In Iran, a Reign of Terror

The reign of terror in the Islamic Republic of Iran deepens. Eighty percent of political prisoners executed in the world during the last year were from Iran. Anyone deemed an enemy of the state can be summarily executed without a trial. Ethnic minorities are targeted, too. So are homosexuals. And now the European Parliament has called on Iran to end its executions and release political prisoners.

More on this reign of terror, and the ineffectual European efforts to end it, can be found here: “European Parliament Slams Iran Over Surge in Executions, Brutal Repression,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, May 21, 2026:

European lawmakers have stepped up pressure on Iran amid mounting alarm over the country’s human rights situation, marked by a surge in executions, mass arrests, and an intensifying security crackdown, warning of what they described as a growing campaign of repression.

On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, adopted a resolution — 516 votes in favor, 14 against, 92 abstentions — calling on the Islamist regime to immediately halt executions, release political prisoners, and hold officials accountable for alleged human rights violations.

The newly adopted resolution also voiced deep concern over escalating pressure on women, civil society activists, and religious minorities, warning of a widening climate of intimidation, surveillance, and systematic restrictions on basic freedoms across the country….

Since March 17, at least 36 people have been executed in Iran on political charges.

Earlier this year, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an independent monitoring group, released a report outlining a deeply troubling human rights situation all across the country over the past 12 months, citing crackdowns on protesters, harassment of activists, threats to minorities, executions of children, violations of women’s rights, and dire prison conditions.

According to HRANA’s Statistics and Documentation Center, 78,907 people were arrested on ideological or political grounds from March 2025 to March 2026, highlighting a pervasive climate of repression across the country.

But the report warned that the number of arrests was likely much higher, given the difficulty of tracking such cases — especially earlier this year during recent nationwide anti-government protests, which security forces violently crushed, leaving thousands of demonstrators tortured or killed.

HRANA reported in February that over 7,000 protesters, including hundreds of children, were killed during the protests, with an additional nearly 12,000 cases still under verification. Multiple reports have put the death toll at over 30,000, and US President Donald Trump claimed the figure was over 40,000….

The larger figure, of over 40,000 killed on Jan. 8 and 9, comes from Iran International, a well-informed group of Iranians in exile who base that number on reports from inside Iran.

On women’s rights, HRANA reported that 105 women were murdered, including seven so-called “honor killings” — murders committed under the pretext of preserving family honor — and documents 68 cases of rape or sexual abuse.

Some women have been killed, such as Mahsa Amini, simply for not wearing their hijabs correctly. Other women have been killed for such “crimes” against the family honor as being out with an unrelated male.

Members of the ethnic minorities, like the Kurds and Azeris, can also be killed for supposedly posing a threat to rule by the dominant Persians. Political dissidents deserve death as they are a threat to the regime. Homosexuals are hung for their crimes against nature.

The fanatics in Iran will not stop. They are determined to crush any conceivable dissent, and to strictly enforce the Sharia. The European Parliament’s denunciation is sloughed off in Tehran. The only way to end the reign of terror is to change the regime, as the Israelis had initially insisted must be done. But Trump has decided that that is no longer one of his war aims; he will be content if he can obtain a guarantee from Iran to give up its 440 kg. of uranium enriched to a just-below weapons-grade level of 60%. Still worse, he has cut Israel out of the negotiations. Meanwhile, the miserable people of Iran will have to endure their torment, until that moment when the economic collapse of the country becomes so severe that millions of Iranians will again take to the streets, and this time their numbers will overwhelm those of the Basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who are sent out to crush them.

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