Thank you for this Elise. I recently read two books by Marjan Kamali where she takes you through the time period of the 1950s to the early 2020s in Iran. I can't recommend The Lion Women of Tehran enough, both because it is a beautiful book, and because it sheds some light on what everyday people experienced during those time periods.
Thank you for talking about this, but the scale of the massacre is much more horrific. The massacre took place mainly on Jan 8 and 9, when (what most news outlets ignore) thousands of Iranians took to the street because of the call of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (more on him below). With the large numbers of defenseless people out on the street, the IRGC, Basiji plainclothes agents, and significant numbers of foreign mercenaries (because they don’t have the manpower to withstand the people without this type of foreign intervention) opened fire with machine guns, including those mounted on trucks like you saw with ISIS (likely some overlap there). The number of dead is easily over 20,000. HRANA is investigating over 17,000 deaths in addition to the 5,000 that have been confirmed, but the number keeps growing. Bodies are being moved by refrigerated semis. Many are missing, because they are holding them back in case of a foreign strike, to say that the US/Israel killed them, even though our strikes were much more targeted. When family members are able to claim the bodies of their loved ones, they have to pay the government the equivalent of about $5,000 for the “bullet tax” or sign a document saying that their loved one was killed by the “rioters” not the government. It’s sick. These are stories we need to amplify because the voice of the actual people needs to get out to the outside world.
I mentioned Reza Pahlavi because that is who they are and were chanting for to be their transitional leader. He is not his father (though the Shah’s reign was vastly preferable to the current regime), and he has a plan for a transition to democracy. The US, the EU, and the UN should be platforming him and no longer dealing with the current IR officials who have so much blood on their hands and have proven themselves to do nothing but lie and cover up their atrocities so they can keep their money and power.
We can do much more to pressure our governments to stop dealing with the corrupt officials, kick their nepobaby relatives out of our country (especially when so many of the poorer Iranian people can’t manage to get legitimate asylum here), and stop pretending that “reform” of this regime is going to do anything. Thousands upon thousands of people have given their lives for regime change and we ought to take the responsibility to protect more seriously.
Finally, there was the mention of getting more Farsi-language programming into Iran. It exists. Iran International and Manoto are great online news outlets, though Manoto is now underfunded and a shadow of what they once were. Iran International English has an Instagram account, if you want more accurate information. The people distrust the BBC because they happily propagate IR lies, and maybe VOA now as well, because of a recent change in leadership. But social media exists and it’s more of a problem of getting information out than in.
Thank you to anyone who bothered reading this. I just want to do what I can to get the voice of the Iranian people out to the world. 🕊️💚🤍❤️
Hey Emily. Thank you and thanks for your reply to my comment. I had one question that I wonder if you have some insight about. My friend is often discussing the IR folks that the US government has continued to listen to and support and you mention them above and how there is no way to create actual regime reform. Why does the US government continue to work with these folks if it is commonly known that they are mouthpieces for the oppressive regime? That is one thing I just don't understand.
Sorry, didn’t mean to ignore your question. I don’t know that I have any special insight, because that boggles my mind as well. But if I’d have to simplistically summarize what I’ve seen, it seems they are succeeding by influencing the political left ideologically and the political right (and left) by the usual reasons of money and power—but you’d have to look at the surrounding countries and not just Iran itself for that fuller picture.
I’ve recently seen a couple posts by someone with the handle theunexpectedspy, apparently a former CIA and FBI agent in the Middle East. I’ve only just looked into her so I can’t give any solid reviews but it seems like she’d know what she’s talking about. She said that the big lynchpin is Qatar, alleging that they profit from an unstable Middle East and their shared, stated goal with the IR (and other ME nations) of obliterating Israel. She also mentioned in a second video that Qatar shares a massive natural gas field under the Persian Gulf with Iran. So a strong and democratically free Iran would upset those ties (their current governments both fund Hamas and Hezbollah) and could threaten their country’s source of wealth.
This affects us because of Qatar extensive work behind the scenes lobbying both Republican and Democratic administrations. Multiple people in her comments were saying Qatar spent over 250 million to lobby in America, more than Israel. So I checked Open Secrets and confirmed that’s the totals since 2016: https://www.opensecrets.org/fara. Others mentioned that the large donations to universities could be another large influencer, especially for public perception. A quick search about this claim was interesting, because all the articles talking about this seemed to be Jewish, and it sounded like it was revealed by the current Dept of Education, so take that as you will. This is Wikipedia’s page on Qatari involvement in US universities: “since the early 2000s, it has become one of the largest foreign funders of U.S. higher education with investment of more than $5.1bn in American universities.” I can’t research this further right now, but do have to note the strange ideological alliance between many far left liberals and radical (far right) Islamist entities, since one group champions things like human rights for women and LGBTQ individuals and the other specifically oppresses these people and restricts other freedoms, because the radical Islamists are controlling the narrative on which type of oppression to care about (both are wrong!). This type of alliance also happened during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and ended with the Ayatollah’s government quickly imprisoning and murdering the Communist forces after they helped them gain power.
