The uprising began because of an Iranian woman’s hair. In September 2022, Iran’s morality police arrested and then killed 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Her murder sparked intense protests across Iran in the fall of that year that the clerical regime brutally suppressed, killing hundreds of Iranians. As Tehran continues to oppress its own people, particularly following its loss in the recent 12-day war, the Trump administration should remember the sacrifices Iranians, and particularly Iranian women, have made to stand up to their government — and should seek to support them however it can.
Over the past three years, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has documented more than 9,600 demonstrations in Iran against the country’s regime. While Amini’s death lit the uprising’s fuse, the 2022 protests soon came to decry not only the government’s treatment of women, but also its corruption, foreign aggression, and economic mismanagement.
President Trump should take these developments personally: Tehran, after all, has plotted to kill him just as it has planned to kill many of its own citizens. According to the US Department of Justice, the regime’s ambition stems from Trump’s 2020 authorization of the drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general largely responsible for Iran’s sprawling global network of terror.
The primary motive for the planned assassination was retaliation for the death of Soleimani, yet the bigger picture is that the Islamist regime sees itself and the West as locked inextricably in a religious war for the soul of the Middle East. The same violent ideology that drives Iran to be permanently at war with its own people also necessitates perpetual conflict with America, Israel and the West.
For Tehran, America’s values pose a threat comparable to its overwhelming military might. As the late Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis has noted, Iran’s leaders routinely describe the United States as the “Great Satan” not as a generic insult but as a creedal warning. “Satan is not an imperialist; he is a tempter,” Lewis writes. US soft power, resting upon the genuinely held beliefs of millions of Americans that democracy and human rights are the rightful inheritance of all mankind, is so irrepressible that Tehran cannot help but fear its appeal.
Secularism, freedom, democracy, equality — all of them contradict the founding principles of the Islamic Republic. The regime fears women’s rights most of all. Through its ideological lens, the regime sees the rigid control of women’s bodies as the only defense against uninhibited sexuality, which would entice the Iranian people away from Islamic edicts. Even the exposure of women’s hair triggers such trepidation in this paranoid regime.
Thus, the ongoing protests in Iran demonstrate that it is the Iranian people who have aligned themselves with the values of the West — particularly the rights to freedom of religion, speech, and assembly as enumerated in the First Amendment of the American Constitution. Consequently, the 2022 uprising and all those since challenge not merely the regime’s hard military and economic power, but also the moral and spiritual foundation of its own existence. The mullahs know this and are terrified of it.
The Trump administration should exploit this fear. Its continued maximum pressure campaign against Iran represents a crucial step forward, but stops short of meaningfully challenging the regime’s systematic human rights abuses. In his February directive announcing his pressure campaign, Trump devoted just one paragraph to condemning Tehran’s domestic repression, with a single sentence declaring that America “stands with the women of Iran who face daily abuse by the regime.”
This is insufficient. The Trump administration should recognize that fighting for human rights in Iran advances US interests and puts America first. By weakening the regime from within, Washington can sap Tehran’s resolve to retaliate against US forces and allies throughout the Middle East after the 12-day war. Moreover, if Tehran believes its grip on power is in jeopardy, it would likely think twice before plotting to kill the president.
America must therefore continue and intensify its moral and material support for the Iranian people, especially women, to complement its existing maximum pressure campaign. Washington should publicly express solidarity with Iranian protesters. It should sanction human rights abusers throughout the regime. It should demand the release of political prisoners from Iran’s jails. It should provide Iranians with access to uncensored internet through satellite-based services such as Starlink, bypassing the regime’s censorship and surveillance.
Michael Waltz, Trump’s designee for US ambassador to the United Nations, should persistently denounce the regime’s abuses at the world body. He should identify victims by name and explain their plight. And he should draw attention to Tehran’s draconian hijab laws, meeting publicly with women who defy them.
When Iranians launched the Green Movement in 2009 to protest the regime’s fraudulent presidential election, demonstrators called for US solidarity, chanting, “Obama, Obama, either with them [the regime] or with us!” Today, Iranians look to President Trump for support. As Tehran seeks to project strength at home to compensate for its failures to deter its adversaries abroad, Washington should heed their cries.
