As death toll soars in Iran, UK must stand with pro-democracy movement

Writing in The Scotsman, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi lays out a truly inspiring vision of what her country could be.

In her Iran, there would be free and fair elections, gender equality, the separation of religion and state, no death penalty, an independent judiciary and a free press. It would be a peaceful, non-nuclear state that posed no threat to the world.

In the hellscape of the real Iran, the tyrannical theocratic regime has killed at least 5,777 protesters, 86 children and 49 innocent passers-by, amid ongoing anti-government demonstrations, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. However, amid claims the death toll could be as high as 30,000, it stressed that many more were feared dead.

The agency verifies each death with a network of activists in Iran and has been accurate in previous outbreaks of unrest. In contrast, the Iranian government has previously undercounted or not reported fatalities, according to the Associated Press.

READ MORE: How my country, Iran, can become a peaceful, non-nuclear democratic republic

Iran's security forces have been killing large numbers of their own people amid anti-government protests (Picture: stringer) | Getty Images

US armada arrives

The known death toll is now greater than during any other period of protest for decades, with some comparing the current chaos to the run-up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Meanwhile, a US “armada”, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, has arrived in the Middle East, with Donald Trump saying it is there “just in case” and that Iran’s leaders “want to make a deal”.

Any deal that allowed them to remain in power and betrayed those struggling to win their freedom would be an unconscionable one. Iranians deserve to live in a true democracy as much as anyone else.

READ MORE: Iranians dying on the streets want democracy – not another Shah

The UK may have little influence over events, but nonetheless should do what it can. And that must start by proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organisation, which Labour promised to do in 2023.

If Maryam Rajavi’s vision of Iran was realised, its people, noted for their friendliness and hospitality towards foreigners, would get the country they deserve; the democratic world would have a new member; and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would lose a useful ally in his war against Ukraine. It’s time for Britain to stand with the people of Iran against their brutal, tyrannical rulers.