While a wave of public outrage has grown over the Islamic Republic’s reckless actions that have led to the deaths of Iranian citizens during its counter-attacks, reports indicate suspicious and threatening calls to some former student activists. According to evidence circulated on social media, Motahareh Gouneyi, a former student activist, has become the target of anonymous, menacing intelligence calls. These calls have coincided with the government’s media propaganda campaign and the heightened security atmosphere in the country.
These actions are occurring even as many citizens and political activists have made it clear in no uncertain terms that the Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people, and that the regime’s warmongering bears no relation to the will of the nation. In one of her tweets, Motahareh Gouneyi stated explicitly:
“I am a citizen of Iran. Not of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I stand for a free, prosperous, and enlightened Iran—an Iran without tyranny or authoritarian warmongering.”
In another tweet, this former student activist voiced her anger directly at the rulers:
“How astonishing are the hosts, the hangers-on, and the political beggars… Now, over the bloodshed of a few killers, they cannot even let the word ‘homeland’ pass their lips!”
Her words reflect the widespread fury among a large segment of civil society, who again emphasize that the current war is not the people’s war; it is the product of a regime’s military and regional ambitions that, from day one, have chosen oppression and conflict over reconstruction and peace.
The simultaneity of these threats against political activists with the intensification of military fronts is a clear sign that the Islamic Republic seeks to crush any independent or anti-war voices—a war that neither began with the people of Iran nor should they be its victims.
