The silenced suffering of Iran’s youth and the deafening silence of the West – opinion

As six young Iranians now await execution in what is chillingly known as the “Ekbatan Case,” the Iranian regime once again reveals its brutal commitment to suppressing dissent.

Their names – Milad Armon, Alireza Kafaei, Amir Mohammad Khosh Ighbal, Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati, and Alireza Baramarz Pournak – will likely vanish into the abyss if the Islamic Republic of Iran has its way.

Their “crime”? Taking part in a movement that demanded nothing more than dignity and the right to a voice. In the “Woman Life Freedom” movement of 2022, sparked by the tragic killing of Mahsa Amini, these young Iranians dared to imagine a future free from the stranglehold of a regime that views every breath of liberty as a mortal threat.

The Islamic Republic’s unyielding response to these protests is as strategic as it is ruthless. Arrested, paraded before courts notorious for rubber-stamping sentences of death, and confined in some of Iran’s most infamous prisons, these young men and women are offered no justice. Trials are mere formalities, judgments predetermined, and the sentences – death by hanging – are delivered without a hint of remorse.

As the executions loom, one might expect an outcry from global champions of human rights and a surge of outrage from those who claim to stand with the oppressed. But here lies the insidious hypocrisy of the modern-day liberal Left.

Western blindness

In Western capitals, selective blindness has settled over the progressive movements and voices that proclaim themselves defenders of justice. There is passion, of course, but only when the cause fits a preferred narrative. Observe the throngs rallying in European streets in “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause, voicing calls for “freedom” while aligning with pro-Hamas factions that openly call for the destruction of Israel.

These crowds, with their slogans of liberation, claim the moral high ground, yet they are conspicuously silent when it comes to the cries of Iran’s youth, who face not merely political oppression but the ultimate penalty for daring to speak out.

One cannot escape the bitter irony that those who raise banners of “Freedom for Palestinians” often refuse even a whisper of solidarity for Iranian citizens who face the noose for daring to seek freedom in their own homeland. The moral compass of those voices, quick to castigate Western democracies, grows suspiciously quiet when it comes to the brutal suppression and state-sanctioned murder carried out by Iran’s ruling regime.

And so, we are forced to ask: Where are the self-proclaimed champions of human rights, those tireless voices for “justice”? Where are the mass protests in London, Paris, and Berlin for these young Iranians who risk everything to break their chains?

Yet beyond the silence lies an even darker reality. Crowds have been co-opted into endorsing the regime’s narrative to such an extent that they have become indifferent, perhaps even blind, to the true implications of their stance.

By aligning themselves with slogans crafted by the Islamic Republic, these activists and protesters unwittingly lend credibility to a regime that has made brutality its default policy not only in Iran but throughout the infamous Shia Crescent.

The cries of “resistance” and “liberation” have become twisted mantras, recycled and repurposed to veil the suffering inflicted upon Iran’s own people. Such allegiance, whether given knowingly or ignorantly, supports a narrative that despises dissent, that brands anyone who dares challenge the regime’s stranglehold as a heretic to be silenced.

IN THEIR eagerness to appear “on the right side of history,” many in the West have fallen victim to a moral rot that appears to have spread unchecked. The callous indifference shown to Iran’s plight is not merely a lapse in judgment but an abdication of the very principles these voices claim to uphold. By parroting slogans tailored to suit the regime’s purposes, they forsake the real victims of tyranny and feed a perverse cycle of support for the oppressor.

This is not simply a failure of activism; it is a grotesque betrayal of those who, unlike the pro-regime crowds, are not calling for the destruction of others but merely for their own right to live in dignity.

Until the West wakes up to this hypocrisy and recognizes the moral contamination at the heart of these selective alliances, the young men and women of Iran – and indeed, those oppressed across the Shia Crescent – will continue to face their oppressors alone while those who could have lent them their voices march blindly in step with the very forces of repression they claim to oppose.

The Left’s enthusiasm for human rights appears to be highly conditional. In Iran, a theocratic regime perpetuates its grip through sheer terror, stripping its citizens of their rights and exacting terrible retribution on those who dare to stand against it.

The Ekbatan case embodies this tactic, as Iran’s judiciary wields capital punishment to silence the very generation that could envision a future without such fear. Imprisoning and executing young men for demanding freedom is not just an attack on individuals; it is a direct assault on the future of the nation.

What is unfolding in Iran is not merely repression but a campaign of terror – an attempt to obliterate the spirit of youth in order to preserve the twisted values of a regime that has consistently acted with impunity. And the world, mesmerized by other agendas, looks the other way.

This willful ignorance from the West is nothing short of complicity. The liberal Left, which claims to stand for the underdog, seems to have chosen whose oppression is worth championing and whose suffering is best ignored. It appears that the Iranian people’s desperate cries for help fall outside this selective moral compass.

If the Left truly champions freedom, democracy, and human rights, then let them prove it. Let them raise their voices for Iran’s youth, who, unlike the pro-Hamas crowds, are not calling for the destruction of others but for the right to live in peace, with dignity, in their own homeland. The hypocrisy of celebrating “resistance” in Gaza while ignoring genuine bravery in Tehran is a moral failure that history will not look kindly upon.

As the world stays silent, the Islamic Republic continues to act with impunity, secure in the knowledge that its crimes will be met with little more than a passing nod.

But for the rest of us, for those who see through this duplicity, there is a duty to speak out, to demand that these young men and women are not forgotten. Their names and their courage must not vanish into obscurity simply because their oppressor does not fit the Western Left’s preferred narrative.

In the end, it is not only Iran’s youth who suffer under this hypocrisy; it is the integrity of human rights itself. If we fail to raise our voices now, we betray the very ideals we claim to cherish, leaving Iran’s youth to face the darkness alone while their persecutors operate in full view of a world that simply cannot be bothered to care.

The writer is the executive director of We Believe In Israel.