18 June 2025
After 620 days of aggression and genocide in Palestine, the genocidal state of Israel drove the region further into despair and instability by launching attacks against Iran. Our comrade Shayda, an Iranian socialist feminist activist currently living outside Iran, answered some questions that give an insight to the situation.
PRMI: First of all, solidarity with you, your friends, and family and all those in Iran living through this devastating and traumatic time. I can only imagine the fear, horror and anxiety people are living in right now. What is the current mood in Iran?
Shayda: Tehran, with just above 17 million inhabitants (London and New York City combined), is the second largest metropolitan area in the Middle East, making the evacuation orders (read: methods of psychological warfare) all the less realistic.
Additionally, the most exploited layers of the working class who are already struggling to put food on the table, cannot stop working for even a day which means they are unable to evacuate. This inability to evacuate also extends to prisoners, disabled people or those with immediate medical needs such as chemotherapy and dialysis, and those with pets.
Furthermore, fuel and gas are being rationed which makes evacuation more difficult, and even impossible for those living in farther cities. And finally, Israel has also been bombing roads out of Tehran – a tactic straight out of their Gaza handbook.
“I’m scared of evacuation. All I can think about is Palestinian people who held onto their keys for decades and never returned.” This was one of the very first messages I received from my best friend in Iran after the attacks. Her family had to evacuate a few hours after this. The mood is somber, filled with terror, and uncertain. But Iranians are a resilient bunch, and I hope they persevere.
PRMI: There is a lot of propaganda from the Zionist regime on the purpose of these attacks and who they target. What is the goal of Israel’s attacks?
Shayda:The illegitimate, genocidal, and bloodthirsty state of Israel has long craved a regional war and a ‘Greater Israel’. Israel has no interest in ‘freeing Iran’, and they made that abundantly clear less than 24 hours after the first attack, with tweets so clearly out of their Gaza handbook, stating anyone who does not condemn the Iranian regime is complicit in the deaths of Israeli civilians and will be attacked by Israel. First, they wanted Palestinian people to use their dying breath to condemn Hamas, then they wanted Lebanese people to make dying declarations condemning Hezbollah, and now it’s Iran’s turn.
Furthermore, Netanyahu claims to be preventing a “nuclear holocaust” by attacking Iran while having already dropped the equivalent of 6 nukes on Gaza. On top of that, Israel has been saying Iran is dangerously close to obtaining nuclear weapons since the 1980s, this is all a ruse. What were ‘tunnels’ and ‘human shields’ in Gaza, are now ‘military bases’ and ‘nuclear sites’ in Iran. For decades, civilians have paid and continue to pay the price of imperialist divisions and wars in Palestine, and now they will in Iran, too.
Additionally, I think these attacks are serving as a mask off moment for Israel among ordinary Iranians whose abuse by the Iranian regime has led them to Zionism, and non-vocal support for Palestine in fear of their solidarity being co-opted by the regime that oppresses them.
It has also been preyed upon by opportunist, pro-Zionist royalists for decades – attempting to brainwash them into thinking their enemy’s enemy is their friend. But it is becoming clear to the world and to Iranians that Israel’s ultimate dream is to exterminate innocent civilians across the Middle East and drive the region into a full-blown, further destabilising war, and no country can ever be bombed into freedom. And of course, we have seen how such attempts and imperialist interventions pan out before: in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in Afghanistan, etc. – dictators more ruthless than before, infrastructures non-existent, and lives lost, worlds ruined.
PRMI: Iran has retaliated. It’s understandable that after more than 600 days of Israel’s unrelenting genocide many will cheer on any potential blow against the Zionist regime. But what do you say to those on the left who see the Iranian state as a genuine form of resistance?
Shayda: I want to preface this by saying there is a big difference between the problematic cheerleading of the Islamic Republic (IR) by many on the global left and the celebrations by people affected in the region, especially in Gaza. In the context of the endless horrors of occupation and genocide and the fact that Arab regimes have not only abandoned Palestinians but are actively complicit in the extermination campaign we have to understand why any perceived blow against Israel would be welcomed and applauded.
But then there are many on the global left commenting from afar who theorise and defend this as the IR being a bastion of anti-imperialism – they are my audience here.
I think ironically the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” mentality is peeking through here as well. As those residing in the belly of the beast that is imperialism and neo-colonialism, we must not forget how this regime came to power by hijacking a workers’ revolution and has done everything in its power to ruin the Iranian left, and any voices of dissent, in the decades that have followed.
Activists, scholars, and ordinary people are still missing, assumed dead as a result of the 1988 Mass Executions which systematically targeted leftists and revolutionaries. Political prisoners taken hostage at various points during this regime’s rule are still being tortured in their prisons.
And the courageous people who took it to the streets in 2022 and during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” revolt are still paying the price: some blinded by the regime’s rubber bullets, some imprisoned for decades, and some given the death penalty.
On top of this, the IR is actively occupying and oppressing people of various ethnicities within its borders; from Kurdistan to Baluchistan its hands are bloody.
It’s also worth mentioning the Arab population in Iran has always been one of the most deprived layers – such a regime cannot claim to cale about Arab self-determination (as they would frame it) while actively oppressing and killing Arab people at home. Arab workers bore the brunt of regime suppression during the 2019 uprisings and the infamous Bloody November, and more recently paid the price of the regime’s ignorance and incompetence with their lives following the explosion in one of the southern ports.
Even now, while the child-murdering state of Israel is bombing residential areas and dominating and influencing the narrative as they always do, the IR’s response has been to cut off access to the internet; the goal? To isolate people – and, obviously, not one civilian will benefit from this, and they know it.
It is also worth noting, due to the regime’s rampant racism and systemic segregation of Afghanistani refugees and immigrants, they are being prevented from evacuating Tehran as the regime requires them to apply for ‘permits’ to leave cities they have permission to be in, and the regime is not issuing these permits now with police forces detaining and returning Afghanistani people to Tehran when they attempt to leave. The parallels between this and the Israeli treatment of Palestinians are jarring.
Iranians and others alike should refuse to bow down to the Zionist entity, but we also will not romanticise or defend a dictatorship that has silenced, imprisoned, and executed its own people.
Whether it’s the completely detached Iranian royalists, acting as bootlickers for Israel, or those spreading propaganda for the regime, all should be called out. Both serve an agenda that ignores the real suffering of ordinary Iranians.
It is exhausting to have to fight on so many different fronts but one thing is clear: pro-IR protests won’t help civilians in Iran. If anything, they risk giving Israel further justification (not that it needs any) to escalate its attacks.
The IR does not care about Palestinian liberation, no state does, and calls for Palestinian liberation, and all liberation, must come from the below. After all, one murderous regime cannot bring the other to justice, for both are two sides of the same coin: imperialism. We need mass movements and protests to stop western intervention and further escalation, and for an end to occupation and genocide in Palestine, but glamorising an oppressive regime is not the way.
PRMI: Often in such situations there can be a sense of national unity. We saw elements of that after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020 (both a peak in nationalist reaction but also the regime labeling any internal dissent as puppets for US imperialism). Post “Woman, Life, Freedom” the regime is in a much weaker position however. What are people’s attitudes toward the regime at this point in time?
Shayda: Any illusions in the IR have long been gone, especially since the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising and its aftermath; both immediate and long-term. The majority of people know that this regime needs to be overthrown, but also know full well that it will not be bombed out of existence.
PRMI: What has the reaction from the most militant layers of working class youth been like?
The most militant layers of working class and oppressed youth have been seeing through the lies of the Zionist state since 7 October and even before. They acknowledge the link between Palestinian liberation and toppling the dictatorial regime in Iran, and recognise that one cannot be achieved without the other.
They also see the need for a working class revolution but look at it soberly, and with the ongoing trauma of “Woman, Life, Freedom” in mind. It is also worth noting, that I see more and more anti-imperialist takes and positions – something that from memory, was extremely rare, even as recent as five years ago.
PRMI: The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement showed that women, LGBTQIA+ people, workers, and the oppressed can be a potent force for change, capable of shaking the entire theocratic regime. What do you think is the way forward for workers and oppressed people to defeat imperialism and the Zionist state?
Shayda: Undoubtedly, a movement from below is the way forward. One that brings together workers, women, lgbtqia people and oppressed nationalities and minorities within Iran and the building of new mass socialist and feminist organisations that are internationalist in their outlook. That means correcting some of the historical failures of the Iranian left to not actively take up – and even dismiss – women’s liberation and anti-oppression struggles.
However, I ardently believe we, as those residing in the belly of the beast, are the ones with more work to do, and inspiration to take from our siblings in regions our ruling classes underdeveloped.
As we have seen time and again, with the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Arab Spring, and many Latin American and African countries, imperialist interventions will continue to happen and cause devastation unless the working class and oppressed in western capitalist countries rise up and apply the brakes on the imperialist war machine.
That’s why it’s crucial that the global Gaza solidarity movement has a proper analysis of events in Iran and the region. It’s not an academic exercise but a key strategic question: who are the allies and who are the enemies of Palestinian liberation?
We totally cut ourselves off from genuine international solidarity and coordination with the most militant layers of the working class in Iran if we are glorifying the dictatorial regime they struggle against on a daily basis. Yet they are a vital and potent force to sweep away Zionism, capitalism and imperialism in the region as part of revolutionary socialist transformation of the Middle East.
Solidarity.