The world needs to know what is happening inside Iran. Amid growing discontent over fiscal mismanagement and environmental destruction, the regime is lashing out at citizens who express dissatisfaction.
The voices of ordinary Iranian people must be heard, and their names and faces known, such as prominent human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. He was found, according to reports, dead in his office two weeks ago with blood flowing out of his mouth and nose. Alikordi had suffered severe head trauma, including a fractured skull.
While the media claimed cardiac arrest, intelligence agents swiftly confiscated CCTV footage before the family could access it. Scenes at Alikordi’s funeral showed crowds chanting, “Long live the shah,” and “Long live Iran.”
Notably, some 40 people were arrested at a memorial for Alikordi on Friday, where more chants were heard in support of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.
The disappearance of Bita Shafiei and Maryam Abbasi
Another case is the disappearance of 19-year-old monarchist activist Bita Shafiei and her mother, Maryam Abbasi Nikoo, about a month ago. Reports indicate they are being subjected to solitary confinement and torture and are being pressured to sign forced confessions, a tactic perfected by the Islamic Republic since 1979.
Shafiei first drew attention for condemning chemical attacks on Iranian schoolgirls and publicly supporting Iranian
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. First arrested in 2023, she later revealed that interrogators had fractured her fingers.
Sport has also become a target for oppression. At last week’s Kish Island marathon, over 5,200 runners competed in separate men’s and women’s races. Kish, long seen as relatively relaxed, witnessed hundreds of women running without hijabs. Within hours, authorities arrested two organizers and opened criminal cases, declaring the event an “insult” to Islamic values.
Others have simply vanished. Mohammad Hosseini, a political prisoner accused of posting pro-monarchist content online, was reportedly transferred from prison to an undisclosed IRGC location. No charges have been explained. Many fear for his life.
Twenty-one-year-old Mohammad Esmaeili was murdered after receiving threats from security agents, according to his family. Farzad Khoshboresh, 31, died in custody just one week after his arrest in Mazandaran Province. His body bore visible signs of beating. Officials claimed his health deteriorated, but the pattern is tragically familiar.
Artists murdered by Islamic regime
Artists, too, have not been spared. Iranian rapper EVI’s Instagram account was forcibly taken offline after security agencies demanded she delete it. She refused, declaring she would not accept repression “even if it is presented in the name of religious law.” She has not been heard from since.
Then there is the death of young Iranian activist Omid Sarlak. State media reported in November that Sarlak was found dead in his car in western Iran with a gunshot wound to the head, with police claiming he died by suicide.
Activists and opposition, however, have questioned the merit of the official account, pointing to the timing of Sarlak’s death – just hours after he posted a video of himself burning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s image.
Where is the global outcry? Where are the celebrities, the activists, the self-appointed guardians of human rights when innocent Iranians disappear into prisons, morgues, and silence? Where is the world?
Since the brutal suppression of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the United Nations, to its credit, has acknowledged the scale of the crisis. In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council established an independent fact-checking mission to investigate violations committed by Iran. That mandate has since been extended twice, most recently in April 2025, in what UN investigators describe as a sustained and systematic campaign of repression in the Islamic Republic.
UN reports issued this year speak of escalating surveillance, mass arrests, torture, and an extraordinary spike in executions. By mid-August, Iranian authorities boasted of arresting 21,000 “suspects” following the June war with Israel. A recent UN resolution warned that entrenched impunity in Iran continues to enable gross violations of human rights while denying victims any meaningful remedy.
And yet, even this grim assessment fails to capture how much worse the situation has become since the end of the 12-day war. Human rights groups estimate that more than 1,000 people have been executed in Iran in 2025 alone.
Behind that number are stories that deserve to be heard.
It is vital that the world knows what is happening inside Iran. And it is just as crucial that Iranians realize they are not invisible, that the world is, in fact, paying attention.