Written by Şimal Ezgi Elhan
“They have an army outside Iran and they are targeting Iranian civilians and activists,” warns Marziyeh Amirizadeh, an ex-Iranian detainee.
While the world is preoccupied with events unfolding inside Iran amid the war with Israel, the Islamic Republic could very well activate its network overseas to save its ailing influence at home. Marziyeh Amirizadeh, a Christian convert sentenced to death in 2009 and saved through international pressure, now warns the West, stressing the vital role of foreign intervention.
Amirizadeh told Nicole Jansezian, host of Inside Scoop Jerusalem, that Iran’s most dangerous weapon is its propaganda campaign abroad, aimed at silencing millions of exiled dissidents and manipulating Western perception to block support for the regime’s greatest fear: a democratic revolution.
In the West, the Islamic Regime’s disinformation network chiefly operates through educational institutions in places where freedom of speech is supposed to be the foundational value.
“They built Islamic institutions in the U.S. and took advantage of religious freedom to spread lies,” says Amirizadeh.
Essentially, these institutions neither serve to inform the Iranian diaspora, nor communicate the urgent need for support in Iran to the American public. Amirizadeh claims “they are funded to create chaos” by diverting the focus from the Iranian struggle to the Palestinian cause as an umbrella to secure the regime’s longevity.
However, this propaganda machine is not only impacting Iranian immigrant communities, but also creating a division between the left and right, breaking their unified effort to provide democracy for those who need it most.
Every year, thousands are killed during protests against the Islamic Republic and in prisons—a fact Amirizadeh knows too well having witnessed the loss of loved ones before finding her own freedom in the United States. Without international advocacy, their voices are not heard.
“The Western governments need to stop appeasing the Islamic Republic regime and support Iranian people,” she said.
Amirizadeh noted that the Western media reports of Israel’s preemptive attacks on Iran framing Israel as the sole aggressor in the region, undermines the regime’s ongoing abuses of its own citizens.
“When the penthouse of one of the key leaders they eliminated, and a few other homes, was destroyed, the regime started spreading their propaganda: ‘Look, they are killing children, they are killing innocent people,’” she noted. “They are taking advantage of the situation to say that Israel is killing innocent children and if it comes to them destroying their own people they won’t hesitate–to do such a thing to sell the lies to the Western media.”
The reality is far from what is being represented in the media, she adds.
“They are not ordinary citizens. They never allow such ordinary citizens to live in such expensive places that IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) commanders, and leaders are living. The followers of the regime live in those buildings. For their own security, they do not let ordinary people live in those buildings.”
The network that operates outside of Iran claims to support the Iranian or Palestinian people, but, in reality, it is deceiving Western audiences, Amirizadeh claims.
“Some conservatives say, no, we should not go to war with Iran or we should not support Israel—this is a war Israel is doing. But Israel is fighting against our enemies and we should stand with Israel,” Amirizadeh insists.
“Islamic Republic Regime is like cancer, a big tumor, and it is a danger to all of us in western countries, in America. If we do not stop this cancer, this tumor, we have to fight in our backyard. Here, it is happening. It has already started. They are destroying America; they are destroying Western countries. It is not for just Iranians or Israelis, it is for everyone.”
As an American, she says that putting America first also means “we need to put destroying its enemies first too.”
Amirizadeh also noted that while “Israel targeted military bases, nuclear sites and homes of those IRGC leaders” Iran’s missiles are, targeting civilians.
She contends that “the ultimate goal for the Iranian people” is friendship with America and toppling the regime which she believes can only happen if Israel eliminates Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran who is depicted as “immortal” in the Iranian media. She suggests this is what a majority of the 90 million people of Iran want.
Even as recently as May, the Islamic regime was concerned over a strike led by truck drivers in Iran.
“The news started saying they are just unhappy with the economic situation and I said the main goal is to overthrow this current regime. But they cannot say it openly, they need to say it implicitly,” Amirizadeh explained. “They said it is because of the economy. They would kill them, arrest them otherwise. Even though they said it was because of the economy, they were still arrested and put in prison.”
Amirizadeh insisted that Western powers and the Iranian people seize this opportunity to counter propaganda networks and encourage the Iranian people to restore democracy in their nation.