Iran is witnessing the ongoing uprising evolving and gaining momentum, especially after 50 days of relentless protests as larger crowds are gathering and voicing significant slogans targeting the very top of the regime’s hierarchy. This growth in quantity and quality of the recent protests is proof that the Iranian uprising of 2022 has surpassed the point of no return, especially with scenes of massive protests seen on Thursday, November 3 in the city of Karaj, located just west of the capital, Tehran, and people taking to the streets in large numbers in numerous cities of Sistan & Baluchestan Province on Friday, November 4, despite the regime’s lethal crackdown.
The Iranian people have been successful in establishing their ground in this uprising and focusing on certain anti-regime slogans in their pursuit of toppling the mullahs’ rule. The uprising quickly expanded into political demands with the people in over 200 cities across the country chanting “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to Khamenei!” specifically targeting regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The entire Iranian nation has also been voicing their utter hatred of the regime’s oppressive security forces, especially members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the paramilitary Basij Force that are usually the first deployed to quell the public’s peaceful demonstrations. “Members of the IRGC and Basij, you are our ISIS!” has been the Iranian people’s response to the ongoing crackdown measures by these hardcore units of the regime’s security forces.
Day by day more Iranians are rallying around the flag with the national slogan of “Death to the oppressor! Be it the Shah or the leader!” with the latter referring to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Despite the regime’s domestic propaganda machine and their network of apologists/lobbyists at work abroad, the Iranian people are making it crystal clear that they only seek to move forward in this revolution, aiming to establish a democratic republic and refusing a return to any former system, such as the monarchial rule of the Shah. This particular slogan is uniting the Iranian people like never before around the cause of overthrowing the mullahs’ regime and establishing a democratic republic.
The evolution of this latest uprising in Iran can been seen in protesters focusing specifically on the mullahs’ regime and demanding a complete end to the entire apparatus. The people have surpassed those early claims of this being a feminist movement, which actually played into the regime’s hands, or others that parroted the old “reform from within” talking point.
Through unity, solidarity, sympathy and collaboration the Iranian people are overcoming the very walls of fear erected by the mullahs’ regime through the past four decades of totalitarianism. People are staring the mullahs’ regime directly in the eye and loudly chanting “Death to Khamenei!” despite numerous waves of lethal crackdown, as we witnessed on November 4 in Khash, southeast Iran, with the latest numbers standing at 20 killed and 60 injured by the regime’s oppressive security forces.
Brave women are at the forefront of this revolution and making it crystal clear time and again that this is far more than the hijab. With many Iranian women paying the ultimate price for freedom, they are spearheading this nationwide movement with their brave brothers aiming to end the 43 years of misery imposed on them by the mullahs’ regime.
Their unity and focus on toppling the regime has enabled the Iranian people to overcome the mullahs’ climate of fear and debunk their conspiracies one after another. And learning from their experience of 2009 when then U.S. President Barack Obama refused to stand alongside the Iranian people during that year’s nationwide uprising, this nation has now understood that their freedom depends on their determination and will alone. What the Iranian people are asking the international community is to end their failed appeasement policy vis-à-vis the mullahs in Tehran.
Recently we have been witnessing the West realize finally how their approach towards the mullahs’ regime has been an utter failure. Germany is calling on its citizens to leave Iran. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated in a march in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and is using the term the “Iranian regime”. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is calling for the expulsion of the misogynist mullahs’ regime from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. And finally, U.S. President Joe Biden said recently that the Iranian people will be free.
We have not reached where we are easily. All these developments are the result of the Iranian people’s perseverance and more than 50 days of relentless protests in the face of a brutal regime with its lethal crackdown measures.
From this day forward, it is no longer a matter of if the mullahs’ regime will fall, but when.
image – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace