Since 1979 when the Islamic Revolution happened in Iran and the religion took over the power, the Iranian people have been facing severe oppression under the rule of the Islamic Republic Regime. The regime, led by religious clerics, has maintained its power through fear, violence, and suppression of dissent. Despite the people’s opposition to the regime, expressing any form of dissent is met with harsh consequences such as murder, torture, and execution.
The Islamic Republic Regime employs various tactics to keep its power over the Iranian people. These tactics include propaganda, widespread surveillance, censorship of media and communication channels, arbitrary arrests, and brutal crackdowns on protests. By instilling fear in the population through these oppressive measures, the regime aims to silence any form of opposition and maintain control over the country.
However, despite facing such extreme oppression, the Iranian people have shown remarkable bravery and resilience in their resistance against the regime. Protests erupt frequently across the country, with citizens risking their lives to demand freedom, democracy, and human rights. The courage displayed by ordinary Iranians in standing up to a repressive regime has been both inspiring and commendable.
Case of Toomaj: A Voice for the People
One recent example that highlights the regime’s ruthless crackdown on dissent is the case of Toomaj, a songwriter and rapper who dared to speak out against the injustices faced by the Iranian people. Toomaj was arrested for siding with the people and was unjustly sentenced to death on charges of “war against God.” His case serves as a stark reminder of the lengths to which the regime will go to silence voices of dissent and maintain its grip on power.
In a country where religion is used as a tool for oppression and where crimes against humanity are committed in its name, it is crucial to advocate for those whose voices have been silenced. The international community must stand in solidarity with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and human rights. By shedding light on the atrocities committed by the Islamic Republic Regime and amplifying the voices of those oppressed, we can help bring about positive change in Iran. We are the Voice of Iran.
Hamid Razi
I. Wrote a letter and contacted my congressman and Senator last week
Coach Karla Helps
Thank you very much!
Hamid Razi
I Wrote a letter and contacted my congressman and Senator last week
Coach Karla Helps
Thank you very much!
Hamid Razi
I contacted my legislators
Coach Karla Helps
You’re amazing!
Greg Schlagel
Where are the oppressed people of Iran while this military activity is going on? we have heard nothing in the USA about the people of Iran who were ready to rise up against the Islamic Republic once the USA eliminated the top two levels of the Islamic Regime. Is there an underground movement to overthrow the radical governmental control? I would be interested to find out about any support that I might be able to provide.
Coach Karla Helps
Dear Greg,
Thank you for reaching out. The question deserves an answer that separates several issues that are often collapsed into one: the Iranian people, the Islamic Republic, Islam as a religion, and the question of whether military action from outside Iran can produce an internal revolution.
First, the absence of an immediate nationwide uprising should not be interpreted as acceptance of the Islamic Republic. Iranians have repeatedly demonstrated that they oppose the regime, sometimes at extraordinary personal cost. The Green Movement of 2009, the nationwide protests of 2017–18, the November 2019 uprising, and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement beginning in 2022 , January 2026 uprising that costed over 40,000 people getting killed by the regime, all demonstrated deep and persistent opposition to the Islamic Republic. Thousands have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, or otherwise persecuted across these years. The regime has learned how to suppress mass movements through intelligence operations, arrests, executions, internet shutdowns, surveillance, and violence.
A revolution is not simply a matter of people becoming angry enough to walk into the streets. When the cost of protest can be imprisonment, torture, disappearance, or death, not only for the protester but sometimes for their family, people may resist in ways that are less visible. Refusing compulsory hijab, boycotting elections, labor strikes, university protests, civil disobedience, underground organizing, economic noncooperation, and simply refusing to accept the regime’s ideology are all forms of resistance.
There is also an important misconception about the idea that removing the “first two levels” of the Islamic Republic’s leadership through military strikes would automatically cause the Iranian people to rise. Decapitating a regime does not automatically create a revolution. A government can have layers of security forces, intelligence organizations, military institutions, local officials, and ideological networks capable of maintaining control even after senior leaders are removed.
The Iranian people therefore should not be judged by whether they immediately produce the kind of uprising that observers outside Iran expect. The more meaningful question is whether the desire for freedom, dignity, secular governance, women’s equality, freedom of religion, and accountable government has disappeared. There is considerable evidence that it has not.
The Islamic Republic’s history also matters. It was established after the 1979 revolution and gradually consolidated a system in which unelected religious institutions possess enormous political authority. The Supreme Leader, the Guardian Council, the judiciary, the Revolutionary Guard, and other institutions give the clerical establishment mechanisms of power that go far beyond the normal role of a religious community in a democracy. Elections exist, but candidates and political participation are heavily restricted by unelected institutions.
It is entirely legitimate, and necessary, to criticize an Islamic government when it uses religious doctrine to deny fundamental human rights. The Islamic Republic has systematically discriminated against religious minorities, with the Bahá’í community facing particularly severe persecution, while Christians, converts from Islam, Sunni Muslims, Jews, and others have also faced varying forms of discrimination and repression. The issue is not whether Islam as a faith is “peaceful” or “violent.” The issue is whether a state has the right to impose one religious interpretation on an entire population and punish people who disagree. In a free society, it does not. The lesson is that concentrated political power becomes dangerous when it is placed beyond accountability, whether its justification is religious, nationalist, communist, fascist, or otherwise.
President Obama’s characterization of Islam as a religion of love and peace was a political and philosophical statement about the distinction between a religion and extremist interpretations of it. It should not be understood as a defense of every government that claims an Islamic identity.
The future of Iran ultimately cannot be imposed from Washington, Moscow, Tel Aviv, or anywhere else. Military pressure may alter the balance of power, but lasting freedom has to be built by Iranians themselves. What the international community can do is keep the Iranian people’s struggle visible, document human-rights abuses, support access to uncensored information and communications, protect dissidents and refugees, impose consequences on perpetrators, and avoid confusing the Iranian population with the regime that rules them.
The most important thing to remember is this: the Iranian people have not been silent because they are free. They have often been silent because the price of speaking has been extraordinarily high.
And yet they have continued to speak.
The Woman, Life, Freedom movement made that unmistakable. Its most powerful message was not simply opposition to one cleric or one law. It was a rejection of the idea that a government, religious or otherwise, has the right to own the conscience, body, identity, and future of its citizens.
The Iranian people do not need to be “saved” by the world. They need the world to recognize their humanity, hear their voices, and stand with their right to determine their own future.
Thank you again.
Best,
Voice of Iran