N.Weeks into the anti-government uprising among Iranian citizens, human rights activists are saying: fatalities There are over 400 people, including 60 children, while thousands more are in custody. Most are imprisoned, wounded and murdered by stalwart groups trained by the regime to suppress dissent at all costs.
Daily reports of brutal state crackdowns on their own citizens, tragic killings of individuals, baseless detentions, and a series of repeated forced confessions continue to put their lives at risk for millions. It has further enraged many Iranians. for change. Only a handful of protesters, mostly high-profile figures, have been released on bail in recent days to serve the regime’s propaganda.
In addition to other forces of the Iranian government, much of the violence carried out against protesters is organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The IRGC, known in Persian as “Sepah e Pasdaran e Enghelab e Eslami” and meaning “Guardian Corps of the Islamic Revolution”, is the most powerful, diversified and militarized army of the Islamic regime. One of the prongs. This powerful entity reports to the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and is subject to US sanctions. terrorist groups, etc. The group is armed with its own naval, aerospace, intelligence, ground and foreign forces (Quds) and its own militia (parliamentary volunteers known as Basij). Anxiety and resentment among Iranian citizens.
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The IRGC is the founder of the Islamic Republic with the sole purpose of creating an army of religiously responsible believers whose sole mission is to protect the ‘values’ and ‘ideologies’ of the ‘Islamic Revolution’. Founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini. ” From domestic and foreign threats. Over time, however, the IRGC has developed into both a political and commercial force, expanding its influence over the country’s most powerful conglomerates and industries, including oil and gas, and over many of the country’s political issues. exerted a strong influence.
But in essence, the organization has not abandoned its mission to defend the “revolution”. Today, that revolution is supported only by an ideologically influenced minority.
“They are armed, ideologically brainwashed, and easily mobilized,” says a Tehran political science student who has encountered the group multiple times. “The Basij is one of the Islamic regime’s strongest and most sophisticated works.” It added that it created a defense mechanism.
“When you create an army through a rock-hard ideology that is deeply ingrained in their minds, intertwined with every aspect of their lives, and present throughout their identity, you have an invincible force, a concrete wall. It encompasses their entire existence that can never be broken,” said the student, who asked not to be named for his own safety.
Since the death of 22-year-old Masa Zina Amini on September 16, Iranians have taken to the streets in more than 130 cities across the country. Religious thugs and opportunists (known as plainclothes forces) engage in the professional, political, and economic interests of the society, not necessarily out of their devout ideological convictions.
Over the weekend, in what is widely seen as another propaganda move by the Iranian regime, Iran’s attorney general made vague remarks about the “shutdown” of the notorious morality police. This is according to the official Islamic Republic broadcast, other government officials have yet to confirm the decommissioning of the facility.
On the other hand, it is widely known that although such radical revolutionaries are few in number, their forces are extremely strong. An individual TIME spoke to for this article estimates that the group makes up about 10% of Iran’s 83 million population.
Some of these crusaders are criminals who enlist in the military to shorten their sentences. Others are opportunistic embezzlers who continue to make big bucks through their loyalty to the system. With this system, we have obtained some of the largest commercial, industrial and petroleum deals and are involved in many profitable deals within the public and private sectors. Over the years, much of this wealth has increased further as a result of domestic corruption and lack of regulatory systems, as well as economic collapse due to Western sanctions. This is while many of the children and families of these high-ranking regime insiders and IRGC officials are spending big bucks abroad, including in the US, UK and Canada.
In the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, which was hotly contested, the regime brutally and swiftly stifled peaceful protests in favor of “reform candidates” in what became known as the “green movement.” rice field. Although never confirmed, many in Iran believed at the time that the regime used its regional influence to raise paramilitary forces from Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to step up attacks against its own people. believe. IRGC dissent domestically.
At the time, General Hossein Hamedani, the commander of the IRGC who was killed in Syria in 2015, himself was responsible for using such forces to crush the 2009 protests. In his last interview, he confirmed the presence in Tehran of his 45,000-strong Basij army and thousands of “hooligans and vigilantes” who had been kept in safe houses until released by his orders. did.
Basij members stand next to anti-US, anti-British and anti-European banners during a rally to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy.(Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Morteza Nikoubazl-NurPhoto/Getty Images
“I heard that some of these security forces spoke Arabic and some spoke Persian with a strange accent.” explained that it requested Sarah grew up in an ultra-religious household. Although her own parents did not work for the government, she interacted with her IRGC family through religious gatherings and government-sponsored events. Sarah recalls being recruited to participate in moral policy outside Tehran when she was in her early 20s and recently divorced.
“I was desperate to make money,” she said, explaining how a friend (whose family was a member of the Guard) encouraged her to join the basij at a local mosque. “I said no. I knew
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Today she has let go of the long black veil known as a chador and, in many ways, abandoned the family that had so long confined her to an isolated, confined community of like-minded revolutionaries. A 15-year-old single mother raising her son while working as a
In many respects Iran’s female-led battle, perhaps the most incomprehensible is the ideology of the female Basij army. “This is a phrase I have heard many times from these women. They believe that women are made to give birth and to raise zealots, soldiers of Islam,” says Sarah. . Her husband dropped them off at a religious event and then left with another woman. ”
In a recent conversation with a young woman who was detained by the Basij for 48 hours after being detained at a protest, Sarah saw her anger and rage firsthand.
“She couldn’t speak for days.” She believes the woman’s short time in prison was due to her family’s ties to the government.
“She was so sick for days that she thought she had been raped. “She told me in detail how the guys came to her and picked their favorites every night about the other girls they arrested.”
But for Sarah, this should come as no surprise.
“Their hearts are sick. They believe that hurting you makes them happy and they can’t have anything. If so, I believe it’s because they know better,” she explained, adding that the religion they practice is nowhere near true Islam. It’s not what people believe, it’s all propaganda and lies, masquerading as their version of Islam.”
Sarah and many other Iranians have hope. But more than that, they are exhausted, fighting an impregnable force.
“We may not trust each other, we know the protests are disorganized and discordant, but we have nothing to lose. I’ve seen it — the worst of the worst. Nothing prevents you from risking everything, losing everything.
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