When I was a child, I often heard stories about the determination of the Iranian people – wise and opinionated men and women who stood their ground and demanded justice when needed. As I grew older and began watching videos circulating online, I came to realize that the Iranian people are not only determined justice-seekers – their veins run with a deep courage. They are unafraid.
Time and again, they take to the streets, even when it hurts, even when it’s dangerous, even when they know there’s real risk to their lives. In every corner, the brutal Revolutionary Guards lie in wait, yet people keep rising up.
The more I learned, even from a distance about the Iranian people, the more I admired them. In a country where the eye of the “big brother” is always watching, it’s incredibly hard to bring about change. And then came Israel’s preemptive strike against the threat of a nuclear Iran. After years of Iranian regime threats against the Jewish state, the decision was made: no more. The Israeli government launched a campaign to protect its citizens.
Part of this campaign was a concentrated effort targeting symbols and institutions of power; key figures were hit as well. But all these targets had one thing in common: a long legacy of oppressing the ordinary citizen. They had no connection to the desires of the people, who only wish to make a living, fill their refrigerators, and simply live.
Iranian regime struggles to retain control
During the offensive, we saw the regime’s struggle to preserve its control through widespread fake news, silencing of media across the country, electricity and water rationing, and – as if that weren’t enough – even Rostam, the mythical Persian hero, was summoned by state TV. Brushed off and resurrected, he was presented as a warrior of light in the battle against darkness.
Now, even before the ink has dried on the ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel, the regime has returned to its cruel nature – mistreating its citizens once again. Reports are already emerging of mass arrests of “suspected” civilians. To the regime, there’s no reason to trust a nation of “traitors.” Those who celebrated the fall of the so-called martyrs, those loyal to the elite, always fed and well-off, deserve harsh punishment.
It seems we’ve entered a new phase of the “thought police.” And we, on the outside, can only watch with aching hearts as the Iranian people remain trapped inside a beautiful and resource-rich country that gives nothing back to its own citizens.
In my dream, a coalition of agreement rises within the opposition, one that understands the gravity of this moment, that knows it’s time to share the country’s immense wealth with its people. A movement that builds and restores Iran to its former greatness – like in the days of Cyrus the Great, who saw human rights as sacred.
We, the Jewish people living in Zion, pray for your safety – Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, Christians, and all people of Iran – we are all human beings under God’s gaze. The freedom to live is a right that belongs to everyone.
The writer is an Israeli woman of Iranian descent, an independent researcher, and a lecturer specializing in life in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.