Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-04-05
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Azadeh Kian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University Paris Cité
The dictatorial and bloodthirsty regime that has ruled the country since 1979 has caused numerous victims and committed a terrible massacre in early January. Hence the hope, shared by part of the population, both inside and outside of Iran, that the military operations carried out by Israel and the United States will put an end to it. But the strikes prove to be largely indiscriminate, causing immense destruction and numerous civilian casualties, while the regime manages to replace its killed dignitaries with others.
In January, the massacre of protesters who were calling for the change of the Islamic regime throughout the country brought mourning to the majority of the Iranian population. To remain in power, the authorities, labeling these women, men, and children as “enemies within,” had ordered security forces to shoot into the crowd to kill. The provisional toll established by Hrana, a human rights organization based in the United States, indicatesat least 6,800 people killedand more than 42,000 people arrested.
While families were still searching for their relatives who were killed, injured, or imprisoned and found themselves forced topay a sum to the authorities in order to recover their bodies, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu decided to impose a war on the countryillegalandillegitimate, under a double pretext: to put an end to the Iranian nuclear program, and to help this grieving population.
A regime whose heads grow back each time they are cut off
On February 28, at a time when representatives of the Tehran regime were still conductingnegotiations with American emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Geneva, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as well as some members of his family and several dozen senior officials of the regimewere killed by American and Israeli bombings.
The news of the assassination of the people’s executioner spreadmore than one happy person in Iran as well as within the diaspora. However, contrary to the heartfelt wishes of many Iranians, the war does not target only the regime’s leaders. On the same day, aTomahawk missile struck a girls’ school in Minab, killing 168 young schoolgirls, which constitutes a war crime.
The Iranians quickly realized that it was not a war of liberation but above all amassive destruction of infrastructuresÂ: in one month, more than 66,000 residential buildings, 20,127 commercial buildings, three hundred hospitals and medical centers,the Pasteur Institute of Tehran, dozens of schools, about a hundred historic monuments, water desalination centers, several oil refineries and depots, ports and airports, ships and airplanes, pharmaceutical, metallurgical industries, etc., have been destroyed.More than 2,000 civilians are reported to have been killed to date, several thousand injured and three million displaced. It must be noted that in fact, it is Iran, its population, and its State that are targeted, and not only the regime’s dignitaries – Donald Trump even stated thatwas trying to negotiate with personalities of this same regime.
Contrary to the expectations of Washington and Tel Aviv, the decapitated regime did not collapse because it is ainstitutionalized system where the function and institutions matter much more than the people who occupy them. Especially since, drawing lessons fromIsraeli then American bombings of June 2025who had killed several commanders of the Guardians of the Revolution and other officials, the leaders had taken the precaution of appointing four deputies for each civilian or military official. They would therefore be interchangeable.
An internationalized war, a population in distress
The Islamic regime quickly regionalized, even internationalized this asymmetric war and took control of the Strait of Hormuz,leading to the increase in global prices of hydrocarbons and other derived products. Theballistic missilesand thedronesmanufactured in Iran guarantee the resilience of a dictatorial regime which has been able, over the last four decades, to mobilize Western sciences while rejecting democratic principles. The 234,000 engineers graduating from universities every year in Iran rank the country third globally,far ahead of France for example.
Meanwhile, the Iranians are caught in a vice between two “Western democracies” that bomb them and an Islamic regime that continues to repress them. The arrests of opponents have never stopped, nor have the summary executions. With control of the Strait of Hormuz and missile manufacturing, control of the population is among the regime’s three security priorities. To this end and to “secure” the streets, the leaders did not hesitate to enlist child militias (Basijis).From the age of twelve. They armed them and authorized them to shoot at the population, but these militiamen at the same time constitute easy targets for Israeli and American missiles.
This war has further impoverished a population that has been under sanctions for many years, whosemore than half were already living below the poverty line. This is particularly the case for women, most of whom worked in the informal sector of the economy, and who now find themselves without income, even though they are primarily responsible for caring for their children. Gender-generated socioeconomic inequalities make women particularly vulnerable to violence. While men die in greater numbers during conflicts, thewomen often die from their indirect causes, once the conflict is over. This war, like all the others, creates a militarized masculinity, which has become the hegemonic expression of amasculine identity linked to domination, the “honor” and the aggression. It increases violence against women, further weakens Iranian civil society, which is so vibrant duringWoman, Life, Freedom Movementbut already weakened by the massacres of January 2026, and strengthens the Islamic regime and its grip on society.
A change that can only come from within
Tens of billions of dollars have been wasted on the nuclear industry, today devastated by strikes, instead of massive programs in renewable energies – and this in a country that has 285 days of sunshine per year. The revenues derived from the sale of oil, includingIran has remained an important exporter despite the sanctions, were used to finance the army and the nuclear program, and not the welfare of the population.
While Donald Trump has just threatened to“to bring the Iranians back to the Stone Age”several countries in the region allied with the United States, includingEgypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, attempt to stem the escalation and outline the contours of a ceasefire between Iran and the United States, not out of love for peace or for the Islamic Republic but for their own security, and to avoid their economic collapse.
Only a lasting peace guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Iran is likely to ensure stability throughout the region and strengthen Iranian civil society, thereby allowing it in the long term to change the Islamic regime itself, and finally reach a situation where the state serves the population.
Azadeh Kian does not work for, advise, own shares in, receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no affiliation other than her research institution.
–ref. Who is targeted by the war: the Islamic regime or Iran as such?https://theconversation.com/who-is-targeted-by-the-war-the-islamic-regime-or-iran-as-such-279910