The Iranian people have chosen democracy

OPINION:

In diplomacy, we are taught to read the signals to understand what people are truly saying beneath the noise. For nearly a decade now, the Iranian people have been sending an unmistakable signal through uprising after uprising: They want freedom, reject tyranny in all its forms and have an organized movement ready to lead them there.

The question is no longer whether change is coming to Iran; it is whether America will recognize it and seize the moment.

Consider the famous diplomatic cable from 1979, when the U.S. ambassador in Tehran urged Washington to begin “thinking the unthinkable” — that the shah was losing his grip on power. The memo arrived just months before the shah’s fall, exposing a shocking depth of ignorance among American policymakers about conditions on the ground. We had convinced ourselves that the Pahlavi dynasty was stable and popular. We were wrong.

Today, I fear we risk a different but equally consequential error: failing to recognize the democratic forces that are poised to shape Iran’s future and allowing ourselves to be distracted by a monarchist mirage that serves only the regime’s interests.

Over the past two weeks, protests have spread to more than 100 Iranian cities. What began with merchants closing their shops in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar — a response to a collapsing currency and inflation above 40% — has become a nationwide uprising. Students are marching. Women are leading. Families are burying their children and returning to the streets the next day.

The courage I have witnessed in these images is extraordinary. In Hafshajan, mourners laid to rest a 15-year-old boy, Soroush Soleimani, shot dead by regime forces. In Ilam, Revolutionary Guards stormed a hospital and fired tear gas into medical wards to abduct wounded protesters from their beds. Doctors and nurses locked doors to protect their patients. Citizens surrounded the building, chanted, “Shame on you!” and fought to prevent this atrocity.

Attacking a hospital. Abducting the wounded. These are not the actions of a government in control; they are the desperate acts of a regime that knows its days are numbered.

Yet, even as the regime unleashes this brutality, some international media outlets have reported that protesters are chanting in favor of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah. This narrative deserves far more skepticism than it has received.

The Iranian people overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy 47 years ago. They did not do so lightly and have not forgotten why. In every major uprising since 2017, the same slogan has echoed through the streets: “Death to the oppressor, be it shah or supreme leader.” This is not ambiguity; it’s a resounding rejection of both tyrannies, turban and crown alike.

So where are these pro-monarchy chants coming from? According to activists on the ground, they are coming from the regime itself. On Dec. 31, a Kurdish Iranian activist posted a chilling warning: “The Revolutionary Guards in Marivan instructed their mercenaries that if protests start, they should chant in favor of Pahlavi.”

The logic is cynical but clear. Tehran would far prefer that the world believe Iran’s only choices are theocracy or monarchy — two forms of dictatorship, neither threatening to the system’s underlying power structures. A genuine democratic movement, however, terrifies them, and that is precisely what they are facing.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, led by Maryam Rajavi, represents exactly what the regime fears most: an organized, disciplined coalition with a clear democratic platform, a nationwide network inside the country and growing international recognition. The NCRI’s 10-point plan calls for free elections, separation of religion and state, gender equality, minority rights and a non-nuclear Iran. Its vision aligns with American values and interests.

The resistance units affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran have played a decisive role in every major uprising since 2017. Even the regime’s media have acknowledged this.

As a former ambassador, I understand the complexities of foreign policy, but some things aren’t complicated. When a regime attacks hospitals, shoots children and manufactures fake opposition movements to confuse the world, we’re not dealing with a government that can be reformed. We’re dealing with a government that must be replaced by its own people, through their own courage.

The U.S. should maintain and intensify maximum pressure on Tehran. We should designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as the terrorist organization it is. We should support international legal action against officials responsible for crimes against humanity. We should make it unmistakably clear that we stand with the Iranian people and their organized resistance, not with ghosts of dynasties past.

There is no precedent in the past century for a deposed monarchy reclaiming power, and Iran will not be the exception. The Iranian people have moved on. It is time for American policy to do the same.

The women leading these protests, facing down guns and protecting the wounded, are not marching for a king. They are marching for their daughters. For dignity. For freedom. The least we can do is listen to what they are saying.

• Carla Sands is a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark (2017-2021) and a former member of President Trump’s Economic Advisory Council.