The Iranian People’s Fight for Freedom

By 

Wesley Smith

|
September 27, 2022

4 min read

Middle East

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It takes courage, unusual bravery, and a willingness to sacrifice freedom and life itself, to demonstrate against a totalitarian religious despot.  It is what we are witnessing in Iran.  At the risk of their life, families, and possessions, hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens are demanding freedom and an overthrow of the brutal regime that has ruled Iran since 1979.  When a government is known for murdering dissidents and brutalizing its citizens into submission, it takes unusual courage—maybe even a sense of having little left to lose—to stand face to face with one’s oppressors and demand liberty and political change.

The protests going on in Iran are the largest since 2009, when the so-called Green Movement brought millions of Iranians to the streets.  The demonstrations then were over political corruption and fraud in a recent election.  The Obama Administration refused to support the protesters and speak up on their behalf.  On Meet the Press last week Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s National Security Advisor who was also part of the Obama team, was asked why they did not support the protestors in 2009.  In perhaps the most disingenuous answer of the week, Sullivan replied that the Obama Administration feared speaking up for the protestors would hurt them instead of helping them.

When is any freedom fighter or a group demonstrating for democracy hurt by the U.S. defending them?  In fact, in 2009 President Obama and his team were working on the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal) and were afraid if they took a stand against the Ayatollah and his regime, the Iranians would refuse to sign the agreement.  Just like the Biden White House now, they were desperate for a deal—even a misguided one.  At this moment the Biden team is hoping to reenter the nuclear deal with Iran. It will lift sanctions on Iran and still not stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The protests in Iran presently broke out after Masha Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, was killed by the so-called Morality Police in the Islamic Republic of Iran for not covering her hair properly.  The protests are further fueled by inflation at 50% in the country and the lack of freedoms due to the oppressive regime in power.  The demonstrations include throngs of young professionals who have never known freedom.  But older Iranians have told them about how Iran used to be and access to the Internet and other media have informed this younger generation.  They have never known anything but a security state run by religious zealots, where dissent is a punishable crime.  They have experienced only a depressed economy and their nation being blacklisted by much of the world.  They must feel they have nothing left to lose.

The demonstrations have turned violent, with at least 41 protestors being killed by authorities.  The riots have taken place in 80 cities around the country, with head scarves (the hijab) being burned and police cars demolished.  Hundreds of protestors, detained by police, are now missing.

In the midst of all these events, the irony is the Biden Administration is still seeking a renewal of the nuclear deal.  The new JCPOA has not gone into effect simply because, thus far, the Iranian leaders have refused to sign it.  Iran continues to stiff arm the IAEA and be transparent about their nuclear weapons program.  They refuse to allow inspections.  They still have U.S. officials on an assassination hit list. They possess highly enriched uranium in violation of the original agreement.  Iranian militias have targeted U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. Yet in the face of these facts, President Biden still hopes that Iran will sign the deal and the Biden team still plans to lift sanctions if they do.

The United States of America, and our friends around the world, must stand with the demonstrators in Iran who want a new government and a new birth of freedom.  We must be unequivocal in our condemnation of the human rights abuses and the violence promulgated by the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism, Iran.  The citizens of Iran, the former great Persian nation, must know that the world cares about them, prays for them, and will do all in our collective power to bring freedom to their land.