The People of Iran

The most important story in the world right now is the popular uprising in Iran.

This past week, tens of thousands of Iranians have begun marching against Iran’s brutally repressive regime. The current theocracy has been in place since 1979, when it deposed a U.S.-allied monarch. Today’s protests are fueled in party by a collapsing economy and deteriorating way of life. Inflation in Iran is rampant and food is hard to afford. One dollar is now worth 1.47 million rials, to give you a sense of it. The rial lost 80% of its value this year alone. Power outages and water rationing are the norm in a country of 92 million.

This is a regime that brutalizes girls for not wearing a hijab properly while its own officials’ family members are shown living it up on social media. The corruption is endemic.

Internationally, Iran has been the primary sponsor of both Hamas and Hezbollah, and was the lone major country that celebrated Hamas’s October 7^th, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel. A couple years ago, I interviewed Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian dissident and author in New York. Iranian security forces not only arrested her family members in Iran, but the Ayatollah Khamenei regime then sent assassins to kill her in her Brooklyn home. She’s fortunate to still be alive.

If you need a word for the current leadership of Iran, evil comes to mind.

Tens of thousands of Iranians all over the country are now rising up in protest. The Khamenei government’s response has been savage: shooting and killing hundreds of innocent protesters, arresting thousands more, and a blanket shutdown of the Internet nationwide.

And yet the people march. Every hour now seems like it could make history. Will the regime succeed in quelling the protests, which are more widespread and impassioned than ever? The hope and courage being displayed by everyday Iranians is inspiring. The people, young and old, are willing to risk their lives in pursuit of a brighter day. It feels like this time could succeed where all others have failed.

But the overthrow of Khamanei likely won’t succeed without help. President Trump has warned that the U.S. will respond to the killing of protesters. The U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities just 6 months ago. The U.S. would be very well-served by an overthrow of Khamanei, as would the Iranian people and the world.

I hope that the U.S. does intervene on behalf of the people of Iran. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move on from an evil, repressive regime that sponsors terrorist organizations and starves and murders its own people. We should seize this opportunity and support the will of the Iranian people. What is America for, if not moments like this one?

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