards’ first chief-in-command Javad Mansouri refused former president Hassan Rouhani’s brags about negotiating with the West and refining the financial situation, stating, “Our country’s conditions would not improve, and our problems won’t be resolved.” 

Mentioning that not even the nuclear deal with the world powers would not solve the government’s dilemmas, Mansouri said, “The core of our [economic] difficulties are internal. If Iran’s sky rained gold, but we don’t enjoy meritocracy and the rule of law… our situation won’t be changed.” 

Notably, high-ranking officials in Iran, including Supreme Leader Khamenei, President Raisi, Parliament Speaker Qalibaf, and Foreign Affairs Minister Amir-Abdollahian, among others, ceaselessly blame the U.S. and its allies for ‘unjust’ sanctions. They claim the restrictions endanger the lives of Iranian patients—while former Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi has already rejected claims about sanctions on medicine and food. 

Nevertheless, authorities in Iran have deliberately ignored the reality that shutting down the internet has significantly harmed the country’s economy. Their bloody response to peaceful demonstrators, and cutting Iran off from the outside world, has once again proven that the theocratic state ruling Iran does not care about the people, their livelihoods, businesses, national interests, or the economy. 

The behavior of the regime’s mullahs should sound alarms for the U.S. and other signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that lifting sanctions or economic incitements is not Tehran’s priority. The world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism is lengthening nuclear negotiations to acquire at least one nuclear weapon, reaching an unbacked point. 

Furthermore, as former President Hassan Rouhani and his allies bragged about the JCPOA, the nuclear deal and its privileges did not benefit the people of Iran. Instead, the government siphoned billions of dollars into the pockets of proxy groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah. 

The mullahs purely see the negotiation as a guarantee and political coverage for their illicit activities, which are not limited to their nuclear-bomb-making programs. These activities include warmongering, regional ambitions, terrorism, ballistic missile projects, and, more importantly, insurance for their brutal dictatorship inside the country. 

In a nutshell, the international community, particularly the U.S., should stand with the people of Iran who refuse the theocracy’s policies entirely. An Iran free of authoritarian mullahs would be a reliable ally for the civilized world, which would lead countries in the Middle East and North Africa to stability and peace, rather than being left to face endless conflicts, bloodshed, insecurity, and terrorism. 

For Iran’s Revolution, There Is No Turning Back

Pooya Stone
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For Iran’s Revolution, There Is No Turning Back

For almost three weeks, people from all walks of life have raged against Iran’s theocratic regime. From the metropoles to the small cities, the majority of the Iranian population has been involved in the protests, which has significantly changed the face of the country’s society.

Fear is being defeated slowly, as the major chant of the people has become ‘Death to the dictator’ and ‘Death to Khamenei.’

We have reached the point where arrests, tortures, and repressive measures will not hold the people from the path towards freedom. Like wildfire, a new revolution is sweeping across the country and finding its way into every Iranian city. This revolution has united the people. From the Baluchis to the Kurds, they are sending a message of solidarity as the country fights to defeat the regime.

At the forefront of this revolution are the county’s brave women, who have been repressed for over four decades by the worst misogynist regime in history after World War 2.

This current situation was predictable, due to the country’s bleak economic situation, runaway inflation, extremely high prices, and a population close to the poverty line. Adding to the crises is the recent elimination of subsidies, growing unemployment, the emigration of the country’s elites, and a frustrated and futureless new generation which, according to the Persian calendar, have called themselves the generation of the ‘1380s’. Their average age is 20.

Seeing the fate of their parents, these youths are unwilling to accept any more of this current situation, while the Iranian regime wastes the country’s entire wealth on malign activities and precedent its security to the people’s prosperity. As a result, the Iranian people have decided to revolt, even at the cost of their own lives.

The regime thought that it could quell the people’s uprisings with violence as they have in the past. However, with the current unrest approaching its third week, times have changed. On October 3, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei took to warning the people of the brutal repression that was to follow as retaliation to their uprisings.

Dictatorships have historically denied or accepted the collapse of their totalitarian rule, even in its latest moments, but what history has shown is that nothing is more powerful than a rising nation.

For now, the regime can still count on its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the infamous ministry of intelligence, and the Basij militias. Tyrannies often fall when losing the power of their repressive institutions and tools, so it is only a matter of time in Iran’s case.

