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Showing posts from July, 2023

When the Supreme Leader Speaks, Who Still Listens?

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  By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
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Iran's Morality Police in New Crackdown on Women

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  By Struan Stevenson Having learned no lessons from the nationwide uprising that exploded last September following the brutal killing in custody of the young Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini, the Iranian regime’s misogynist morality police are on the move again. Last week, the Tehran Criminal Court sentenced a woman to two months in prison for hijab violations. The judge, Ali Omidi, accused her of “anti-Iranian behavior.” In a more sinister outburst, he also ordered that she should be subjected to compulsory health checks, as her failure to wear the hijab was a clear display of “disease” symptoms that “must be treated.” Such claims are frighteningly reminiscent of judgements in the former Soviet Union, where people who were considered anti-communist were deemed to be insane and were sent for electric shock treatment in psychiatric hospitals.The morality police tracked her down using images from a ‘smart’ CCTV camera. Similar cameras have been installed in public places in towns and cities...
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A global cry for an end to the appeasement policy toward Iran’s regime

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  By Matin Karim The annual Free Iran summit, which was held from June 30 to July 3, was a global call to world leaders to correct their failed policy toward Iran’s regime. The summit’s message, which was backed by the majority of 29 parliaments and an open letter signed by 117 former world leaders, spoke of the disastrous outcome of the policy of appeasement toward the mullahs’ regime ruling Iran and warned world leaders to take a firm stance toward this regime. The four-day event once again showed the capacity of the Iranian Resistance to rally the world and send a global warning about the imperative to deal with the threats of the religious fascism ruling Iran. In addition to 500 distinguished personalities who spoke at the four-day event, more than 3,600 parliamentarians from 40 countries added their support by signing statements which underlined the need for and end to the appeasement policy. Some of the speakers at the event drew a comparison between the mullahs’ regime and H...
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