Hossein Ronaghi’s life is endangered. Elham Afkari is in hunger strike. Dozens and hundreds of Iranians, well-known and unknown, are in detention, solitary confinement or hunger strikes.
In the eight weeks that have passed, hundreds of Iranians have been killed with straight hits while demonstrating; shockingly, some were mere bystanders. The Iranian uprising started eight weeks ago. Unlike what the Islamic Republic regime and the foreign states expected, people of Iran have not gone back home despite murders, arrests and threats of execution against those arrested. The Iranians have decided to put an end to this dark government of fear, threats and intimidation. They want the reluctant West to join them.
Forty-four years ago, the West decided to change the government in Iran. They silently guided the Islamic Revolution of Iran. A conspiracy took shape against the nation and country of Iran which started with Ayatollah Khomeini’s migration to France from Iraq. This transition made his connection with religious revolutionary students in the US and Europe easier and thus the central core of planning for the downfall of the Pahlavi regime was formed.
BBC Persian’s radio station broadcast statements by Khomeini and anti-government calls for demonstrations. European radio stations were united in their support for Khomeini. The Western ambassadors in Tehran told the late Shah that it was time for him to leave Iran. The fate of the Iranian nation was decided in those days by the US, England and France. But today it is being decided by the Iranian nation and that’s why the West, with much delay and reluctance, is slowly joining this massive movement.
The persistence of Iranian presence on the streets and people’s exposition of the crimes of the government against unarmed protesters helped to open the Élysée Palace to Iranian human rights activists on Friday. Previously, American statesmen had met with Iranian political and human rights activists in Washington DC and now it was Europe’s turn to make a move.
Eight weeks have passed and the European Union, after assessing the situation, has decided that the tide is turning in favor of the Iranian nation.
In Iran, the criminal rulers believe that, like previous counts of repression, people will go home after the regime beats up protesting women and men on streets and forces the arrestees to confession. But this time people didn’t go home. They didn’t flee the country in fear of the regime. Those who had been forced to leave their homeland became a voice for fighters inside the country.
Iranians won’t leave their country this time. It is the unwanted and oppressive regime that needs to go.
Previous protests were on specific topics: election results, rise in petrol prices, poverty, cost of living, administrative corruption, air pollution, rivers and lakes going dry, unjust executions and lack of a normal life for citizens. But the current uprising combines hundreds of national demands. The main thing people want today is to not have a government whose statesmen don’t look like Iranians, don’t talk like Iranians, don’t act like Iranians and don’t believe in Iranian beliefs and traditions.
The ruling clique is Iranian but it’s a minority that doesn’t look like the majority. For 40 years, it has survived with crimes and hostage-taking. Its programs of brainwashing of children started at the outset of the revolution and failed. They then went on an anti-Iranian agenda, fighting the honors of this country and opposing all that was related to Iran and Iranians. They started by destroying and banning music, dance, poetry, songs and beauty which is a big part of the Iranian heritage. They then went on to destroy cultural heritage, environment and works of history and art.
To overcome a freedom-loving people with identity and history, they had to destroy their background. But the historical memory of Iranians remained. This very historical memory became the biggest enemy of this criminal clique.
We can now see signs of the downfall of the regime all over Iran: From the music that Khodanoor was dancing with to the cries of the little Bavan who called for his mother. Now the voice of Khodanoor and the cries of Bavan and the tears of Siavash’s mother have been heard all over Iran; by those very people who saw what happened to Mahsa Amini and rose up. Iran opened its arms to all its offspring. Love spreads from one corner of Iran to everywhere.
Forty-three years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini and his associates repressed and executed opponents and freedom-lovers to establish a government of dictatorship and terror.
In November 2022, Iranians will remember not only those killed in the last eight weeks but all those Iranians who were executed, killed or disappeared unjustly, just because they were patriots. Iranians seek justice for all those killed: from those executed in the dark days of the revolution and years after to all the victims of the past 43 years.
The arms we have opened for each other are based on the miracle of the name of Iran and a nation that’s a cradle of civilization for humanity. We are one family who have stood with each other in a historical conjuncture to defend our territory, home, honor and nation. They killed our daughter and we rose up for her blood; and now everybody in this house has come to defend the rights of women as a nation and to restore national sovereignty.
In these days, I look at the history of Iran more than ever, especially the events of the 1979 revolution. It is relevant for me to now quote a few lines from the will of the late Shah; lines that are all too relevant to recent events and show his care and his wisdom.
“We should remember that the pages of the history of our homeland have recorded many ups and downs,” the Shah wrote in his will, “But just like the invasion by Alexander, the aggression by the Mongols, the sedition by the Afghans and multiple invasions by the alien forces were not able to put out the light of Iran’s ancient culture and civilization, I am sure that the burning flames of this civilization and culture will overcome this depressing darkness with their glow and a national renaissance will register the honor of the present generation in Iran’s glorious history. I leave the fate of my country to the constitution. This constitution is a valuable legacy, given to the nation by the constitutional revolution. Its safeguard and respecting of its principles — which are the foundations for the territorial integrity of our nation and the independence of our homeland and also the basis for national sovereignty based on historical peoplehood and religious beliefs of the people of the land — is a national obligation for all Iranians. I urge my son to safeguard it.”
