The nationwide Iran uprising is rapidly approaching its third month. The regime’s failure to quash what the protesters are calling a ‘revolution’ despite increasing brutality on the part of the security forces attests to the fact that the uprising is indeed organized and with a purpose, reflected in one of the most prevalent chants, “This is the final message, the target is the regime as a whole.”
The uniformity of the slogans, the protesters’ creative tactics, and their impressive defiance, as well as the uprising’s staying power, can be attributed in large measure to the low profile and methodical work of the Resistance Units affiliated with the main organized opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khala (MEK). This explains the regime’s desperate and increasingly frightening rhetoric about the MEK and its growing influence, especially among the youth and women.
Brief on Iran’s nationwide uprising
November 6, 2022
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)#IranRevolution2022 #IranProtests2022
#آزادی_آزادی_آزادی pic.twitter.com/A8r0gILi8L— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 7, 2022
On Sunday, the official public session of Majlis (parliament) perfectly reflected Tehran’s fear of the MEK and the nationwide uprising. Some 200 MPs staged a ridiculous protest calling for the “execution of rioters” and repeated their four-decade-long slogans against the MEK.
This circus happened two days after the security forces opened fire on innocent worshipers in Khash, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, for the second time in the past two months. Since the beginning of the protests, Tehran and its apologists have tried to paint ethnic minorities as separatists. But whether in Sistan and Baluchistan or Kurdistan provinces, locals chant slogans such as “From Zahedan to Tehran, my life for Iran” or “From Kurdistan to Tehran, my life for Iran.”
Seeing their failure, regime MPs on Sunday changed this slogan and chanted: “No to Albania, no to Germany, my life for Iran.” By Albania, they were, of course, referring to the MEK’s home, Ashraf 3, near the Albanian capital, Tirana.
This term, “My life for Iran,” has featured many slogans in widespread protests in the last decade and reflects the Iranian society’s defiance of the regime and its policies. By saying, “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my life only for Iran,” Iranians rejected the regime’s warmongering policies. And now, by chanting “From Kurdistan to Tehran, my life for Iran,” they neutralize the regime’s efforts to quash protests by ethnic minorities by labeling them as separatists.
By referring to Albania and the MEK, authorities once again showed their paranoia about the organized opposition, which they have spent tens of millions of dollars to demonize, and portray as a “fringe grouplet” with “little to no popular support.”
In fact, as protests persist and spread across Iran, more officials acknowledge the rising trend of youth approaching the MEK and its vast and expanding “Resistance Units” network inside Iran.
“Yesterday, one of my friends told me something which left me in pain. He said he met one of these rioters on the streets and asked him whether he hated the Islamic Republic more or the hypocrites (the pejorative term the regime uses to refer to the MEK). The guy responded to my friend, ‘first of all, their name is not the hypocrites. It’s called the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Secondly, what have they done?” the state-run Ofogh TV quoted Hossein Sazvar, a state-affiliated propagandist, on November 5.
Iran state-run TV: Regime propagandist Hossein Sazvar: One of my friends said he had asked a protester who did he hate the most, the Islamic Republic or the hypocrites (meaning the MEK)?" His reply: "First of all, not the hypocrites, but the MEK. Secondly, what have they done?" pic.twitter.com/Ha0kSE1OaS
— Ali Safavi (@amsafavi) November 7, 2022
During his Friday prayer sermon, Mohammad-Hossein Hosseini Hamedani, Ali Khamenei’s representative in Alborz province, said: “The rioters’ case is completely different. They should be dealt with firmly, as they have disrupted society. They are repeating the same norm-breaking actions the MEK undertook in the 1980s. We never forgive nor forget the MEK.”
His remarks come a few days after brave Iranians clashed with the regime’s fully armed security forces in Karaj, Alborz province.
The regime is correctly afraid of its organized opposition. Authorities are haunted by their nightmare of being overthrown, as they have failed to quash protests or reverse its course. Iranians are following the lead of the Resistance Units in confronting the regime as the uprising continues. The uprising deserves concrete support from the international community. The world should recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense and resistance against the brutal religious fascism ruling Iran. This is the first and foremost practical act of solidarity with Iranians.