The Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) held a photo exhibition in front of the United States Department of State on October 21, commemorating Iran’s 120,000 martyrs, fallen for freedom. They also paid tribute to 1500 martyrs of the major Iran protests of November 2019, as its anniversary approaches.
Several American prominent figures and lawmakers attended this event. Judge Michael Mukasey, Former Attorney General of the United States; Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State from 2003 to 2005; Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco; former Senator Robert Torricelli; Linda Chavez, former White House director of public liaison; and Professor Ivan Sascha Sheehan, director of negotiation and conflict management at the University of Baltimore, were among speakers of the event.
This photo exhibition contained thousands of pictures of Iranian martyrs for the cause of freedom and democracy. OIAC held this event near the anniversary of the nationwide Iran protests in November 2019.
The extensiveness of the Iran protests in 2019 demonstrated Iranian society’s restiveness. It also showed the people’s willingness to overthrow the Iranian regime. Although the regime was able to oppress protests temporarily, ongoing protests by all walks of life across Iran, coupled with the activities of defiant youth and the “Resistance Units” of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), have kept the flame of the November uprising ablaze.
When the regime executed Navid Afkari, Iran’s wrestling champion who was arrested during the 2018 uprising, to intimidate the public, rebellious youth attacked the court, which sentenced Navid to death. Also, MEK Resistance Units filled walls of major Iranian cities with Navid’s pictures and vowed that they would continue Navid’s path.
With the escalating social and economic crisis, Iran is more than ever on the verge of a revolution, as described by many of the regime’s state-run media and think-tanks. Also, the domestic and international pressure on the regime has intensified the mullahs’ infightings. Recently the regime’s infighting reached a new height when the rival faction called for the impeachment and execution of the mullahs’ president Hassan Rouhani.
In this regard, the state-run Resalat daily on October 22 wrote: “Given the current sensitive economic and political situation, the least effect of creating instability in the executive branch of the country amid the severe fluctuations in various markets, increasing inconsistencies in the executive organs, is more pressure on people and more damage to the public.” The damage to the public is none other than the regime’s security, which not only is damaged but will shatter to pieces in the next uprising.
As Hamdeli daily wrote on October 18, “Our country is exposed to an extremely dangerous phenomenon due to negligence and lack of professionalism in the field of policy-making and allocation of resources. Therefore, the minds of the country’s policymakers must be drawn to issues beyond poverty, such as misery. If we do not deal with this situation honestly, we are likely to be exposed to extremely dangerous disruptions, riots, and crises.”
