The Islamic regime in Iran reportedly killed 36k+ protesters in just two days. For comparison, that’s the entire population of a city like Beverly Hills, nearly two sold-out Madison Square Gardens, half of a full Wembley Stadium, or the entire student body at Boston University.
20 years ago I landed in Tehran. We spent a couple of days in the city and then found a driver that took us to Esfahan and we saw Imam Square, an astonishing place.
We went to Shiraz, the city of poets. Visited Persepolis.
But what stood out were the people. Incredibly kind, welcoming and open.
They shared their stories, introduced their families to us, strangers. Offered food and drink.
Surprisingly they even shared their opinions of the regime. The oppression and threats they lived under. Some had been tortured, others had missing family members.
They, like every human, wanted freedom.
And they, like every human, deserve freedom.
My thoughts turn to the situation currently unfolding in the Middle East, especially in Iran and Syria, where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives. I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society. #PrayTogether
The young people in Western universities should be absolutely inspired by the incredible bravery of people their age in Iran who are going out risking their lives because they just want the same freedoms and opportunities that they enjoy
I'm not seeing that and it's depressing.
I fully supported our strike on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.
Build on this momentum if further kinetic actions are necessary.
These brave protesters deserve our full support to break this brutal regime.
As an American Soldier, I grew up hating Iran.
We fought their proxies. I watched friends bleed from their weapons. Over time, I did what war teaches you to do: I simplified. I reduced a nation to a threat, a flag to a simple chant, and a people to a slogan. I turned to caricature that which required complexity to understand.
“Death to America.”
I saw the videos and filed the whole country away as lost. I told myself I didn’t have the bandwidth to separate a regime from the people trapped beneath it. Iran exported terror before I was born. It’s all I’ve ever known them for.
But over previous weeks I finally looked closer.
Beneath the jackboot of the Ayatollah is not what I was taught to hate. It’s a people pressed flat by force, surveillance, fear, and faith weaponized into chains. It’s courage strangled daily and still refusing to die.
I am not easily moved by talk of regime change. Wanting freedom is cheap. If people truly want it, they bleed for it. They risk everything. Careers, families, their own lives. Anything less is just words said safely.
The Iranians appear to be paying that price in spades.
Unarmed. Unprotected. Outmatched. And still they stand, sing, bury their dead and came back the next day.
That changes how I see them.
Power fears one thing above all else: people who have nothing left to lose.
Guns can suppress. Prisons can delay. Terror can exhaust. But when a people decide they would rather die standing than live kneeling, history starts to bend.
The lesson is simple, and it is hopeful.
Regimes are loud. Nations are quiet. But it is always the quiet ones (the men and women who endure) that outlast the slogans. Tyranny looks permanent right up until the moment it isn’t. And when it breaks, it’s never because of words.
It begins when ordinary people decide the weight is no longer bearable. And if the Iranians win, they will know a quiet satisfaction the rest of us inherit secondhand. The hard pride earned by fighting, and dying, for a country that is truly yours.
As I follow the Iran protests, my mind always conjures this old photo representing indefatigable Iranian women, by another Iranian woman, Newsha Tavakolian. This time, I hope, they will prevail.
If you claim to support human rights yet can’t bring yourself to show solidarity with those fighting for their liberty in Iran, you’ve revealed yourself. You don’t give a damn about people being oppressed and brutalised so long as it’s being done by the enemies of your enemies.
🚨 WOW! The Iranian regime SHUT OFF electricity where massive protests are in Tehran…
…so the protestors used the flashlight on their phone to ENSURE everyone sees just how many of them there are.
Blocking the will of the people always fails! 🔥🔥
@PeteButtigieg please say something in support of the brave people in Iran.
You speak some Persian & have a unique ability to connect in this moment.
This is an Iranian renaissance. A Berlin Wall moment.
We’d like to hear from
you.
https://t.co/E6Q0aK9gcX
@PeteButtigieg please say something in support of the brave people in Iran.
You speak some Persian & have a unique ability to connect in this moment.
This is an Iranian renaissance. A Berlin Wall moment.
We’d like to hear from
you.
https://t.co/E6Q0aK9gcX
No more tweets. We need action. 90 million humans are being held in an internet blackout for days while being slaughtered.
They need the world to care and help.