The BBC reports that staff at three hospitals in Iran are overwhelmed with dead or injured patients, while large protests against the Islamic government continue. A doctor in Tehran says that security forces are shooting to kill. Young people are being shot in the head and heart. NewsVoice publishes two opinion pieces from an Iranian exile in Sweden.
By Xaviar
Many of us wonder why the media in Sweden and other Western countries are so silent. The reason is that they do not want to acknowledge the most uncomfortable truth: that the Iranian people are rebelling against Islam itself, not just against the regime.
To report honestly on why people are risking their lives, one must explain that for decades, the Islamic Republic has stifled everything: freedom of expression, work, family, art, women, and economic survival under a clergy that sees freedom as a crime.
It is impossible to tell the story without criticising Islam as an ideology, but in Western progressive debate, Islam has been racialised. It is not treated as a faith or political doctrine, but as a kind of ethnicity or skin color. Criticising Islam is equated with racism against “brown people,” Arabs, or the Middle East. Iranians (who are not Arabs) are completely erased in this simplified worldview.
At the same time, Iran shows how a state-controlled economy ends: central control, price regulation, nationalisation, and bureaucracy have destroyed the middle class, created mass poverty, and made corruption the only “functioning” system. Reporting this honestly would threaten many media outlets’ own ideology of large-scale state control and central planning.
That is why they remain silent. Iranian protesters do not fit into their simple templates of oppressors and the oppressed, colonisers and the colonised, white and non-white. They show that authoritarianism is not something the West has imposed on the rest of the world, but something that many outside the West are actively fighting to get rid of.
That is why the silence continues, or worse, the (perhaps) deliberately inaccurate reporting.
The revolution in Iran 2026. pic.twitter.com/YoAftgvyFj
— T. Sassersson, Editor@NewsVoice (@newsvoicemag) January 11, 2026
Dear politicians in Sweden
Text: Xaviar
I am writing to you as an Iranian in the Swedish diaspora, with respect for your work and Sweden’s tradition of standing up for human rights, but at this critical moment, when the Iranian people are rising up in a revolutionary wave, we must speak plainly.
Empty phrases such as “we support the Iranian people” are no longer acceptable. They are an insult to those dying in the streets. We need concrete action from you now to cut off the regime’s oxygen and support the people’s struggle for freedom.
Since December 28, 2025, protests have exploded in over 170 cities, despite a total internet shutdown since January 8 and brutal repression. The regime has killed at least 65 protesters, including children, with live ammunition and snipers on rooftops. Thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, many tortured in prisons such as Evin.
Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has called for coordinated protests every evening, to which the people of Iran have responded by taking to the streets and asking the diaspora, like me, to contact you for international support.
The people are shouting “death to the dictator” and “Javid Shah.” This is a revolution, not just a protest about the economy or compulsory veiling. The people have decided to get rid of this regime that has held them hostage for 47 years.
The regime’s crimes also extend to Sweden and the rest of Europe. The embassy in Stockholm serves as a base for espionage and threats against Iranian exiles, including murder plots against dissidents and journalists.
Iran has recruited Swedish gangs such as the Foxtrot network (sanctioned by the US) to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets. The regime threatens Swedish citizens on a daily basis. These hybrid threats undermine Swedish security, yet the regime continues to operate undisturbed.
You have the power to act. Stop making vague statements and instead push for:
- Closing the Iranian embassy in Stockholm immediately to stop espionage and threats against Swedish citizens,
- designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation in the EU to block their funding and activities,
- expand sanctions against Khamenei and the regime’s elite, and
- publicly condemn the regime’s crimes in the UN and EU, demanding immediate internet access and humanitarian aid for the protesters.
- Most importantly, support the opposition by recognising Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s plan for a secular democracy.
Sweden can lead the way, and history shows that silent diplomacy against tyrants fails. Act now, before more lives are lost. Your leadership can make a difference, with hope for a free Iran.
By Xaniar, Iranian in the Swedish diaspora.
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