The Trump administration has gone to war in Iran. And among the many rationales given is that, by “being beat to hell,” the Iranian regime will be weakened enough for a grassroots revolution to topple it.
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” President Trump said in February – adding, mysteriously, that it would “probably be your only chance for generations.”
I want to introduce you to someone who has already tried confronting Iran’s leadership — and barely escaped with his life.
This week, I talked to the lawyer for an Iranian man I’ll call Shayan. (Full disclosure: the lawyer is mentored by my colleagues at the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign.) Shayan took part in the mass protests in September 2022 against laws mandating that women wear hijabs and the punishment – including lethal beating – of women who violated those laws. Shayan got caught up in a mass arrest of protesters and was beaten in custody, but he was released after a few days. (Had Shayan still been in Iran during the protests last January, he might have been among the thousands of Iranians summarily shot.)