The tragedy that the Iranian people are living through and the reasons for their recent revolutionary upsurge do not date from today. His fight is that of a great people, whose democratic aspirations for justice and equality have been stifled for exactly 44 years.
It was indeed during the freezing month of February 1979 that the anti-monarchist revolution in Iran sent the Pahlavi dictatorship into the dustbin of history. At the time, hope was reborn among Iranians to build a country based on the rule of law and democratic and modern values. But the fundamentalist regime of Khomeini very quickly monopolized power and established a brutal Islamist dictatorship, which still presides over the destinies of Iran.
The February Revolution remains vivid in the memory of Iranians, however, because it showed that, when a people chooses the path of freedom, nothing can stop it; that the will of a people who want to emancipate themselves is stronger than all tyrannies. As long as we are ready to pay the high price. This is the path chosen by Iranian youth, following in the footsteps of the generations that preceded them.
When I look at the history of Iran, with the medieval power installed by Khomeini and its cruel tortures, reported by resistants and witnesses of this period, I always consider us, me and those of my age, as indebted to a generation full of courage. Despite the darkness that had again covered the whole of Iran, she refused to bend and, with all her selflessness, she resisted Khomeini. It is the torch that we have taken up and passed on to today’s youth who are demonstrating in the streets.
A new revolution
Observers agree that the movement triggered in September 2022 with the death of the young Mahsa Amini was a turning point in the process of the disintegration of the mullahs’ regime and that nothing will ever be the same again. The process of change is firmly under way, although it includes phases of varying intensity; it promises a near end to the regime of Ali Khamenei and his cronies, especially his brutal Revolutionary Guards.
The intensity of the repression demonstrates that a mild revolution will not be enough to overcome this bloodthirsty regime. However, state violence does not reassure the authorities, the flame of revolt remains bright in all sectors of Iranian society. One sector at the forefront of the protest movement has been the university. Since their reopening, the campuses have experienced regular unrest, sometimes filmed and broadcast on social networks. For the time being, the demands remain centered around the release of the detained students, but it is the end of the dictatorship which is the general watchword of the resistance units.
Several of my comrades are now being held in Iranian jails. There are many young women among them, considered leaders of the movement. The fate of thousands of imprisoned young people remains worrying, since Amnesty International denounces inhuman physical and psychological torture and appalling death sentences. Having suffered the abuse of torturers during my five years of detention for having campaigned against this corrupt regime, I can attest to the dangers faced by all those who are today prisoners of the murderous machine of the mullahs. The world must mobilize for their release.
I was arrested in February 2009 upon leaving university. Consumed with worry, my family searched for me for weeks. At the time, I was studying computer science at Tarbiat Moalem (Kharizmi) University in Tehran.
The interrogation began around 8 am and sometimes lasted until midnight. At each of the interrogation sessions, I was beaten. They wanted me to publicly denounce the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a resistance movement that is the bane of the clerical regime. I will never forget the long months of isolation. “No one can hear you. We are alone here, and we can do whatever we want with you,” my torturers told me.
I could regularly hear the screams of other tortured prisoners; some told me later that they had been raped. The only time I could see my brother, arrested at the same time as me, was when they brought him to torture him in front of me, to break me.
Reject all dictatorship
About a year after my arrest, there was a five-minute whirlwind trial. Together with my brother, we were both sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state and undermining security”. Despite all the pressure, I did not bend.
After my release, I managed to escape the shackles of the regime and joined Europe, where I want to be the voice of my people for freedom and equality. On Sunday February 12, Iranian democrats organized a large demonstration at Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris, in support of the movement for change in Iran. To reject any form of dictatorship, whether monarchical or theocratic.
I was at their side to call on France and the other European countries to end their policy of appeasement with the mullahs and to sanction the machine of repression in Iran, in particular the Revolutionary Guards, for their roles in the recent violence against the protesters. The Iranian people are suffering and counting on the solidarity of free spirits around the world.