Forgotten Iranians That Count The Most, The Revolutionary Youth

 :Nadene Goldfoot                                            

"We are not your enemy," Sara Netanyahu tells Persians worldwide on Instagram next to an image of showing Israeli and Iranian lion embracing and looking at the sunset. Message evokes both Operation Rising Lion and Iran's exiled monarchy, now in hands of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.  The Revolution started on April 21, 2026 with my count, but do remember when Amini died. 

On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, had arrested Amini for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards.

Their world under hijabs in a hot weather climate, not fun

Following her arrest, she fell into a coma and died in the hospital. While authorities claimed she suffered a heart attack, witnesses and her family stated she had been severely beaten, a finding later corroborated by a UN fact-finding mission. Her death ignited worldwide protests under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom," highlighting women's rights and opposition to compulsory veiling in Iran.

The "Revolution of Iranian youth" is widely recognized as the nationwide movement and massive demonstrations triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, which officially began on September 16, 2022.  2022–2023 Mahsa Amini Protests: At least \(550\) protesters were killed by state security forces over months of civil unrest.

The most disappointing aspect of the war between Israel, Iran and USA is their lack of mentioning the welfare of the Iranian youth rebelling against the Ayatollah government!  Iranian youth leading anti-government protests face a brutal state crackdown marked by mass arrests, torture, and thousands of deaths. 

While exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has urged demonstrators to form networks and occupy city centers to trigger a democratic transition, his movement faces ideological divisions within the broader opposition and has not achieved undisputed consensus inside the country which is a surprise and hard to believe, for all the news I get from Tousi, and I believe that more than AI, is that even some of the Revolutionary Guards and other police have joined the group.  It is our own USA's Trump who hasn't mentioned anything in the deals he has been making with the Ayatollah regime.  I know that Israel has been helping the youth all along.  International Diplomacy: Pahlavi is actively lobbying global leaders. He advocates for international diplomatic pressure, calling for measures that support the free flow of information for Iranian citizens.  Coalition Building: He has convened dissidents across ideological spectrums to draft transition plans, including a committee focused on transitional justice, to discuss a democratic and secular future for Iran.  He's packed and ready to go to Iran the minute he can be safe there; for if he is dead, he will be of no use.  

                              Sharif University

 Students at major universities, including Tehran’s Sharif University, have actively demonstrated against the theocratic establishment, facing suspensions and severe retaliatory violence.  The regime frequently enforces near-total internet and telecommunication blackouts during peak uprisings to suppress information and hide the scale of human rights violations.

 Security forces have responded to massive, nationwide uprisings with sweeping raids, mass arbitrary arrests, and lethal force.

Deaths are hard to count.  Initial Revolution and Consolidations (1979–1988): While historical consensus places deaths during the 1978–1979 revolution at around \(2,000\) to \(3,000\), subsequent revolutionary court executions, purges, and the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners claimed thousands more, with some human rights organizations estimating total historical victims in the tens of thousands.  2025–2026 Uprisings: The most intense state crackdown since the revolution began. Activists and human rights agencies like Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) have documented thousands of deaths, with varying unverified and activist estimates citing tens of thousands dead over the span of this unrest. The Iranian government released figures of over \(3,000\) killed during the same period, citing both civilians and security forces.