This is the (Iranian) Regime

"I've never heard anyone say, 'Why is Israel doing this. Everyone was saying, 'This is the regime, they are the root cause of this. They put us in this situation'."

"Every day for school, even in elementary school, there are flags of the U.S. and Israel on the floor -- [students] have to walk over the flags to start our morning."

"For the long-term situation, for the safety of the Jewish and Israeli people and the rest of the world, the only long-term and sustainable solution is regime change."

"Iranian civil society needs help from the world to do this."

Maral (identity withheld) 

 

"Economically, this is a country that, 40 years ago, was one of the fastest-developing countries in the world." 

"Since the revolution, it's become one of the most stagnant economies in the world -- thanks to corruption and mismanagement, but also the incredible international isolation as a result of the regime's foolish international policies, sponsorship of terrorism and pursuit of nuclear weapons." 

Kaveh Shahrooz, lawyer, activist, Macdonald-Laurier Institute fellow  

People step on the posters of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) take part in a protest, in Brussels, Belgium March 20, 2023.   (photo credit: REUTERS/Johanna Geron)

 

Most Iranians in spite of being exposed to years of institutionally enforced contempt and hatred against Israel and the United States, are not, in the wake of Israel's air attacks on the Islamic Republic, and the U.S.'s decision to bomb the country's three major nuclear installations blaming them for the situation they found themselves in. Identity concealed in fear of reprisals to herself and her family, 'Maral' spoke of the generalized view of ordinary life in Iran. Her sentiments in describing ordinary Iranians' view of the situation places matters in a  different perspective than that of the Islamist government that has been oppressing its people since 1979.

 

The Iranians whose views are that the country can only emerge from its isolation and dark reputation -- based on its record of promoting terrorism and its mission of becoming a nuclear nation while threatening its neighbours and the world at large -- through the difficult-to-achieve removal of the current theocratic government, to replace it with one that would focus on returning to its former governance of moderation and steady momentum toward political and social modernization.

 

Maral described how proscribed life has been from a young age to maturity in Iran, as the state engaged relentlessly in modelling its youth in the image of its ferocious detestation of Western democracy and its deadly hatred of Israel, never referred to other than as the "Zionist entity". Official regime slogans meant to reinforce among its population a loathing for the West and a country symbolizing a Western presence in the Middle East, popularized calls for 'death to America' and 'death to Israel' were as expected as the Nazi salute in 'Heil Hitler'.

 

Antiquated forms of punishment such as stoning, flogging and mutilation are still practiced in Iran and are in fact quite common. While some may argue that such punishments are necessary for preserving social order, the reality is that they are still used in modern-day Iran for the sole purpose of instilling fear, suppressing dissent, and discouraging opposition to the regime.

Women in Iran have also faced various forms of punishment for not adhering to the compulsory hijab laws, including arrest, imprisonment, fines, and even physical abuse. According to Dr. Shirin Ebadi, (Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Iranian Judge turned human rights activist), things were not always this way. Prior to 1979, women could choose not to wear the hijab and there was freedom of religion. By contrast, nowadays, atheists can be executed and Muslims who convert or change their religion can be punished and even put to death. Besides Islam, only Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism have been afforded some degree of recognition under the constitution. Other religions are not recognized at all, and adherents of these marginalized faiths have been persecuted and denied their citizenship rights. This includes the Baha’is, the Yarsanis and the Yazidis.  

Iranian university students have adopted a silent but telling pushback to the expectations that they follow the regime expectations of them, by exercising careful restraints to avoid treading on the outstretched flags in a growing move to resist the brutal theocracy. A large number of those students have dedicated themselves to supporting a growing desire to bring in regime change.

Ontario Bar Association 

 

Well over 200,000 expatriate Iranians are Canadian citizens, many arriving after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, others arriving more recently, from 2011 forward. Among them is an estimated several hundred who act as agents of the Iranian government on Canadian soil, promoting the Republic's malicious anti-U.S., anti-Israel narratives and supporting the Palestinian claim to the Jewish ancestral land that Israel sits upon, as their very own patrimony that Jews wrested illegally from the Arabs living there in the modern era.

 

The vast majority of Iranian-Canadians are outraged at the presence of Iranian agents of the Islamic Republic permitted by Canada's lax immigration division to remain in Canada along with the indifference of the Canadian government, despite proven links to the Regime. Living in Canada, Iranian agents threaten, harass and even plan assassinations of Iranian-Canadians judged by their regime handlers to constitute a risk to their plans of disarming their targets, deemed to present problematically to Iranian aspirations.

 

Among their targets, high-profile international human rights activist and former Parliamentarian and cabinet minister, Irwin Cotler. He was informed a year ago by the federal police, (RCMP), that he was the target of a plot to assassinate him. The community of ordinary Iranian-Canadians have been warning the Canadian government of the presence of high-placed Iranian officials in Canada, enjoying the country as a haven while operating to create divisions within communities in Canada. In so doing, to the present, speaking to deaf ears.

 

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. iranintl.com