‘my heart is full of sparks’ – as war escalates, can I hope for Iran’s liberation from a tyrannical regime?
- Written by Hessom Razavi, Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, The University of Western Australia
We are at a dinner party in suburban Perth, a home away from home for our diaspora. As guests arrive, a Persian ballad plays in the background: Morq-e Sahar (Dawn Bird), a freedom song, a century-old protest against dictatorships and tyranny in Iran. This version was sung by the late Mohammad-Reza Shajarian[1], Iran’s most decorated maestro.
Dawn bird, lament!Make my brand burn even more.With the sparks from your sigh, breakAnd turn this cage upside down.
Shajarian’s virtuoso voice frames an old question. One I’ve heard, it seems, at every Iranian gathering since my childhood. It hangs in the air like a cloud, unanswered, as guests greet each other with customary bowing and rooboosi (cheek kissing). We settle around a table laden with âjil (trail mix), fruit and wine, the smell of saffron rice and ghorme sabzi (herb stew) all around.
For me, the scene is both familial and familiar. As is the question, which circles back around. “When will this regime change?” someone asks. The “regime” is Nezâm-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân, or the Regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A missing voice
Since the launch of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion[2] against Iran last week, there has been a voice sometimes missing in the mainstream coverage – that of the Iranian people themselves.
“Israel is not our enemy, the regime is our enemy,” chant many Iranians in Tehran and in the diaspora, a common sentiment in our community. They cite the regime that they have endured for 46 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution: a government most of them oppose and reject[3], with the vast majority of Iranians preferring democratic, if not secular, reform.
I hear some Iranians, on social media and in conversation with people who live there, commending Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for assassinating Iran’s top military brass. These are the leaders of the Sepah, or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps[4] (IRGC), the most powerful branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. Together with the mullahs – Iran’s Shia Muslim clerical class – they form the backbone Iran’s government and economy.
So far, Israel has assassinated Hossein Salami[5], the head of the Revolutionary Guards, as well as Mohammad Kazemi[6], its intelligence chief, plus senior nuclear scientists and dozens of other officers. Israel has also indicated an interest in killing Ayatollah Ali Khomenei[7], Iran’s supreme leader.
“Damet garm, aghayeh Netanyahu,” some Iranians are saying, literally “may your breath be warm”, or “good job, Netanyahu”. Amid the terror and confusion – not to mention the civilian deaths, so far, of over 200 Iranians[8] – there is a rare and distinct sense of hope.
State of corruption
In view of Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, this support for Israel may come as a surprise to many Australians, and Western liberals in general. Certainly, reconciling Israel’s role in Gaza versus Iran is jarring.
But for now, I hear some Iranians saying “maybe our regime can finally be toppled”. Maybe Iran can reclaim its place in the international community, as the proud and prosperous nation it should be? As this crisis escalates, as buildings collapse and distressed Tehranis, including my family, flee the capital for the safety of the countryside, there is a heady sense of possibility.
Wing-tied nightingale come out of the corner of your cage, andSing the song of freedom for human kind.With your fiery breath ignite,The breath of this peopled land …
I understand the allure of this hope; to an extent, I feel it myself. My family lives in Australia, not Iran, precisely because of the Iranian regime’s tyranny. We fled Iran in 1983 due to political persecution[9], after most of the adults in our extended family were arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned by the government.
Two of my imprisoned uncles and one of my aunties were executed. Another uncle was beaten to death in custody. My grandfather, a noble old man, was imprisoned and tortured. We were far from unique; during the 1980s, the government imprisoned tens of thousands of its own people, executing many thousands of them.
Little has changed since then. The Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guards have shown a pervasive disregard for human rights. They execute more of their own people than any country except China[10]. They are a world leader in the use of torture; they deny freedoms of expression and press, association and assembly; they discriminate against women, girls, religious minorities, LGBTI people, and refugees. Tightly controlled elections ensure the success of desired candidates.
Freedom House, a nonprofit organisation based in the US, gives Iran a score of 11 out of 100[11] for its provision of political rights and civil liberties. For many Iranians, it felt overdue when, in 2019, the US listed the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation[12], a decision followed by other countries, including Canada[13] and Sweden[14]. In 2023, the European parliament overwhelmingly voted for a resolution to do the same[15], with calls to expedite this motion in early 2025.
