John Kami
Contributing reporter

Since its inception, Iran’s government has abused human rights. Its government has stood on the grounds of false accusations against innocent victims, thievery, torture, and embarrassing the Shia sect of Islam.

Unfortunately, many people have been fooled that the Revolution of 1979 brought democracy by the guise of an elected president. But what most people don’t know is the Supreme Ayatollah Leader is behind the real law-making decisions in Iran. With this past summer’s rigged elections, of course the government of Iran will want a hardliner like Ayatollah Khamene’i. He stands on the ideology of disliking America and feeling threatened by people in his own country who are not Muslim.

First of all, Iran’s elections make a mockery of a true democracy. Secondly, many college professors are foolishly acting like they know what’s going on when they fail to mention the many human rights violations, despite numerous treaties to world powers that have been broken over the years in post-Shah Iran. Some professors like to refer to the Shah’s secret police as an example of human rights violations.

I would like to introduce you to the current plain-clothes police, known as the Basij.

The Basij are under the command of Iran’s government inflicting violence upon anyone protesting the Iranian government. They are composed of impoverished people from rural areas with little education and hope for better careers. Most are hired as children and bribed with free kabobs and pension for their families. They are trained to walk the streets of crowded cities like Tehran with guns hidden in their pockets and use force against anyone breaking Muslim code including if a woman’s headscarf is not tight enough around their necks.  The group is famous for their involvement in many cases of human rights violations.

In Iran’s regime, everyone suffers. Even members of its own government are starting to question the Supreme Leader Ayatollah’s integrity and projection of Islamic law. As you might have heard on the news, Iran is desperately trying to sentence many protestors in its prisons who tried to exercise their rights by expressing concerns about their government.

Since Mehdi Karroubi, a former confidant of Ayatollah Khamene’i, saw legitimacy in public anger against Iran’s regime, he has become the target of assassination attempts by Basij officials. This is being done to not only silence the opposition and give them less hope but to also put the blame on opposition leaders so that the government can justify intensified punishments against protestors.

In 2000, a group of young women protesting the imprisonment of Iranian youth protestors were raped and ambushed by Iranian police. Last month when a group of mothers held a candle light vigil for their sons who were in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where many innocent people are executed on a weekly basis, the Basij bloodied many of them.

The Iranian government bans individual rights for holding memorials or honoring people who they miss. The Muslim religion has major emphasis on remembering the dead. Islam has always been noted to embrace the issue of life known as death. Unfortunately, Iran’s government acts radically against real Islamic ideas.

Iran’s current government has nearly destroyed the image of Islam. Planes arriving from other countries must circle around Ayatollah Khomeini’s gravesite. When Saudi Arabia criticized Iran’s government, Iranian officials told Muslims to stop facing Mecca during prayer and start facing Mashad, a city where many terrorists working for Iran’s regime have been buried. It is time for a major change in Iran’s government.