By Navid Felker
The people of Iran have been participating in one of the most significant uprisings in recent times in the country. Since Friday 15th November, the people have been bravely voicing their concerns and making the regime understand that they will not tolerate the regime’s corrupt and brutal rule any longer. There is no doubt that they want regime change.
So far, there have been at least 450 protesters killed and thousands more injured. There have also been thousands of protesters arrested. Many of those killed by the suppressive forces and anti-riot police were shot at point-blank range or in the head or chest.
The response of the international community is critically faced with such state-ordered brutality. The Iranian regime has explicitly threatened the people of Iran, saying in no uncertain terms that those playing leading roles in the protests will face execution. Given the regime’s reaction to the uprising thus far, it is likely that this threat will be honored.
The regime has lost control and there is nothing it can do to appease the people that have been repressed for four decades. Many of the people in the streets were born into this repression but they are determined to change the course of their future and the future of generations to come. Many of the people on the streets were not born at the time of the 1988 massacre in which the regime killed more than 30,000 protesters, but they are still horrified by this crime against humanity.
The main opposition to the Iranian regime, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is backing the people and is working towards freedom, democracy, the respect of human rights, peace and equality. President-elect Maryam Rajavi has established a 10-point plan to this end.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the President-Elect of the NCRI has called on the international community to stop meeting the Iranian regime with silence regarding its crimes and its abuses of human rights. She has also called on the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to take into account the situation in Iran that needs immediate attention, urging him to convene a session of the Security Council so that the Iranian regime may be held accountable.
#IranProtests: Number of killed #protesters surpasses 450-List of 154 victims from 36 cities identified https://t.co/e2uqC8RRGh#FreeIran #HumanRights
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) 26 november 2019
The current uprising in Iran is going to be a pivotal moment for the history of Iran. It is time for the international community to get on the right side of history and back the people and their legitimate demands. The people of Iran are asking for nothing more than what is already taken for granted by the United States and Europe – the respect of fundamental rights.
Proper democracy has a chance of being installed in Iran and it is essential for the West to play its part. The collapse of the Iranian regime will not just benefit the people of Iran, but it will also benefit the many countries in the region and around the world that have been a victim to the Iranian regime’s meddling, interference, brutality, and its malign policies.
