Iran Is Rising. The Democratic World Must Stop Looking Away

Iran is a theocratic dictatorship. The current regime came to power in 1979, following the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah and replaced a monarchy with an unelected system of clerical rule, where ultimate authority lies with the Supreme Leader and bodies answerable to no popular mandate. From its inception, the Islamic Republic has fused religion with state power, criminalizing dissent and subordinating civil rights to ideological control.

For decades, it has systematically oppressed half of its population - women - while imprisoning, torturing, and killing political opponents. Iranian women are legally second-class citizens: compulsory hijab laws are enforced by a “morality police,” testimony by women counts less than men’s in court, and family law heavily favors male guardianship. According to human rights organizations, hundreds of protesters have been killed and tens of thousands arrested during major protest waves, while Iran consistently ranks among the world’s top executioners, including executions following grossly unfair trials. Peaceful protests have repeatedly been met with live ammunition, mass arrests, torture, and death sentences designed to terrorize society into submission.

A couple of years back, the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising shook the country to its core, mobilizing millions across cities, classes, and generations. It came closer than anything in decades to breaking the regime’s aura of inevitability - but not enough to tilt the balance of power. In that context, last year’s Israel’s indiscriminate bombing and regional escalation played directly into the hands of Tehran’s hardliners, allowing the regime to shift the narrative from internal legitimacy to external threat, repress dissent under the banner of “national security,” and rally nationalist sentiment around the flag.

Yet today, despite relentless repression, people are rising again. Courage is spreading faster than fear.

This moment matters. Not because outside powers should “intervene” with bombs or coups - those paths are illegal, immoral, and usually catastrophic unless done to prevent massacres, with the West is usually very good at ignoring - but because the democratic world can tip the balance legitimately.

If leaders like Trump and his allies claim to love democracy so much that they justify illegal interventions elsewhere, a simple question follows: why the silence now?
Why no concerted effort to back Iranian protesters with tools that actually align with international law - targeted sanctions on regime elites, travel bans, asset freezes, diplomatic isolation, and sustained political pressure? Why not rally allies to raise the cost of repression until it becomes unbearable?

The uncomfortable answer is that supporting Iranian civil society doesn’t come with easy resource extraction, pliable client regimes, or quick geopolitical wins. Genuine solidarity is harder than regime-change theatrics.

Standing with Iran’s protesters does not mean choosing chaos or war. It means:

• targeting those who order and profit from repression, not civilians;

• protecting activists, journalists, and dissidents;

• amplifying Iranian voices rather than speaking over them;

• refusing normalization with a regime that governs through fear.

The people of Iran are not asking for saviors. They are asking for space, pressure, and principle - so their struggle can succeed on its own terms.

Let’s stand with the brave people of Iran and help free the country from a brutal, extremist dictatorship, the right way.

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My name is Andrea Venzon. I am a political activist, and I write to help build an independent political space - free from the blackmail of great powers and from resignation. If you like what you read, subscribe. And if you can, become a paid subscriber: it’s what allows me to keep writing, analyzing, and taking positions without masters.

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