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No right to rule
The Observer
|January 18, 2026
Iran's theocracy could have chosen humanity, but it chose murder. It cannot remain in power
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The streets of Tehran appear calm. According to one report smuggled out through the internet blackout, they are virtually empty, because after an orgy of state-sanctioned violence people are too scared to go out.
The exact number of civilians killed last weekend is unclear: at least 3,400 and possibly 12,000 or more. From medics’ and other eyewitness accounts it seems some anti-regime protesters were shot at close range in the face. Others were killed en masse when Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) troops opened fire with machine guns.
This was the most brutal assault by Iran’s theocracy on its own people since the revolution of 1979. Carried out largely unseen behind Iran’s borders, it was, nonetheless, Tehran’s Tiananmen Square. A one-party state was given a choice by its people between humanity and murder, and chose murder.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 18, 2026-Ausgabe von The Observer.
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