All posts tagged: Islamic Revolution

Iran Guards recruit children to ‘defend the homeland’, placing them in line of fire

Iran Guards recruit children to ‘defend the homeland’, placing them in line of fire

Published by Sam Flores

The poster shows a teenager standing alongside a Basij militiaman in combat fatigues, his hand over his heart. The message is clear: all Iranians, including youths, are summoned to defend the Islamic republic as it faces wave after wave of US and Israeli attacks.  A propaganda poster for the Basij paramilitary force calling on youths to help “defend the homeland”, published by the Iranian news agency ANA. © ANA screen grab In late March, a month into the Iran war, a deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards for Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, announced on state television the launch of a campaign to recruit citizens “aged 12 and over” to become “volunteer fighters” and “defend the homeland”.  The campaign is aimed at both boys and girls, according to Iranian news agency ANA, which says young recruits could take part in intelligence operations, “identity checks and patrols”, as well as carrying out logistical tasks such as preparing meals and distributing equipment and supplies.  To display this content from Instagram, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices However, several NGOs have warned that children are already being used in operational …

‘Not a one-person regime’: Why Iran’s Islamic Republic is so hard to topple

‘Not a one-person regime’: Why Iran’s Islamic Republic is so hard to topple

Published by Sam Flores

Since February 28, Israel and the United States have pounded Iran with targeted air strikes, taking out one powerful Iranian official after another. The death toll among top regime officials has so far been confirmed at nine, but Israel claims it has reached 11. Both the United States and Israel have brandished the growing list of dead Iranian elites as evidence of their military success. On Tuesday, after the Israeli army announced it had “eliminated” Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar declared that his country had “already won” the war against the Islamic Republic. Read moreWho was Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief killed in an Israeli air strike? But behind the tough-talking rhetoric, even US President Donald Trump has hinted that Israeli and American bombs will not be enough to topple the regime – regardless of how many heads roll. Instead, he has appealed to the Iranian public to do the job, telling them that “when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take”. FRANCE 24 …

Longing for My Tehran | Orly Noy

Longing for My Tehran | Orly Noy

Published by José Betancourt

Since the outbreak of the current war between Israel and Iran—much like during the previous one last summer—I have been sought after for interviews by foreign media. An Iranian-born pro-Palestinian Israeli political activist is, it seems, a highly desirable commodity. Some want me to explain the Israeli position, others the Iranian one, still others to hear about the attitudes of the Jewish Iranian community in Israel. I find myself repeating the same answers over and over. I cannot explain these positions, I say, since I find them difficult to understand myself. Nothing about this war makes much sense to me. During one interview I was asked whether I thought my parents had made a mistake when they left Iran following the 1979 revolution. The question astonished me, not because I found it offensive but because I have been asking it myself for so many years. Now, as I watch my homeland go up in flames, it echoes in my mind more loudly than ever. My family and I left Iran in January 1979, on the …

What to know about Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a powerful force within the country’s theocracy

What to know about Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a powerful force within the country’s theocracy

Published by Sam Flores

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has grown into a powerful force within the country’s theocracy, answering only to its supreme leader and overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal and launching attacks overseas. The force is again in the spotlight as Iran widens its attacks across the Middle East following the start of a U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign that’s already killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Here’s what to know about the Guard. Born out of a revolution The Guard rose out of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect the country’s Shiite cleric-overseen government and later became enshrined in its constitution. It operated parallel to Iran’s regular armed forces, growing in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s. Though it faced possible disbandment after the war, Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing the force to thrive. The Guard runs a massive construction company called Khatam al-Anbia and has firms that also build roads, man ports, run …