So many express admiration for Iran’s theocracy because it defies US sanctions. As if that defiance came from some higher purpose & not economic & political imperatives. What about it’s military intervention against the Syrian Arab Spring involving the slaughter of thousands of civilians? What about its repression in Iran of free speech; the arrest, torture, & rape of political prisoners; the killing, persecution, flogging, & jailing of journalists; freedom of religion; outlawing of homosexuality; mass trials of dissidents; compulsion to wear the veil? What about the annual conference it sponsors of fascists, holocaust deniers & other anti-Semites, 9/11 truthers & other conspiracy mongers? What about the sentence of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to 38 years & 148 lashes for speaking out against the compulsory veil for women? What about human rights?
(Photo of January 2018 protests in Iran against Iranian government which responded with riot police from The Quartz)