Who opposes the Iran regime – and why,

As the dust settles after Wednesday’s terrorist attacks targeting two highly symbolic institutions in Iran, the parliament and the tomb or Mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, many groups that oppose the regime are taking notice. Some of these groups are ethnic- or religious-based and have opposed the regime for decades. Some are secular, others religious. What unites them is a loathing for the ayatollahs and their system of government.

Mojahedin-e Khalq

The People’s Mojahedin of Iran, often called MEK, was founded in 1965 and is dominated by the Rajavi family. It combines a unique brand of Marxism and Islamism. Initially supportive of the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the overthrow of the shah, the group found itself persecuted by the new regime and went underground and into exile. It carried out armed attacks on the government beginning in 1981 under the auspices of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It carried out armed attacks during the Iran-Iraq War, siding with Iraq, and undertook assassinations. This got it labeled a terrorist organization by the US and in the EU. However, after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, as Iranian influence increased in Baghdad, MEK members and their armed camp in Iraq were attacked. The group’s main center of operations in Europe continues to attract support and it has lobbied successfully to be removed from terrorism lists, arguing it renounced terrorism. In 2012 the US removed it from its terrorism list.

Al-Qaida, ISIS and Sunni Jihadists

Since the 1990s when al-Qaida emerged as major Sunni jihadist terrorist group, it has set its sights on Iran. Iran had suffered terrorism from Sunni jihadists before, but in 1998 the Taliban and al-Qaida murdered 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazari Sharif in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida plotted other attacks on religious and civilian sites in Iran. Since 2000 the baton has been passed to other jihadist groups such as Jundullah and Islamic State. The more extreme Sunni jihadists hate the Iranian regime because it is Shia, and ISIS, al-Qaida and the Taliban have attacked Shia minorities in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They also oppose Iran’s involvement in Iraq and Syria.

Baluchistan

Baluchistan, a vast area that spans southeastern Iran and western Pakistan, is inhabited mostly by the Baloch minority group which is suppressed in by both countries. There are several million Balochis in Iran and they have opposed the regime in various ways, for instance in the 1980s through the Baluchi Autonomist Movement. Some Baloch groups want autonomy or federalism, others are more jihadist in nature. In October 2009 a Sunni Islamist Balochi group called Jundullah attacked Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members in a bombing. Since 2003 it has killed hundreds in various bombings targeting the regime and civilians. Other Sunni jihadist groups are also active in the province, including one called Jaish-ul Adl. In raids in 2015 several Iranian soldiers were killed, as well as several of the Islamists. Groups such as Jaish-ul Adl have carried out numerous attacks that Iran has tried to blame on United States support. Another group called Harakat Ansar Iran is also active. It has killed Basij militia members and bombed a mosque in Chabahar.

Kurdish groups

There are around 7 million Kurds in Iran living in the east and northeast. Since the 1940s they have been involved in attempts to create a Kurdish state or to demand rights within Iran. In 1946 Qazi Muhammad founded the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, or PDKI. It supported the alliance of secular and religious groups that opposed the shah in 1979, but like most others it soon found its people suppressed by the new theocracy. In the 1980s the PDKI waged a guerrilla war against the regime. Many of its members and leaders, such as Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, were driven into exile and assassinated. In 2016 the PDKI and its current leader Mustafa Hijri announced they would send their Peshmerga, including women fighters, back into Iran to combat the Revolutionary Guards, and since then there have been low level clashes. The PDKI partners with other groups through the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran.

Kurdish opposition to the regime also includes the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), a group affiliated with the left-wing Kurdistan Workers Party. It was founded in 1997 and has waged a low level insurgency since 2004. The Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), which has existed since the 1990s, was very active in the war against Islamic State in Iraq. However its men seek to return to Iran to fight the government using the skills they learned on the front line in Iraq.

Women’s-rights groups

Since the 1980s women in Iran have been forced to cover their hair and their “modesty” has been policed by religious authorities. During the same period women have attempted in various ways to oppose the regime’s policies. Sometimes this takes the form of small acts of protest such as not covering the hair entirely. This has resulted in arrests and harassment. However, it has not stopped active social media campaigns such as “My Stealthy Freedom” and attempts to sneak into volleyball matches (from which women are banned).

Azeris, Arabs and other minorities

Non-Persian minority groups that face persecution have banded together under the umbrella of the Congress of Nationalities for a federal Iran to oppose the regime’s policies. Their general agenda is a more federal Iran that allows ethnic groups more rights. The Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran includes Turkmen, Lurds, Azeris, Kurds, Baloch and others, and Arabs from the Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz. Numerous other Arab parties, often with the word Ahwaz in the title, exist either abroad or underground in Iran’s Khuzestan province. They have carried out intermittent attacks against the regime. Baha’i and Zaroastrian religious minorities have been jailed and suppressed by the regime since the 1980s.