Jewish Life and Minority Rights in Modern Iran
When I was on a business trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran decades ago, I posed the crunch question to a high-ranking government official: How does the state treat its minorities? Without hesitation, he replied: “All citizens are equal before the law. Hate speech and attacks against Christians, Jews, and other minorities are not tolerated and are punished.” Later, when I asked an Iranian Jew whether he felt safe in the Islamic Republic, he confirmed: “Yes, there is no antisemitism here.”
In fact, Judaism in Iran is a constitutionally recognized minority religion with protected status. Historically, there have been dozens of synagogues in the country. The only synagogue that was ever destroyed was the Rafi-Nia Synagogue on April 7, 2026 — not by Muslim extremists, but by reckless Israeli bombing raids that hit this and other civilian targets. The Jewish parliamentary representative Homayoun Sameh visited the ruins and commented on the incident accordingly.
Zionists have long resented the fact that Jews lived peacefully for centuries in Persia and across the Arab world. This is why they have been linked to numerous fabricated or staged anti-Semitic incidents — including the bombings of synagogues in Baghdad and Cairo — aimed at terrorizing Jewish communities and driving their emigration to Israel.
More in my piece: The Manufactured Exodus: How Zionism Uprooted the Arab World’s Jews and ‘Cruel Zionism’: The Deadly False Flag Operations in Baghdad and Cairo
A remarkable example of the integration of the Jewish minority can be seen in the annual celebrations of Shavuot. Like Jews worldwide, Iranian Jews commemorate on this day—seven weeks after Passover—the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Since this festival often coincides with the national university entrance exams, the Iranian state acts pragmatically and respectfully: the authorities officially postpone the exam dates to ensure that Jewish students can celebrate their religious holiday without disadvantage.
“Before being Jewish, we are Iranian first”. Members of the Jewish community in Shiraz spoke about their deep connection to Iran and emphasised the importance of their national identity. One speaker highlighted their 2,500-year history in Iran, adding that their community is distinct from Zionism and is proud of their Iranian heritage.
The Jewish community in Iran today numbers around 10,000 people. A Jewish-American investigative journalist visited them last year and documented their life in a detailed film.
Ethnic Diversity and National Cohesion
The overwhelming majority of Iran’s 93 million inhabitants — including Persians, Azerbaijanis, Lurs, Gilakis, and Mazandaranis — are Twelver Shiites. This contributes significantly to national unity. Sunni minorities are found mainly among Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, and parts of the Arab population in the border regions. While groups such as the Azerbaijanis — to which the late Ayatollah Khamenei also belonged — are firmly integrated into the state, external actors like the USA and Israel regularly try to incite autonomy aspirations among Kurds and Baluchis, which sometimes leads to tensions.
The Question of Israel and the “Death to America” Slogan
When accused of wanting to destroy Israel, the Ayatollahs respond: “We reject a system in which one group discriminates against another, steals its land, and expels it. We stand for a state in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews live together equally and in peace.”
The frequently quoted cries of “Death to America” also require context. In the past, people in the streets of Iran shouted “Death to the Soviet Union” — meaning the Soviet leadership, which was perceived as anti-Iranian, not its population. Today, Iran maintains good relations with Russia. According to Ayatollah Khamenei, the slogan is directed against the policies of the U.S. government, while the American people are explicitly treated with goodwill.
A letter from the Iranian president addressed to the American people (and read by an American citizen) states: “The Iranian people harbor no enmity towards other nations, including the people of America, Europe, or neighboring countries.”
Nuclear Program and the Fatwa Against Weapons of Mass Destruction
Is Iran striving for the atomic bomb? In the early 2000s, Ayatollah Khamenei issued a formal religious ruling (Fatwa), which was reaffirmed at the United Nations in 2005: the production and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islamic law (haram). The nuclear agreement (JCPOA) was intended to guarantee peaceful use. While the IAEA has always certified Iran’s compliance with the obligations, the West did not fulfill its part of the agreement — the lifting of the strangling sanctions.
Scholars Instead of “Barbaric Mullahs”
The image of the “barbaric mullah” barely withstands closer scrutiny. Iranian theologians study not only Islam but also Western philosophies. They are proud of the millennia-old Persian civilization, of which the Islamic era is only one aspect.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been described by his contemporaries as a highly educated man who spoke fluent Arabic and English, had a fondness for world literature such as Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and regularly read American magazines like Newsweek and Time.
Ayatollah Khamenei wasn’t the monster Israel & the West portrayed. He deeply respected women and Iran’s religious minorities, including Jews & Christians. An Azeri who identified as Iranian. This screenshot shows him warmly visiting and embracing a Christian family.
