“Today is the end of the riots,” Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, recently promised. However, organized efforts of protesters have run for 11 weeks now, foretelling a seismic transition in Iran.
Repeating Salami’s failed promise, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei implied that security gained control over the revolution while demonstrations occurred.
The movement seems to be invigorated by each regime murder. Mourning murdered protester Hadis Najafi, Karaj, Iranians recently chanted, “Each protester killed will be replaced by 1,000 more.” The execution of 23-year-old protester Mohsen Shakeri on Dec. 8 brought a similar response. And both are examples of how weak and desperate the Iranian regime is.
Women’s revolution leadership depends on Mojahedin-e-Khalq Resistance Units. Over the past five years, testimonials from these activists have seen fivefold growth.
Judging by their slogans alone, Iranians want regime change.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a south Texas congresswoman, said, “I applaud the leadership of women in the ranks of Iranian resistance, as well as the visible participation and sacrifice in Resistance Units across Iran.” My area congresswoman, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, also a south Texas congresswoman, also spoke passionately in support of the resistance.
Remarking on the women’s “extraordinary courage,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they’ve been “standing up, speaking up, speaking out for their basic rights.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 7 approved a bipartisan resolution for the protesters. Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said “the courage and defiance the Iranian people continue to display … have served as an extraordinary example for all of us … who believe all people deserve a say in their livelihoods and way of life.”
Today, the revolution encompasses all Iranian society.
Esra Panahi, 15, recently became the first killed by security at high school. Other teenagers were killed in other ways.
“I’m proud that my son was martyred for freedom. He was martyred for freedom of his land,” Hassan Daroftateh said at a funeral of his teenage son killed by security. Authorities arrested him thereafter. That power has been demonstrated often. People defied road closures to march toward cemeteries. Authorities then fired into crowds.
The regime’s buying time. However, the Resistance Units and the National Council of Resistance of Iran have grown since 1982.
Iran isn’t Iraq. And the regime isn’t what it was. Thus, the free world must support Iranians’ revolution more. Ayatollahs’ putridity must also be made more public.
Ali Soudjani
President
Iranian American Community of Texas
Houston
