The people of Iran have spoken – they want this regime gone

The weekend started with our teenage daughter being invited to join a protest in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, the woman detained by Iran’s “morality police” for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely. 

The night before the protest, our younger daughter, who is nine years old, asked if we could make our own posters. As I was helping her to put her own ideas onto the board, I asked what she was going to protest against. To my amazement she described her understanding of the situation, why it made her upset, and what gave her hope for change. I felt proud of her not only for understanding the issue, but also for not surrendering to defeatism. Children are more insightful than we give them credit for. Give them a perspective to see life from, and they will probably make wiser decisions than you did. 

On Sunday after church, we joined hundreds of other protesters in front of the Iranian Embassy in London. Flags, banners, posters and painted faces were everywhere. Anti-riot police had cordoned off the embassy and did their best to maintain order and protect the building and the protesters. It was so refreshing to see a lot of our church members, as well as the church leaders, among the protesters. We were there because we were outraged at the unending and increasingly unbearable injustices committed by Iran’s rulers. We felt we had to do something. After prayer and reflection, social media posts and hashtags, issuing statements and signing petitions, taking part in this demonstration was the next expression of our righteous anger and moral outrage. As theologian Rev John Stott once said: “What is outrageous is the absence of outrage. How can we tolerate what God finds intolerable?” True Christian spirituality covers all of reality. 

After a couple of hours, we moved with the crowd through London’s Hyde Park towards the office of the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader. People watched the marching crowd from double-decker buses, inside their cars and outside the restaurants and pubs. Some looked confused, others noticeably annoyed, but most seemed to look on admiringly as they heard the chants of “Freedom for Iran” and “Down with the Dictator”. 

But it wasn’t all peaceful. A large group of Islamists attacked us near Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner. Pieces of stone, tree branches, water bottles and even a crutch were thrown towards us over the police lines. Thankfully our daughters were not with us at the time. A few moments later, the violence had subsided. It made me think of parents in Iran who must choose whether to allow their children to face Iran’s brutal security forces as they demand the return of their stolen freedom. There, the police do not protect peaceful protesters, but use live ammunition and fatal force to protect the corrupt system that has ruled over Iran for nearly 44 years. I realised you can only truly “remember those who are in prison” (Hebrews13:3) or under oppression if you begin to feel as though you yourself were bound and suffering with them. 

As we made our way through the beautiful streets of London, I saw a young child, perhaps eight years old, on his mother’s shoulders, holding a teddy bear in one hand, and punching the air with his other, shouting with other protesters at top of his voice: “Say her name, say her name: Mahsa Amini.” 

As we approached The Islamic Centre of England, which acts as the UK office of Iran's Supreme Leader, I remembered with a shudder that just last year they had applied for, and been granted, more than £100,000 of British taxpayers’ money under the Covid-19 furlough scheme. This same centre had held a candlelit vigil in 2020 to mourn the death of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated a terrorist force by the US, after his killing by a US air strike. The huge pay-off they received seems even more preposterous when you know that according to Reuters, the Supreme Leader controlled a financial empire worth an estimated $95 billion in 2013. In 2019, his wealth was estimated at $200 billion. 

As we remember the victims of violence and injustice, we need to realise that Iranian mullahs are not the only culprits and direct our outrage at everything and anything that feeds and sustains evil.   

We need to keep Western politicians accountable for decades of flirtation with the Ayatollahs, and their contribution to the making of this monster regime. We should ask them to abandon their short-sighted foreign policies towards Iran, which is currently focused on throwing Tehran yet another lifeline by offering them a fresh nuclear deal. This may be a quick and yet temporary fix for world’s energy crisis and help win the next elections. However, the Ayatollah’s regime will continue to brutalise its own people and pose a threat to the rest of the world.  

The people of Iran have spoken. They want this regime gone. They want what this regime is inherently unable to offer them, starting from women’s rights to life itself, and the freedom that every soul is created for. 

Mansour Borji is director of Article 18, a London-based charity which seeks to raise awareness about and support for Iran’s persecuted Christians. The weekend referred to is that of 24 and 25 September. Mansour has also been taking part in protests outside the Iranian embassy in London since then.