Especially this Year, Why Mahsa Amini’s Death Still Matters

Especially this year, this week’s anniversary of the arrest, beating, and murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022 is more important to be remembered than perhaps ever before. Mahsa’s murder triggered one of the most widespread and enduring protests within Iran and overseas against the Islamic Republic under the banner of “Women, Life, Freedom.” Mahsa’s murder represents the widespread suffering of the Iranian people and misogyny that has victimized Iranian women and girls over nearly half a century. Mahsa’s murder is relevant still today, emblematic of the threats the Islamic Republic on America and the world.

None of this suffering is new, not from my childhood, and not from her Mahsa’s brutal murder four years ago. But this year, if the world ever needed evidence of this brutality and suffering of millions of Iranians, the ayatollahs put their evil on center stage with the massacre of tens of thousands of Iranians, as many as 60,000 in just two days in January, and thousands more since. Just this year alone.

For me Mahsa’s murder is very personal, and something that cannot be stated enough. It unavoidably triggers many traumas I will always bear. But it’s not just her memory, suffering, and horrible murder that cause me trauma.

In 2009, I was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging simply for converting to Christianity, a “crime” in the Islamic Republic called “apostacy.” Thank God I was saved, but in nine months of imprisonment, I suffered tremendous physical and psychological hardships, witnessing rape, torture, and the execution of innocents like my dear friend and cellmate Shirin Alamhooli, who suffered unspeakable torture and whose body was never returned to her family.

Shirin, like Mahsa Amini, was a young Kurdish woman. Her crime? Daring to dream of freedom. So when I think of Mahsa Amini’s murder, it’s not as a distant observer, but as a sister in suffering. Mahsa, was a vibrant 22-year-old Kurdish woman, arrested in September 2022 by the so-called “morality police” for an improperly worn hijab. She was savagely beaten into a coma and died days later in custody. Her murder wasn’t an isolated incident—it was just another example of the regime’s savage war on women, on dignity, on humanity itself. Mahsa’s story remains a blazing torch that we all must carry, illuminating the unyielding evil of the ayatollahs and demanding justice with the prayer that soon their tyranny will be extinguished.

Why does Mahsa’s murder still echo so powerfully today? Because the savagery hasn’t stopped; it has only intensified. On top of the massacre of tens of thousands of Iranians yearning for freedom and the restoration of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the Islamic Republic continues to execute protesters, journalists, and dissidents at a horrifying rate, They hang innocent victims many for vague charges like “enmity against God” or “corruption on earth” not with any pretense of justice, but to instill fear and brutalize Iranians daily. Women are dragged from the streets for defying medieval hijab laws, beaten and raped in detention centers, and victimized through deep seeded misogyny that brainwashes men to think that women are worth only half of a man.

The regime’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” crackdown lingers like a poison in the air, with underground resistance simmering despite the bullets and beatings. This year, the bullets came with an added price, not just gunning down and murdering tens of thousands, but injuring and disfiguring many more times that. Families of victims who were killed were forced to pay thousands of dollars in a crumbling economy for the “cost” of the bullets used to kill their loved ones, before they could retrieve the bodies for burial.

These are not anomalies; they are the regime’s very blueprint for exerting control. Brainwashed from childhood to chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” Iranians are hostages in their own land. The ayatollahs fund global terrorism through proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, exporting their hatred while starving their people. In the once thriving nation of my birth, simple things like water and electricity are scarce.

Mahsa’s death ignited uprisings where women burned their hijabs and men faced gunfire, proving that the spirit of freedom endures. This year tens of thousands of people turned the murder of their loved ones into acts of defiance against the regime demonstrating that the yearning for freedom cannot and will not be extinguished. Mahsa’s murder is relevant still because it remains an open wound that needs healing.  As the regime’s grip weakens, it clings on through instilling fear, brutalizing any resistance, and foreign appeasement.

The savagery of the Islamic Republic knows no bounds. This is a regime that hijacked a proud Persian civilization in 1979, imposing Sharia law that treats women as property and minorities as expendable. I lived it: in Evin Prison I saw political prisoners tortured, Christians like me branded filthy apostates, and Kurds like Mahsa marginalized, tortured, and murdered. Beyond Iran’s borders, the ayatollahs arm terrorists who slaughter innocents, from Israeli civilians to American troops. They pursue nuclear weapons not for energy, but for domination, the tools to carry out their intent to wipe Israel off the map. Their ideology is a cancer, spreading antisemitism, misogyny, and Islamic extremism worldwide.

Negotiations with and appeasement of the regime are a fool’s errand. These only embolden them, as it did under Obama and Biden, allowing them to rebuild to repress. The regime isn’t reformable; it’s rotten to its core, built on lies and its victims’ blood.

The only solution to end this nightmare is to bring down the ayatollahs – regime change, swift and decisive. Iranians aren’t calling for tweaks or talks; they’re demanding the end of this evil theocracy. Today, with their air defenses crippled, the economy crumbling, and not even water or electricity in many places, the time is ripe.

It’s essential to support the Iranian people – amplify their voices, strengthen their resistance, and isolate the mullahs globally. Back leaders like Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who represents the hope of millions yearning for a secular, democratic Iran, not fake reformists or MEK/NCRI cultists who betray us.

This isn’t just Iran’s fight – it’s in America’s vital interest. Yes, even if it costs more to fill up your tank. The Islamic Republic is America’s sworn enemy, funding attacks on U.S. soil, against Americans, and our allies. Their “Death to America” isn’t rhetoric; it’s policy, manifested in cyberattacks, assassinations, and nuclear threats. A nuclear-armed Iran would destabilize the Middle East, empower terrorists, and endanger global security. It’s a goal from which they will not back down, no matter how beaten or how much they beat Iranians. It can never be allowed to happen, at any cost.

Regime change eliminates this threat, opening the door to a stable partner in Iran. Regime change aligns with American values of liberty and human rights, preventing the spread of extremism that could flood our shores. As an American citizen, I urge: don’t negotiate with scorpions. Stand with Iranians, apply unrelenting pressure, and watch a new Persia rise.

Freedom for Iran means security for the world. In God’s name, in memory of Mahsa, Shirin, and countless other victims of the regime, now is the time to end the ayatollahs’ reign forever.