What lies ahead for Iran and its people in 2023 will be significant for them and the entire Middle East, especially after the nationwide uprising in 2022 that started in mid-September following the regime’s morality police killing of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. This will be going to be a pivotal year for Iran.
A country with an 85 million population is on the path of a new revolution, which has created the biggest challenge for the ruling mullahs since they seized the country. Just as things changed suddenly in the late 1970s, things could change suddenly now.
2022 was a turbulent year for the regime and a year of change and hope for the people. The regime is ideologically bankrupt, economically broken, politically paralyzed, and isolated, and this will get even worse.
For the regime, the prospect of reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is dim, a means that its officials consider a chance to secure their reign. The actual JCPOA will be increasingly in obsolescence in 2023.
This is not because of the decision of the world powers to end their appeasement policy with the regime, but because of the people’s courage and sacrifice. Nationwide protests quickly spread all over the country and changed the situation against the regime and were a blow to the appeasement policy.
In her message for the New Year, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the president-elect of the National Council Resistance of Iran (NCRI) mentioned that 2023 could be “the year of expanding international solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising.”
She added: “May governments and international institutions respond without delay to the desire of the people of Iran who are enduring suppression, torture, and execution.”
After more than 100 days of battle, the topic of the debate of the people and the generations leading this uprising is the change of ideals. The main issue has become freedom, equality, and a democratic and secular republic.
The bond between people from all the country’s ethnicities to determine the fate of their country has become unbreakable. So far, the regime did not achieve what it had expected from its inhuman repression. More violence will stoke more protests.
The uprising strengthened the people’s front and brought wider social unity. This will lawfully move towards a democratic alternative which is rejecting any form of dictatorship. This has been reflected in one of the main slogans of the protests, while the people chant: “Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the supreme leader.”
The protests have proven to be resilient. Because the regime is not anymore able to address the roots that have caused the protests.
Besides the lack of freedom, the country’s crippled economy is one of the main roots. It is continuing to crack. Estimates say that the growth will fall back in the coming year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts the country’s estimated inflation in 2023 at 40 percent and rising.
The people’s purchasing power continues to abate. And rial, hitting new lows of approximately 41,000 to the US dollar during the last few days of December.
For many, it was not imaginable that this totalitarian and theocratic regime will crack one day. Now it is facing the power of the people. Iran is amid social, economic, and geopolitical change, and 2023 is the year light could replace darkness.
People from all walks of life are now calling for the downfall of the regime. And most important women are leading the protests, who are facing the worst political, economic, and social discrimination over the past four decades. An inevitable change is on the path of Iran’s people, something that even the regime’s officials admit.
Follow the Day-by-Day Report of the Iran Revolution…
December 31 marked the 107th day of anti-regime protests in Iran. The demonstrations began following the heinous murder of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody. However, it immediately turned into a revolution against the entire theocratic regime.
According to the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), the protests have extended to 282 cities. The regime has killed over 750 citizens, injured tens of thousands, and detained more than 30,000. The MEK has published the names of 601 killed protesters.
Today locals in the city of Javanrud in Kermanshah Province, the Bazaar of Tehran, and Semirom a city in Isfahan Province gathered and protested the regime. On many occasions, the regime’s security forces responded with harsh violence.
Reports indicate that they shot the people with live ammunition. One of the protesters naming Borhan Elyasi was shot dead in Javanrud. But despite this, the people did not retreat and continued their protests.
In other reports, official employees of the Abadan Refinery and the Arak refinery held a protest gathering demanding answers to their issues. Employees of the Azar oil company are also on strike in the city of Mehran in Ilam Province.
Key developments:
- Member of EU parliament Ms. Hannah Neumann in a tweet demands the sanction of the IRGC and wrote: “Protests continue in Iran – and the few reports we get despite internet blockade indicate that IRGC shoots on protestors with live ammunition. This is a grave human rights abuse. The world needs to watch, JCPOA talks have to stop and IRGC needs to be on the EU sanctions list.”
- Peter De Roover a Belgian politician in a tweet accepted the political sponsorship of the death row prisoner Mohammad Ghobadlou and wrote: “I will be the godfather of Mohammad Ghobadlou sentenced to death in a sham trial. His death penalty was confirmed last week. Mohammad is only 22 years old. His life is extremely in danger.
- German MP Christian Obrok accepted the political sponsorship of Akbar Ghafari and in a tweet wrote: “I have taken on the sponsorship of the political prisoner Akbar Ghafari in Iran. He has been arrested after sheltering protesters at his sister’s home. Ghafari is charged with ‘war against God’. This usually carries the death penalty.”
- Member of the German Bundestag Norbert Röttgen supported the political prisoner Mostafa Nili and in a tweet wrote: “This video was posted by Mostafa Nili’s sister. She writes about his arrest. His crime? The memory of the law. The struggle for civil rights. The defense of his clients. Dignity, Commitment, Transparency, and Truth are the values he lives for.”
Qom City, Qom province
People torched the image of Qassem Soleimani, the slain commander of the regime’s warmongering Quds Force. Source
Rudsar, Gilan Province
Brave youths torched a banner of the Iran regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Source
Javanrud, Kermanshah Province
“Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the graveyard of Fascists”, chant the people at the funeral of Borhan Elyasi who was killed today by the Iran regime’s security forces. Source
Semirom, Isfahan Province
The regime’s security forces respond to the people’s protests with bullets. Source
Rasht, Gilan Province
Marketers went on strike. Source
Tehran Bazaar
People chant: “This year Khamenei will be overthrown” Source