But since we’re talking about Qatar, we can’t forget the $400-million plane they gave to Trump or the fact that Witkoff also appears to be compromised by Qatari money. We’ll see if that works to funnel them towards pointless negotiation and reform talks. Europe is also compromised, although Hannah Neumann in the European Parliament has finally gotten the EU to recognize the IRGC as a terrorist org, which I hope will be the first step of many.
So anyway, those could all be factors behind why governments are happy to be appeased by false promises to keep the status quo (i.e., their own money, power, and influence). Sorry to be so long-winded. Obviously, it’s complicated….
No problem. I appreciate you getting back to me. Um, all I can think to say is WOW! It is so complicated. And honestly it all makes a lot of sense even with the complications. The US especially with the current administration is definitely working to protect its own interests but hearing about the investment by other Middle East countries, specifically Qatar, makes it all even more complicated but on some level it also simplifies it or makes it makes sense.
The crazy thing you bring up about the ties between the US and Qatar while at the same time Qatar and the IR share the same goal of obliterating Israel. So at least at the moment the US is basically two-timing the Middle East and Israel.
And sadly, the citizens suffer. The people just trying to live their lives in peace are the ones who suffer. I really appreciate your time. I am going to keep an eye out for the other account you mention too.
Thank you for sharing this. I have a close friend who is Iranian and this has helped me understand a little more the complexity of this particular moment in time. She very much wants the US to intervene and place the Crown Prince in power but I am confused at this choice and wonder how realistic it is to expect such great things from this move. Thanks for the book suggestion from another commentor. I also really enjoyed Reading Lolita in Tehran. It helped me to understand how complex the revolution was.
Most Iranians will tell you the same thing. I definitely don’t think we should be idealistic about the Crown Prince and what he’ll be able to accomplish, but largely because of what the US might try to leverage if they “help out.” There was talk of Trump thinking about installing a “reformist” former IR official—this would not allow for real regime change. Any officials in this government are complicit with the murder of thousands for their made-up capital crime of “enmity with God,” because they say a protestor is going against them as the representatives of God himself. They use this sentence to even condemn *doctors* when the injured protestors came to their hospitals. One of these is Dr, Alireza Golchini, a surgeon who is sentenced to be executed, simply for trying to treat injured people. Patients are also being dragged from the hospital and executed by a bullet to the forehead. The Iranian people say that *anything* is better than these 50 years of tyranny, even if great things cannot be accomplished. The more nations involved in ostracizing the IR regime and supporting a transition to democracy, the better. I just wish it was anyone but Trump who would champion this case. 😢
Thank you for this Elise. I recently read two books by Marjan Kamali where she takes you through the time period of the 1950s to the early 2020s in Iran. I can't recommend The Lion Women of Tehran enough, both because it is a beautiful book, and because it sheds some light on what everyday people experienced during those time periods.
I was thinking the same thing— historical fiction is an excellent primer!
Thank you for talking about this, but the scale of the massacre is much more horrific. The massacre took place mainly on Jan 8 and 9, when (what most news outlets ignore) thousands of Iranians took to the street because of the call of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (more on him below). With the large numbers of defenseless people out on the street, the IRGC, Basiji plainclothes agents, and significant numbers of foreign mercenaries (because they don’t have the manpower to withstand the people without this type of foreign intervention) opened fire with machine guns, including those mounted on trucks like you saw with ISIS (likely some overlap there). The number of dead is easily over 20,000. HRANA is investigating over 17,000 deaths in addition to the 5,000 that have been confirmed, but the number keeps growing. Bodies are being moved by refrigerated semis. Many are missing, because they are holding them back in case of a foreign strike, to say that the US/Israel killed them, even though our strikes were much more targeted. When family members are able to claim the bodies of their loved ones, they have to pay the government the equivalent of about $5,000 for the “bullet tax” or sign a document saying that their loved one was killed by the “rioters” not the government. It’s sick. These are stories we need to amplify because the voice of the actual people needs to get out to the outside world.
I mentioned Reza Pahlavi because that is who they are and were chanting for to be their transitional leader. He is not his father (though the Shah’s reign was vastly preferable to the current regime), and he has a plan for a transition to democracy. The US, the EU, and the UN should be platforming him and no longer dealing with the current IR officials who have so much blood on their hands and have proven themselves to do nothing but lie and cover up their atrocities so they can keep their money and power.
We can do much more to pressure our governments to stop dealing with the corrupt officials, kick their nepobaby relatives out of our country (especially when so many of the poorer Iranian people can’t manage to get legitimate asylum here), and stop pretending that “reform” of this regime is going to do anything. Thousands upon thousands of people have given their lives for regime change and we ought to take the responsibility to protect more seriously.
Finally, there was the mention of getting more Farsi-language programming into Iran. It exists. Iran International and Manoto are great online news outlets, though Manoto is now underfunded and a shadow of what they once were. Iran International English has an Instagram account, if you want more accurate information. The people distrust the BBC because they happily propagate IR lies, and maybe VOA now as well, because of a recent change in leadership. But social media exists and it’s more of a problem of getting information out than in.