For many years, Khamenei has been trying to push the country’s political body to a younger generation, which he dubbed the ‘Young Hezbollahi’ government. What he did not consider though is the lack of a generation that is ideologically loyal to the regime’s principles, as set by the regime’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. This can be seen in the lifestyle of many of the regime’s children, many of whom are currently living abroad in extreme wealth.

On October 3, discussing this new generation that has now revolted against the regime, the state-run Etemad daily wrote, “This generation has practiced fighting and winning in video games. The main issue is the recognition of life for all Iranian people, which is expressed in the voice of these youths. They want a good life not only for themselves but for their parents and all Iranian generations. They have seen deprivation in the eyes of their mothers and felt the pain of their fathers’ unsuccessful efforts to live a minimal life.”

They added, “This generation questions the basis of system values ​​and chooses different values, criteria, and patterns. Patterns are taken from the communication space of the new world and virtual space. The new generations realize that women all over the world and throughout history have tried to pursue their demands, but none of these global demands have had anything to do with the hijab. The rights they demand are much more important than the hijab and cover a wide range of basic issues.”

The daily then warned the regime’s officials, writing, “In fact, when the concern is not to improve the lives of the people, a significant part of whom are young people, it is natural that this frustration will continue and lead to protests. Every decade and every generation you look at, the quality of life has declined. That is, the quality of life in the 80s was far better than in the 90s, and the quality of life in the 2000s was better than in this decade.”

Speaking about the root of this situation, the Etemad daily added, “Young Iranians want a normal life, and although some of its statements are economic, its roots are social. It means minimum welfare, social security, bright future, and based on this foundation, other social, and cultural demands are mounted.”

They concluded their piece by stating, “In fact, these protests are not only the protest of this generation but also a symbol of all the restrictions that have been created in the political and social context over many decades. The recent protests are also the natural result of the behavior of a governance system that has no concern for improving the quality of people’s lives.”

Iran, the Resurrection of the Concept of ‘Revolution’

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran, the Resurrection of the Concept of ‘Revolution’

These days, Iran’s political and social environment has witnessed massive storms, which have changed the meaning of all concepts. The weight of the regime, its opposition, and the concepts, like overthrowing the Iranian regime, have all changed and evolved over the past few years.

We all know that the ‘Velayat-e Faqih’ rule, imposed by the regime’s mullahs, was never the will or choice of the Iranian people. The reason for that is very simple.

Ruhollah Khomeini, the regime’s founder, ignored all forms and mechanisms of democratic rule from the beginning. He forbade the formation of a constituent parliament with the participation of elected representatives. Instead, he created the so-called ‘council of experts’, which had the mission to implement Khomeini’s desired constitution based on his own medieval and inhumane thoughts.

When he came to power, he introduced himself as the representative of God on earth, therefore he was even not faithful to his own written laws. In a previous speech, he even stated that he may say something today and change it tomorrow.

He knew much better than anyone else that his system would have no supporters, both domestic and international. Therefore, he decided to wipe out and slaughter all the progressive forces of the country, especially the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas, the two major organizations that fought with the Shah’s regime.

In order to combat the progressive forces, Khomeini founded the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is mainly responsible for the protection of the supreme leader. This institution also advances several objectives in parallels, such as bloody domestic repression and terrorism, hostage-taking, crisis-making, and warmongering outside of Iran’s borders.

Alongside its repressive forces, the regime’s propaganda, mainly its radio and television organization, known as IRIB, is responsible for publishing the narrative that nothing significant is happening in Iran and that the country under the rule of the mullahs is an island of stability, as the regime’s foreign minister recently claimed.

The purpose of this is to despair the people and diminish any hope about any changes towards a free and democratic Iran, while also wiping the people’s heads of this thought.

However, thanks to the presence of organized resistance over the past four decades, the regime’s mission to keep the Iranian people in the dark has been not realized, and all the regime’s dreams of a solid, continuing rule are now fading away.

When we speak about a fundamental change, we should analyze the changes in the ongoing protests. The most important request of the people, the overthrow of the regime, has finally become attainable.

Many people and analysts have introduced this current situation, not as a ‘national uprising’ but as a ‘revolution’, akin to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah’s regime.

This evolution is happening because of the collapse of the walls of fear, the regime’s disbelief in the overthrow, and the resurrection of the keyword ‘revolution.’