The Role of Women
The Western narrative of systemic oppression of women in Iran does not withstand closer scrutiny. The wife of the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini revealed that in their 60 years of marriage, her husband never once asked her to perform any housework for him—not even to bring him a glass of water. He viewed domestic tasks as her free choice, not an obligation.
His successor, Ayatollah Khamenei, has consistently emphasized that Islam accords women a unique dignity and a central role in society—positioning it as a deliberate alternative to the Western “commodity society,” where women are often reduced to objects.
Since the 1979 Revolution, the status of women in Iran has undergone profound changes—developments that are frequently misrepresented or underreported in Western media, sometimes deliberately.
Today, in Iran’s major cities—especially the vibrant streets of Tehran—many women, particularly from the younger generation, move about freely in public without hijabs. What was once an act of defiance has become increasingly commonplace and unremarkable among young people. This shift in urban social norms is evident to any visitor.
Nightlife is thriving: women confidently wear stylish, figure-hugging outfits in cafés, at parties, and during public events. Religious minorities, especially Iran’s Christian communities (such as Armenians), produce and enjoy alcohol in private settings or at venues like Tehran’s iconic Armenian Club, famous for its homemade wine and vodka.
Iranian women in Tehran, with or without hijab, one of whom is smoking a cigarette in public. (Screenshot from a video recorded with a mobile phone)
Among women under 24, the literacy rate is nearly universal (around 99% according to the latest figures). Women now dominate university admissions, accounting for 63% of registrations for the 2025 Konkur national entrance exam.
Women have been driving cars for decades. Recent reforms have further expanded their freedoms: as of early 2026, women can officially obtain motorcycle licenses (resolving long-standing legal ambiguities), and they have long been permitted to attend football matches in stadiums alongside men.
Legal inequalities and restrictions on personal freedoms certainly remain. Nevertheless, ongoing social progress and the growing influence of women in Iranian society point toward continued expansion of individual liberties in the years ahead.
In the West, Iranian clerics are vilified as “radical, crazy mullahs.” Now take a look at whom Israel has brought to power in the United States:
Fanatical Zionist evangelicals and con artists—just like the messianic fanatics who drive Israel’s numerous wars and genocides.
The National Memo article describes Paula White as a prosperity-gospel grifter. I’d put it this way: Paula White is a religious prosperity grifter, much like the man she works for, Donald Trump—an ordinary but more successful grifter who is, in addition, thoroughly irreligious.
In short, Paula White is not only not a theologian but simply a religious con artist—and, on top of that, another Israeli asset in the White House.
Myth of Total Oppression: How Free Is Discourse in Iran?
A common narrative in Western media is the image of a hermetically sealed police state in which every critical word immediately leads to arrest. Yet voices directly from the country, such as that of Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi from the University of Tehran, paint a different picture. In March 2026, Marandi explained on the American Jimmy Dore Show that political criticism is commonplace in everyday Iranian life — whether in taxis, buses, the metro, or openly on the street.
Marandi reported from his more than 22 years of teaching experience at the university: A student provocatively called the system “the worst in the world” in a lecture, even worse than North Korea. Marandi’s reaction was humorous: “And you’re still here?” he joked, without the student ever facing consequences, warnings, or arrest.
A Comparison of Double Standards: Iran vs. Gulf Monarchies
In regional comparison, Iran fares much better in terms of political participation than the Western-allied Gulf monarchies such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. These states are absolute family dictatorships without national elections and with a zero-tolerance policy toward any dissent. While even mild criticism there leads to draconian punishments, this is largely ignored geopolitically in the West. Marandi accuses the West of deliberate hypocrisy here: the demonization of Iran serves to morally justify sanctions and military aggression, while far more repressive allies are spared.
The Dangerous Ignorance of the West
Decades of propaganda have created a caricature of Iran in the West that is now proving to be a strategic disadvantage for Israel and the USA. Based on reports from the New York Times and The Times of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Mossad leadership mistakenly believed that Iran was a “house of cards” that would collapse under the slightest external pressure. With this conviction, they persuaded President Trump to start a war against Iran together with them.
At the same time, they expected a massive popular uprising in the country — but it never materialized. The unrest fueled from abroad fizzled out. The Times of Israel headline read: “Netanyahu said frustrated that Mossad promise it could instigate Iran uprising has fallen short.” The reason: Iranians perceive the economic and military attacks against their country as an existential struggle for survival.