In parallel to their human rights abuses, the Revolutionary Guard has hobbled the Iranian economy. Their corruption, financial incompetence and operation of black markets have compounded the effects of international sanctions. Consequently, the Iranian rial hit a historic low this year[16]. It is now worth around one twentieth of its value in 2015.
People’s life savings have dwindled in value, rendering older Iranians financially vulnerable. Inflation was 38.7% in May of this year[17], down from highs of over 40%. My family in Iran experience this as grocery and commodity prices that may rise in a single day, higher in the afternoon than in the morning. Some cities have experienced water cuts and power outages.
While it hasn’t yet qualified as a failed state, Iran has been failing.
All of this has occurred despite the country being richly endowed with the second- and third-highest natural gas and oil reserves in the world, respectively. Iran has a GDP of over $US404 billion[18] – 36th in the world. Its youth are highly educated and literate, with more women enrolled in universities than men[19].
Rather than accelerating the nation’s domestic development, however, the Iranian government has by its own admission spent tens of billions of dollars[20] to expand its empire by funding terrorist proxies: Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the recently deposed Assad regime in Syria, and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Iranian people have suffered financially, but the Revolutionary Guards have not. They are estimated to control at least 10%, and up to 50%, of the country’s total economy, including up to an estimated 50% share of Iran’s US$50 billion per year oil profits[21]. They have achieved this by commandeering an industrial empire, made up of hundreds of commercial companies, trusts, subsidiaries and nominally charitable foundations.
A further US$2 billion or more per year[22] comes from the government’s military budget, with periodic boosts during crises. Add to this the alleged shadowy operation of black markets, extortion, and the smuggling of alcohol, narcotics and weapons, accounting for an estimated US$12 billion per year in revenue[23].
Contemplating this corruption, I am reminded of an anecdote from a personal associate who worked for a firm affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard. They shared stories of officers, the nation’s purported “guardians of Islam”, hosting parties where alcohol, firearms and sex workers were readily available.
My associate recounted several instances of fraud and theft, one of them monumental in scale. In this “tea smuggling scandal”, the Revolutionary Guard defrauded billions of dollars from a government fund[24] by illicitly exchanging some funds on the open market, falsely labelling cheap tea to on-sell as superior quality tea, and falsely labelling domestically produced machinery as “Made in Germany”.
“They’re untouchable, and they know it”, my associate said. Another Iranian community member described them to me as “Iran’s super-mafia”.
Speaking to family in Iran, they say many of the middle tier Revolutionary Guards live in their own shahrak-ha (towns) with dedicated markets, schools and resorts. Many of the Guards’ elite, meanwhile, live in mansions in the exclusive parts of north Tehran, with children who pursue conspicuously American “lifestyles of the rich and famous”. For an organisation that leads the chants of “marg bar America!” (death to America), one wonders if they see the irony in this.
Turn our dark night to dawn
I find myself sickened by the events of this war, and the harm it is causing. Struck with anxiety, some of our family members in Tehran haven’t slept for days. “The Israeli bombardments are non-stop, and so loud,” one family member told me.
This week our extended family has struggled frantically to leave Tehran. Petrol is hard to come by and, in a mass exodus, the bumper-to-bumper traffic stands still for hours. I know some of the neighbourhoods being bombed; we lived in one of them in my childhood.
“For every military commander that’s assassinated, a whole building might collapse, and with a dozen civilians trapped or killed,” another person told me, intimating that the civilian toll is higher than official counts.
Iranians walk past a picture of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the country marks the 45th anniversary of his return from exile in 1979, Tehran, February 2024. Abedin Taherkenareh/AAP
I am also worried about the raised hopes of Iranians. I have seen this before, when a spark – sometimes an inspirational act of courage from an ordinary citizen – leads to public surges in solidarity. At these moments during my childhood, my parents would tell me that the regime’s time was limited, it’s downfall inevitable. Iranians would see better days and people power would prevail.
Truth and goodness rise like cream, my Dad would say, as if echoing Dr Martin Luther King’s arc of the moral universe bending towards justice.
