I had to flee Iran – but those I left behind have a fighting chance of freedom

Right now, hundreds of thousands of Iranians across the country are risking everything by taking to the streets.

Ever since the anti-government protests started with a sit-in by shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on 28 December, unrest has erupted in more than 280 locations. It is already the largest challenge to the country’s clerical establishment for years – and it’s showing no signs of being put down.

Violent clashes with security forces have seen government buildings set on fire and statues of authority figures within the Islamic regime attacked. Tear gas has been used to disperse the protests – even inside a hospital.

Dozens have already died, and more than 1,200 demonstrators have already been detained. But the brave people of Iran have sensed their opportunity to change the course of history. In the Kurdish city of Abdanan, members of the hardline morality police are reported to have laid down their weapons, declaring: “The armed forces are with the people.” They are confronting a regime collapsing under the weight of its own cruelty after 47 years of brutal theocratic rule.

But unmistakable has been Tehran’s unusually cautious approach to these latest protests. By its own murderous standards, the state’s use of violence has been “restrained”. Senior politicians have conceded, albeit disingenuously, that protestors have legitimate grievances. The demonstrations were triggered by Iran’s ailing economy and its currency, the rial, falling to a record low. Rumours swirl about the supreme leader, who has been hiding in a bunker for months, possibly fleeing to Moscow.

Contrary to the assessment of many analysts, this is far from an economic protest. It is a full-scale revolution with the aim of the total dismantlement of the regime of the Islamic republic that has ruled with an iron fist since 1979.

This movement has come to be known as the “final uprising”, which distinguishes it from previous protests. No single, visible figurehead is leading it, which makes it far harder for the regime to crush. It is organic, rooted in local communities, and spreading like a flood.

As one of the world’s most resource-rich countries, Iran should be thriving. Instead, more than 70 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line. A civilisation with thousands of years of cultural heritage, a people who offered the world one of its earliest and most humane models of governance under Cyrus the Great, has been reduced to searching for survival in refuse bins. They have been left no alternative but to take a stand.

I had no choice but to flee my homeland. I was 13 when I first became politically active in Iran. By the age of 20, I had been arrested twice. Then came a moment of realisation that the regime was looking to eliminate me. Several members of my family were arrested and killed, while my close friend Ruhollah Zam was kidnapped, transferred to Iran and brutally executed.

The fight to overthrow the Islamic regime is one I will never relinquish. For almost three years, I have been camped outside the UK Foreign Office, in an attempt to focus the British government’s attention on the rogue state – and to force it to do something about it.

It has now become clear to me that this revolution is not only for Iran. The regime has methodically exported a violently extremist, antisemitic ideology beyond its borders, which has taken root in Western countries. It is why I have been repeatedly attacked and intimidated in London.

For years, many Iranians believed that the global community no longer cared about human rights, and that values had been sacrificed for convenience. Messages of support in recent days from Israel and the United States – who have done so much to weaken the regime – changed something profound. Ordinary Iranians have increased confidence that the world is slowly waking up to the realisation that lasting peace in the Middle East and wider world is only possible once the regime is removed.

Ayatollah Khamenei may lambast the UK as “little Satan”, but ordinary Iranians revere this country as the heart of democracy and freedom. They are perplexed by prime minister Keir Starmer’s protracted silence in their hour of need.

Iran’s heroes deserve, and urgently need, the support of the UK. The people of Iran are facing down the regime with bare hands. They have buried their dead and tended to hundreds of wounded. And still, they do not retreat. They are grieving, and yet they are filled with strength and courage, as they understand the historic weight of this moment.

Without this regime, Iran can transform from a global threat into a force for human progress. History will certainly remember those who stood on the right side of it.

Vahid Beheshti is an Iranian-born British national, journalist, political activist and founder of Iran Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty