The Islamic regime has been waging a war against its own people for the past 47 years. The media has generalized Iran, but now more than ever, amid the violence and chaos in the Middle East, we must not disregard that there are human beings living among bombs being dropped beside their homes.
The Iranian people have endured some of the world’s most brutal oppression living under one of the most systemically abusive regimes. They have seen some of the worst crimes against humanity occur, and witnessed so much loss of life over the past 47 years that all hope really was lost.
I looked at the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it was devastating to see that not a single one of the rights on the Charter are granted to Iranians.
Ninety million people have been forced to live under a form of dictatorship without any freedom to choose how they want to live. If you are Christian, you get murdered. The Baháʼí people have faced decades of arrests. Members of the LGBTQ+ community are executed. A particular tragic war is waged against women — rape is used as a tool to strip women of dignity and livelihoods.
On Jan. 8-9, more than 36,500 Iranians were massacred across 400 cities. These were innocent lives that went to the streets asking for basic human rights while facing the most brutal and oppressive regime of our time. The crackdowns by regime forces intended to kill as many people as possible to remain in power, and included raiding hospitals, killing those wounded from protests and militias gunning down anyone in their sight from atop mosques.
Mountains of black body bags filled the cities of Iran as the regime left no identification for victims, forcing families to spend days looking at dead bodies searching for their loved ones. Meanwhile, Evin prison, “Iran’s main detention facility for political repression,” is filled with over 53,000 people, including hundreds of children, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The loss of life overnight is not just a number of stones. Each one is a living being that wants one thing: freedom, to live a life without constant fear of it being taken away when they express themselves, whether as journalists, filmmakers, authors, teachers or doctors. This has forced the displacement of millions of Iranians because life was not possible under the confinement of extremist ideological chains which plant seeds that destroy life that goes against it.
The people have also been under immense economic pressure due to a government that steals from its own people, extracts resources causing environmental catastrophes, publicly executes individuals that speak out against the government by the hundreds and strips away dignity from any living being that stands in its way of committing heinous crimes.
The regime’s tactic has been to keep Iranians within the country silenced by telling them lies to keep them hopeless and in a state of survival. During the protest massacre, the regime initiated a complete digital black out, which is still ongoing during U.S. and Israeli strikes.
This has plunged the entire country in complete darkness. Families abroad could no longer hear the voice of their loved ones, spurring the Iranian diaspora in particular to spiral. As humans, we want to feel connected to our community, and most importantly, stay informed.
When the internet came back on, many Iranians witnessed missing family members in videos as faces in piles of body bags, or being shot at in the street. For example, in an Instagram video, a child sees her mother’s face among photos of the dead and breaks down crying.
The shockwave of a bomb and machine gun fire stands to traumatize a person for life, but on top of that, shutting off communication and forcing families to go through deeper heartache and sorrow after losing a mother, father or child is despicable.
I cannot find words because it is the most evil action that I have come to know while the regime continues to work hard to hide from the rest of the world.
They are a mastermind in the region with their agenda to indoctrinate and conquer, teaching children from a young age to yell “Death to America,” instilling a deep hatred for the West. They are power hungry and prideful thieves, seeking to erode everything the Iranian people hold dear: their language, civilization, history and culture. They can do this without any sense of remorse, because the mullahs that encourage such crimes are not Iranian.
They have no care for the Iranian people. Amidst the strikes, they are not building bomb shelters for civilians. Families are in their homes watching planes fly over them not knowing where or what they will drop.
After a five minute call with my aunt back home, she explained that in seven minutes, she could hear five bombs dropped. Meanwhile, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members are flooding alleyways, chanting “Allah Akbar.”
My aunt explained she is happy the bombs are dropping because there has been no way out of the brutal war already happening against the Iranian people, because they have had no sense of agency. Before the rescue mission, they were living in thick shackles — property of the Islamic regime.
The theocracy has been ruling under Sharia law, stripping away women’s rights, forcing them to wear a hijab, and if they do not adhere, they will be confronted by morality police, who are encouraged to beat, rape and sentence them as political prisoners for simply being a source of moral decay that must be disciplined. It is sickening, but their evil continues.
