“ Khamenei, are you watching? Your Tehran is burning!” [Photo=YouTube Capture]

It is now 3:53 AM. The deep, dark foreign landscape visible from the window of our small hotel on the 6th floor appears incredibly peaceful to the eyes of those awake. I had intended to write about Iran for several days now. Tehran, no, all of Iran is burning. 

Foreign media outlets rapidly escalated the reported death toll. Initially, it was 500, then 1,000, and soon they said it would exceed 2,000. More recently, it has been reported to be as high as 6,000. At this hour, YouTube reports that the number of victims could reach 10,000, even 20,000. 

From the White Revolution to the Revolution of Survival

The scenes of massacre reported by foreign media are shocking to hear. The government is said to have deployed snipers against the protesters. 

A female university student was reportedly executed at close range, shot in the back of the head. Her name was Mahsa Amini, and she was Kurdish. Hundreds of bodies were piled up in the streets, too many to be cleared, and body bags lay abandoned everywhere. 

Women are throwing off their hijabs. In 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish university student, died under mysterious circumstances for not wearing a hijab. She was arrested by the morality police, it was said. Women took to the streets in massive hijab protests. 

 Mahsa Amini died three days after being arrested by the morality police for wearing her hijab too loosely. Witnesses testified that police officers beat Amini severely on the bus en route to the detention center, rendering her unconscious. [Photo=Amani Family Provided]

The women who have taken to the streets this time are even bolder. They have thrown off their hijabs and set fire to pictures of the Supreme Leader Khamenei, using them to light their cigarettes. They have committed three acts forbidden by the Iranian authorities all at once. 

The Iranian authorities are one of the most barbaric regimes on Earth today. Since the so-called Islamic Revolution, this regime has continued its dictatorship for decades. From Khomeini to Khamenei, a span of 47 years. 

Even the president, elected by the people, holds a position subordinate to the Supreme Leader (Rahbar), who holds effective power. Khomeini and Khamenei control everything. 

How many of its citizens has this regime killed, massacred? Even as I write this, the slaughter continues. Is the number twenty thousand an exaggeration?

This new revolution in Iran, and the massacre and slaughter by the Islamic regime, demonstrate how foolish humans can be, how easily they can deceive themselves. 

In 1979, it is likely that overthrowing the Pahlavi dynasty was believed to be the cause of the revolution. An overwhelming majority of the people supported the fundamentalist Islamic revolution. 

That era could be described as an era of anti-imperialism, anti-monarchy, and anti-Americanism. Shah Pahlavi's “White Revolution” was seen as representing a false “modernity.” 

At the time, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, supported by the United States, pursued land reform, guaranteed women's suffrage, literacy campaigns, and state-led social welfare initiatives. 

Among these, land reform involved confiscating large landowners' estates and distributing them to tenant farmers. Many of these large landowners were traditional clergy. 

The expansion of women's suffrage and social participation policies also provoked strong opposition from the clergy. All of this, combined with the global trend of anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism, ignited Khomeini's fundamentalist revolution. 

Let us imagine an idealistic young man among the people at that time. Let us imagine he dreamed of a society of equality, a nation free from imperialistic powers, in place of the Shah's autocratic rule. 

In his eyes, everything about the Islamic Revolution might have seemed right, and even unnatural or absurd things could have been tolerated. 

The Revolution Becomes Counter-Revolution, and the Counter-Revolution Becomes Revolution

In any society or nation, if something is right, then often other things are wrong. If one progresses in some areas, one might fall behind in others. Naive idealists, progressives, and revolutionaries often believe that absolute “good” is possible. 

Now, as that young man has lived through 47 years of the Iranian “revolution,” he witnesses people resisting fiercely and constantly. What he aimed for was to be their friend, yet women are throwing off their hijabs and setting fire to the sacred image of the Supreme Leader. They consider the crown prince, who has gone into exile, as their leader, saying things were better under the Pahlavi monarchy. 

The waves of resistance that periodically surge do not subside, no matter how severely counter-revolutionary elements are punished, even with executions. 

The astonishing “reversal” and “upside-down” nature of the revolution becoming counter-revolution and the counter-revolution becoming revolution bewilders the former young man, whose hands are now stained with blood. 

Now, he must watch with a look of disbelief as the people falling to the bullets of the Revolutionary Guards desperately await aid from America. Every day, the “revolutionary government” must reveal itself to be a “counter-revolutionary government” that massacres and slaughters its own people. 

Tehran is burning. All of Iran is burning. The Persian Empire, engulfed in flames, is about to collapse. The counter-revolutionary oppressors are rushing towards ruin. 

We humans are almost always foolish. Those who once considered themselves burning idealists must confront the poison within their ideologies. 

The poet Kim Soo-young wrote in his poem “Confucius's Financial Difficulties,” “Comrade, now I will see clearly.” He stated, “the physiology of things and things,” “the quantity and limit of things,” “the ignorance and brilliance of things,” and “and I will die.” 

I rephrase this: “I will die first. Then, perhaps, I will be able to see clearly.” 

One thing is clear now. Those who “beg” for the death sentence of another, and those who think that might be a revolution, are not seeing clearly. 

Whether they wish to call it a revolution or reform is their freedom. However, it is a path to counter-revolution, anti-freedom, and new subjugation. 

“Comrade, wouldn’t you agree?”

◆ Professor Bang Min-ho

Doctor of Literature, Professor at Seoul National University, Department of Korean Language and Literature. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the quarterly literary magazine “Mac” (since 2022) and is actively working as a poet, novelist, and literary critic. His works include “Lover Shim Cheong” (2015), “The Language of Pain” (2019), “Re-asking Korean Criticism” (2021), and “Seoul Literary Journey” (2024).