In the United States, the president does not approve candidates and he doesn’t appoint anyone who approves candidates.

| A government more liberal than Iran in the middle east.

You might as well ask for the most slave friendly state in the antebellum South. They’re shit. The 2009 elections might have yielded a more liberal parliament, but those elections got fudged and when people took to the streets, the state murdered 1.500 of them. If there ever was any democracy, it died that year.

Not a single man will ever be able to run in Iran on a platform that doesn’t rely on the Shariah to dispense justice, that does not demand the subjugation of women or liberalizes society in any meaningful way. Iran had a democracy. It got couped, replaced with a monarchy and now Iran lives under a theocracy with a democratic theater in front.

I don’t have time or will to dive into all of this but this one part: “It is theocratic because the majority of it’s constituents are conservative theocrats” There are no non-theocratic politians in Iran, they do not get approved for standing in an election. Every candidate, on every level, has to be approved by the Guardian Council. Who elected that council? Well, half of the council are clerics, appointed the Supreme Leader. The other half are jurists, who are selected by the Majilis from list approved by the Chief Justice. Who appointed the Chief Justice? The Supreme Leader.

Meaning all 12 positions of the body that decides who can stand for election are either appointed by the supreme Leader or appointed by someone with direct allegiance to the Supreme Leader.

Take the president for example: Pezeshkian would legally not be able to stand for election if he wasnt a Shia Muslim or didn’t affirm that the Supreme Leader is the ultimate authority in matters of religion and social issues. Meaning by law, both social and religious reforms can only be done with the consent of the supreme Leader.

The constituents send up theocratic politicians because there are no other politicians. A theocrat has the ultimate power of determining who is and isn’t a viable candidate.

The Shah was couped with the help of leftist who got backstabbed by the islamists. They weren’t the only possible opposition, they were just the most politically savvy opposition.

Well fuck UK media then, lol.

Maybe I misunderstood you. I’ve been seeing too many people running defense for Iran these days, and by running defense I don’t mean justifying Iranian retaliation (totally justified to strike back if you’re attacked) but rather defending the Iranian government retroactively.

Both Myanmar and Ethiopia are in active states of civil war. By the very nature of civil war they are doing much worse to their citizens. Iran hasn’t been in a civil war, yet it’s still brutalizing its citizens. Even more than the Saudis.

Khomeini hijacked the revolution that ousted the Shah and turned it from a triumphant moment and chance for change into a “under new management” situation.

Khamenei now presides over this theocratic regime and continues to oppress Iran.

Mate, I don’t rely on mainstream media to tell me what to think about Iran. I have in-laws there. My partner regularly talks to them.

Iran was always shite and during the protests, the media said as much. When they executed protestors, It got reported upon. There was never a time in which Iran was like anywhere close tolerable. Did UK media not pounce on the Shahed drones to Russia? Come on, mate.

oh yeah , just some totally uncorroborated hearsay.. L Do you want more? https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-executes-two-more-protesters-ongoing-crackdown https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-protests-security-forces-intensify-deadly-crackdown-kurdish-region

Totally just second hand hearsay. do you still want more?

Boy you could not be more wrong

It has been touched upon for years, then fell off the news wagon because of other events.

The attacks are unjustified, but this narrative of “the media had no problem with Iran” when again, in the past years, executions and state violence carried out by Iran have been reported, is false.

Israel put its signature “killing civilians” spin on it.

That’s the Friday one.

They hanged a man on the anniversary of Kian’s death. Kian was a 10 year old who got shot by security forces. So the IRI pinned the murder on someone else and hanged him. Two years earlier Basijis first kidnapped a 16 year from the protests, then raped and beat her to death. They returned her body two weeks later, claiming she jumped off a building. Those were two of the at least 551 deaths during those protests. The US reported 19 deaths during the George Floyd protests. 19 too much. Not on the same scale as Iran. Domestically, those two are not (nah, were not, don’t know what the Dons gonna do) comparable.

I have in-laws in Iran. That “crap” wasn’t overblown, people got beaten and raped for protesting.

So yeah, Im not gonna cry about Iranian hits on Israeli industry or military bases, but I’m not gonna celebrate Iran either.

“hey, so if we think you published classified info, you’re gonna get killed. Is that okay with you guys? Thanks for being so understanding.”

I don’t want to be mean but did you live under a rock in 2022-2023?

Copying trump won’t help you

You’re responding an awful lot for someone who doesn’t care :)

That’s the first coherent take you had so far.

Lol, my gf is not Iranian then. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll tell to just not bother with putting on a hijab anymore when she visits her family.

The bombing campaign will do absolutely nothing to topple the regime. Israel has now hit orphanages and residential areas.

The people already hate this regime.