And they are going to remain
I was 14, an ordinary day in the religious studies class at the ninth grade, within the borders of the Islamic republic of Iran. The teacher gave us an in-class task; to read a chapter of the book and make questions about it. I looked at the text; one sentence was something like “the god communicated with the prophet through revelation”. So, I made this question:
What was the communication tool between God and the prophet?
1: iPhone 4 (highest model of the time)
2: Galaxy S2
3: Telepathy
4: Revelation
Obviously, the teacher did not like the question I designed, so he sent me directly to the office. There, after getting reprimanded, being told that I don’t deserve to be a Muslim, and summoning my parents, things went smoothly and I continued that year and four other years in the Iranian educational system.
By leaving Iran, I intentionally escaped the sovereignty of a religion. I escaped the sovereignty of stone-minded people who believed that a deity gave them a sacred mission. And to pursue this delusional mission, making all Iranians miserable was just a negligible side effect to them. Of course, if you were loyal and faithful to them, give them assistance and obey orders, you didn’t need to be miserable; you could just use the extracted resources of the realm to live. They saw themselves superior human beings, and an inferior person like me had to exit the border in order to have a normal life, and it seems it’s going to continue like this, since they are going to remain in power.
This war is bringing our biggest fears to life; The Islamic regime remains in power, and I think it will become more like North Korea this time. What a waste indeed! Iran has suffered infrastructure losses, and Its citizens suffered war trauma; but still, there has been no regime change. The approach to this war even resulted in a divide amongst the diaspora Iranians. Trump’s vicious threats went far beyond what many Iranians, who initially supported the war, could tolerate. Even I was saddened by the thought that my childhood city might not have access to electricity tomorrow.
Whenever my friends inside Iran could reach an internet connection, our conversation was something like this:
Me: Are you still alive?
Them: Yes, but our city is being bombed right now.
Me: Oh, you don’t have any potential targets in your neighborhood, do you?
They: Not that I’m aware of.
Since last June, being aware of your neighbors has been vital for Iranians. Your neighbors could be the reason for your death. Imagine this: several governments and IRGC administrative buildings are located in populated areas, and there are no sirens, shelters or interception systems. The bombs weigh thousands of pounds, so no matter how accurate they are, they will annihilate not only the target building, but also anything in its vicinity.
The number of Iranian civilians who have died in this war is significantly lower than the number of protesters massacred by the Islamic regime in just two days back in January. But still, those civilians who died in this war are the loneliest. They will be ignored even by diaspora Iranians, let alone international actors. They only receive attention from a source they hated, the Islamic regime. What a dismal fate.
This war is clearly the consequence of the policies pursued by the Islamic regime over the past 47 years. I have given a great deal of thought to all the reasons why I oppose Islamic sovereignty in Iran. Ultimately, I concluded that there is only one fundamental reason, with all the others being sub-branches of it. I hate the Islamic regime because it has deprived my society of its potential. It has prevented Iran from becoming the country it could be. A country located at the crossroads of the world with such rich natural and human resources should be an economic superpower. Yet the Islamic regime has driven the country to the point that a large proportion of its population cannot obtain enough calories to survive. And these circumstances will now last for an even longer period of time.
