Are you Iranian?
I am. My parents lived under this regime and so did I. This isn’t something I picked up from Western media or politicians.
Iranians have been resisting this regime for decades, long before social media or US war hawks suddenly took an interest. The fact that outside actors try to exploit what’s happening doesn’t mean the struggle itself is manufactured. Oppression doesn’t become fake just because opportunists attach themselves to it.
Iran has 90 million people. The reason the diaspora voice is louder is simple. People inside Iran are silenced through internet shutdowns, prison, torture and worse. Expecting perfectly verifiable reporting from a closed authoritarian state is an impossible standard that only ever benefits the regime.
Of course misinformation exists, it does everywhere. A few false or mislabelled clips don’t cancel out the reality of what’s happening on the ground. The lack of “independently verified” numbers also doesn’t mean mass violence isn’t happening, especially when doctors and families inside Iran are risking their lives to say the real figures are much higher- I personally have heard of 3 people close to us who have been killed.
Sanctions have absolutely hurt ordinary Iranians and many of us have criticised them for years. But sanctions didn’t create this regime or its brutality. The repression, corruption and violence came first and are the reason people are protesting.
This isn’t about American or Israeli intervention. It’s about people who have been asking for basic dignity and freedom for decades and are exhausted of being dismissed as propaganda