Thank you to anyone who bothered reading this. I just want to do what I can to get the voice of the Iranian people out to the world. 🕊️💚🤍❤️
Hey Emily. Thank you and thanks for your reply to my comment. I had one question that I wonder if you have some insight about. My friend is often discussing the IR folks that the US government has continued to listen to and support and you mention them above and how there is no way to create actual regime reform. Why does the US government continue to work with these folks if it is commonly known that they are mouthpieces for the oppressive regime? That is one thing I just don't understand.
Sorry, didn’t mean to ignore your question. I don’t know that I have any special insight, because that boggles my mind as well. But if I’d have to simplistically summarize what I’ve seen, it seems they are succeeding by influencing the political left ideologically and the political right (and left) by the usual reasons of money and power—but you’d have to look at the surrounding countries and not just Iran itself for that fuller picture.
I’ve recently seen a couple posts by someone with the handle theunexpectedspy, apparently a former CIA and FBI agent in the Middle East. I’ve only just looked into her so I can’t give any solid reviews but it seems like she’d know what she’s talking about. She said that the big lynchpin is Qatar, alleging that they profit from an unstable Middle East and their shared, stated goal with the IR (and other ME nations) of obliterating Israel. She also mentioned in a second video that Qatar shares a massive natural gas field under the Persian Gulf with Iran. So a strong and democratically free Iran would upset those ties (their current governments both fund Hamas and Hezbollah) and could threaten their country’s source of wealth.
This affects us because of Qatar extensive work behind the scenes lobbying both Republican and Democratic administrations. Multiple people in her comments were saying Qatar spent over 250 million to lobby in America, more than Israel. So I checked Open Secrets and confirmed that’s the totals since 2016: https://www.opensecrets.org/fara. Others mentioned that the large donations to universities could be another large influencer, especially for public perception. A quick search about this claim was interesting, because all the articles talking about this seemed to be Jewish, and it sounded like it was revealed by the current Dept of Education, so take that as you will. This is Wikipedia’s page on Qatari involvement in US universities: “since the early 2000s, it has become one of the largest foreign funders of U.S. higher education with investment of more than $5.1bn in American universities.” I can’t research this further right now, but do have to note the strange ideological alliance between many far left liberals and radical (far right) Islamist entities, since one group champions things like human rights for women and LGBTQ individuals and the other specifically oppresses these people and restricts other freedoms, because the radical Islamists are controlling the narrative on which type of oppression to care about (both are wrong!). This type of alliance also happened during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and ended with the Ayatollah’s government quickly imprisoning and murdering the Communist forces after they helped them gain power.
But since we’re talking about Qatar, we can’t forget the $400-million plane they gave to Trump or the fact that Witkoff also appears to be compromised by Qatari money. We’ll see if that works to funnel them towards pointless negotiation and reform talks. Europe is also compromised, although Hannah Neumann in the European Parliament has finally gotten the EU to recognize the IRGC as a terrorist org, which I hope will be the first step of many.
So anyway, those could all be factors behind why governments are happy to be appeased by false promises to keep the status quo (i.e., their own money, power, and influence). Sorry to be so long-winded. Obviously, it’s complicated….
Hey Emily,
No problem. I appreciate you getting back to me. Um, all I can think to say is WOW! It is so complicated. And honestly it all makes a lot of sense even with the complications. The US especially with the current administration is definitely working to protect its own interests but hearing about the investment by other Middle East countries, specifically Qatar, makes it all even more complicated but on some level it also simplifies it or makes it makes sense.
The crazy thing you bring up about the ties between the US and Qatar while at the same time Qatar and the IR share the same goal of obliterating Israel. So at least at the moment the US is basically two-timing the Middle East and Israel.
And sadly, the citizens suffer. The people just trying to live their lives in peace are the ones who suffer. I really appreciate your time. I am going to keep an eye out for the other account you mention too.
Excellent explanation of the complexities of US involvement in Iran.
Thank you for sharing this. I have a close friend who is Iranian and this has helped me understand a little more the complexity of this particular moment in time. She very much wants the US to intervene and place the Crown Prince in power but I am confused at this choice and wonder how realistic it is to expect such great things from this move. Thanks for the book suggestion from another commentor. I also really enjoyed Reading Lolita in Tehran. It helped me to understand how complex the revolution was.
Most Iranians will tell you the same thing. I definitely don’t think we should be idealistic about the Crown Prince and what he’ll be able to accomplish, but largely because of what the US might try to leverage if they “help out.” There was talk of Trump thinking about installing a “reformist” former IR official—this would not allow for real regime change. Any officials in this government are complicit with the murder of thousands for their made-up capital crime of “enmity with God,” because they say a protestor is going against them as the representatives of God himself. They use this sentence to even condemn *doctors* when the injured protestors came to their hospitals. One of these is Dr, Alireza Golchini, a surgeon who is sentenced to be executed, simply for trying to treat injured people. Patients are also being dragged from the hospital and executed by a bullet to the forehead. The Iranian people say that *anything* is better than these 50 years of tyranny, even if great things cannot be accomplished. The more nations involved in ostracizing the IR regime and supporting a transition to democracy, the better. I just wish it was anyone but Trump who would champion this case. 😢
This is a fantastic review of Iran / US relations - thank you!