A vivid example of how little the West understood Iran’s strategy was President Trump’s statement that the United States had destroyed the entire Iranian air force. The White House and the Pentagon seemed unaware that Iran had already drawn a clear lesson more than two decades earlier from America’s rapid “blitzkrieg” victory against Iraq. Tehran concluded that it would be a mistake to invest in an expensive conventional air force — one that would ultimately prove vulnerable and ineffective.
Instead, Iran switched to asymmetric warfare. It focused on building large drone and missile fleets, manufactured in underground factories and stored in extensive tunnel networks. These networks stretch for kilometers and lie hundreds of meters below the surface. The systems could be moved deep underground by rail and launched from hardened silos.
At the same time, thousands of deceptively realistic decoys from China were distributed throughout the country, equipped with heat sources that mimic real signatures. They are so convincing that bombs and missiles register them as genuine targets — a deliberate means of confusing attackers and causing their strikes to miss. The attackers then mistakenly evaluate the destroyed decoys as military successes.
Iran’s opponents, who had assumed they could overwhelm the Islamic Republic in just days or at most weeks, were completely surprised. Tehran reacted quickly and decisively: it attacked U.S. military bases across the region, forced the major American naval forces to withdraw several thousand kilometers from the Iranian coasts, and overwhelmed the Israeli defense systems with massive salvos that achieved painful hits.
Willingness to Negotiate Instead of Total Refusal
The Iranian guiding principle in this conflict is: “Peace for all — or for no one. Prosperity for all — or for no one.” From this perspective, selective security is nothing other than injustice. Since the USA and Israel consistently ignore this perspective, they contribute to the escalating and increasingly serious consequences.
In contrast to the current Israeli leaders, for whom Iran — after Turkey, which former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called “the new Iran” — represents merely the last major obstacle on the path to realizing their “Greater Israel” project, Tehran does not reject negotiations on principle.
It is willing to do business — including politically. But as long as the West and Israel do not understand Iran for what it is, but as what their propaganda has invented, they remain blind to reality. In the words of the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu: “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Today, the West appears to understand neither Iran nor the realistic limits of its own power.
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Related:
The Architecture of a Crisis Manufactured by Hostile Foreign Powers
An Exclusive Evidence-Based Exposé on the Hidden Forces, Intelligence Networks, and Propaganda Machinery Fueling Unrest in Iran — Framed by the West as a ‘Popular Uprising’.
The New York Times shatters the propaganda myth of an Iranian popular uprising
A rare correction from a major outlet—and a turning point in the discourse on Iran
The Invisible Hand: How Israel Orchestrates the Terror Groups It Claims to Fight
Uncovering why ISIS and Al-Qaeda never attack Israel and how state-sponsored terrorism fuels the “Greater Israel” project—amid a seemingly coordinated media blackout keeping the issue under wraps.
The Making of a Nemesis: How the United States Created the Iran It Now Fears
America’s 70-Year Campaign Against Iran: From Destroying Democracy to Engineering Collapse—And Why the Next Version Could Be Even More Dangerous
A War to Topple Iran That Toppled the Non-Proliferation Regime Instead
In the attempt to stop a bomb Iran wasn’t building, Israel and the U.S. have ended the era of nuclear restraint.
The Snapback of Sanctions: Escalation Against Iran
After years of violating their own commitments, the US and Europe are projecting their behavior onto Iran in order to pave the way for the next conflict.
Iran Ditches U.S. GPS for China’s BeiDou — Sparking a Global Rebellion Against Western Tech Dominance and Control
Iran, Israel, and the Geopolitical Chessboard: A Manufactured Crisis
From Nuclear Hysteria to Regime Change, How the Empire Recycles Old Playbooks to Block a New Eurasian Order
Although the recent moves by the US empire in its desperate attempt to maintain world domination are highly dangerous, they receive little attention in the mainstream media.
Rerouting Global Trade: The Rise of the Eurasian Corridor
Bypassing US Maritime Chokepoints Through Steel and Strategy
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Felix Abt is an entrepreneur, author and travel blogger living in Asia.
With his articles, he tries to make a modest contribution to debunking the omnipresent propaganda of the mainstream media for those who don’t have the time (and that’s most people) to do the research to see through it.
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It may be worth looking at the Israeli historian (iirc) Ilan Pappe’s work on Mossad’s destruction of the Iraqi Jewish community
The so called enemy must be demonized then it's okay 🤔 to carry out war crimes 🤔 ethnic cleansing 🤔 crimes against humanity even genocide 🤔 it's okay 🤔 let's not forget Iraq…someone called into a radio program we ( america ) have the right to go over there 🤔 and kill them.. the host asked why…the caller they don't worship the same God that we worship…apparently it didn't matter there was no weapons of Mass destruction or Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11