Iran’s resistance movement has been building for years behind closed doors, long before the world began to take notice, according to Taheri Farah, president of the Iranian association in Greece.
Speaking about the growing unrest, she described a struggle that has unfolded quietly within Iranian society—often inside the home. “We are not fighting now; we did not start yesterday,” she said, explaining that what the international community is witnessing today is merely the visible outcome of a much longer confrontation.
Inside Iranian households, she noted, there has long been a clear divide between private beliefs and public behavior. Families, she suggested, have understood for decades that the regime outside their doors does not represent them.
She characterized the current moment as the culmination of what she called “a silent war,” one that has intensified over time and is now reaching a decisive phase.
Taheri Farah stressed the urgent need for stronger international support for Iran’s anti-government movement. In her view, Western governments must move more decisively to back a democratic transition.
“The sooner European countries and the Western world reach the decision to support the anti-government movement more directly, the sooner we can move into a transitional period and pass to something democratic,” she said, arguing that such a development would benefit not only Iranians but the broader international community.
She also maintained that external intervention—particularly by the United States—has been indispensable. “It could not have happened without this intervention. We Iranians do not see this as war,” she said, framing foreign involvement as support for a long-standing internal struggle rather than foreign aggression.
Describing the structure of power in Tehran, Taheri Farah emphasized that the system extends far beyond any single individual. The death of a leader, she argued, would not automatically dismantle the regime. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remains firmly in place, continuing to exercise decisive control. As long as the system survives, she suggested, it can reproduce its leadership, including figures aligned with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Responding to questions about why a prominent opposition leader has not emerged from within Iran, she argued that any such figure would either be aligned with the current authorities or eliminated. Those capable of organizing genuine resistance, she implied, are among the tens of thousands who have been killed over the years.
Taheri Farah also referred to Iranians who, despite personal losses and destroyed homes, have expressed gratitude to former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, crediting them with helping to weaken Khamenei’s rule.
Looking ahead, she voiced strong support for Reza Pahlavi, whom she described as the only candidate she trusts to lead a democratic transition. He has, she said, prepared a detailed plan and assembled a team to govern during the first 100 days of a new era.
“We want to live free,” she concluded—a sentiment that, in her view, unites Iranians both inside the country and across the diaspora.