President Ebrahim Raisi has died, taking to his grave more than four decades of abuses, violations, and crimes against his people that will never be brought to justice.
Raisi ascended to the presidency of Iran in 2021, but his reign of power began in February 1979, when he led the persecution, execution, and forced disappearance of thousands of political dissidents who supported the last Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In 1981, Raisi was at the forefront of the detention, torture, and murder of thousands of demonstrators. In 1982, he oversaw the violent persecution of women and girls who refused to comply with the mandatory wearing of the Hijab or veil.
By 1988, Raisi headed the “Death Commission”; which clandestinely executed thousands of political dissidents imprisoned in various jails from Tehran to other provinces. Even during his presidential campaign in 2018, Ebrahim Raisi proudly stated his involvement in the cleansing of dissidents in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.
From 2019 to 2021, Raisi served as the head of the Judiciary, where he was responsible for numerous human rights abuses and violations. Thousands of individuals were arbitrarily detained, tortured, and murdered under his watch, with punishments including flogging, amputation, and stoning.
In September 2022, Raisi ordered strict adherence to laws mandating the wearing of the Hijab. The Iranian “Morality Police” detained activist Mahsa/Jina Amini, who was subsequently murdered by her captors after being tortured and raped. This led to the “Woman, Life, Freedom”; uprising that occurred between September and December 2022. As president, Raisi personally oversaw the violent suppression of these nationwide protests, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators, thousands more injured, and numerous detained protesters subjected to sexual
assault.
Following these events, Iranian authorities under the Ministry of Interior, which reported directly to the president, conducted violent campaigns of oppression against women and girls regarding the mandatory Hijab.
The apparent accident that claimed the life of President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others has left Iran plunged into a power struggle to succeed him, not only in the political sphere but also in the religious hierarchy.
It is worth noting that Ayatollah Khamenei is 85 years old, and Raisi was on the path to succeed him. His death has ignited the ambitions of the unpopular son of the Ayatollah, Mojtaba, who wishes to transform the regime into a monarchy, thereby becoming what they once sought to
replace by establishing the Islamic Republic.
