Young activists in Zahedan launch a new campaign demanding freedom, equality, and a democratic republic while rejecting both the shah’s dictatorship and the current regime.
Young activists and Resistance Units in Zahedan have launched a new campaign featuring banners and slogans rejecting both monarchical and theocratic dictatorship and reaffirming demands for freedom, equality, and a democratic republic.
The campaign carries a clear political message: Iran’s future should not be defined by a return to the monarchy or by the continuation of the current theocratic regime. Instead, the activists emphasize a democratic alternative based on popular sovereignty and equal rights.
Among the slogans displayed during the campaign were:
- “Baluchestan is awake; it rejects both Shah and Mullah.”
- “Curse of the people and history upon the bloodthirsty Mullah and Shah.”
- “Death to the oppressor, whether he is Shah or Supreme Leader.”
- “Neither monarchy nor theocracy—freedom and equality.”
- “We want neither Shah nor mullahs; curse the dictators.”
- “Neither Mullah nor Shah—freedom and a democratic republic.”
- “From Zahedan to Tehran, death to the oppressor, whether Shah or Supreme Leader.”
- “Neither Shah nor Mullah—the demand of the Iranian people is a democratic republic.”
A Rejection of Both Forms of Dictatorship
The slogans are significant because they explicitly reject the notion that Iran’s political future lies in replacing one form of authoritarian rule with another.
The campaign in Zahedan presents a clear alternative: neither hereditary monarchy nor religious dictatorship, but a democratic republic founded on freedom and equality.
The message also reflects a broader political position repeatedly emphasized by the organized Iranian resistance: the Iranian people have the right to determine their own political future without being forced to choose between two authoritarian models.
Messages From Massoud Rajavi
The campaign also highlights messages from Massoud Rajavi, leader of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), addressing the nature of the current ruling system, the role of resistance, and the prospects for political change.
Among the statements highlighted are:
“Under the Velayat-e Faqih regime, the president is in reality nothing more than a quartermaster. The rest is courtesy and ceremony.”
Rajavi has also emphasized the importance of challenging the regime’s control over national resources and institutions, while repeatedly framing the struggle as one between an entrenched dictatorship and a population seeking freedom.
Other messages highlighted in the campaign include a call for accountability for those responsible for repression, a declaration that an uprising and the overthrow of the regime lie ahead, and praise for those who have resisted and sacrificed their lives.
One of the central messages is that religious dictatorship, like monarchical dictatorship before it, will ultimately be rejected through popular uprising.
Maryam Rajavi: Poverty and Repression Are Interconnected
The campaign also cites statements by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), linking Iran’s deepening economic crisis to the political structure of the ruling regime.
Rajavi has argued that as long as the regime remains in power, poverty, inflation, and unemployment will continue to worsen, while calling for solidarity, protest, and uprising as the response to these conditions.
She has also described the expansion of poverty and hunger as the consequence of decades of rule under a system that has plundered the country’s resources.
Another central point in her message is that the Iranian people have repeatedly rejected both theocratic and monarchical dictatorship through successive uprisings.
Zahedan as a Voice for a Democratic Future
The latest campaign in Zahedan therefore carries a message extending beyond the slogans themselves.
By explicitly rejecting both “Shah” and “Mullah,” the activists are drawing a political line against two forms of authoritarian rule while emphasizing an alternative based on freedom, equality, and a democratic republic.
The slogans also connect Zahedan with the broader national struggle. The repeated reference to a movement stretching “from Zahedan to Tehran” presents the campaign as part of a nationwide confrontation with dictatorship rather than an isolated local protest.
At a time when Iranian society continues to face repression, poverty, unemployment, inflation, and political exclusion, the Resistance Units’ activities seek to keep the demand for fundamental political change visible.
The message from Zahedan is direct: Iran’s future, they argue, belongs neither to the Shah nor to the Sheikh, but to a free and democratic society in which sovereignty rests with the people.