NCRI Staff
NCRI – The Iranian Regime recently conducted a phone study to determine support for regime change and, as you can imagine, it was flawed from the outset, as political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh explains.
If you lived in a suppressive theocracy, where the leadership routinely liken political opposition to a rebellion against God which is punishable by death, would you answer truthfully in a phone survey about your views on the Regime?
Likely, the answer is no. After all, the Iranian people have recently taken to the streets in their hundreds and thousands to protest against the Regime and they have been routinely arrested and murdered by the Regime.
It is worth noting that the poll does not provide a detailed analysis of the process or demographics, leading many to believe that the poll was not even conducted.
Still, the Iranian Regime report that they did conduct this survey and that they found little support for regime change- only 16.4%- which would mean that the overwhelming majority were fine with things as they were.
There is no way this could be true.
In his op-ed on Arab News, Dr. Majid Rafizadeh wrote: “More than a quarter of young people aged between 15 and 24 are unemployed; more than 40 percent of the population lives below the relative poverty line; and at least 11 million people are currently living in slums around the large cities.”
Supposedly, the vast majority of those people do not have a problem with the way the political system disadvantages them.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh explains that a much better way to gauge public opinion in Iran is by looking out of the window and seeing the Iranian people loudly calling for regime change. These brave people are holding up placards to express their distaste and are chanting things like “death to the dictator,” “death to (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei,” “death to (President Hassan) Rouhani,” “reformists, hardliners, your game is now over,” “mullahs, have shame and let go of our country,” and “we will die but will take our country back.”
This is behaviour that could get them killed under Iran’s harsh laws, but they’re doing it anyway.
Ironically, the poll results contradict official findings from the Iranian Interior Ministry, in early February, that “people’s trust in the regime has been diminished, institutions have lost their effectiveness” and that the issues raised in the protests were “30% economical, 70% political, and [that] 75% of the people sympathized with the demonstrators in 80 Iranian cities.”
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh wrote: “In a nutshell, the public opinion of Iranian people can be more effectively found in the people’s sophisticated, nuanced and delicate day-to-day resistance to the regime, the widespread protests and chants, as well as activities on various social media platforms in both the Persian and English languages.”
