We keep hearing estimates — somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 lives lost.
Numbers like that can feel distant, almost unreal. But pause for a moment and picture what they actually represent. These were people with names, families, futures.
Parents. Teenagers. Dreamers. Creatives. Students.
All killed in a matter of days for a single reason: they dared to ask for freedom.
And the most chilling part? By the time this is read, that figure may already be higher.
The violence isn’t slowing. It’s accelerating.
A Nation Rising, and Paying the Price
What’s unfolding in Iran right now is the largest wave of public resistance the country has seen since the current regime took power.
This isn’t rumor or exaggeration — the proof is in the grainy videos smuggled out at enormous personal risk.
Streets ablaze. Crowds chanting. Gunfire echoing through neighborhoods.
Those who stepped forward were hunted for it. Beaten in public squares.
Shot behind closed doors. Hauled from their homes in the dead of night. Locked away, tortured, erased.
This isn’t a clash of opinions. It isn’t a cultural misunderstanding.
It is mass killing, carried out while much of the world looks away.
This Is Not Iran — This Is a Regime
Iran is being misrepresented, and that lie matters. Iran is not brutality by default.
It is the birthplace of Rumi’s verses, Ferdowsi’s epics, breathtaking gardens, and centuries of scholarship in science, medicine, and astronomy.
It is a civilization built on thought, beauty, and humanity.
What rules today is not Iran — it is fear.
A system sustained by intimidation and bloodshed, one that has stolen the country’s voice while pretending to speak for it.
Power Maintained Through Terror, Not Consent
For decades, those in charge have not governed through legitimacy or popular support.
They have ruled by force. Silence has been enforced with prisons. Obedience extracted with violence.
Any challenge crushed swiftly and publicly to serve as a warning.
And yet, despite everything, something essential has survived.
A Personal Loss Shared by Millions
I’m the child of immigrants. My parents were among the countless Iranians who fled after the 1979 revolution.
They lost their home, their stability, their future — but never their love for the country they left behind.
I grew up hearing stories of a place filled with warmth, culture, and pride.
A place that shaped them, and one that I still cannot safely visit today.
I imagine walking those streets one day — the same streets my parents knew before fear replaced freedom.
Why Leadership Matters Right Now
Moments like this expose the difference between noise and leadership.
The world doesn’t need carefully worded statements. It doesn’t need hesitation.
It needs resolve — the kind that protects the vulnerable and confronts evil head-on.
President Donald J. Trump understands power. He understands leverage.
And history is watching what leaders do when it matters most.
A Pause in Executions — and a Message Sent
This week, President Trump said he had been informed that the killings had stopped.
Reports from Tehran followed, indicating that 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani — charged with crimes tied to opposing the regime — would not face execution.
It’s hard to ignore what likely caused that shift.
The threat of American military action speaks louder than diplomatic handwringing ever has.
But nothing is settled. The situation remains fragile, and every life still hangs in the balance.
The World Is Watching — and So Are We
Trump has said he’s monitoring events closely. So are Iranians everywhere.
Inside the country. Across the diaspora.
We are not a small or powerless community.
We are business owners, professionals, innovators, voters, donors, and builders in the nations that gave us refuge.
We are deeply loyal to leaders who choose justice over convenience.
And we remember who stood up when it counted.
A Direct Appeal for Action
When a leader stands with the people of Iran, the Iranian people stand with that leader — without hesitation and without forgetting.
President Trump, this is that moment. Please act. Use your strength.
Protect innocent lives. Help return freedom to a nation that has suffered too long.
The Soul of Iran Endures
I won’t stop speaking. I won’t forget those who were killed.
And neither will millions of others.
Iran’s spirit was wounded, not destroyed. Its soul is still alive.
History will remember who defended it — and who stayed silent.
Mike Shouhed is a Jewish Iranian American, real estate developer, and former star of Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset.
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