{"id":1686,"date":"2026-07-30T12:40:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:40:58","slug":"irans-war-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1686","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s War Within"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For the past few months, Iran has intermittently fought a war with the United States, Israel, and its Arab neighbors. But throughout this period, it has never stopped waging war on its own citizens. The Islamic Republic is executing Iranians in record numbers and has sharpened its tools of repression.<\/p>\n

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Such tactics have never succeeded in pacifying Iranian society for long. Today, some civil-society leaders, and even figures inside the establishment itself, fret that the regime\u2019s heavy domestic hand is not only hurting Iranians but also weakening the country\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Iranian regime executed two young men. Abolfazl Sepahi, 23, and Amirhossein Safari, 28, had been arrested in Isfahan in January in connection with the nationwide anti-regime protests. Dozens of Isfahanis came out to protest the two men\u2019s execution in the days leading up to it, but to no avail. On Monday, security forces dispersed the crowd with paintballs, tear gas, and shots into the air. Sepahi and Safari were hanged in the very same square where they had allegedly demonstrated.<\/p>\n

Back in January, the regime put down mammoth protests with particular brutality, killing thousands of people in the space of two days. In the months since, Iranian courts have sentenced dozens of citizens to death for taking part in the protests. According to UN estimates, 24 have already been executed. According to Amnesty International, at least 60 others, including some who were arrested as children, remain at risk of execution.<\/p>\n

Sepahi and Safari were among 60 people accused of killing four members of the police forces during the protests in Isfahan. The regime claims that the four officers were tied up in the city\u2019s central square, stoned, and then burned alive. Earlier this month, two other young men\u2014a 19-year-old Iranian and a 24-year-old Afghan national\u2014were executed in connection with the same events, and a dozen more people face capital punishment for them. The regime media have distributed an unclear video from the incident and aired confessions of some of the arrestees. But no due process was available to the accused, and the regime media are known for airing forced confessions. Sepahi and Safari had access to no legal representation, not even court-appointed lawyers. They were reportedly tried in three virtual court sessions, each of which took about an hour and in which the accused phoned in from prison rather than appearing before the judge.<\/p>\n

Among those alarmed by the state\u2019s mounting repression are civil-society figures who have staunchly opposed the war with America and Israel. Emadeddin Baghi, an Iranian human-rights activist who is nevertheless not an advocate of regime change, expressed shock about the handling of the Isfahan cases on an Iranian podcast. He said that he had been trying to assist with the defense for one of the accused, but before the person could even start an appeals process, he was executed. The judiciary\u2019s heavy hand will make citizens \u201cquestion the regime\u201d and will lead to a \u201cfall of credibility and legitimacy, resulting in unhappiness, anger, and violence,\u201d Baghi cautioned.<\/p>\n

Likewise, on Tuesday, a group of 150 civic and political activists published a statement calling on the regime to free political prisoners and stop the executions. The signatories include activists such as Abdollah Momeni and Alireza Rajayi, who both oppose what they term \u201cforeign aggression\u201d against Iran and also call for a referendum to change the country\u2019s constitution. They see the regime\u2019s repression as weakening the country at a time of war.<\/p>\n

Executions are not the regime\u2019s only coercive instrument. Many professors at Iranian universities have been suspended or violently arrested, to the Toronto-based Association of Iranian Studies. And other signs suggest that the regime is clamping down on public life.<\/p>\n

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Iran\u2019s hijab laws, mandating that women cover their hair and body, have been laxly enforced since 2024, including during the war. \u201cEven at the airports, you can now see most people without hijab,\u201d a woman who asked to be called Elmira, 27, told me. Like others I spoke with, she used an alias for her safety. \u201cSince it\u2019s summer, I go around mostly with a top and without covering my hair or shoulders, and I have never been stopped once this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But last week, the police clamped down on Tehran\u2019s Sanayi Avenue, a popular destination for nightlife and street culture. At least seven caf\u00e9s were shut down; their owners were told that they could reopen only if they refused to serve hijabless women. The authorities also destroyed public benches that had become hangout spots. \u201cThe benches were where you could bring your coffee, smoke a little, have some social life in the midst of the damn war,\u201d Maryam, 32, told me. \u201cBut now that\u2019s gone. They don\u2019t want us to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A workspace-sharing business in Tehran\u2019s Book Garden, a cultural complex, was also forced to close, casting 270 workers into unemployment. Other cities, including Mashhad and Qom, have seen a crackdown on public spaces as well. In Rasht, a particularly liberal city close to the Caspian coast, police have started accosting women on the streets and threatening them with arrest if they refuse the hijab. There, too, caf\u00e9s have been pressured to refuse to serve uncovered women, a young woman who recently traveled there told me.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s social policy is a divisive subject in national-security circles. Some inside the ruling establishment have been pushing for the draconian enforcement of the Islamic dress code. Hamshahri<\/em>, a newspaper controlled by Tehran\u2019s hard-line mayor, Alireza Zakani, recently asked the police and judiciary to punish hijab-less women for their \u201cbad appearances\u201d and \u201cnorm violations,\u201d contending that such women represented an \u201corganized project\u201d of \u201ccultural shamelessness.\u201d Some members of Parliament and regional officials have made similar calls in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

More pragmatic figures in the establishment accuse these hard-liners of upsetting the country\u2019s social peace with needless political repression, and by seeking to micromanage the lifestyles of ordinary people. They accuse the hard-liners of doing the bidding of Iran\u2019s adversaries, the United States and Israel, by causing instability that will ultimately hurt the regime.<\/p>\n

Even in these dark times, Iran still roils with unrest. Shopkeepers in bazaars have staged sit-ins, not unlike those that preceded the January protests. And just in the past few days, farmers have protested for lack of water, residents of Zanjan have demonstrated for housing, oil and gas employees have rallied in several facilities in the south, and several prisons, including one in Rasht, have become flash points for crowds registering their opposition to the continued executions.<\/p>\n

Having fought off several rounds of nationwide protests since 2017, the Iranian regime knows full well that many of its citizens detest it. The response it reaches for is always the same: repression, which has never yet produced social peace. As the Islamic Republic seeks to manage its military conflict with the United States, it will likely find that the home front remains the hardest to win.<\/p>\n

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The Islamic Republic\u2019s ultimate target remains its own people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global"],"yoast_head":"\nIran\u2019s War Within - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1686\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran\u2019s War Within - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Islamic Republic\u2019s ultimate target remains its own people.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1686\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-30T12:40:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Iran\u2019s War Within\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-30T12:40:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686\"},\"wordCount\":1195,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/074d019cdd995a69238b3cbe3c5f2248.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Global\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1686\",\"name\":\"Iran\u2019s War Within - 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