A beautiful sentiment no doubt, but one that has become difficult to believe over time. It often appears that the universe’s arc bends towards power, not justice. Fairness seems the exception, hardly the rule. At the time, Dad’s reassurances were protective, even noble. But as the 1979 revolution and its aftermath have shown, might beats right most days of the week.
The cruelty of the cruel and the tyranny of the hunterHave blown away my nest.O God, O Heavens, O Nature,Turn our dark night to dawn.
As I explain to Australian friends: how can a people surpass a government that has (1) the military on its side, (2) a stranglehold on oil revenue, and (3) a purported mandate from God?
Guns, money and a holy book – a hard trifecta to crack, and powerful enough to attract a sufficient minority of cronies, bottom feeders and sycophants.
What’s the size of this ruling minority? It’s difficult to be sure, but a 2023 survey of 158,000 respondents within Iran[25] found that only 15% supported the Islamic Republic. Small, but sufficient to produce crowds burning American and Israeli flags. I’ve always marvelled at the regime’s ability to manufacture these images; I’m told by associates that they now use AI to produce some of these.
Women Life Freedom
As current events unfold, I find myself deeply sceptical of all the political actors, whether Iranian, Israeli, American, Arab or Russian. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, none of them have shown any serious interest in supporting democratic reform in Iran. “They’ve all profited from this government,” a senior community member told me. “Why would that change now?”
For the sake of sanity, I find myself searching for credible sources of hope. The only one I settle on is faith in the Iranian people themselves. This the culture that has surrounded me since childhood, the qualities I’ve seen first hand in my countrywomen and men, whether young or old, home or abroad, Muslim, Bahai or secular: a resilience, a resourcefulness, a propensity for joy, a confidence and pride in culture, and an ability to prevail, over and again.
It’s a new spring, roses are in bloom……O rose, look towards this lover,Look again, again, again.
These qualities are periodically staged for the world to see. Iranian people have not taken their oppression lying down, rising in (mainly) peaceful protests. There have been some 10 mass protests since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The largest of these was the Green Movement[26] in 2009, when it was estimated that over a million citizens marched in Tehran alone. As recently as May 2025, strikes took place in over 150 cities[27], involving hundreds of thousands of workers.
For the most part, these demonstrations have been met with severe repression by state authorities. One episode, from September 2022, deserves special mention. The world watched in horror as the regime cracked down on young women in Iran. This was their response to the Zan Zendegi Azadi (Woman Life Freedom[28]) movement, where mass protests were triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini[29].
Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who had been detained by the government’s “Morality Police” for wearing an improper hijab. Three days into her detention she died under suspicious circumstances. A leaked CT scan showed a skull fracture and brain haemorrhage. This corroborated eyewitness accounts that Amini had been severely beaten by police.
Intentionally or not, a dress code infringement had been punished by death. Even for Iranians long accustomed to state violence, this was too much. Mass protests erupted in more than 100 cities across all of Iran’s 31 provinces[30].
Iranians protest the death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police, in Tehran. AAP[31]
The protests were led by women, many of them defiantly removing their headscarves. True to its nature, the regime responded violently. In the months that followed, over 20,000 protesters were imprisoned, many later testifying to having been tortured through electric shock, flogging, waterboarding and rape.
Human Rights Watch estimates that over 500 civilians[32] – including 68 children and adolescents – were killed by security forces, which included the paramilitary Basijis[33], Revolutionary Guard Corps, police and prison guards.
Things would get darker. That December the regime was accused of deliberately poisoning over 1,200 students[34] at Kharazmi and Ark universities on the eve of a planned protest. Soon thereafter, there were allegations of toxic gas attacks against thousands of schoolgirls, in apparent retaliation for removing their hijabs. By 2024, the UN had accused Iran of a coordinated campaign of crimes against humanity[35], a claim rejected by the regime.
As an eye surgeon, I was distressed to read a letter signed by over 100 Iranian ophthalmologists[36] detailing eye injuries among protesters. The letter alleged that security forces had deliberately targeted people’s eyes[37] with teargas canisters, rubber bullets and shotgun fire, resulting in traumatic injuries and irreversible blindness among protesters.
Dew drops are falling from my cloudy eyesThis cage, like my heart, is narrow and dark.O fiery sigh set alight this cageO fate, do not pick the flower of my life.
