Iran’s Islamist regime is staggering toward its unofficial 47th birthday: the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Tehran on February 1, 1979. Although a broad coalition overthrew the long-ruling dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Islamic hardliners took control and created a regime that was even more brutal.
The result is one of the world’s most repressive governments, a bottom-dweller alongside Belarus, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. According to Freedom House: “Ultimate power rests in the hands of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the unelected institutions under his control. These institutions, including the security forces and the judiciary, play a major role in the suppression of dissent and other restrictions on civil liberties.” Alas, this aseptic description does not adequately communicate the horror recently visited upon the Iranian people by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s chief enforcer and protector.
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