Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay: Iranians must be ready for the day after the Islamic Republic falls
In the span of just a few days, the ground has shifted beneath the feet of over 90 million Iranians. The sky above roars with the sound of warplanes, sirens, and explosions. Roads are jammed with families fleeing Tehran. Shelters are improvised in metro stations and mosques. The heavy-handed and repressive regime is suddenly exposed, wounded by foreign airstrikes, panicked at the top, and fraying at the edges. And the Iranian people, long silenced, find themselves standing at a rare and dangerous crossroads.
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This moment is not about Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not about the geopolitical ambitions of foreign powers. It is about the people of Iran, the same people who have endured 46 years of fear, oppression, economic despair, and stolen futures under the Islamic Republic. It is about the mothers mourning their children, indiscriminately shot at or left on death row; the dissidents in prison cells; the young women who dared to walk unveiled; and the workers who braved bullets to demand bread and dignity. They are the ones that everyone has forgotten to consult.
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Iranians continue to struggle and suffer. Even with the Israel Defense Forces' precision targeting, there has been collateral damage. Over 200 civilians have already lost their lives in the past few days due to Israel's strikes. Bombs do not always distinguish between soldiers and the civilians, between regime assets and innocent children. If nuclear facilities, such as the deeply buried Fordo plant, are targeted, radioactive fallout could spread through the air, soil, and water, posing serious risks to civilian populations.
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Iranians who have fled Tehran to the north, trying to comply with Trump's alarming evacuation orders, now find themselves without enough fuel, food, or medicine.
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And yet, we must also speak with clarity: history may not offer a second chance like this where the regime is at its most vulnerable. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, has had its top leadership eliminated and its command structure severely fractured.
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The regime's response to this conflict has been revealing. While bombs fall and buildings burn, instead of concentrating on security and people's basic needs, its priority remains unchanged: suppress dissent, arrest women for defying the hijab and silence journalists, and punish activists. The internet has been shut down and a new bill was just passed in parliament calling for anyone cooperating with Israel to be immediately sentenced to death. Even now, they are more afraid of their own people than of foreign powers. That fear is telling. And it is justified.
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