The voice of the Iranian revolution

 “No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come” ― Victor Hugo

Almost a month has passed since the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people. The unique resistance against the heavily armed and criminal regime of the Islamic Republic is a new page in the historical struggle against oppression. 

The regime’s repressions and atrocities are not news to anyone. Since its violent establishment in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic republic’s response to all social conflicts has always been repression, namely, the imprisonment and the killing of protesters. 

However, recent demonstrations have shown that fear can no longer prevent the Iranian people from joining in the various social movements growing within its society. Women are at the forefront of transforming fear into rage. What is happening with the mounting resistance against state violence and religious fundamentalism promises a new era. 

"What you are witnessing in Iran has a long history of resistance against a theocratic regime that seized power after the 1979 revolution with violence and brutality..." explained Elham Hoominfar, Assistant Professor Global Health Studies at Northwestern University. "...Since the 1979 revolution, legally and officially, women have become second-class citizens in ways that were not the case prior. Before 1979 we had many gender inequalities in Iran, but this gender apartheid was new..."

We should not be swayed by the crocodile tears of Western governments who seek to encourage the unrest and discontent for their own advantage. It merely offers the so-called anti-imperialists a pretext to parrot the propaganda of the Islamic Republic that the protesters are simply the puppets of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

 In contrast, the World Socialist Movement offers our solidarity to the women and men of Iran and it supports their campaign to throw off the yoke of the ayatollahas.

Violence is an effective means for a minority to hold on to power. But when the majority are moving toward revolution, the violence of the state will be unable to hold them back, or at least not for long.