The people, especially the youths, have realized their miraculous power in shaping the destiny of their country. No one is afraid of the anti-riot police, the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the plain cloth agents, or the regime’s infamous Ministry of Intelligence. Brave Iranian women and girls have been standing face to face with the regime’s forces and have planted fear deep in their hearts.

This fundamental change, if we don’t pay attention to it, will go astray in the analysis of political and social events in Iran. The only way forward is to recognize the people’s right to self-defense and keep it going.

 

Iran Regime’s Response to Protests Censorship and Violence

Pooya Stone
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Iran Regime’s Response to Protests Censorship and Violence

The Iranian regime’s leadership has reacted to the ongoing wave of protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who died in police custody over a week ago after being subjected to violence.  The shutdown of the internet in Iran is one of the main aspects that is allowing the regime to increase its acts of violence against innocent civilians.

Since Wednesday, especially, the internet has been severely restricted across the country. Mobile networks are largely switched off according to reports from the organization NetBlocks, an organization founded in 2017 to monitor internet freedom. Access to Instagram, the only major social media platform still permitted in Iran, has still been restricted.

Iran is now subject to the strictest internet restrictions, as a result of the November 2019 massacre. According to human rights organizations, around 1,500 people were killed in protests against rising petrol prices in late 2019. These days, the situation in Iran is very tense. Many people are angry and desperate and feel like to have little to lose. They are suffering greatly from the current economic crisis and from everyday reprisals.

The recent death of a young woman, who was detained for allegedly violating the compulsory headscarf rules, has erupted anger and resentment at the political system. It is a deep internal crisis, and the government has had no other answer to resolve the issues than to conduct further repression of Iranian citizens.

The regime is a political system that is at constant war with its own people. The shutdown of the internet has a clear purpose: to hide the fact that the police and security forces will crack down on the demonstrations with all their might and massacre protesters, and prevent the world from seeing pictures of what is happening.

Restrictions on international Internet access can be judged from two perspectives. This issue can be viewed both from the perspective of citizenship rights and from the perspective of economic benefits.

The developments of the last decade have made the right to access the Internet practically one of the rights of the country’s citizens. That is, just as governments consider access to drinking water, electricity, telecommunication network, and public education as their duty, they should also consider the development and continuation of Internet access as their inherent duty and invest in it.

For this reason, limiting this right can be seen as a form of depriving citizens of their fundamental rights. From the economic perspective, the internet shutdown will only increase the growing poverty levels in the country. At the moment, one in five people in Iran is currently living under the poverty line.

The state-run Donya-e Eghtesad daily pointed out some of the definite losses and disadvantages of the Internet shutdown in everyday life and wrote, “Certainly, one of the first consequences of such decisions is the reduction of sales of online businesses. It should be noted that being connected to the internal Internet (i.e., conditions where access to external services is not established, but internal services are working) does not solve this problem.”

They stated, “A significant number of people do not understand the difference between the domestic Internet and the international Internet, and when they cannot use the Google search engine, they assume that the Internet is completely disconnected.”

The daily further added, “Especially, they do not keep the domain addresses of Iranian sites. There are estimates that Iranian sites spend about 3000 billion rials annually for SEO only on Google to be seen higher and better by customers when searching for goods and services. When Google is down, all these costs are wasted.”

In a national survey conducted by the Iranian Student Opinion Center (ISPA) in the summer of 2021, among the urban and rural populations, for those over 18 years of age, 79% of people said that they use social media; 71% via WhatsApp, 53% on Instagram, and 40% used Telegram. In contrast, the most used internal social media site is Rubika, which only 8% of people have used.

In the same survey, 50% of the society said that they prefer to use only foreign social media apps, while only 2% said that they prefer to use domestic social media apps.

These numbers show that similar domestic tools have not been welcomed by the public, mostly due to the citizens’ mistrust of the regime. This is because nearly almost all of the working IT companies in Iran are cooperating with the regime and their apps are being used for surveillance, or they have functional and quality problems.

In such a situation, it is only natural that the blocking of messenger apps and external social network sites will seriously harm businesses and increase people’s livelihood difficulties.

It should be concluded that the internet shutdown is a double-sided blade for the regime. While helping it to create passing security measures, from a pervasive perspective, it will only increase dissatisfaction among citizens and flame new protests.

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