Iranians are uniting behind an anti-war message
Over the Islamic Republic’s four and a half decades, Iranians have tried hard to reform the system from within. They have been thwarted by their own government, but also by the breakdown of the nuclear agreement with the U.S. and other parties when Trump withdrew during his first term, the extreme sanctions that ensued and the recent peace negotiations that Netanyahu hijacked.
They are now in an impossible position. On the one hand, many rejoice at seeing some of their repressors meet their fate. Initially, there were even videos of Iranians throwing parties to celebrate the deaths of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders who had unleashed unfathomable violence on protesters during the 2022 uprising, killing more than 500 people. When Iranian state TV was targeted, forcing the anchor to abandon her hyperbolic propaganda rant and desert the set, videos circulated of Iranians chuckling with schadenfreude.
On the other hand, many fear being robbed of the prospective rewards of the slow work they have done over many years to determine their own fate and secure a brighter future. Those early moments of gratification have now vanished as they seek safety from the bombings of civilian infrastructure that have also killed more than 500 people, many of them women and children.
Iranians are now faced with a desperate moment, in which reckless U.S. and Iranian decisions have culminated in the arrival of an internationally indicted war criminal, who is elsewhere orchestrating what is widely regarded by experts and independent nongovernmental organizations as a genocide, to decide their future. Even the best outcome of this equation would compromise the valiant freedom struggles Iranians have long waged. And so, most Iranians inside the country blame their own government for this tragic outcome as much as they blame Israel.
This is something that civil society groups in Iran have pointed out in response to the war. The Writers’ Association of Iran issued a statement saying, “The war of this fascist regime, whose foundations rest on occupation and genocide, against a state that is built on the blood of opponents and freedom-seekers not only claims the lives of innocent people but stops and sets back years of resistance for freedom and equality.” [Continue reading…]