By Marziyeh Amirizadeh, Op-ed contributor Saturday, January 03, 2026Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on Oct. 26, 2024. | ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images
Unprecedented protests are taking place across Iran, both in terms of the number of people participating and the number of cities where protests are taking place. Countless videos have documented Iranians protesting. And it’s growing. The reason is the compounded suffering to which Iranians have been subjected under the Islamic Republic, and which hopefully is at the breaking point.
The Iranian rial is at its lowest point in history. Today, one million rials are worth less than $1. The economic impact is widespread, punishing, and impacting every single Iranian.
This is the impact of the ayatollahs stealing billions from Iranians to fund jihadi groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others. Yet the policy of funding the world’s largest terror network has come home to roost.
For months, Iranians have also suffered an unprecedented water and energy crisis, leading to power outages across the country, and reservoirs so low that there has been talk of evacuating millions from Tehran due to the inability to provide water.
Iranians collectively are suffering the most they have ever suffered in five decades, the cumulative impact of the evil regime focusing on spreading extremist Islam, fighting the West, and mismanagement and corruption of every basic need.
But Iranians are not just living under widespread mismanagement; they are living under the cumulative national disaster of millions having been arrested, beaten, tortured, murdered, and disappeared.
There have been protests in the past over the murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022, and more recently, truckers have gone on strike in 160 cities due to a massive increase in prices. For a variety of reasons, these protests did not cause the regime change for which most Iranians are praying for.
But it seems like this time, Iranians are having it no more. The current crisis has exposed new depths of the evil of the Islamic regime. More than ever, and more publicly than ever, Iranians are chanting for the restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty and Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, and for the death of the ayatollahs.
It’s a formula that will hopefully bring the pressure needed for the regime to fall and Iran to be free.
But pressure is also needed from the world because the threats are directed at the world. We even heard it from the “moderate” Iranian president this week that Iran is at full-scale war with the U.S., Israel, and Europe.
While Iranians are risking their lives to protest, it was encouraging to hear President Trump speak out in favor of renewed military action against the regime, and particularly the brutal IRGC. Back in June, in the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic, President Trump, standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, stated that he supports renewed military action against Iran if it tries to rebuild its ballistic missile or nuclear program.
Rather than believing that the Islamic regime will ever negotiate for anything in good faith, Iranians know that what’s needed from outside is the unrelenting destruction of the regime. Iranians are prepared to suffer more if it means their eventual freedom.
But the United States needs to lead the charge, along with Israel and the EU, and even the Saudis, Emiratis, and other Arab states, to bring down the regime. Iranians pray for that. Iranians were frustrated, even feeling abandoned, that the 12-day war in June did not go on and end with the destruction of the regime, or at least give Iranians cover to do what’s needed on the ground.
The Islamic Republic has created unprecedented suffering for all Iranians and for millions of people all around the world. Not just by targeting Israel and the Jewish people, but by infiltrating the West, developing nations, and the Arab and Islamic world. In fact, it’s hard to think of a place in the world that has not suffered as a result of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
People and nations around the world must unite with a singular purpose: to end the Islamic regime and to bring Crown Prince Pahlavi to power and restore the once thriving nation that Iranians yearn for. No one singular act, certainly since the end of World War II, has the same potential to eliminate the suffering of millions and bring peace.
President Trump likes to speak of making deals. The truth is, the best deals to be made are after the Islamic regime falls, and Iran begins necessary reconstruction. The U.S. can play a huge role in that, bringing prosperity to Iran and peace to the world. The time is now. And if we don’t act swiftly, the Iranian people might not get another chance.
Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.
Marzi also is the founder and president of NEW PERSIA whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians. www.NewPersia.org.
