When Israel bombed the gate of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, the main detention facility of the country’s Islamic Republic, on June 23, many of the former political prisoners of the regime who had been held there felt the strike was both cathartic and symbolic.
“When we see that Israel targeted Evin Prison’s gate, these are the symbols of hope. The fall of the gate of Evin Prison is as important as the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Salman Sima, a refugee from Iran who now lives in Toronto.
“I was in that jail. I was tortured in that jail. When I see footage of inside that jail, all of my memories are refreshed. Let me be clear, Salman Sima, former political prisoner of the Islamic Regime, is happy.”
Marina Nemat, the Iranian-Canadian novelist who spent two years inside Evin Prison as a teenager in the 1980s, had a similar reaction. At first she was worried about the prisoners inside, but from what she learned none were seriously injured. Other than that, she says, she was “thrilled.” Like Sima, she compared the destruction of the gate to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
However happy Sima and Nemat were to see the destroyed gate, they also both realized its value was more symbolic than strategic. It was just one door among many, Sima said. The prison can still function, and a full uprising of the people, if one does come about, will take time.
Nemat was similarly cautious in her response. It was lovely symbolism, she said, but the gate can be fixed. More is needed for lasting change.
“When I was myself in prison, every day when I woke up, I thought, ‘Maybe today the people of Iran that know their children are in this prison and are being tortured and killed, they will come and storm Evin and get us out.’ It never happened,” she said. “That is something I always carry with me, that people whose children were in that prison were too scared, because they knew that if they stand up, they would end up where we were.
“The people of Iran are in such a state of fear from their own government… that they have been paralyzed into submission. They are basically enslaved with force, with violence and propaganda.”
For that reason, many Iranian-Canadians who oppose the Islamic regime in Iran were optimistic when Israel first fired on Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 13 and lamented the ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump mandated between the two countries. They were further disheartened when, on June 24, Trump walked back his statements about wanting a regime change in Iran, saying that it would be “chaos.”
Although these Iranian supporters of Israel recognize that any regime change must come from the Iranian people, they saw the war with Israel as an opportunity to ignite a revolution. Thus far, with the ceasefire seeming to hold steady, that opportunity might be lost.
“This really, in some ways, felt like the last best chance for overthrowing this regime that has just committed so much cruelty against its own people and against members of the international community,” said Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer and human rights activist who was born in Iran and currently resides in Toronto. “So I have to say that in that respect, I’m deeply, deeply disappointed and I’m actually worried [about the ceasefire].”
Shahrooz said that after being humiliated by Israel and the United States in the war, the Islamic regime could take out its losses on its own people. He thinks that is one of the likely possible outcomes, especially as the prospects for a popular uprising seem to diminish in the wake of the ceasefire.
“[Iranian leadership] may well sign an agreement with the West and capitulate, effectively, and then they will turn inward and repress their population,” he said.
Amira Zolghadri, a refugee from Iran living in Toronto, harbours similar concerns. She fears that the way in which the United States swiftly entered and then exited the war could turn Iran into another North Korea, severing its ties to the rest of the world as it ratchets up the cruelty on its own population.
“I wasn’t happy about America’s involvement at all. I wished the war had stayed between us cousins in the Middle East. And now, both we and they have lost—while the only winner of this war between us is, once again, some stupid white American who played the role of the all-knowing referee and is now officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. A Nobel Peace Prize soaked in the blood of the Iranian people,” Zolghadri said in a message to The CJN.
“[Trump] didn’t solve the Israel issue –only delayed the regime’s nuclear weapon –but never eliminated the antisemitic ideology behind that bomb. The truth is, even Israelis are still in shock, and this ceasefire with Iran is extremely fragile. But none of us will forget America’s betrayal.”
Sima, who refers to Ayatollah Khamenei as Iran’s Supreme Loser, is similarly skeptical of the ceasefire.
“While the Islamic Republic holds power in Iran, there will be no real ceasefire. Everyday there are executions, torture and terror. If the US or Israel thinks that the Islamist regime in Iran will keep their word, they are dead wrong,” he said in a message to The CJN after the ceasefire was announced.
“You cannot leave the job unfinished. The job must be finished by the people of Iran, we know that. But the West should stop being naive and trying to save the regime… A free Iran is in the best interest of Canada, in the best interest of the US and in the best interest of the free world.”
