The Islamic Republic has perpetuated 47 years of violence on the people of Iran, both in life and in death. Since the nationwide internet and intranet blackout, which began on January 8th, we have witnessed this brutality at arguably its most extreme.
From the thin trickle of information that has escaped Iran in the absence of internet and independent media, disturbing and heartbreaking images have begun to surface. There are reports of mass killings and of hospitals overflowing with the bodies of protesters. These scenes of tremendous loss demonstrate the lengths the government is willing to take to silence a people’s legitimate right to protest.
In order to suppress ordinary Iranians’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom of movement the government has engaged in extrajudicial killing and arbitrary detention on a large scale. Reports from human rights organisations indicate thousands of peaceful protesters have been killed, including children, and suggest tens of thousands of people have been arrested, although the full scale of what is happening is still unknown. The evidence we do have is chilling. Video footage taken at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre, a morgue in Tehran, shows hundreds of dead Iranian protesters sealed in body bags, while anguished families move among them and search desperately for their loved ones.
As Iranians in the country continue to live through this vicious wave of repression, Iranians in the diaspora seek to bear witness and wait for news from their families and friends. One colleague has learned that her uncle was shot in the head and killed. Another, unable to reach loved ones, has spoken of watching the Kahrizak videos again and again, scanning the bodies for familiar faces, terrified of what she might find.
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We also fear deeply for the safety of all those who have been arrested, particularly following the statement by Iran’s prosecutor general that protesters are mohareb, or “at war with God”. This charge carries the death penalty under Iranian penal law. The Islamic Republic’s history renders this fear painfully credible. The mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s is a legacy that continues to shadow the present day.
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The Iranian regime’s shameful treatment of the families of those who it has killed has been one of repeated degradation. There are reports from the current protests that families are being asked to pay the state exorbitant fees in order to recover the dead bodies of their loved ones. Previously families of those executed have been obliged to pay for the rope or the bullet used during executions.
Historically, following protests and executions, authorities have worked systematically to erase the dead from public sight and memory. They have seized bodies and buried them in undisclosed locations, thus delaying or refusing their rightful return to families. They have also tightly controlled funerals to prevent mourning from becoming resistance.
Why does the regime fear its own people so profoundly that it would kill thousands, and imprison tens of thousands? Because it knows the people hold the power to determine a new future for themselves and for Iran.
The current uprising was born out of crushing economic hardships. On December 28th protests erupted in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar sparked by widespread despair over massive inflation and a collapse of the Iranian rial. What began as an expression of economic anxiety quickly transformed into a political uprising.
Demands for basic dignity broadened into demands for systemic change. The protests quickly spread through more than 100 cities across all the Iranian provinces. This moment has arrived against the sharp backdrop of a deepening environmental crisis in Iran where ecological degradation, choking pollution and severe water shortages have hollowed out livelihoods, displaced communities, and eroded faith in the state’s capacity to secure a sustainable future.
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Previous protests in 1999, 2009, 2017, 2019, and the Women, Life, Freedom uprising in 2022, each exposed the widening gap between the aspirations of the Iranian people and corruption of the regime. In turn they also faced the regime’s reliance on violence to maintain power. Yet, unbowed, Iranians have continued to take a stand and to carry forward demands for political freedom, economic justice, bodily autonomy, and an end to authoritarian rule. Today, more than ever, there is a clear call from across diverse communities within Iran for the downfall of the Islamic Republic.
What would follow, however, is unclear. Iran is a highly diverse country, home to multiple ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities with varied political demands. There is some support for Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former Shah, as an immediate alternative to the current regime. Some Iranians are nostalgic for the Pahlavi era (1925-1979). However, such nostalgia often overlooks its authoritarian nature; it ultimately collapsed amid economic recession, pervasive repression and the systematic silencing of independent media and political parties.
Whatever is to come next, this moment demands caution. Iran’s future cannot be disentangled from broader global currents, including the rise of ethnonationalism and right-wing politics worldwide. Any path forward must be shaped by the democratic aspirations of Iranians themselves, rather than foreign interventionism. To do anything less than give complete focus to those who are on the front lines of the current protests is to do a profound disservice to those in Iran who are risking their lives for the hope of a better future.
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Iranian authorities must not be allowed to repeatedly perpetrate crimes under international law with impunity. Amnesty International has urged global diplomatic action, and the Department of Foreign Affairs postponing the accreditation ceremony for Iran’s ambassador to Ireland is a welcome first step in this regard. As a further measure against impunity Amnesty has also recommended the use of “international justice mechanisms” and “prompt criminal investigations and prosecutions” in order to stop the violence.
In a joint statement involving 30 NGOs and shared by Front Line Defenders there is an urgent call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all those jailed in Iran for their peaceful activism or expression”. And a group of Iranian feminists has issued a statement calling for sustained political pressure to immediately stop the killings and repression in Iran. This contains an urgent demand for the restoration of internet and phone service in Iran, as well as an opportunity for readers to sign the document as a way to help amplify the voices from communities enduring horrific state violence in Iran.
Prof Roja Fazaeli, who was born in Iran, is established professor of Law and Islamic Studies at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway. She moved to Ireland in 1992 but still has aunts, uncles and extended family living there.
