Why Real Change in Iran Won’t Come from So-Called Reformists
As we mark the 46th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power and has kept Iran and Iranians hostage for nearly five decades, and as the Iranian Islamic regime is the head of an insidious global network of terror that has caused untold death and destruction around the world, it’s time to look to the future of an Iran and a world without this evil influence. One can only wonder what the world would look like today had Jimmy Carter strengthened the US ally, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in 1978, and how Iran could have become a world leader and global exporter of innovation and not death and bloodshed through extremist Islam.
To do so, it’s necessary to unmask the alleged opposition outside Iran and the so-called reformists inside Iran and to work toward a future where Iran can be free and not the head of the octopus as the global terrorist threat it is, with tentacles around the world.
To do so, we must look at and learn from the past and see how that’s playing out in the present. Otherwise, we will be doomed to repeat past mistakes and not change the future. For instance, today, the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the Baathist regime in Syria that began with his father for five decades is something to celebrate. Both Bashar and his father, Hafez al-Assad, were dictatorial tyrants who were responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and many more in the Middle East.
However, succeeding Assad with the support and influence of Turkey’s Islamist regime, Syria now has a new dictator who is nothing more than a radical jihadi terrorist in a suit. Today, Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, who took over following Assad’s fleeing, is being celebrated. Even the US has removed a $10 million bounty on his head. Unfortunately, world leaders are tripping over one another to welcome Al-Sharsa, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, which is foolish, dangerous, and very concerning.
It reminds me of how in 1979 when Khomeini came to power in Iran. France and the UK polished the demon then and portrayed him as a spiritual angel to Iranians, welcoming him back from exile to Iran. Western politicians are masters of whitewashing terrorists, portraying them as normal leaders when it comes to an immediate solution and for their narrow interests. They do not understand that a terrorist is a terrorist even if they dress him in Western clothes and trim his beard. They also do not understand Islam and the evil nature of Islamic extremism embodied by Khomeini then and Al-Sharsa today. Based on the teachings of Islam, Muslims are allowed and even encouraged to engage in hypocrisy, deception, and telling outright lies for the sake of strengthening Islam and their political gain. That is the Islamic principle known as taqiyya, and is still widely practiced.
Previously, I discussed the fake opposition and its agents outside Iran. But we also must understand and expose the fake opposition inside Iran, which Iranians loathe and know too well. These are the ones trained by the Islamic regime to be sent to Iranian prisons as spies among political prisoners, to infiltrate and brainwash dissidents inside Iran and mislead the real opposition groups.
With the calculated help of alleged “reformists” who have infiltrated and have strong connections in Western countries, this fake domestic opposition draws international recognition, even winning a Nobel Peace Prize. This was not the first time the Nobel Committee awarded a prize that was foolish, if not fraudulent. Through ignorance or just plain stupidity, their voices are given wide exposure through secular media in America and around the world, allegedly representing bad actors and influential people from inside Iranian prisons. But it’s all a fraud perpetrated on the Iranian people and the world.
So-called “reformists” orchestrate a fake opposition inside Iran to present Western politicians with different options for a possible future leader after the fall of the regime. Another mission of the fake reformists and their agents is to portray inaccurate information about the situation of prisons and human rights violations in Iran. On one hand, they criticize the prisons and the behavior of their interrogators, and on the other hand, they release videos dancing with no Islamic hijab to show how happy they are inside prisons. The videos are widespread in Iran, and Iranians know the truth.
Narges Mohammadi is a prominent example of fake opposition inside prison. She is the close friend of Faezeh Rafsanjani, daughter of Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the mastermind of reformists who was able to deceive Iranians for so many years. Faezeh goes to prison occasionally through a fake arrest and to control the opposition from the inside. I know her and her family very well since they are from the same city in which I was born. Narges’s Mohammadi’s husband also is antisemitic and a supporter of Sharia law. There is much evidence about them and people like them, proving what Iranians call treason. In Iran, this is clear. In the West, most don’t care. Iranians know the truth and document that using #NargesMohammadi.
The goal of the fake opposition in Iran is to mislead ordinary Iranians and to control any protests and rallies inside and outside the country. They strive to discourage full regime change in Iran by influencing Western politicians. For instance, they focus mostly on the reforms and specific issues such as human rights violations, hijab and other forms of misogyny and gender apartheid, while Iranian people are demanding full regime change from which they have suffered for nearly 50 years.
So-called reformists have been exposed and are rejected by the majority of Iranians because of their past support of the regime. They have no support inside the country. On the other hand, the regime magnifies the fake opposition from within Iran by highlighting them on national TV as a true opposition to depict the regime as fighting against the “reformists” while ignoring or avoiding covering any news about the true opposition that is supported by the majority of Iranians. Through this, the regime misleads and manipulates the West to believe that the “reformists” are truly against the regime, rather than the reality that its leaders, including the current President Masoud Pezeshkian, being hand selected by the “Supreme Leader.”
For the future of Iran and the well-being of its citizens, the majority of Iranians support Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah Mohamad Reza Pahlavi. While exiled in 1979, Pahlavi remains the most unifying leader because of his father’s and especially his grandfather’s service to the Iranian people and modernizing the country. He is the only opposition leader trusted by millions of Iranians wishing for his return. Whether they state it or not, Iranians owe an apology to Pahlavi’s family for not standing with them in 1979 and not appreciating their freedom and prosperity under his father.
I support Reza Pahlavi’s return and restoring Iran’s greatness, yet my hope is that he does not repeat the same mistakes of his father in appeasing radicals and not acting forcefully against them. Unfortunately, Iran still is not ready for a Jeffersonian democracy. Iran needs a strong leader who knows what is best for the people and one who can restore Iran’s pride in their own country and rebuild an economy that’s been devastated by decades of the Ayatollahs funding the IRGC and global terror. That leader must be able to instill confidence in its people, as well as around the world, and to bring the necessary investment to build what the Ayatollahs destroyed. Iranians must have the freedom to practice their own religion as they choose, not as dictated by Islamic extremists who put me in prison and sentenced me to death for the “crime” of becoming a Christian. Any ideology or religion that encourages violence and intolerance must be purged.
Iranians know that the force preventing this is radical Islam, the extremist Sharia law and ideology of the Islamic regime. The cornerstone of this is freedom for Iranian women, for whom the Islamic hijab represents their being second class and dominated and controlled by men under the misogynist Islamic ideology. To see true freedom and liberation of the Iranian people and the world from the Islamic extremism that has created so much pain, suffering, and death for so long, there can be no support for alleged reformists who do not truly seek change but just shuffling the deck of who will control Iran under the appearance of a kinder and gentler Islam. Iranians know that is a lie. The world needs to help make true reform in Iran a reality.
Supporting a different Islamic terrorist group or a radical Muslim is not a solution for the future of Iran and the Middle East. Western leaders must stop leading their nations down the same wrong path, repeating the same mistakes that have plagued the Middle East. They must listen to the true victims of the regime and discern between fake regime-supported opposition and real opposition if they want to bring a good change in Iran that benefits all Iranians, the Middle East, and the world on the whole.
The West does not understand that Iranians are fighting against two Islamic Republic regimes: one inside Iran and the other outside Iran. The Islamic Republic regime and its supporters outside are no less dangerous than the one in Iran. With this week’s 46th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that has caused so much death and destruction, let us pray and commit to working together that this will be the last such anniversary under the heels of the ayatollahs.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images / Via Handout
Published Date: February 6, 2025
Marzi also is the founder and president of NEW PERSIA whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians. www.NewPersia.org
Originally published February 06, 2025.
