45 Years of Destruction: How the Islamic Republic Devastated Generations of Iranians
By Bobby Darvish - darvishintelligence.blogspot.com
As an Iranian-American ex-Muslim who has witnessed the slow erosion of my homeland from afar, I have often reflected on the devastation wrought by the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past 45 years. From the moment Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979, the trajectory of Iran’s future was altered forever. What followed has been a slow, calculated dismantling of Iranian culture, economy, and identity. Today, we see the ruin of entire generations who have known nothing but oppression, violence, and deception at the hands of a regime driven by radical ideology and power.
I left Islam in 2013 after leading within the faith for years. It became clear to me that the Islamic Republic was not only a political regime but also an evil system designed to manipulate religion for control. This evil has infiltrated every aspect of Iranian life, corrupting the moral and social fabric of the country, destroying families, and robbing millions of their dignity and dreams.
The Dehumanization of the Iranian People
Since its inception, the Islamic Republic has employed fear as its primary tool of control. The Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, and the clerical establishment operate with ruthless efficiency to suppress dissent. Iranian children grow up under the shadow of these institutions, learning from a young age that their lives are expendable if they stray from the government’s imposed norms.
Generations have been brainwashed by state-sponsored propaganda that glorifies martyrdom, particularly for the regime’s geopolitical ambitions, such as its involvement in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The Islamic Republic's curriculum is designed not to teach critical thinking or the rich history of pre-Islamic Iran, but rather to create soldiers for a theocratic regime.
Iranian youth have been subjected to economic hardship and hopelessness as a result of the regime’s corrupt economic practices. The World Bank estimates that Iran’s youth unemployment rate is close to 30%, meaning that nearly one in three young Iranians cannot find a job. Those who do face limited prospects, often working in low-wage, state-controlled sectors where corruption runs rampant. This economic suffocation has driven the most talented Iranians to flee, causing a brain drain of professionals, intellectuals, and artists who could have rebuilt Iran into a prosperous nation. Al Jazeera reported in 2018 that nearly 150,000 Iranians leave the country annually, a testament to the despair felt by the country’s youth.
The Collapse of Family and Social Values
The destruction of the Iranian family unit has been another casualty of the regime's policies. Under the guise of enforcing Islamic law, the regime has implemented policies that undermine the family, promote divorce, and deprive women of their rights. As an ex-Muslim Christian, I have witnessed firsthand the way that Islamic law is used not to protect women or promote family unity, but to control and dehumanize them.
Human Rights Watch reports that Iranian women face extreme restrictions in public and private life, from compulsory veiling to restrictions on their ability to work or travel without male guardianship. These laws tear families apart and rob women of their dignity. The regime’s enforcement of “morality” through the notorious “Gasht-e Ershad” (morality police) further humiliates women and young people, resulting in widespread trauma and resistance.
The regime's cultural repression has also eroded Iran's once-rich artistic and intellectual heritage. Filmmakers, writers, musicians, and artists face censorship, imprisonment, or exile if they dare to challenge the government’s narrative. Iranian culture, which thrived for centuries, is now suffocated under the weight of an imposed, radicalized version of Islam that is alien to the values and traditions of Iran’s true history.
The Tragedy of the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Policy
It is not just within Iran’s borders that the regime wreaks havoc. The Islamic Republic has built its legitimacy on exporting its revolutionary ideology abroad, at the cost of the Iranian people. While millions of Iranians suffer in poverty, the government funnels billions of dollars to fund proxy militias and terrorist organizations across the Middle East. According to The Wall Street Journal, Iran spends over $16 billion annually to support its regional influence operations, leaving its own citizens to endure crushing sanctions, inflation, and economic collapse.
The Islamic Republic’s foreign policy is built on lies. They claim to protect Shia interests, but in reality, they have used religion as a smokescreen to pursue their political goals. This endless cycle of war and proxy conflict has led to the death of countless Iranians, either in foreign wars or in internal protests like those in 2009 and the more recent 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, where thousands of brave Iranians were killed or imprisoned simply for standing up to their oppressors.
A Call for Change
45 years of rule by the Islamic Republic have left Iran in a state of ruin. An entire generation of Iranians has been deprived of their history, their culture, and their potential. The Islamic Republic has successfully brainwashed, terrorized, and oppressed the Iranian people to the point where hope seems almost impossible.
But there is hope. Even in the face of such overwhelming oppression, the Iranian people have continued to resist. The brave men and women who risk their lives to protest, the artists who continue to create in exile, and the millions of Iranians in the diaspora, like myself, who refuse to remain silent—all of us carry the torch of Iran’s true spirit.
As an Iranian-American ex-Muslim Christian, I believe that only through the total collapse of the Islamic Republic can the Iranian people rebuild the nation that was stolen from them. It is not enough to simply reform the regime; the entire system must be dismantled. The Iranian people deserve a government that represents their values, not one that exploits their faith for power.
The Islamic Republic's time is running out. With each protest, each act of resistance, the regime’s grip on power weakens. Iran will rise again, free from the chains of tyranny. We owe it to the generations lost to ensure that the next 45 years are not another story of destruction, but one of revival.
Citations:
- World Bank. "Youth Unemployment Rate in Iran." Source.
- Al Jazeera. "Iran's Brain Drain: Over 150,000 Emigrate Annually." 2018.
- Human Rights Watch. "Iran: Women's Rights Under Siege." 2023.
- The Wall Street Journal. "Iran's Foreign Spending Fuels Regional Conflicts." 2020.
- The New York Times. "Protests in Iran: Mahsa Amini's Death Sparks Unrest." 2022.
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