By Hiva Feizi
August 8, 2020
For more than 41 years, the Iranian regime has carefully curated the mythic underpinnings used to justify its rule. But a toxic combination of economic hardship, corruption, mismanagement, lying in the face of the pandemic, strong sanctions and self-inflicted wounds have shattered the regime’s carefully concocted brew of false legitimacy. Perhaps now more than ever, the conditions are ripe for Iran’s silent majority to move beyond the endless squabbles of warring opposition camps in exile and—for the first time since the 1979 revolution—unite against the ruling theocracy.
Signs of the Iranian people’s dissatisfaction with the regime are unmistakable and, of course, fully warranted. In the face of rampant corruption and abuse, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei maintains the absurd pretense that governance in Iran is rule‐based and embodies the will of the people. This falsehood is validated with regular and clearly manipulated electoral victories. But in the February 2020 legislative elections, turnout was a record low—even by Iran’s propaganda-driven standards.