Cameron Smith รีทวีตแล้ว
Ali Khamenei is dead.
Yesterday was an incredible day for many Iranians, including me.
But Iran is not yet free.
Over the course of 47 years, first as president and then as Supreme Leader, Khamenei presided over the murder, torture, and imprisonment of Iranians.
But he also oversaw the systematic destruction of Iran itself — a nation filled with people who embody what I believe to be the greatest culture in the world.
He targeted Iran’s minority communities with a ruthlessness that was breathtaking but not surprising, given how this regime was established.
Under his leadership, the regime subjected entire groups to systematic discrimination, imprisonment, execution, economic exclusion, and cultural erasure.
This included the incredible Baha’i people of Iran, against whom he pursued a campaign of destruction that mirrored what the Nazi regime did to Jews before the Holocaust, stripping them of education, livelihoods, property, legal protections, and basic human dignity in a calculated effort to push them out of public life.
It included Baluchis, who faced disproportionate executions and severe economic marginalization; Kurds, who endured military crackdowns and political repression; Ahwazi Arabs; Sunni Muslims across multiple provinces; Gonabadi dervishes; Christians; and Iranian Jews, who lived under constant scrutiny, intimidation, and institutionalized discrimination.
In the month before his death, he authorized the industrial-scale slaughter of Iranians fighting for their freedom — one of many occasions on which he gave the IRGC license to turn military-grade weapons on his own people, young and old.
His actions not only inflicted immeasurable suffering on Iranians; they tarnished the reputation of a great people, at home and around the world, with the stain of death, corruption, and tyranny.
Iranians are the heirs of one of history’s great civilizations; yet for forty-seven years, first as president and then as Supreme Leader, Khamenei systematically worked to dismantle that legacy and suppress the potential of the Iranian people.
He destabilized the entire region. The blood of Syrians, Yemenis, Israelis, Iraqis, Lebanese, and Palestinians is on his hands.
Through the arming and financing of militias and terrorist organizations, the export of revolutionary ideology, and the waging of proxy wars, he entrenched cycles of violence far beyond Iran’s borders.
Entire societies were dragged into prolonged conflict and destruction as a direct consequence.
But do not buy into the idea that his death guarantees freedom for Iranians.
As I have said many times, and I am far from alone in this: the Islamic Republic is vast, deeply entrenched, and structurally embedded in every major lever of power.
It controls a significant share of the economy, the security apparatus, and the political system itself.
Iran is also surrounded by regimes and governments that do not view the emergence of a genuinely free and democratic Iran as aligned with their strategic interests.
Jumping to the conclusion that “it’s over” only harms Iranians.
It creates complacency at the very moment when sustained pressure, scrutiny, and support matter most.
My own family suffered repeatedly under Khamenei’s regime.
How I wish so many of them, including my Uncle Samad, were here to witness this moment.
LONG LIVE IRAN.
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