A woman stands on a car and salutes the “Woman, Life, Freedom” crowd gathering for the 40th day ceremony for Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian police custody on September 16, 2022
EA on Australia’s ABC and India’s WION: Israel’s War on Iran
As missiles fly and governments posture, one truth remains clear to millions of Iranians: regime change cannot be imported. It must be earned, demanded, and achieved from within.
The Iranian people who are exhausted by repression, corruption, and systemic inequality undoubtedly deserve a different future. But that future will not be built through foreign bombs or alliances with discredited exiles. War is not liberation.
We have seen this story before in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Each time, the cost was paid by civilians, and each time, the dream of democracy was buried beneath rubble. Iran must not be next.
From Baghdad to Kabul, from Aleppo to Tripoli, foreign-led regime change has consistently failed to deliver peace, justice, or stability. These interventions, often framed as humanitarian missions or democracy-building efforts, have instead left behind fractured states, mass displacement, and power vacuums filled by extremists. Civilians have borne the brunt of these disasters.
Saving Iran’s Women?
Iran, with its complex ethnic makeup, deep social wounds, and proud history of resistance, risks following this same tragic path if foreign powers attempt to engineer change from the outside. The scars of war are long-lasting, and those who live through them rarely get a say in the governments that follow.
Israel’s recent justification for its strikes on Iran, framed around liberating Iranian women, is disturbingly reminiscent of the narrative used by the US during its invasion of Afghanistan. The language of “saving women” was used to justify a war that ultimately ended in catastrophe: a two-decade occupation that left behind devastation, betrayal, and a return to Taliban rule. Afghan women, once promised protection and empowerment, were abandoned to one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
To repeat this pattern in Iran would be both reckless and cruel. The rights of Iranian women cannot be weaponized as a smokescreen for geopolitical ambitions. Their liberation must come through their own struggle, not through bombs dropped in their name.
Enter Azerbaijan?
This makes Israel’s growing alignment with the exiled Pahlavi family all the more troubling. Having already framed its military actions as a mission to “liberate” Iran, Israel is now lending legitimacy to a dynasty that played a central role in the suppression of political dissent and the erasure of ethnic identities during its reign.
For many Iranians, especially ethnic minorities who suffered under both monarchist and Islamic rule, the Pahlavi name is not a symbol of hope, but of betrayal. The revival of this alliance signals a dangerous return to top-down regime change models, orchestrated not by the people, but by external powers and discredited elites. This vision of Iran’s future excludes the very people who must be at the center of any democratic transition.
In the face of escalating tensions, it is crucial for regional actors, particularly the Republic of Azerbaijan to step forward as mediators rather than participants in a destructive conflict. Azerbaijan maintains close strategic ties with Israel while also sharing deep cultural, historical, and linguistic bonds with the Azerbaijani population in Iran, who make up the country’s second-largest ethnic group. This unique position gives Baku both the leverage and the responsibility to pursue de-escalation.
Rather than supporting militarization, Azerbaijan should use its diplomatic channels to encourage restraint and prevent further bloodshed. At the same time, it must advocate for the protection of Azerbaijani communities in Iran, who face not only state repression but now the added danger of becoming collateral in a war they neither support nor benefit from.
Mediation, not militarism, is the only path toward a just and stable future.