They have been the main contributors to extremist Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hizballah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, groups responsible for committing mass murders and using violence to respond to any force they view as opposition. The Islamic regime uses similar tactics, like digging tunnels to hide, using innocent civilians as shields and occupying schools and hospitals to host military and regime officials.
Such extremism that has systematically flourished without any accountability and functions under a moral code that justifies bloodshed by the thousands in the name of Allah is a direct, impermissible threat to the whole of humanity — especially when the crimes do not end at their own borders. It is a disappointment to know that Canada has allowed 700 IRGC members to seek asylum and live normal lives on Canadian soil, with only one case of deportation.
The government’s inaction towards an entity that it has designated as a terrorist organization is incredibly concerning.
Additionally, it is worrisome that our government and media outlets fail to acknowledge that they have sold out to regime officials, whether due to economic self-interests or a lack of investigation. Today, many Canadians are living under financial pressure: unemployed, lining up at food banks and lacking affordable housing. All the while, the new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, is living off the profit made from selling a $10.5 million penthouse in Toronto.
All of this has happened undercover, and the continued silence only communicates complicity and unpreparedness from public institutions, governments, corporations and people who choose neutrality in the face of such disturbing events.
This war began in 1979, but today, it is no longer just an Iranian matter. The existence of such a brutal regime that plants seeds of violence and terror in the world should have no place to dig roots. Nevertheless, the situation exposes how uneducated many people are. There are many scholars that spread misinformation and give textbook answers to such a complicated circumstance.
This is not a moment to think you know everything because you took a course in a Western country about the Middle East. It is time you sit and think, “Why would a regime shut off the internet, so that real voices could not be heard?”
The Iranian people carry stories that are far more real than using pattern recognition of past conflicts to justify a stance on a matter. Not to say there are not members of the community that have different perspectives — many have their own opinions — but what is the majority saying?
On Feb. 14, Reza Shah Pahlavi announced a global action day for everyone to take to the streets and peacefully demonstrate solidarity for the Iranians held hostage back home, and for the innocent lives lost.
Toronto saw over 350,000 protesters, Munich, 250,000, and across other cities, thousands marched in support of Iran, carrying flags of the United States, Israel, Canada and the Lion Sun, an ancient Iranian symbol symbolizing justice. It is important to note this message did not suddenly come out of nowhere — the Iranian diaspora is a voice for the Iranians back home. This is what they chanted on the streets when they protested first.
We are carrying the torch of the brave spirits who laid down their lives courageously to break the cycle. On top of all the pressure on the Iranian people’s shoulders, those of us abroad have come face-to-face with an appalling silence from colleagues, friends and professors that do not speak of the genocide of Iranians at the hands of their own government.
Although suddenly when the war began, the media framed one of the strikes as a deliberate Israel-U.S. attack killing 172 schoolchildren. Media sources immediately released reports, with headlines stating “U.S. at fault in strike”.
It was at this moment that everyone seemed to care about Iran, and not when Iranians stood in front of flying bullets, asking the world to simply be their voice.
I urge you to take a step back in times like these, to think “Why are Iranians celebrating and thanking Trump and Netanyahu for bombing their homeland which they love so deeply?”
Iranians sleep better at night knowing that the regime is slowly falling apart, even though it means their family must live in a constant state of fear. Iranians are not naive and they know exactly who is bombing them, but at this point in time, there is nothing that can drag the nation closer to hell than a savage regime.
The diaspora is tired of loss and hurt, but on top of all of that, they are seeing a selective care and activism towards human life and suffering based on who the aggressor is.
Do you truly care about the Iranian people’s freedom, or is it only fuelled by your deep hatred towards the U.S. and Israel?
The IRGC’s main source of corruption amongst the population is to bury the truth. Iranians are laying down their lives to show the world that when we allow politics to influence our sense of care, the genuine care for the whole of humanity erodes.
Every ounce of our beings is full of hope that this is the final battle.
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