This time yes, he truly believes it, “the regime may fall, but, like all dying animals, it is of a ferocity never seen before”. From his beloved Iran come tales of horrific cruelty, such as had never happened in previous uprisings under the Republic of the ayatollahs. Above all by his medical colleagues, who remained there, in the “most beautiful country in the world, together with Italy of course”, and who are now on the front line, persecuted for treating protesters, arrested, sentenced to death. In Madjid Bazeli’s eyes there is anger, nostalgia, crystallized in time, but also hope. He fled thirty years ago, after specializing in cardiology between Milan and Turin, he has rebuilt his life but does not give up on the idea of a free and democratic Iran.
What happens, why this ferocity in repression?
‘I have received news of the death sentence of Dr. Hamid Garehasslu, a specialist in radiology. His fault? He denounced the horrific conditions of the protesters who arrive at the clinics, and of those who are tortured in police stations or prisons. These are things never seen in forty years of the regime. This is why I say that they are afraid, they know that now the people have decided to wipe them out and only with terror can they try to survive”.
What did your colleagues tell you?
«The news arrives fragmented, there is strict control over the Internet and social networks but what filters through is creepy. The security forces use weapons of war against protesters or plastic bullets, but aimed at the most vulnerable parts, especially the eyes. The ophthalmologists of three hospitals, Farabi, Labafinejad, Rasul Akram, confirm that they have already examined over 500 wounded with cases of destruction of the retina, iris, interruption of the optic nerve. Many patients had bullet fragments in their heads and were inoperable. All while Pasdaran and Basiji hinder their work in every way. They don’t want people to be treated. It’s a crime.”
It looks like a Syrian scenario.
“There is also a war going on against doctors and hospitals. There is a letter from 230 ophthalmologists who denounce the presence of guardians in the wards. They told me of patients on the operating bed, forcibly taken away by the Pasdarans on the pretext that they were to be arrested. But they were dying. How can such an act be done? And now my colleagues are also risking more and more».
Meaning what?
“The list is long. Dr. Ebrahim Beighi was kidnapped on his way home because he secretly treated the wounded. He too risks the death sentence. Alireza Madadi, arrested because he denounced the improper use of ambulances by the Pasdaran: they use them to secretly take away the wounded from hospitals, their families guard the entrances, but in this way they evade them. And then Dr. Parisa Brahmani, killed in front of the order of doctors during a sit-in. And with her Ilar Haghi, a third-year medical student. It’s a massacre.”
But do you seriously believe that the regime could fall? How do you see the contradictory signals on the veil obligation and on the religious police of the last days?
“It’s true, the regime has survived many uprisings, such as the Great Green Wave of 2009. But this time it’s different. The revolution is born of women, of inhumane behavior towards women, of a gender apartheid policy that targets half the population. Women are the formidable engine of this revolution. But their requests go beyond the question of the veil or the moral police. Their main demand is to get rid of the religious dictatorial regime in its entirety. Because Iranian women know full well that their goal of equality will not be achieved as long as the ayatollahs are in power. And all of Iran is fighting with them. However ferocious the repression may be, no tyrant is able to resist against an entire people”.