While the fog of repression has not yet completely lifted, Iranians are counting their dead. From several hundred reported in the early days of the protests, the number quickly rose to thousands. The testimonies we are receiving are unequivocal. But the uprising that began on December 28 is not just a humanitarian issue. It is a cry for human rights.

It is the demand of a people to live freely, of young people who want to decide their future without constraints, of women who no longer want to be forced to wear the veil, of workers who would like not to have to take on multiple odd jobs to make ends meet. Faced with these legitimate demands, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had, as always, only one response: a lethal one, calling the protesters traitors and terrorists.

Donald Trump thought he could ride the wave of this revolt by pretending that, like a white knight, he would come to the rescue of the martyred Iranian people, bringing with him the heir to the Shah. His thunderous statements only served to mask his duplicity.

Because, in reality, only the interests of the United States matter. If the Iranian clergy and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) fall into line and comply with Washington’s demands, the fate of the Iranian people is irrelevant. They are the ones who will suffer most from this realpolitik.

Whatever happens now, nothing will ever be the same in Iran. In September 2022, the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement had already shifted the boundaries. The regime proved incapable of opposing Iranian women, who demonstrated en masse, dressed freely, and continue to defy the guardians of morality. This time, the question arises of creating a pluralistic and progressive movement capable of avoiding pitfalls and not falling from Charybdis to Scylla, between royalist pretensions and false aid from foreign states. While the ayatollahs may think they have extinguished the fire, the embers are still smoldering.