There were separate reports of women’s faces and genitals being targeted by shotgun fire[38]. The regime appeared to have interfered with medical services[39]: protestors transported to police stations in ambulances were arrested after surgery or denied treatment. Doctors were reportedly coerced to supply false death certificates to disguise the true cause of protestors’ deaths. The British Medical Journal documented healthcare professionals being arrested, intimidated, kidnapped or killed in retaliation[40] for treating protesters.
If we didn’t know it already, Zan Zendegi Azadi reminded us of the risks, if not futility, of advocating for change in Iran.
When mass civil movements like this, performed ten times over, have not worked, what alternatives are the people left with? Brutalised and impoverished by their own government, should we be surprised when a traditionally Islamic people welcome a Jewish state’s decapitation of their political leaders? Is it not tempting, even if lazy, to invoke the historical comparison of Cyrus the Great, Persian King of the Achaemenid Empire, who freed the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity?
For the people of Iran and Israel – at the risk of naivety and romanticism – are we approaching an age of karma?
O rose, look towards this lover,Look again, again, again.O heart-lost bird, shorten, shorten, shorten,The tale of separation.
An uncertain scenario
Regarding Operation Rising Lion, it is safe to say that Iranians, like any healthy community, hold a diversity of views.
At one end of the spectrum, those who unconditionally condemn Israel’s attack should consider that the Iranian government has stockpiled over 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium[41]. While not enough to build a nuclear warhead, this is far more enriched uranium than is needed for peaceful purposes.
The Iranian government has also vowed to “wipe Israel off the map[42]” for decades. Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei lauded the October 7 terrorist attack[43] by Hamas on Israeli civilians. In other words, Iran has said to Israel “we want to annihilate you, we’ll celebrate your deaths, and we could do it with nuclear weapons if we wished to”.
Following Iran’s recent breach of its nonproliferation obligations[44] to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Israel says it has acted lawfully in attacking Iran for self-defense – a claim disputed by some international law experts[45]. Even if one does not agree with Israel’s action, it is evident that they’ve long been baited by Iran.
On the other side of the coin, Iranians who salute Israel and the US as their saviours should take caution. The US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declared as recently as March 2025 that there was no evidence that Iran was actively pursuing nuclear weapons[46], a finding corroborated by over a dozen other US intelligence elements[47] including the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Insitute for Defense Analyses.
One cannot ignore the disturbing echoes of the 2003 war on Iraq, where the absence of evidence for weapons of mass destruction was intentionally misrepresented by the US and UK governments. The consequences for Iraq have been disastrous.
As for Netanyahu and his administration, they have shown a ruthless pursuit of narrow self-interest in Gaza. The deaths and injuries inflicted by the Israeli Defence Forces on more than 50,000 Palestinian children[48] appear to have done nothing to quell their ambitions.
With regards to Netanyahu himself, he is facing corruption charges[49] that could result in his domestic imprisonment and he has more recently been the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court[50] for war crimes, including starvation and murder.
A woman mourns over the body of Mohammadi Javad Naseri, who was reportedly killed in Israeli strikes in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, Monday, June 16, 2025. Matin Hashemi/AP
What can Iranians learn from this? The evidence suggests this could be a war of passion and opportunism for Israel, rather than one of legitimate self-defence. In any case, they are not waging it for the benefit of Iranians.
Israel has a tendency to set ambitious military goals that it can’t achieve. While it promises Operation Rising Lion will soon end, its track record suggests otherwise.
A protracted conflict would see Iran’s civilian toll rise much higher. Power outages and fuel shortages have already begun; what happens once water, medical and food scarcity set in? Since Iran doesn’t allow many international aid agencies onto its soil, who will come to the rescue of Iranians as things escalate?
Truth’s life has come to an endFaith and fidelity have been replaced by the shield of war.Lover’s lament and beloved’s coyness,Are but lies and have no power.
Even if Israel succeeds in capturing or killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, what happens next? With the Revolutionary Guard’s roots in place, there is no guarantee, and in fact a low likelihood, of true democratic reform[51]. In recent times, foreign interference in the region has not gone well. Look at Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria: all evidence of catastrophic worsening after the removal of autocrats.
