Given the fragile state of society in Iran, the days of the ruling mullahs are numbered, argues Iranian dissident Hassan Mahmoudi in an op-ed for Tsarizm. This reality forces the barbaric regime to make “bad and confusing decisions” within the whirlpool of different crises.
The latest bout of student protests in Iran came just days after the regime announced it would launch a new police force to tackle political dissent and expression. A fierce fight broke out on May 13 between students at Tehran University who had gathered to protest the compulsory hijab, which has been imposed on the students and Iranian women. “College students would rather die than live in shame,” the students were heard chanting. “Freedom of choice is our right.”
The protests began on the streets of the campus near the Faculty of Fine Arts and continued at the university’s main auditorium where a deputy chancellor of the university tried to calm down the protesters and those who attacked them, Mahmoudi wrote on May 15, 2019.
Reports say protests started in particular against the “Hijab and Chastity” campaign launched by the vigilante groups on the occasion of the month of Ramadan.
The student protest continued inside a university auditorium, where a third clip showed a pro-government activist running toward and punching another man, triggering a scuffle.
Implementation of measures like the US sanctions on oil, industrial metals, and the banking system are severely pressuring the regime, the op-ed added. History teaches us that the mullahs are always ready to deceitfully sue for peace with international bodies, while concurrently challenging international covenants by all means. They have proved this by exporting terrorism to the region and to Western nations for decades. They deceived the IAEA for years until the democratic alternative to this regime revealed Iran’s top secret atomic activities to the world. A threat to resume enriching uranium exposes the truth behind Iran’s nuclear program and shows clearly that it was never designed for peaceful purposes, but was always aimed at the production of nuclear weapons.
The reality is the ruling mullahs in Iran are afraid of the people and their organized resistance as an alternative for a democratic change, an alternative that has a 110-year-old history of activity inside the country. This reality could answer the question of why the regime has been implementing repressive actions under many pretexts. The answer is that there is a growing resistance in cities of Iran and the regime is attempting to stop it.
A NATIONWIDE SUPPRESSIVE FORCE
Last Wednesday, the regime’s chief of police, Hossein Ashtari, announced the assembly of the Razavioun Patrol. The patrol is an extension of the Bassij patrols that have taken place since the nationwide uprising in early 2018. The Bassij forces regularly set up checkpoints in areas where protests begin and harass suspected dissidents, i.e. supporters of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or Mujahedin e Khalq, MEK).
The Razavioun Patrol will undertake similar activities, but are expected to have more funds and resources than their Bassij counterparts.
Gholam-Hossein Gheibparvar, a commander of the Bassij forces alluded to the crackdown last September. He revealed, “we have begun a series of plans to upgrade the IRGC Basij… we believe our patrols are more effective than checkpoints. More recently, these Basij patrols have been dubbed the Razavion network.”
The network was partially rolled out in November; it wasn’t a nationwide scheme until now.
GROWING CONCERNS
The most recent student protest will only increase regime fears that the political opposition is drawing increased support from the Iranian population.
The year 2019 has seen regime officials become increasingly worried about the rising popularity of the MEK, the largest and most organized opposition group. Javad Javeed-Nia, the regime’s Deputy Prosecutor General in Cyberspace Affairs, said: “Considering the fact that our enemies [the MEK] have established cyber armies against the [mullahs’ regime], those who care about our state must launch a media campaign against the enemy, identify the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, and place forward an adequate analysis.”
The state-run Tehran Press News Agency also expressed concerns over the MEK’s use of the instant messaging app Telegram.
The students’ rally must be seen in the context of a regime rapidly losing its grip on power in the face of mounting political dissent. The Iranian public, especially Tehran’s youth, will not stand idly by while the regime embarks on a campaign of violence and repression. They cannot control the plummeting economy and the collapse of the rial, the Iranian currency, which combined with the nationwide protests by striking workers that have continued for the past 16 months, is a clear sign of a failed government that is now desperately searching for help, Mahmoudi writes.
The mullahs are scared. They are right to be. The tide of change is coming.
THE ROLE OF RESISTANCE UNITS
Resistance Units have great communication with the protesters and the ordinary people in Iran. They have expanded their practices in different cities all across the nation according to reports.
They have destroyed icons of regime officials such as Khomeini, Khamenei, Rouhani, the founder, the supreme leader, and the president of this religious dictatorship. They also have set ablaze many Bassiji logos, the paramilitary group related to the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
However, this does not abdicate the rest of the world from its responsibility, the op-ed concludes. The international community is threatened by the Iranian regime and it should not just sit back while this regime commits horrific and brutal human rights crimes. Every government that stands for freedom, democracy, and human rights has a responsibility to strengthen the voice of the people of Iran. After four decades, the time has come – the regime is at its weakest point and its malign meddling in the region is harming interests of all but itself.
Source » ncr-iran