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.
