Members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ask the world to take notice of impressively brave protests against a cruel and repressive Iranian regime.

The NCRI also advises that in media preoccupation with Gaza, Ukraine and occasionally Sudan, the plight and courage of Iranian people are too easily ignored.

A week ago the ABC’s Four Corners did focus on Iran, in the program “Rage against the regime”, which revealed experiences of young Iranian women who had recently escaped their country. They described the consequences of an unending and often brutal misogyny: prison sentences for raising a headscarf in the streets, blinded for participating in protests against the regime, having no freedom in a forced marriage, losing custody of a child to an abusing husband, and punished for attempting to attend a football match. One gutsy respondent described “cycles of death and protest, death and protest”. “When you pass police, your heart races, your hands freeze”.

These courageous young women had left horrors behind, but what developments within Iran might give hope if they ever returned?

After the 12-day Israeli bombing of Iran, human rights groups say the mullahs’ regime is using wartime chaos to silence civil dissent. They wage war against their own citizens, deny access to information, arrests hundreds for “disturbing security”, house political prisoners alongside violent criminals and increase the rate of executions. Since June 2025, denied due process or fair trials, 24 individuals have been executed.

Control by fear is the centrepiece of supreme leader Khameini’s policies, made absolutely clear in medieval threats by other clerics. On 1 July, a certain religious gentleman, Mojtaba Fazel, declared the punishment for any dissenter, “the sentence is death, crucifixion and the amputation of hands and feet”.

Within Iran it’s not easy to ask, “Where in heaven or on earth did you get those ideas from?”

Nevertheless, across the country, citizens from all walks of life are opposing brutal repression, chronic injustice, government mismanagement and crushing economic hardship. Movements appear spontaneous but some are well organised, each a response to economic ruin, poverty and to military style assaults by men, mostly in uniform, the Basij militia and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Protests against state violence and economic insecurity are not isolated incidents. In 31 provinces, in response to lack of water, constant power outages and a state-run rationing system, bakers have dumped their dough outside the offices of local militia.

Retirees protest the denial of pensions, health workers in provinces such as Iranshar reveal that their salaries have not been paid for three consecutive months.

For over a year, prison protests “No to execution Tuesdays” are reported as widespread. From within prison walls, a request persists that the world listen and act.

In several provinces, truck drivers have sustained a nationwide “strike for dignity”. Drivers from Mashhad say, “We thought trucking meant wealth but all we got was misery, We’re forced to bribe police and navigate broken roads. Nothing is left for us.”

Far more than a labour dispute, the truckers claim to stand for dignity. They want to expose the regime’s inability to even meet the needs of workers “who keep the nation moving”.

Beyond these spontaneous movements, an impressive “People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran” is a network of young people, with young women playing leadership roles. These Iranians take courageous risks in opposing the regime. In Resistance Units, rebel youth in Tehran and other major cities, are reported as having set ablaze centres of repression, such as Basij militia bases and symbols of the regime, government banners and images of Khamenei.

Slogans chanted by protesters, convey people’s despair against abuses at the heart of the Iranian regime. “Women, Life, Freedom”. “No Light, No Water, No Future”, “The Regime Is The Drought”, “Blood, Bread and Bankruptcy”, “Death to the Dictator”, “Our Enemy is Right Here and They Lie When They Say It Is America”.

Even if comprehensive coverage of opposition in Iran is impossible, the courage of protesters merits attention. With few resources, young Iranians protest brutal repression. Elsewhere, a “stand for nothing” trend operates: chronic cowardice by governments who refuse to back the UN, who ignore the rulings of international law, who pass laws to limit free speech, who are fearful of Trump and the genocidal Israeli regime. By contrast, so much can be learned from Iranians who risk their lives.

In response to requests from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, we should be better informed about Iranians’ opposition to repression. We can be grateful for the courage of their young people, in particular the women. We should spare more than a thought for all of Iran’s protesters.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.