{"id":571,"date":"2026-03-12T21:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nasrinparvaz.org\/web\/?p=571"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:47:19","slug":"who-will-stand-up-for-the-iranian-people-as-death-rains-on-them-from-the-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasrinparvaz.org\/web\/2026\/03\/12\/who-will-stand-up-for-the-iranian-people-as-death-rains-on-them-from-the-skies\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will stand up for the Iranian people as death rains on them from the skies?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I <\/span>have been watching the news from inside Iran, unable to hold in my sorrow. As an Iranian who was imprisoned and tortured by the regime,\u00a0I have been pleading<\/a>\u00a0with the world\u2019s human rights organisations and media to keep a focus on the country\u2019s plight. But now I see US-Israeli bombs falling on Iran, and some Iranians celebrating this war while innocent people die. My heart is breaking for my country.<\/p>\n

Let us be clear: when Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu conspired to launch their war, it was not out of a desire to free the Iranian people from the tyranny of the regime.\u00a0Netanyahu said on the second day of the war<\/a>: \u201cThis coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years.\u201d He has named this operation \u201cLion\u2019s Roar<\/a>\u201d. Meanwhile, Iranian monarchists celebrate the carnage, waving the shah\u2019s version of the country\u2019s flag with its crowned lion and sun.<\/p>\n

While the regime has\u00a0chosen the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, another man in exile is dreaming of becoming the king. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah \u2013 whom Iranians struggled so hard to depose in the revolution of 1979 \u2013 now believes he is \u201cuniquely positioned<\/a>\u201d to lead the country.\u00a0He tweeted<\/a>\u00a0on 1 March: \u201cMy heart aches for the 3 American heroes killed and the 5 wounded by the regime. The Iranian people are forever in their debt. To their grieving families: please accept our immense love, deepest condolences, and eternal gratitude.\u201d He is more American than Iranian. If he were truly Iranian, he would express sorrow for the thousands of Iranian civilians who have died in this latest attack, including more than 150 schoolgirls who are\u00a0now believed to have been killed<\/a>\u00a0by a US strike.<\/p>\n

We cannot judge the people in Iran raising the monarchist flag the same as those doing so outside the country. Some diaspora monarchists were once Islamic guards, and the US-Israeli war may bring them into power. Those in Iran experienced eight years of war with Iraq and know very well that war brings horror and death. They have since died many times over by the hand of the regime. A drowning person will try to grasp on to anything, even if it still pulls them down further. This is why some are accepting of Pahlavi. In 1953, the UK and US governments executed a coup that placed Pahlavi\u2019s father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in power. We are now witnessing an attempt to do something similar.<\/p>\n

Trump, Netanyahu and Pahlavi have once again asked the people to rise up. I do not think people have already forgotten the last call for an uprising. On 13 January,\u00a0Trump told Iranians<\/a>: \u201cKeep protesting \u2026 help is on its way.\u201d No help came, and\u00a0tens of thousands of protesters<\/a>\u00a0were estimated to have been killed. Trump has again told the people to rise up and \u201ctake over your government<\/a>\u201d. But no help comes \u2013 only bombs.<\/p>\n

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Netanyahu\u2019s statement, Pahlavi\u2019s similar call and Trump\u2019s request for people to keep demonstrating in effect condemn people to death by allowing the regime to frame those who pour out on to the streets demanding bread and freedom as foreign collaborators. Since taking power, the regime has routinely executed activists by accusing them of being agents for the US or Israel. Alongside those who were killed in the recent uprisings, more than 50,000 were arrested. Among these innocent people are hundreds of children.<\/p>\n

Making these demands \u2013 of innocent people in a country where collaborating with the US or Israel is punishable by death \u2013 is reckless and deadly. It appears to me that many powers feared the success of the people\u2019s uprising. Not only the regime, but Israel and the US too have seemed very worried that people might overthrow the Islamic Republic themselves. An uprising led by ordinary people would be uncontrollable. That is why this regime change is being carefully managed and not allowed to emerge naturally from below.<\/p>\n

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Critics who say that the goal of this war is not Iran\u2019s liberation, or that bullets don\u2019t bring food and freedom, are then attacked by monarchists. \u201cYou are with us, or with the regime,\u201d they say. This is how monarchists understand the politics of our time \u2013 as they were never politically active and they have never experienced prison or torture.<\/div>\n
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When the regime took power, my generation struggled against them. Tens of thousands of us were executed while many monarchists packed up and left the country. Monarchists have condemned Iranians who are against invasion and the murder of civilians. One of their slogans, I have heard, is: \u201cDeath to mullahs, leftists and Mojahedin<\/a>.\u201d Imagine that \u2013 after decades of executions by the regime, monarchists are now openly calling for the same noose to silence the same people.<\/p>\n

Now that these powers are united against the people of Iran, the rest of the world should come together and stand shoulder to shoulder against this massacre of civilians from the sky. I am hoping that the people of the west will come out against this war and demand its end.<\/p>\n