This is a complex and uncertain scenario with little room for moral grandstanding. Disabling Iran’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities could be a net win, but the manner in which it is being done sets a dangerous precedent. For the Iranian people, Netanyahu’s ambitions could ultimately prove both heroic and villainous.
The cup of the rich is full of pure wine,Our cup is filled with our heart’s blood.O anxious heart, cry out aloudAnd avoid those who have powerful hands.
As I watch coverage of the war, I find myself drifting back to Shajarian’s voice and to Morq-e Sahar, probably for distraction and comfort. What is real is my faith in my fellow Iranians. Many examples comes to mind. One, during a trip to Iran, was when I stayed with family at a roadhouse. That evening, we heard music emanating from the courtyard and followed some steps into an dark basement beneath the accommodation.
There we found a large gathering of young Iranians, two dozen or more men and women risking the law by hanging out together to sing. We joined them as strangers, seated on the floor and holding hands at times. In the dim light, the group sang and sang, a couple of them playing instruments.
I can’t say I knew the songs or comprehended all the lyrics; I didn’t need to, to understand their meaning. You may force our people underground, you may cage them, bombard and even kill them. But you will never extinguish their eternal Persian spirit.
O rosy-cheeked cup-bearer, give the fiery water,Play a joyful tune, O charming friend.O sad nightingale lament from your cage.Because of your grief my heart isFull of sparks, sparks, sparks.
References
- ^ Mohammad-Reza Shajarian (mohammadrezashajarian.com)
- ^ Operation Rising Lion (www.abc.net.au)
- ^ oppose and reject (www.iranintl.com)
- ^ Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (www.reuters.com)
- ^ Hossein Salami (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ Mohammad Kazemi (iranfocus.com)
- ^ killing Ayatollah Ali Khomenei (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ over 200 Iranians (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ We fled Iran in 1983 due to political persecution (www.australianbookreview.com.au)
- ^ execute more of their own people than any country except China (www.amnesty.org.au)
- ^ 11 out of 100 (freedomhouse.org)
- ^ listed the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation (www.bbc.com)
- ^ Canada (www.bbc.com)
- ^ Sweden (www.voanews.com)
- ^ a resolution to do the same (www.euronews.com)
- ^ historic low this year (www.reuters.com)
- ^ 38.7% in May of this year (tradingeconomics.com)
- ^ over $US404 billion (data.worldbank.org)
- ^ more women enrolled in universities than men (www.tehrantimes.com)
- ^ tens of billions of dollars (www.rferl.org)
- ^ an estimated 50% share of Iran’s US$50 billion per year oil profits (www.reuters.com)
- ^ US$2 billion or more per year (www.janes.com)
- ^ US$12 billion per year in revenue (www.janes.com)
- ^ defrauded billions of dollars from a government fund (www.iranintl.com)
- ^ 2023 survey of 158,000 respondents within Iran (gamaan.org)
- ^ Green Movement (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ over 150 cities (iranfocus.com)
- ^ Woman Life Freedom (www.amnesty.org)
- ^ death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini (www.amnesty.org)
- ^ more than 100 cities across all of Iran’s 31 provinces (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ AAP (photos.aap.com.au)
- ^ estimates that over 500 civilians (www.hrw.org)
- ^ Basijis (www.moderninsurgent.org)
- ^ deliberately poisoning over 1,200 students (web.archive.org)
- ^ coordinated campaign of crimes against humanity (www.ohchr.org)
- ^ a letter signed by over 100 Iranian ophthalmologists (ensafnews.com)
- ^ deliberately targeted people’s eyes (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ women’s faces and genitals being targeted by shotgun fire (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ interfered with medical services (www1.racgp.org.au)
- ^ arrested, intimidated, kidnapped or killed in retaliation (www.bmj.com)
- ^ over 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium (www.bbc.com)
- ^ wipe Israel off the map (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ lauded the October 7 terrorist attack (www.iranintl.com)
- ^ breach of its nonproliferation obligations (www.reuters.com)
- ^ disputed by some international law experts (theconversation.com)
- ^ no evidence that Iran was actively pursuing nuclear weapons (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ over a dozen other US intelligence elements (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ more than 50,000 Palestinian children (www.unicef.org)
- ^ corruption charges (www.reuters.com)
- ^ an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (news.un.org)
- ^ true democratic reform (theconversation.com)
